She sighed and leaned her head against the wheel. “Imagine being a five-year-old and trying to learn footwork and being screamed at: ‘Left outside edge, to back inside, right back inside, left forward… No, no, no! All wrong! Start over!’ I think it permanently scarred me. My head would get all clouded by being all anxious and I’d end up just guessing and hoping not to get yelled at.”
I could practically see a scared, little Savannah in teeny skates with worried saucer eyes trying to keep up and hoping not to make anyone mad. That was her downfall— she always tried to please everyone.
“Jesus. Why are all figure skating coaches such bitches?” I asked her.
“Griff!” Savannah yelled and her mouth dropped open, but I could see she was also trying hard not to laugh. “What if I become a coach? You won’t think I’m a bitch, will you?!”
“Well, that depends, Callahan. If you call a girl fat, then yes,” I said dryly. Nick told me about what her coach said to her a while back, and it made me want to hit her with my truck every time I saw her in the Ice League parking lot. Just a nudge maybe. She deserved it for that nasty comment. “But we’re cycle breakers in this car, so I know you wouldn’t,” I added for good measure.
“You’re a cycle breaker?” she asked, holding my gaze.
“I’d like to be, yeah.”
I could see the wheels turning in her brain then.
“You aren’t sticking with Nick next year, are you? You’re going to college?” she asked hesitantly. Nick had been making it known how much he hated school this year and how he couldn’t wait to be done… I, on the other hand, had been sneaking upstairs during our basement chel tournaments to ask for Mr. Callahan’s advice on college… and Savannah probably heard about it from him.
I took in a deep breath and shook my head. “Don’t tell him yet, but prolly not. I want to be the first in my family to go to school. Wanna shake up the reputation. Hopefully change it, ya know? But he just….”
“Doesn’t want to go,” she smirked sadly and patted my leg.
I shrugged and tried to change the subject. Next year was hard to think about and I preferred to box up emotions and shove them out of the way for as long as possible.
“Okay, so it has to do with you freaking out and then just guessing. So we have to eliminate the freaking out part. I think if you stay calm, then you’ll be able to think through each direction. Yeah?”
She looked at me skeptically. “So how do I stay calm?”
“You’re not gonna like this answer,” I smirked. “You drive more. You drive a lot. So, let’s get goin’ little lady.”
She gasped. “I’m not little.”
It was my turn to look at her like she was crazy. “My seat has never been adjusted so far forward, Callahan. Let’s get movin.”
“Okay, well, can you just back me out of this spot? It’s kind of tricky,” she complained.
I was shaking my head no before she even finished asking. “This is part of your training.”
15. Sav - Springtime
I’d never tire of Nick stealing kisses as I walked by him in the rink, much to Victoria’s dismay. She thought he was a distraction… He definitely was. But I was happy for it.
In my mind, Victoria should’ve been happy about the time I was spending with my boys. Nick made me way less tense at the rink, and Griff had been giving me driving lessons which were helping me figure out my left and right issues. We narrowed it down to the fact that I could remember them so long as I wasn’t stressed out or in a hurry… So, I just needed to eliminate those things from the equation when I was driving… and when trying to pass my Moves in the Field skating test.
Skaters had to pass two tests so that they could move up to the next level of competition: a freestyle test, which included jumps and spins, and a Moves in the Field test, which included different stroking and edge exercises.
Each spring, the Ice League hosted a testing session, and I’d made it to the very last Moves in the Field test: the senior moves… which had a lot of lefts andrights…
The day of the test, I paced up and down the locker room hallway in my competition dress and tights, trying to mentally calm down and remember my starting foot for each exercise. If I started off on the right foot, muscle memory would kick in and I’d be able to remember how the move went afterthat.
Right before I was supposed to go on, I heard Nick bounding down the workout room stairs.
He ran right up to me with a bright smile and kissed me.
“You’ll be great,” he whispered.
“You got it!” Griff called from where he stood on the stairs.
“We’ll be watching from upstairs,” he said, before hurrying back up to the workout room.
