“Savannah!”
I whipped around to see Victoria holding the rink door open for me.
“It’s time,” she said.
These tests were always so awkward because there was no music. The rink was completely silent except for the sound of edges grooving deeply into the ice.
It would’ve been kind of peaceful, if not for the judges watching my every move. I wondered if they could tell from where they were sitting that I was shaking from the nerves… and the cold. Skating out in a spaghetti strap competition dress without warming up was never the most pleasant.
As I powered through the moves, I was feeling pretty confident that I started off each exercise on the rightfoot.
After I completed the last one, I skated to the center and took a bow.
But… before I could skate away, one of the judges waved me over tothem.
I slowly glided across the ice to where they were sitting in the home team box. I plastered a fake smile on my face and tried to stop my shoulders from scrunching up.
“You did an excellent job,” an older gentleman addressed me. “But you missed your left side on the sustained edge step sequence.” His forehead creased as he studied me. “You did the right sequence twice, young lady.”
I felt my heart plummet into myskates…
“Don’t look so sad. You get one more chance,” the old judge smiled at me.
I took a deep breath and nodded before turning away to use my one retry. I wished I could consult with Victoria before beginning again.
I went to the zamboni corner and redid the move, hoping that this was the side I hadn’t done yet. Victoria would probably yell at me over notremembering– but I never did.Whenever I was competing or testing, I pretty much blacked out and had an out-of-body experience. I’d finish, then about five minutes later I’d process what I actuallydid.
When I completed the test pattern, I skated back over to the judges and they handed me a folded piece of paper with a smile.
I didn’t look at it. I didn’t have to.
When I turned and saw Victoria’s stone-cold face, it told me all I needed toknow.
I failed.
In the locker room, I sat there feeling depressed over not being finished with stupid frickin Moves in the Field.
The usual crew of girls all happily chatted away while ripping off their skates and exiting the room.
They all gave me extra smiley goodbyes as they left. Anyone else would think they were just being nice to me… but any competitive skater would know the real reason: They were taunting me. They wanted me to know they were happy with their results today…andthey were happy I didn’t pass. As soon as they walked out of the room, I knew they would be talking about me and making fun of what I did…
And really, I kind of deserved it.
I failed and it wasn’t even because of my skating skills. It was because of my intelligence… or lack thereof.
How embarrassing. I forced myself to take a deep breath and closed my eyes tightly.Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Do not freaking cry,I lectured myself. Moves were dumb and archaic anyway. Just another scam to make skaters pay even more money and jump through more hoops to compete.
I slumped down and looked at my skates. I didn’t feel like moving to take them off yet. Instead, I just sat there, dejectedly staring at them.
The locker room opened then, and I bolted upright…until I saw it was only Nick, smiling ruefully at me.
His long strides carried him over, and he plopped down beside me. I wordlessly leaned my head on his largeshoulder.
He kissed the top of my head.
“Your hair feels hard,” he said, prodding it.
“That is the gel, sir,” I told him matter-of-factly. We had to dress competition-ready for the testing, which meant I gelled my hair back in a low side-partedbun.
