I felt honored to be included because at the start of this year, I had absolutely no one to talk to in the rink. I didn’t really get along with the other freestyle girls—probably because we all viewed each other as competition. On top of that, my mom, an ice dance coach, and my twin sister, Anastasia, both moved to a rink in Texas so Annie could train with a new ice dance partner for the season.
After they left, I started using the rink lobby’s picnic tables as my locker room because I couldn't take the tension in the freestyle locker room, and I didn’tfeel invited in the pairs locker room without Anastasia.
But then Piper found me.
She invited me back to locker room #6, which was used by only her and Mer.
Piper and Mer, who were both a year older than me, sort of took me under their wing after that. Piper was a tall blonde ice dancer and cut-throat competitor. Mer was a small brunette freestyle pairs girl who hated competition more than anything—she even got stress hives on her neck during competition weeks that only ever went away after her final skate. And then there was me: landing somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.
Piper scowled at something on her phone.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Nothing, I’m just not looking forward to seeing Richard Charles Kappers the Third tonight,” she scowled, making me laugh.
While Colt was a strait-laced Captain America, play-by-the-rules kind of guy, his best friend Richard, known as Kappy, was the rink’s biggest troublemaker. It was rumored that he was the one who rigged up the buzzer to sound like a fart. Hans couldn’t figure out how to change it back for, like, a whole week.
“Who else is going to be there?” I asked.
A knock came on the locker room door, interrupting us. A second later, Patrick—Piper’s ice dance partner—stuck his ginger head inside. “You girls ready to head out to the pond?”
Patrick and Piper’s eyes landed on me, making me cringe. “Yes, I know, I’m always late,” I chided. I still had to clean off my skates and throw on some warmer clothes. “Just give me two more minutes.”
“I’ll bring the car around front,” Patrick said with a laugh.
“You gotta work on your hustle, girl,” Piper said, kneeling to help me clean my skates off. “And to answer your question, I think it’s just gonna be us three girls, Patrick, Colt, Kappy, and JP.”
Hearing his name had my heart picking up speed, which I knew was bad. So,sobad.
I harbored a small crush on JP ever since I met him two years ago in the locker room hallway after he was kicked out of a game for fighting.
We talked here and there, never exchanging more than a couple of sentences, but he was somehow always there when I needed him. He was the one who helped me a year ago when I was throwing up in the rink lobby after getting a concussion from hitting my head on the ice. He rubbed my back and whispered that I was going to be okay the whole time until my dad came. If Anastasia didn’t re-tell me the story, I would’ve thought I hallucinated it.
He was also the one who brought me ice when I twisted my ankle in the weight room last winter.
And he was the one who saved me with my EpiPen when I accidentally ate a homemade dessert with nuts in it during the spring ice show rehearsal. Piper had my EpiPen in her hand but was freaking out and crying. JP took it from her and acted quickly, expertly injecting it and rubbing the area. He stayed with me the whole time, even answering questions when the paramedics arrived.
But each time I set him up to ask me out, his cheeks would flame up in two round red circles and he’d dip away.
Clearly, he was just a nice guy and I had to stop bugging him and holding out hope that he’d like me back.
But I couldn’t stop looking out for him around the rink. It’s like I had a little beacon system installed in my brain, always searching for his easy grin and kind grey eyes.
Piper eyed me curiously. “What’s that look for?”
“What look?” I squeaked out, then cleared my throat. “There’s no look.”
She snorted. “Yeah, okay.”
There wasn’t a look.
There couldn’t be.
Not for JP when I already had a boyfriend.
__________
We drove down a dark, bumpy dirt road for about ten minutes before Patrick finally came to a clearing in the woods.
