Page 65 of Chasing Gold, Catching Her

Then one of them turned toward her.

She had dark cherry-red hair twisted into a messy bun and wore a black training dress with long sleeves and tiny rhinestones glittering at the collar. She warmly smiled at her.

“Hi. First time with us?”

“Are you new?” another girl asked, peeking out from behind ‘Cherry’, as Alisa immediately decided to call her in her mind.

Alisa pressed her lips together, unable to stop a slightly awkward smile. “Kind of.”

“Oh my God, are you on our team?” another girl asked, leaning forward eagerly.

Before Alisa could answer, one of the others suddenly gasped so loudly that everyone turned to look at her.

“Wait… aren’t you that pairs skater? Alisa Voronkova? You’re with the boys now?”

“Apparently,” Alisa said with a helpless little shrug. “Arkadiy decided to take me into the group for a while.”

Immediately the questions came.

“What happened to your old coach?”

“Are you leaving pair skating?”

“What about Lev?”

Cherry instantly turned to them with a look of pure outrage.

“Oh, hush, you crows,” she said sharply. “Don’t attack the poor girl.”

She pulled off one black glove and held out her hand.

“I’m Anfisa.”

“Alisa. Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.”

Anfisa shook her hand firmly, and then the others introduced themselves one after another.

“Anita.”

“Violetta.”

“Annabel.”

“Anastasia.”

Alisa repeated their names in her head, and somehow, without noticing when exactly it happened, she felt the tight knot inside her loosen just a little.

At that moment the hockey players finally skated off the ice. They passed the figure skaters sitting casually on the bench with their usual lazy arrogance, carrying sticks over their shoulders, grinning at the girls in a way that made several of them roll their eyes. One guy lingered behind the others.

Hermann.

Alisa looked up in surprise.

“Wow,” he said, stopping right in front of her with a grin. “Are you really in singles now?”

Alisa laughed quietly, suddenly shy. She still hadn’t told him.