Page 76 of Chasing Gold, Catching Her

“Alisa Voronkova performs now on the ice!” The announcer said and the whole audience burst into applause. Somewhere in the stands Lev and Hermann really were shouting louder than anyone else, and Alisa immediately noticed them because of that idiotic poster, on which they had somehow managed to print her face enormous and stretched wide, with such a serious expression that she looked less like a figure skater and more like some kind of Terminator who had come to destroy everyone in her path.

“Well, idiots… beloved idiots…” Alisa chuckled to herself. Her eyes stung for a second. But then she lifted her head high and stepped onto the ice.

She waved to the audience and slowly skated to the center of the rink. The arena immediately fell silent.

Alisa took her starting pose, with the smile of a warrior goddess who was going into battle and intended to win, and the second her hands rose and covered her eyes from the bright light, the music began.

Alisa entered the triple axel too early.

She understood it immediately, in the same second she pushed off the ice, when it was already impossible to change anything.

Too early.

In the air, her heart skipped a beat in horror.

For one endless second it seemed to her that she would fall, that now everything would collapse. But she landed on the right edge almost perfectly.

It was underrotated, but not much, just enough that Arkadiy would definitely notice it and hiss at her later on. Alisa clenched her jaw and skated on, because there was nothing else she could do.

The music and the program continued anyway and so did she.

By the middle of it, the arena had gone strangely quiet. At first, there had still been applause somewhere in the stands, someone clapping to the rhythm of the music, and then suddenly there was only the sound of her blades cutting across the ice and the music echoing under the loud speakers.

And she finally realized that for the first time no one was looking at her with pity. No one was thinking: poor girl, she used to skate in pairs, she probably won’t manage alone. No, now they were watching her seriously, especially the judges and the audience.

Today she was a rival, possibly a threat too. Maybe a someone who could really take that place. That realization made her chest tighten so hard she almost could not breathe.

But she finished the program.

She landed the last jump, spun the last spin, struck the final pose, and for one second remained frozen in the center of the ice, breathing so hard that she thought everyone in the arena could hear it.

Then the music ended and the applause crashed over her all at once. Alisa bowed automatically and then slowly skated off the ice toward the Kiss & Cry zone. Arkadiy and Dana were already waiting for her there.

Dana immediately grabbed her hand. Arkadiy said nothing at first, but he only looked at her, and that was somehow worse.

Alisa sat down between them and clasped her hands so tightly that her fingers hurt, she was the last skater, which meant that her score would decide everything.

The entire ranking.

Who would go to Beijing.

Who would stay here.

The highest score so far was 74.10. Alisa stared at the screen so hard that her eyes began to hurt.

The arena went quiet again.

“Alisa Voronkova…”

The announcer paused for one endless second.

“Seventy-one point forty.”

Third place.

For a moment Alisa did not understand since the numbers seemed wrong. They were too small and so far away.

Third.