Chapter 7
She’s had a fairly good night’s sleep, considering it was a strange bed, and after a smoothie for breakfast, Buffy went to the Rink for her practice slot.
Already there, was Faith Hamilton, it had been about 18 months since Buffy had seen her rival – they weren’t enemies, just barely talked when they were juniors.
Buffy sat at the end of the row Faith was sitting in, and busied herself putting on her practice boots and leg warmers.
Faith turned her head and looked at her, and said,
“It’s Betty, isn’t it?”
“Buffy”
“Buffy, yeah…so it’s been a while, how goes it?”
“Fine, you?”
Faith pouted, nodded her head, and said
“Five by five…so you’re with O’Connor then”
“Yes”
“I used to be with him…’til I wised up”
“I’m sorry, wised up?”
Faith smiled and shook her head like she was talking to naïve little six year old.
“Haven’t you ever noticed…things?”
Without wishing to appear thick, Buffy just repeated the word.
“Things?”
“Yeah…such as – say you get a cramp – or stiff neck…it seems, well”
“Well what?” Buffy asked, standing up to put her coat back on as it was very cold.
“Well, it seems HE gets more out of it than you do – when he’s massaging you – got to be touching – you think it’s friendly at first, the odd arm around your shoulder – THEN you get to realise the touching gets…”
Buffy frowned, and a young woman came up to Faith, who stood and said,
“Well, I gotta go, my turn – break a leg, as they say”
Buffy just mumbled a ‘bye’ and pulled her coat more tightly around her, thinking about what Faith had just said…
*****************
“Hey, you were miles away, are you ready?”
Buffy jumped, startled as Angel loomed over her, smiling. He had his hand on her shoulder, and she immediately thought as to what Faith had just said to her, and stood quickly, shrugging off the hand
“Sorry, got mesmerised!”
“Illyria’s rink-side waiting, she has your music – now go do your best” Buffy nodded and left.
Her first practice session was dreadful, she fell twice, both times in the same part of the routine, and she must have slowed up somewhere, because the music finished before she did.
Disappointed, she skated rink side to where Illyria was waiting.
“What was that? Buffy, that was the worst I’ve seen you skate! (She gave a heavy sigh and continued)
Never mind, you have this afternoon, you seem to slow down after your first set of jumps – double axel, triple toe-loop, double Lutz, then you slow down for some reason – make for the end of the rink fast as you can”
Buffy nodded
“Have you any bruises?”
“I’m okay, I’ve got some arnica and aloe vera gel”
“Good, use it, have a hot bath first and rest, try not to think about this and come back refreshed this afternoon for your second practice, okay?”
Buffy nodded and went back to her room.
Illyria went up o Angel
“Well, you know the old adage, lousy rehearsal, great show – I just hope in THIS case it’s true – she was all over the place”
“Nerves, that’s all – she’ll be okay later.” Angel said, hopefully
“Did you manage to see Faith practice?”
“Not a chance, she saw me and I was asked to leave! Cheeky or what!”
“She’s quite entitled”
“I know, I know…got too big for her boots that one – tell you who I DID see though, that little Chinese girl – what’s her name? Sui-Pey Yip – she’s mustard – zips round like she’s rocket-propelled”
“Speed isn’t everything”
“No, I know, but boy…come on, lets get a cup of coffee”
***********************
Buffy sat on the edge of her bed in her towelling robe, hair in a towel turban, she squirted some arnica and aloe gel on the bruise forming just above her knee, and rubbed it in.
Having done that, she put everything ready for later, dried her hair and lay down. There was too much noise to sleep, people shouting in different languages, doors banging – so she put in her earpieces and listened to her ipod, and read a magazine.
************************
The afternoon practice went better, she didn’t fall this time, but her timing was still slightly out, but Illyria didn’t say anything, Buffy knew what she had to do.
Half an hour before she was due on the ice, Buffy sipped her isotonic glucose drink for energy, and checked her makeup.
It had to be heavy, her eyes banded with blue, silver and white sparkling glitter shadows, black eyeliner and false lashes, she’d put her hair up in a tight chignon, using glitter gel spray.
Doing her breathing exercises to counteract the butterflies in her tummy, she sat with Mr Gordo on her lap, fondling his ears.
(KNOCK, KNOCK)
“Time, Buffy”
She stood, kissed the little photo of her mom and left the room
Illyria stood by her as she waited for her turn on the ice, Buffy slipped off her blade guards, and waited until all the volunteers had finished collecting the flowers thrown on the ice for the last skater.
She heard the announcer say her name, and she skated onto the ice (to tremendous applause, whistles and yells from mostly the American’s in the audience) and struck her pose, waiting for the music to start.
The first strains of Eleanor Rigby started, and when the words ‘Eleanor Rigby, picked up the rice in the church where a wedding had been’…etc, would have normally started, if it hadn’t been an instrumental version of the song, she began her routine.
She skated, concentrated, nailed every jump, remembered her speed and coming to the last combo of skating on the spot, then changing legs she knew she’d done it, her timing was perfect, as she ballerina spun, stopped dead, threw her head and arms back dramatically on the last note. – NOW she could smile -a grin a mile wide when she saw Illyria almost jumping up and down on the spot and Angel punching the air with a ‘YES!’ With the audience on it’s feet, whooping and cheering
Chest absolutely heaving she skated to the side, flowers raining down she forgot what Faith said as Angel pulled her into a big bear hug and kissed the top of her head.
All smiles she waved to the camera as they made their way to the scoring bay, where she sat, slipped on her blade guards and received her armful of flowers.
“Technical merit’’ scores first, she got 5.8 across the board, artistic marks ranged from 5.6 from the Ukrainian judge, to 5.9 from the GB judge – she was in fifth place – with Faith and the favourite, Drusilla St John yet to skate, and two more Chinese girls, so it wasn’t in the bag for her yet.
Leaving the rink, Buffy made her way to her room, she opened the door to find more flowers waiting for her, one of the helpers from the academy was putting them in vases for her
“You were fantastic!”
“Thanks – gotta phone my mom!”
“I’ll leave you to it – “ the girl left and Buffy fished out her mobile phone.
Buffy ended up in seventh place overall – which, considering she’d only just joined the senior ranks was totally amazing – Angel had quite expected her to got into the top fifty, as she was very good, it was a lot more than he’d dared hope, for her to get into the top ten straight away! Good for business too – he was sure that applications to the academy (for paying customers) would go up too………
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