The Ice Queen Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

“Katrina,” he said. “Get ready for the Cup of China!”

Nate hugged me tightly, I was still in shock. Soon, I quickly returned the favour and embraced him.

“Thank you, Nate,” I said. Nate then left my embrace and handed me the letter, a smile brightened his face. I sat down on the sofa and began tearing the envelope open; Caen and Crystall sat down on either side of me.

“What is it?” Crystall asked curiously.

“Give her a second,” Caen said.

I read the message aloud:

“Dear Miss Stirling,

You have officially been entered into the ISU Team Trophy Figure Skating Competition. As a female skater, you have been assigned the Cup of China. However, since the dates have yet to be confirmed, we cannot give you any information. You have also been invited to a press conference on 4th September 2018, which starts at 12:00 AM in City Hall London. At the press conference, there will be your other teammates from the last Grand Prix Finals: pair skaters Charles Jenkins and Amelia Douglas, as well as Elizabeth Williams. We look forward to seeing you at the conference and will inform you as soon as possible when any dates are confirmed.”

I looked up at Nate.

“Thank you for entering me in and all, but I’ve still haven’t got a single program ready, let alone any outfits,” Nate sighed.

“That’s my fault. I’m sorry about that.” 

“Oh, it’s fine! I’ll just have to start thinking sooner than I expected,” Then, I noticed something. “Wait… the 4th is in a week, right?”

“Yes it is,” Nate replied, looking at the calendar in his phone. I knew Crystall and Caen were at least slightly curious about what a phone was.

“FUCK! There’s no way I’m going to be able to think up two new programs in that time! What if they ask me about them during the conference?”

“You’ll think of something, I’m sure,” Crystall smiled. His optimism was really helpful and inspiring.

“Thank you, I’m blessed to have someone like you by my side.”Nate left with warm wishes of good luck.

“Good luck at the conference! I’ll have other things to attend to at that time, so I won’t be able to be there. Either way, good luck and break a leg!”

I’ll need it. I thought.

Of course, I had to introduce Caen to the notion that he’ll have to sleep either on the floor or on a sofa, which I didn’t feel particularly happy to do in case he got a bit angry because of this. I decided to lead them out into my garden, for two main reasons: 1, it seemed like a nice place to have a good ol’ chat and 2, I wanted to show off how nice my plants were. When we walked out into the garden, the boys decided to switch to their centaur forms. Not that I had anything against it, I just felt like I was Peter Dinklage standing next to Robert Wadlow in two people.

My garden was quite spacious; it had 25 square metres. It was also filled with flowers and one tree. Yes, there was one tree; a sycamore tree in fact. Among the flowers were red and white roses, tulips and daffodils. However, there was one particular plant I liked. In the centre of the garden - to which led a neat patio path - was a large wooden frame, under which was a large table and a few seats. Over the entire frame, I had a huge wisteria drooping down. Of course, my two centaur friends were intrigued and studied it; they brushed their hands across the branches and sniffed the flowers. Crystall had the pleasure of getting a petal or two in the eye when the wind blew; his response was so cute. To be fair, I thought everything about him was cute. And that was the difference between my opinion on Crystall and my opinion on Caen: in my eyes, Crystall is very pure and very cute and Caen is very big and very hot. Also, there was something I noticed on the patio: wherever Caen placed his hooves, there’d be a few cracks in the floor beneath him. This did happen for Crystall too, but not as clearly.

We sat down on the other side of the frame, under the sycamore tree. I was still so small compared to them when they were lying down, although Crystall and I were level with each other. I sat down between them, both of them put their arms around my shoulders. My God, I wish I had a photographer at that point.

“Caen…” I began. I was trying to hide my fear of his reaction.

“Yes?” Caen turned to me, smiling.

“I’m afraid y-you might have to sleep on the floor- or you c-could sleep on the sofa!”

Caen chuckled.

“It’s really not that much of a big deal. We’re used to sleeping on the ground.”

I sighed in relief, Caen and Crystall laughed in response. I loved those guys, I wished everything would stay like this for the rest of my life.

***

A day before the press conference, I had received a letter, informing me that the female competition has been transferred to the Rostelecom Cup in Germany. As well as that, Nate and I decided to not put Crystall forth to the Grand Prix yet, although people might get offended that not a single male skater is participating in Team GB. Also, I cleaned out a spare room of all unnecessary stuff (like small cupboards and stuff like that), which we used as our training room. Me and Crystall would do different stretches and exercise in there, Caen would be there to motivate and help us a bit.

Crystall and I spent more time on the ice too; I tried teaching him basic Senior step sequences and other vital elements, but he seemed much better at jumps and spins than step and spiral sequences, which was a real problem. Although jumps and spins do get you more points technical-wise, they don’t give you as much presentation score as a step or spiral sequence. Either way, I knew how to start planning our sessions and what their content should be.

I also spent a lot of time on my routines. I passed on my orders for outfits and organised soundtracks. Of course, I’m not going to tell you what I picked because I’m not that kind. What I can say is that I tried to push myself with my routines; I was considering going quadruple with a Toe Loop, but that was a bit crazy considering I still find a triple Axel challenging. I thought about it either way; you never know what might happen in the future.

***

On the day of the press conference, I arrived sharply at 11:35 AM at City Hall. I managed to meet up with Elizabeth and met two new skaters - a couple. Their names were Charles Jenkins and Amelia Douglas, although they didn’t seem very interested in meeting me. They were mostly worried about themselves and what questions they’d be asked. Literally, their conversations happened like this:

“But what if they ask us how we met?!” Amelia asked. She acted as if this was some dramatic scene in Romeo and Juliet.

“Then we shall speak the truth, the truth and nothing but the truth.” Charles replied, equally dramatic. I was really scared for their mental health, but I kept that to myself. I understood they were probably awesome people underneath that weirdness. Most of mine and Elizabeth’s conversation was about hot skaters we wanted to see if we made it to the Finals. Of course, I could only dream of getting with them, because I really didn’t want to upset Crystall. Plus, Nate and my mum would get triggered.

After about ten years of waiting, the security guards finally got all the reporters in and our team sat in a row at the front, facing them. I could tell all four of us were nervous, but I knew most of the questions would probably be aimed at me.

The first question sounded:

“Katrina, why isn’t there a solo male skater in the team, yet you have two solo females?” a man asked.

“I’m not the one organising the team so don’t ask me. I’m guessing it might be because no one put themselves forward,” I replied honestly.

“Elizabeth, do you think you’ll be able to climb as high as Katrina?” a woman fired out. Elizabeth looked at me, troubled.

“Erm…” she slowly uttered. “I’d like to think that. But I’m just not as confident as her. She’s my inspiration and she’s really amazing; I’ll never be able to come even near her kind of standard,” she got more and more confident in her words, which made me blush and I was almost on the verge of tears. This girl is amazing.

“Katrina, would you consider yourself a feminist and why?” another woman called.

“I wouldn’t call myself a feminist, simply because I don’t like to associate myself to another group which doesn’t portray exactly what I believe and I also prefer to be independent. Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than 100% for equal rights for women and men, but I don’t consider myself a feminist.” I answered quite frankly.

“Katrina, what do you think of Donald Trump?” a man yelled.

“I’m not a fan, but que sera sera. We’re going to have to just deal with him and that’s the moral of the story. Also, maybe a little less question directed at me please? There’s a freshly-baked pair over there,” I pointed at Charles and Amelia. I could already tell they were planning how they would murder me. Another few questions were fired at Elizabeth, Charles and Amelia until I got the deadly question:

“Katrina, what are your new programs going to reflect?” Of course, I had to make something up on the spot.

“They talk about growth,” I replied. “The Short Program is about someone being new to a community. They try desperately to fit in but they stick out like a sore thumb and are made fun of. The Free Program is about that someone evolving into, metaphorically speaking, a beautiful swan and shows that they too can be beautiful.”

I even got a round of applause for that one, so I was very proud of myself.

Although, there was one question I regretted answering:

“Katrina, how do you feel about Ashley Chen, your American rival?” a man asked.“Do you want me to be kind and make my answer PG or should I be honest and include curse words?” I replied.

“Keep it PG, please.”

“I hope she gets hit by a truck,” I smiled sarcastically.

When I got home, I already began regretting my choices as I read through a small pile of letters from Ashley’s fans. Although I’d get them on rare occasions, I never got so many in such a short time. Crystall could clearly tell I was slowly breaking apart and was on the verge of tears, while Caen encouraged him to talk to me. I wanted to thank him for wanting the best for our relations. Crystall sat down next to me on the sofa and leaned towards me, putting his arm around me.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing.” I replied. “It’s not like I these letters are telling me to cut myself and to smash my head onto the ice and die. It’s not like those letters make me want to put a knife through my throa-”

Crystall pulled me into his chest before I could finish.

“Don’t say that,” he said. “Please don’t. I… I need you too much to let you die on me.”

I began sobbing, thanking God and cursing my personality. I wanted to speak, but my tears suppressed any attempt of that.

Thank you, Crystall.

Author's Note: Thanks for surviving this extra long chapter! I'll try making Chapter 9 a bit shorter. I'm curious of what you guys think of this chapter (and how long the list of mistakes is)! Please review, I hope you enjoyed what you read and thank you so much for reading!