12.

Practice with Tiffany left a large smile plastered to my face like I had just won the lottery or something.

Today was the first day in what felt like forever that I was able to push all of the negative thoughts from my head and I was able to focus solely on my skating. I wasn't worried that my practice time had been moved. I wasn't worried about the hockey team. And I definitely wasn't thinking about Aiden. I got a taste of why I loved to skate, and that felt amazing.

I could tell that Tiffany was pleased with me too. Every jump was clean and my spins solid. I wasn't perfect, but I wasn't stuck in my head either. Even my difficult jumps I had landed clean.

"Caramel latte, as per the usual," Lucy greeted as I approached her in the little corner of the Coffee House. She handed me my drink.

I smiled. "Thanks."

There was something about being in the small corner of the Coffee House sipping my favorite coffee and spending hours gossiping with my best friend that seemed to reset time. Like we had gone back to life the were it used to be. Back before there was a new sponsor. Before my ice time was moved to the afternoon. Before Aiden.

"Senior year starts in a month and half." Lucy chewed the tip of her straw, eyed me cautiously like I was going to be upset that she brought school up.

I raised my eyebrows. Why was she acting weird about it? "Yeah, I know. I'm actually looking forward to it. Minus the whole mom making school come before skating."

Lucy eyed me as though I was lying. "So you aren't worried at all about staying on top of both school and skating without your morning practice?"

So that was what this was about. Lucy was worried that I wouldn't be excited for senior year because of my practice being moved. Yeah, that sucked, and I would have preferred to have had my morning practice, but I was going to make the most of it. I only got one senior year of high school.

I let out a soft sigh, shook the ice around in my coffee before I looked up to meet Lucy's blue eyes watching me in anticipation. "I'm not worried."

"I have seen your mom when you get a bad grade, Zo. Your parents will pull their money out of the rink so quick that you suffering through practices with Aiden wouldn't even have been worth it. How are you not worried?"

"Yeah," I agreed. My mom would not hesitate to pull all funding out if I got one bad grade. But I had always been good about maintaining my grades and I wasn't about to break my GPA now. "I'll still keep my school a top priority, it will just have to get done after my practices."

Lucy sucked in a sharp breath and turned away, breaking our eye contact. She took a small sip of her coffee. Clearly, she was still not convinced that I had everything under control.

We didn't say much for a few minutes, we just sat in silence. It was odd, like there was a sudden strain in our relationship but I wasn't sure what caused it. Was she really that worried about me being able to handle both school and the rink? That was my business.

I didn't bother to try to push the subject. I didn't understand why she would have been so concerned about my life, but it was my life and my parents. It didn't make sense that she would get stressed over it for me. That was my job.

"Can I come with you to the rink tonight?"

Lucy's question caught me off guard and I paused; mid grab for my keys on the coffee table in front of us. Something was definitely going on. Lucy rarely wanted to come to the rink.

"Of course you can, but you know I have my punishment with Aiden." Normally we had our punishment in the morning, but Aiden had some kind of family commitment, so we were now meeting at 7:00PM.

A smile cracked at the corners of Lucy's lips that pushed away her strange mood. The Lucy I knew and loved was back. "Yeah, and I'm looking forward to the show."

"The show?"

"Yeah. You guys are better than reality TV."

I rolled my eyes as if I was annoyed by her comment, but I was relieved to see she was back to her normal self. "Well, if you are looking to see a lot of eying rolling and glare then you are going to be watching the right show. Nothing exciting."

Lucy smirked. "I don't know. It sounds like sexual tension to me, but okay."

My mouth dropped. Did she just imply that Aiden and I were actually attracted to each other? I think I barfed a little in my mouth. There was nothing sexual about our fighting. Just pure annoyance and hatred.

Lucy was already halfway out the door before I had regathered my thoughts enough to come up with a good comeback. By the time I had reached her outside, I felt like it was best to drop the subject. Aiden was not what I wanted to discuss during the car ride to the rink.

~~~

"This is so weird."

I was leaned down to tie the laces to my skates, so Lucy didn't see me raise my eyebrows. "What's so weird?"

"This." I sat up to see her gesturing down to the ice. Her lips fell slightly agape as she took in the view. "The hockey team actually looks decent."

I frowned, looked down at the ice. The hockey team had been putting in the extra effort with two practices a day. It had only been a little over a week, so the sponsorship had taken affect, but the had already made some major improvements.

"Is this all from Aiden?"

My gaze drifted across the ice until they found Aiden. He was currently standing talking to Chris and another one of their teammates I didn't know the name of. Aiden was just one person. There was no way that it was all from him. It was physically impossible for him to carry the whole team on his shoulders. The team had barely won a single game last year. How could Aiden single handedly change that?

I have never paid much attention to the hockey team before so there was a chance that they just had really crappy coaches. A good new coach would have made more sense in the team suddenly improving. To my knowledge it was still the same coach as last year, but I did have to admit that was some kind of shift in the team. I wasn't sure that was Aiden's doing, but I knew I hated it.

"Are you okay?" Lucy must have noticed my lack of response and intense glare at the ice. "It's not like you to care so much about the hockey team. Are you worried?"

I bit down on the insides of my cheeks, turned my gaze away from the players on the ice. "No."

That was a lie. I was worried. I was worried that if the hockey team got good that suddenly everyone would forget about supporting the skate club. I worried that people would get so wrapped up in hockey games that they would forget that Whitmore even had a skate club.

"I'm impressed with how well you are handling this Zo," Lucy praised. A big compliment coming from her. "I would have thought you'd have a hard time with their success?"

"What success?" I asked a bit too bitterly. A venom coated my words as I said, "They haven't had any success. It's been a week. There season doesn't start for another month."

This made Lucy laugh. "Yep." Another laugh. "There's the bitterness that I know you'll forever hold against the hockey team." She turned her gaze back to the ice, gesturing out the players once again. "But come on Zoe, even you have to admit they are looking like they might win their scrimmage game tomorrow."

I frowned. I didn't want to admit any such thing.

I let myself look back to the ice, watching each of the players closely. Chris was now dribbling the puck, handling his stick in and effortless manner before he took a shot at the net. The puck shot up off the ice and flew directly into the corner of the net.

Then it hit me, and I grinned.

"Okay," I turned to Lucy. She raised her eyebrows; a sense of fear had sparked in her eyes at my sudden mood change.

"What?"

"You obviously know about my punishment with Aiden."

Lucy bit her lip. "Yeah."

"And you know how I have to learn hockey from him. He has to learn figure skating from me."

"Yeah..."

I smirked. "I have plan."

I went on to explain everything to Lucy about how our punishment worked. From how we had to alternate from hockey to figure skating, and how we supposed to just teach each other the basics. I told her how our first few practices went together, and I explained to her how I was convinced that Aiden had tricked me into placing a bet he knew he would win. I wasn't worried about any of the hockey heads overhearing me either since Lucy and I were seated at the top of the bleachers away from the ice.

"I think someone in the skate club might be helping Aiden."

It was the only logical explanation that I could think of as to how Aiden was able to pull off such a clean spiral on his first attempt. He was too confident in his abilities for it to have been his first time. Not to mention he still hadn't tripped on his toe pick or fallen even once. There was no way he hadn't used figure skates before.

Lucy was silent, kept her eyes fixated on the ice. After a moment she sighed, nodding her head in agreement. "I mean yeah, that does seem suspicious."

I didn't even try to hide my smirk. Lucy rarely agreed with me on my suspicions of the hockey team. If she though it was odd, then clearly, I must have been on to something. Aiden had to have been getting help from outside of our practices.

"What's this plan of yours?"

I grinned.

"If Aiden wants to get help elsewhere to have the upper hand, fine. I'll do the only fair thing and do the same."

Lucy blinked slowly like she wasn't sure what I had just said. Then she threw her head back and burst into a fit of laughter. "There's no way you are going to talk to any of his teammates. You cannot stand the hockey team."

I furrowed my brows, annoyed she thought my idea was so funny. "Maybe. But I think I know someone on the team who might just help."

She stopped laughing. Her eyes narrowed onto my skeptically. "Oh yeah. Who?"

"Chris."

"Chris?" She repeated, her gaze flickering back to the ice. "Isn't he good friends with Aiden? I mean look at them. Do you really think he would be open to helping you get the upper hand?"

I followed her gaze to where Aiden and Chris were once again standing talking. They looked like there were laughing about something. Clearly they got along, but that didn't mean Chris wouldn't agree to help me. Unlike Aiden, he seemed to be nice.

"I think he'll at the very least consider it."

Lucy shook her head. "Isn't he the captain of the hockey team?"

I nodded. He was indeed the captain, but I had a feeling that he would at least consider my idea. After all, in my last conversation with him he had made a genuine attempt to show me that not all hockey players were as egotistical and arrogant as I believed.

"I don't think that it will hurt to at least ask him."
Lucy frowned. "It could if he doesn't want to and it ends up getting back to Aiden. Wouldn't that just give him more of an upper hand?" She sighed, ran a hand through her curls. "I have never understood your hatred of the hockey team, but I have to say Zo, if what you say is true, then it seems like Aiden already has the upper hand. He at least knows some of the basics to figure skating. Do you really want to give him more to hold against you if this backfires and Chris says no?"

Now it was my turn to frown. Lucy made a good point. There was the possibility that my idea would backfire and cause more harm than good. But I had a feeling that this idea of mine wouldn't backfire.

"Okay," I drew out the word. "But if it doesn't then it'll definitely be worth it. I mean seriously, if I have to participate in one of the hockey teams practices, I feel like Aiden should have to do something more than just our little one-hour punishment practices."

Lucy sighed. "Have you ever even talked to Chris?"

"Yes."

She raised her eyebrows. "What, when?"

I bit my lip, realizing now that I hadn't talked told Lucy about the two conversations that I had with Chris. Mostly because I didn't want her to say something like 'I told you not all hockey players are bad'.

"Chris was the one who told me about what happened during the bonfire. He explained why I had such a bad headache, and he was super nice about everything," I admitted to which Lucy frowned.

"I see."

For a minute Lucy's face went back to having that distant look in her eyes. Watching her now, it looked like she was almost sad. What was she upset about? As far as I knew, nothing major had happened in her life. I knew her parents would often fight but it was never anything serious. Could something have happened at home that she hadn't told me about?

She shook her head, her strawberry curls falling into her face. When she looked up and pushed her hair back out of her eyes, the look was once again gone and replaced with a small smile. Weird. "Then I say go for it. If you think that it could help, why not?"

I did think that talking to Chris could help. My last conversation with him left me thinking that there was a possibility that we were actually becoming friends. So why shouldn't I take that risk? The worst-case scenario was that I went back to fully despising the whole hockey team.

The best-case scenario? I got to beat Aiden at his own game.

--

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