The Hockey Star and the Ice Princess (Complete)

Ch. 30 - Regionals Continued

After the short program was over Rachel stood there looking at the leaderboard and her name was at the top, followed by a skater she didn't know and then Addison in third, Laney in fourth and then Cassidee really close behind in fifth. Her scores were only a fraction behind Laney's. Only the top four skaters would advance to Sectionals. 

For her long program Rachel was doing a high tempo number that was playful and had a lot of energy and fast footwork. It was tiring but she knew it would go over well with the judges because the choreographer had added a lot of creative moves into it that they wouldn't have seen before.  

When they called her name she went out onto the ice and started her routine and it didn't take her long to notice something was wrong with her ice skate. It didn't feel right. When she went to attempt her first jump she dug the toe pick into the ice but it didn't grab on and her skate slid right out from under her, throwing her forward and landing her hard on her stomach. Luckily she caught her fall with her arms before her face could hit the ice.

Everyone gasped in shock and she was rattled. She sat up and looked down at her ice skate and noticed someone had filed the teeth of the toe pick all the way down. She got up and made a time out signal, asking them to stop the music before skating over to the judge's table and they looked at each other, confused. She lifted up her leg and sat her ice skate on top of the table in front of them. 

"Someone sabotaged my skates. Look, my toe pick has been filed off and that's what made me fall." 

The judges gasped and looked at each other, whispering and trying to decide what to do. Then one of the women said she was going to make a call and be right back. A minute later she came back and said, "I called the skate shop that's attached to this building and they said to bring your skates down there right now and they'll replace your blades as fast as they can. We'll move your program to the end. Don't worry Rachel. We'll investigate and try to find out who's responsible for this." 

"Ok. Thank you," Rachel said, before she skated off the ice where her coach was waiting for her. 

"What happened?" 

"Someone filed down the toe picks on my skates sometime after the short program."

His mouth dropped open in shock. "What? Who would do that?" 

"Well my guess would be Addison. She hates me and would love to see me lose, even if she has to cheat to make it happen. I've gotta hurry up and go downstairs and get new blades put on my skates at the skate shop because they're letting me try again after they're fixed. I'll be back." 

As Rachel was walking down the hall her nurse called her cell phone and asked how her anxiety level was doing and if the medication was working. She said she felt fine but she would keep her posted. After waiting downstairs for what seemed like forever for her boots to get fitted for new blades, she came back upstairs and made it right as it was time for her to go on. 

She was so angry about someone trying to sabotage her after she had worked so hard for this. She took that anger and put it into her routine and it actually made her even better because her jumps were easier to land with all that anger and adrenaline flowing through her system. She landed the first quad perfectly and the crowd was on their feet screaming. At the very end of her routine she went up for another quad, spinning four times and then landing it smoothly and the crowd went wild as she did a spin and hit her final pose, panting with a victorious smile on her face. 

She pumped her fist in the air and celebrated. It was so satisfying to know that whoever had tried to sabotage her had failed miserably. They had actually lit a fire under her that made her skate better. When they sat down to wait for the scores she squeezed Coach Sumner's hand anxiously, and took a deep breath in and let it out. She was the final skater so these scores would determine the final top four. Even though she knew her score should be good after what she just did, she was still nervous.