When Nadia Marsh; a cheerful and popular ice skater, is overtaken by a mystery illness, everything changes.
When everyone around her is training for sectionals; Nadia is house bound, where even the smallest effort leaves her feeling exhausted.
Getti...
"I'm trying my best here to be brutally honest, Nobody said changing could be this exhausting."
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
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NADIA'S POV:
Stepping onto the ice today was no different than any other day. I come to the rink every day after work and just skate every bit of stress out of me. I tend to over-exert myself to the point of me falling asleep as soon as I get home and lay down on my bed. The issue I have is that I don't know how to pace myself properly, as every time I skate it never feels like enough. Being here on the ice makes me come alive and forget about everything surrounding me.
Each time the blades from my boots cut through the ice, it cuts through my mind, silencing it.
It's just me and the ice. No stress, no worries. Unless I'm training for something big of course, which I will be soon. I have competitions and the ice hockey finals halftime show coming up. These are going to be stressful to deal with and will take up most of my time, so I will have no time to do much else. My college lets me off easily when I have events coming up as they know how much I need to train, so they give me extended deadlines for my assignments when I need it. It's hard finding time to do these assignments when I'm in training but I somehow manage.
I have no free time because of skating on top of college but it's okay because I love figure skating, it's my dream and passion. I will do anything in my power to make my dreams come true.
My love for skating began when I was around five years old. I was watching the Winter Olympics with my family and saw Irina Slutskaya skating and I fell in love, which resulted in me begging my parents for three months until they finally caved and booked me some beginners lessons with a coach, who just so happens to be my dad's best friend. My dad met Mark when they were still just teenagers as they played for the rinks ice hockey team together for years and have remained close ever since.
I look up to what they have very much, as the friendships where you grow together and get to see who they turn into are the best kinds of friendship and I hope that I will get that someday.
Bending my knees slightly and leaning forward, I start gliding down the ice. It feels natural as though I was meant to be on the ice all along. I close my eyes and imagine that I'm flying through the clouds. If I imagine hard enough, I can almost feel the cool wind on my face. I give myself some momentum and balance my leg behind me ready to do my camel spin and I get lost in it. The world blurs around me as I spin, blurring every thought in my head along with it. Spinning on the ice is my favourite, it makes me feel alive, it makes me feel like I'm floating.
After an hour of training, I decided I've had enough as I have been feeling under the weather this week. "You need to practise on your triple axel these coming weeks to be sure we can include that in your routine." My coach, Mark speaks up into the silence as I take off my figure skates ready to leave the rink and go home. Mark might be my dad's best friend but he is the best coach I could ever ask for, and no that's not me being biassed. Me and him are close, but he has no issue in telling me when I am doing something wrong. He isn't the type of person to say I'm doing good when I'm not just because he's my dad's friend, it means a lot to me that we can have an honest working relationship.
