Chapter 3

                                    

                                          
I skated, and started picking up speed. I would have to use off of my right leg, as high as I can. Do two 360 degree turns in the air, and the land on my left leg, knee bent.
Not too hard right?
Zach was watching me, and I was pretty sure half the rink was too. No pressure.
I started picking up more speed, and when I was going was I deemed fast enough, I launched into in the air. I twirled my body towards the right, and spun.
180, 360, 540, 720. Two spins. I started to go back towards the ground, so I put my left leg first, and made sure my right leg was not going to touch the ice, and landed. I wobbled a bit, but I landed.
I did it.
"Good." I heard in the background, but I was too happy to even acknowledge it. I had been practicing all summer, and I had never landed it. Never.
I skated towards Sophia, and I launched myself towards her. 
"I did it! I landed my double lutz!" This was a very big deal for me, because every time I'd tried before, either I would just straight out fall, or my knee would collapse.
"Oh my god! I'm so happy for you!" Not to mention there were only a few of the girls that have actually mastered the double lutz, and only I have even attempted the triple lutz.
Brooke came skating, with coach Larson, and then asked me,
"Do you think you could do it again for coach to see?" 
"Uh, ok, yeah sure." Coach Larson walked towards Owens, and I swear I heard her say "I'll believe it when I see it." Bitch. She always told me 'take it easy' because ,y knee was still 'healing'. Every time, I said fuck that. And now I can do a double lutz.
I started skating again, and started picking up speed. I launched myself in the air, and started spinning.
180, 360, 540, 720. I landed it again, on my left leg, and I wobbled less this time. 
I walked towards coach Larson, and she said, "try to get rid of the wobble." And walked away. What the fuck?
Whatever. I walked back towards Zach and asked, 
"Was that good?"
"Well, yes. Larson's right you should lose the wobble, but it was really good. You'll need to work on your calves and your knees too apparently. But she was rather harsh. Did something happen?"
"I—I don't know. It was so weird. And I swear I fucking heard her say 'I'll believe it when I see it' something weird is going on. She wasn't a bitch before."
He nodded, and said 
"Now we'll work on speed, since apparently you don't actually need to work on your double lutz. Show me what you do to pick up speed." 
"Easy. I just take bigger steps."
"No, I said show me." Alright.
I started skating and started picking up speed, I suddenly heard him say 
"Stop. Come back."
I skated back towards him.
"What?"
"You're doing it wrong."
"What do you mean? Care to elaborate?"
"Of course. You're putting too much pressure on your ankles," he looked down towards my feet. "You shouldn't do that. It'll make them sore because you're asking too much of them. For speed, you need to rely on your calves and thighs. Your ankles too, but mostly your legs."
"What? I've been doing it like this for years."
"Yes, and that's what caused you to wobble."
"You aren't making any sense."
He chuckled, "you put too much pressure on your ankles when picking up speed, so when you land, your ankles have little to no strength left. That's why you wobble."
Oh—wait, he noticed that just by looking at me skate? I won't admit this out loud, but I might actually profit from him helping me.
"Ok, so how do I do it then?" 
"Well, watch and learn." 
And before he even finished his sentence, he was skating away, and I saw little to no difference between what he was doing and what I was doing. This was going to be hard.
He skated back towards me, and said
"See?" 
"No. I honestly see no difference between that and what I was doing."
He sighed, and ran a hand through his hair.
"Ok, what we're going to do is. We're going to film it. We're both going to skate right next to each other, and film us so we can compare."
"Fine. I'll go get my phone."
I went to get my phone from where it was on the bench, and skated back to where Zach was.
I set it up on camera on the wall, there was a space between the wall and the glade, so I put it there. I started the video, and made sure it was recording.
I went next to Zach, and when he said,
"Start." We both started skating, the same speed. When I accelerated, he did too. We did some 20 meters, and then circled back to watch the video. I was actively lowering my entire body, when Zach was nearly going down at all.
Now I saw what he meant.
My ankles looked like they were in pain, but I didn't feel that. How could no one have ever told me this? I guess my tights were usually covering my ankles whenever I was practicing with my friends, but I've practiced with coach a ton of times, and she never mentioned anything like this. Maybe she just never noticed?
I took a look at Olivia, and it wasn't as bad as me, but she was definitely doing the same thing. I glanced at Brooke, and the same thing. Even Sophia was doing that a little. Sophia was the best one of us, at skating. I would love to say I was second best, but Olivia beat me to it.
"There's definitely a problem with how you have been training this whole time."
"Everyone else is doing the same thing. It's not only me. Even Olivia, Sophia, Brooke, Andrea, Blake. Most of the girls. How did Larson never notice?"
"Maybe there's a chance she noticed but didn't do anything about it?"
"N—no, she would've done something. She's supposed to be training us. Not ignoring when we're doing something wrong." He gave me an unconvinced look.
"Well, either way, something's wrong. Don't worry, Tristan, Andrew and Kris'll pick up on it soon."
"Ok, well." I glanced at my watch, and saw that we had a little over ten minutes left.
"I should probably change, so I'm gonna go.
Word count: 1083