ALEXANDRIA

We were standing in front of my room door. My left arm wrapped around my right arm, and I was leaning against the wall.

'Well since we are friends now' Marcus sassily quoted, 'contacts?'

I rolled my eyes. I don't just give my phone number out like that. 'Whatever. Give me your phone.'

'Ugh'

I yanked the phone off him, and typed in my number, naming myself "Alexandria" with those ice skates emoji's at the end of it. I gave the phone back to him.

'Just Alexandria? With the "ice skates" emoji?'

'Yes. So that you could differentiate me from the thousand other girls on your phone.'

He smiled at me and wandered off. Then in my peripheral vision, I caught Niamh staring me down with her hands placed on her hips.

'You have some explaining to do.' Niamh pulled me by my arm into her room.

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Niamh pushed me into her room, and closed the door behind us.

'Marcus huh.' she smirked.

'What about him Niamh.'

'Hand me the the ten dollars. Now' she motioned her hand.

'I didn't!'

'Then why didn't you answer my texts Lex.'

'I was on the rink with him⎯'

'you were on the rink with him?'

'yes. I was on the rink watching him fall on his ass a million times trying to do a cartwheel'

Niamh stared at me quietly. "hm."

'Okay I'm gonna go. You are so fucking annoying Niamh'

I left her room, while flipping her off at the same time.

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I was texting Jonathan on my phone. He said that Anderson might be at rink tomorrow, early in the morning, so it was perfect for Jon and I to practice for our competition. I'm still taking in the whole "Nationals" thing that happened, but I always have next year, so I'm getting over it. It was quite late after the ice time I had with Marcus, and I was tired too, so I got prepared to go to bed. I took a short shower, and did my night routine, and went to bed.

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My "4:30 AM" alarm went off right beside my ear. I didn't want to get out of my bed because of how toasty it was, but we really need to update Anderson on our skills since he hasn't been there for us in a while.

I took a short shower, wore my lulu defines and leggings, and styled my hair into a slicked back high ponytail, and used a curling iron to make it look extra bouncy.

'Should I do the cantilever to impress coach today. . .'

I did soft makeup, and packed my duffel and made sure nothing was out of the ordinary. Everything was going great, so I headed down to the rink to grab a quick snack and get to my warm up session.

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'Wheres my caramel slice' Marcus speaks into my ear from behind.

'You scared me,' I rolled my eyes at him, and smiled.

I walked up to the counter. 'A granola bar and a. . .' I hesitated for a moment, and looked behind to be met with his begging eyes. 'and a caramel slice please.'

'That'll be eight dollars fifty.' The woman said. I tapped my card and grabbed the snacks, and swiftly handed the caramel slice into his hands.

'enjoy!' I sped walked to the stairs.

'THANK YOU!' He loudly whispers.

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I was stretching in the room above the rink with Jon, and Anderson walked in.

'You two up early?' He chuckles.

'Yes, practicing our short program for the competition.' Jon emphasises.

'Alright, you two make sure you are all warmed up and ready for practice, I'll meet you both down at the rink in a few minutes.'

After coach Anderson left, I grabbed Jon's arm.

'Jon.'

'Yeah?'

'I was thinking maybe we could do a cantilever.'

'A cantilever? nope.'

'Please Jon, he can probably fit us in for the ice show if we can prove to him that we are fucking amazing.'

'Sure. But if we mess up I am blaming everything on you.'

'Jon theres no consequence if we mess up it's just we don't convince Anderson to get us into the ice show. But there is a consequence if you don't ask Brian out soon enough' I smirked.

He shook his head side to side, 'Let's talk about you and Cartwright?'

I saw myself out the door.

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Jon and I were standing in the middle of the rink, and I took a deep breath in and out. 'Here goes nothing'

"Mr. Saxobeat" started playing in the background, so we decided to get straight into it. We started off with some advanced scratch spins, and we took as much area as possible on the rink using backwards skating to gain speed, for some triples and doubles. Surprisingly it was going smoother than expected, and I am getting more stable at my landings.

'Cantilever Jon, cantilever' I mouthed at him.

We bent down and leaned into a precise and clean cantilever. As we got up from it, I saw Andersons impressed face, and I smiled at the sight of it. I clearly have coach validation. validation from men isn't enough for me. Jon and I gained our speed again, for more balance and stability when he picked me up. I don't know how I trust him that much. Then the music stopped at 2:50. Jon and I performed our ending pose. Weirdly though, I heard two sets of claps from the stadium seats one from Coach Anderson and somebody else. I couldn't see them that well, but they wear wearing heavily guarded hockey uniform, with the "EdenEels" logo across his chest.

Jon leans into me and whispers, 'it's Marcus.'

Oh my god why is he here watching me skate again.

I put my guards on my skates and walked up the stadium stairs and stood across from him, while he crunched on his chips.

'What?' He took turned around to grab another chip packet out exposing the numbers "74" on his back, and handed it to me. Obviously I took it.

'Why are you watching me skate again.' I crunched.

'Because we're on break, plus if I walk into the cafe area Coach Cruz is gonna make me mop the fucking floor again. He's currently swooping the area to make one of us do it.'

I snorted out of laughter.

'And why?' I sat next to him.

'Because we keep slashing our opponents, when Coach tells us not to because it counts as cheating. I think it counts as strategy.'

'Well I don't know shit about hockey, but your Coach probably knows what he's talking about?' I laugh.

'Also that weird floor move thing you were doing'

'cantilever.'

'Cantilever, whatever it is. That was fucking hot'

I slapped his face, but not too hard. Just to put some sense back into him, "We will go back to being acquaintances if that's what you want.'

He taps his foot, 'Just speaking my mind.' He furrows his eyebrows at me, 'What's up with your partner down there'

I turned to look at Jon. He looks exactly like how Niamh did when I gave Marcus my contact.

'Uhhh yeah um. My friends think that you aren't probably the best person to hang with cause, you know'

Marcus elbows me gently. 'Those days are over and I regret them. I promise I'm not like that anymore it was like years ago.'

'marcus it was months ago'

'Well it feels like years ago. Let's not talk about it.'

Things got awkward really fast.

'Do you think your breaks over?'

He replied quickly, 'Yeah I think so. Bye Dri', and waddled off in his guarded skates.

'Bye..' I waved. But he was already off to his hockey rink.

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We were walking from the rink back to our block. 'Jon, you know I actually feel really bad for him.'

'Who? Cartwright?'

'Yeah he's honestly so sweet to me and I treat him like shit because⎯'

'Alex, he clearly likes being treated like shit by you. I can tell it turns him o⎯'

I covered Jon's mouth with my hand. He bit it.

'Ow!' I swished my hand in the air.

'Lex I swear you are hands down the most oblivious person to exist on this planet because ma⎯'

'I swear if you mention Marcus like that one more time I will slit your neck Jon.'

'I was about to.'

We both laugh.

'I can't tell if your being serious or not Lex.'

'I am being very serious.'

Then I heard Anderson call our names.

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Anderson sighs, and rubs his stubble. 'I was thinking I could get you guys to perform for the Easter Ice Show'

'YES YES YES!' Jon squeals, and clears his throat, 'Thanks coach.'

'Thank you so so so much'

Anderson glares at us, '2 months for the short program'

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After lunch, I was in the elevator, and I was super zoned out and I accidentally bumped into some dude. Again? Why does this always happen to me.

'sorry'

'sorry uh, I think I know you. Are you Alexandria?'

'How do you know?' I moved back a bit.

'I've seen you talk with Marcus. It is you right?'

'Yeah uh.'

He smiles eagerly, 'I'm Theo. But you can call me Teddy'

'Hi Teddy. Lex or Alex is fine.'

'My jersey's 67' he winks, and walks away.

Okay. Awkward once again. I took my keycard out my bag, and swiped it into my door to unlock it. It swung open and the smell of sandalwood and patchouli lingered around, ever since he walked into my room. He actually smells really nice.

I hopped onto my phone to call my Mum.

"Hey mum" I swung my legs on my bed.

"Hi Ally!"

"Sooo. Jonathan and I are gonna perform for the Easter Ice show⎯"

"Thats great! I'll be visiting."

"Thanks mum, but I wanted to tell you that I couldn't get into Nationals. We got moved from 3rd to 9th"

"Ally, if theres anything you want to talk about I'm here okay? You always have next year."

"yeah mum. Bye. Love you."

"I love you too honey"

We ended the call. I decided to text Marcus about Teddy because I ran into him a couple minutes ago.

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alexandria ⛸️: I MTE YOUUER FREIND TFOO TEDDEWY WHATYVEER

marcus c: ??????

alexandria ⛸️: I MET

marcus c: go on

alexandria ⛸️: TEDDY

marcus c: what did he say.

alexandria ⛸️: that he's seen me tlak to you lol 

alexandria ⛸️: talk*

marcus c: lol

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I'm guessing Teddy is the type of person to also slash people in their games like Marcus. Or the "class clown" or maybe both. He seems like a good person, just a little confronting though.

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I got a notification from Marcus on my phone. It read,

marcus c: hey ik this is super random but me and my friends are going out

alexandria ⛸️: okay?

marcus c: And I want you to come lol 

marcus c: you can take niamh too bc ethans coming

alexandria ⛸️: like right now???

marcus c: ehh no. In a few hours. wear a dress or whatever

alexandria ⛸️: when?

marcus c: like 7ish? read 3:57

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When I saw the word "dress" I already thought of the perfect dress to wear. I ran into my closet and I picked out this dress that looked a little similar to my competition dress, except it was longer, and more sparkly. It had a cut through the middle of it, and had two thin straps hugging my shoulders. Marcus texted me that it was at this club nearby, so I called an Uber to get me there.

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