♟️Passenger Princess by Nessa Barrett
❄︎ ❄︎ ❄︎
I was still softly shaky with stress after all that happened with Gemma, when I left the med wing of the academy, where I had left to, to make sure the two cuts she made in my cheek wouldn't scar me, which would be annoying. As I'm careful with my physical condition, I've barely ever been to the med wing, only for check-ups that the headmaster forced me to.
That aside, doctor Clarisse Stone was kind to me in a way I'm not used to, and when she noticed how shaken I was when I came in, she gave me a calming remedy that she claimed to take it herself. Appreciating it, I drank it and she took care of the cuts, promising me that in two weeks it would be gone as if I had never cut my cheeks at all. It reassured me.
As a performer, I prize my good looks a lot, it helps on manipulating the audience on cheering for me, though usually my talent is enough for that. She definitely knows that, since she reassured me about ten times that my cheek would remain spotless. It was kind of her, she must have thought I was shaken because of that and I didn't care enough to say otherwise.
But the second I stepped out of the med wing, Me and the Devil by Soap&Skin began ringing in my phone, the ringtone I set for annoying people who have power enough to fuck with me, such as the person who's name I read on the screen when I picked it up: Elliott Jeremiah Pearson, the headmaster.
Cursing under my breath, I accepted the call, "Yes, sir?"
"Are you training yet?" He asked.
I blinked, "Not yet."
"Skornyakova just called me annoyed and told me to tell you to use all the free time you have to train, since you seem to be avoiding her," he sighed. "So, go train, you know how she is. You have the keys of the ice-rink, you're our only figure skater in training and the hockey boys won't be there until after lunch, it's all yours."
Valeriya Skornyakova is a three times figure skater Olympic silver medalist, twice with in pair skating and once alone, she's naturally Russian and married to the headmaster. They try to keep it professional in here, hence why he calls her that, but it's obvious in my point of view. She was said to be the coach of the previous figure skaters of the academy, ages ago or whatever, I never cared to go after knowing about them given how they turned out to be a failure.
She is a... well, she is a pain in the ass, and she has a complex with the fact that she only ever managed to get silver medals. It's how it goes for athletes like us, gold means you won, bronze means you made it, silver means you failed. Even though I am a gold medalist already, she has a complex and keeps saying I can't be overconfident because the others are training harder than me, and whatever, so, she is constantly forcing me to work harder.
Sure, Valeriya is an incredible choreographer, but I'm better than her, I can pull out things she never could, which makes her keep want to test my limits. These days she came with the idea that I should try going for a pair skating saying I would pull that better, and that's a no. I am not made for that, which caused us to fight, and I've been ignoring her ever since four days before all... that happened.
"Train what song, exactly, because we still have no come in terms with the one I'll be choreographing in the winter competition," sigh. "She didn't like my choice, I didn't like hers. What then?"
My suggestion was Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? by Taylor Swift, because she's the Queen in the moment and I love this song. She didn't like that. In fact, she fully scowled at my suggestion, because she thinks she has better ideas than I do, or whatever, and she I believe she doesn't like Taylor Swift.
Then, I suggested 7 Rings by Ariana Grande, gaining another ridiculous scowl from her. So, I got annoyed and suggested Violence by Grimes, which she also scowled over. Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Lorde and Dark Paradise by Lana Del Rey were also discarded with that insufferable scowl of hers, so, I asked her what she had in mind.
I'm not usually one to complain, but she wanted me to ice skate to Lovely by Billie Eilish and Khalid, and that song doesn't suit ice skating alone, it makes the whole thing even sadder, it's a pair skating song. Which again, brings up what she wants me to do and I am refusing to. All because she's out of her mind, she's projecting herself on me, she think that I should win a gold medal in pair skating, now that I have more than two as a single skater, since she failed in both.
What is she even thinking?
I mean, sure it is common for single skaters try pair skating or pair skaters try single skating, but that's not the case to me. I'm not meant to do things with other people, I am selfish, I do not want to share the spot, and I definitely do not want a random figure skater that close to me. It's not an easy thing, I can't change like that, just because I'm a great single skater, it doesn't mean pair skating will work for me, at all.
To pair skate in the ice where a slip could literally break your motherfucking spine, you need chemistry, ground shaking chemistry that will come to works while performing and able to be felt by the judges. But more than anything, you need mutual trust, some deep mutual trust, as in, trusting your life in the hands of the other person. Me and trust do not get along, I don't even trust my family, imagine another guy from my profession.
Better yet, this is no short of laughable.
Let's say I would agree with this madness, hypothetically, in a scenario that will not come to life, shall we? Where would Valeriya Skornyakova find a guy who would have chemistry with me, whom I would impossibly come to trust, and who would be close as skilled in the ice as I am? She wouldn't, because there is no such person in this city, in the country, in this Kingdom at all.
Or in the world, if it matters.
The best pair skaters have been training and competing together since they were little kids, I may be a prodigy at this and talented, but I doubt that even if we were to find this impossible guy we would be able to make it. Single and pair skating are different things, it's arrogance to think that I would be able to gain a gold medal as a newbie pair skater at all. I hate when people underestimate me, but she's going beyond that, she's overestimating me, which is annoying as fuck.
I will not taint my perfect record with this madness, I only lost first place in my first time, never again, I'm never getting another silver medal in my life, definitely not risking for my first bronze, or even worse, risking not even making there. Absolutely not.
"All the ones you suggested," he said.
His words made me frown, "I suggested five songs, sir."
"Train them then." Is he serious?
"I suggested them, not choreographed them."
"She said you can do that," my jaw dropped. "Train, you will have two periods free after this one, go for the 4th. Committee will happens soon after lunch, she'll be here at 3 am, you'll train then and deal with what you need to," then he hang up.
I stared at my phone, dumbfounded, then I locked the screen and put it back on my pocket, "I'll just train with the ones I got my last three gold medals," I sighed annoyed and stared at the left, where I heard someone coming from, running, steps that I'm familiar enough to know it was my fake boyfriend.