My name is Casey Carlyle and this is my story. I spent my entire life preparing to go to Harvard. That was until my senior year in high school when I realized my dream of becoming a professional figure skater. My coach Tina Harwood says that I'm a natural. I just love the sport. Gen Harwood and I had hardly spoken to each other our whole lives but now we were inseparable. She had quickly become my best friend.

Yesterday had been my high school graduation. I was named valedictorian so I had to give a speech. I'll let you in on a secret; I can hardly speak to my best friend without stumbling over my words much less in front of the whole graduating class. I managed to get through my speech and then the rest of the ceremony without looking like a fool and then cordially skipped out on about ten different party invites. Instead Gen and I decided to spend the night at my house watching movies.

The week before had been a whirlwind of strange occurrences. First of all my life long friend had been accepted to South Western Tech. She had been given a scholarship to study quantum dispersal. I envied her, she got to go to this amazing school and study advanced physics while I was stuck here going to Connecticut State University with Gen. To be fair State isn't that bad, though the physics department is lacking severally. Plus my mom doesn't have to worry about the price of tuition. One of the great things about staying in a small research college was that I didn't have to worry about taking classes over the summer. Tina had told me a few weeks ago that she was going to take me with her to Toronto to train this July.

Now that we have gotten on the topic of training I have to tell you about my boyfriend. Teddy Harwood and I have been seeing each other since right before Christmas. We had our first date the week after I won silver at the regional championship. Neither my mom nor Ms. Harwood was crazy about the two of us dating. I think my mom just doesn't trust men since my dad left and Tina thinks he will get in the way of my preparation for the two-thousand six Olympics. I would never let that happen though.

We have been dating for six months now. I can tell that he is getting stressed out about my schedule. I train almost daily which leaves little room for date time. It would probably help if he could skate well enough to keep up with me but he has some strange aversion to treading a rink with anything but soft shoes. I think it would help because Gen is always with me at the rink and as a result we have become really close. Tonight is our six month anniversary so hopefully we can patch things up on our date.

Tina let me out of practice early so I could get ready. It was late May so the air was starting to get warmer. I ran home and frowned at the melted state of the pond in front of my house. It was that very pond that I had learned to skate on when I was younger. I ran inside yelling at my mom to let her know I was home. I went to my room and began assembling my outfit. The summer evenings where I lived were normally as cold as an autumn afternoon so I picked through my sweaters until I found a light blue one that matched the blue jeans I was going to wear. As a graduation present my mom had taken me to the capital to shop for a new wardrobe at Banana Republic. The sweater I was now wearing came from that trip.

After a quick shower I put on the outfit and applied a light coat of make-up. Once I was ready I went to the kitchen to find my mom making a tofu salad.

'Hey mom.' I said setting my small suede purse on the counter.

'Hi Casey, ready for your date?' She asked while eating the salad with a pair of chopsticks.

'Yep just waiting for Teddy to get here.' I replied noticing by the time on my watch that he was already late. 'If he gets here at all.' I huffed. I liked Teddy a lot but for all the complaints I got about us not being able to spend much time together he was sure wasting the little time we had been able to get.

'Just give him a little more time, I bet he's just nervous.' My mom said. I was so surprised that I had to look her in the eye to tell if she was really my mother.

I was a bout to say something when the door bell rang. Grabbing my purse I ran to the front door to greet Teddy. He was wearing a light T-shirt and jeans his usual smile plastered across his face. We left my house and drove to a small restaurant located on the river. We sat at one of the patio tables and ate. The Rapid Wave was kind of a small town Applebee's. The prices were low enough that we had come here several times. It was nice, though I would have expected a little nicer seeing as it was our anniversary. On top of that I couldn't eat the majority of what was on the menu. I ordered a salad and Teddy ordered steak. This was our norm me eating just enough to keep healthy with Teddy eating enough cholesterol for the both of us.

Neither of us said a word for nearly ten minutes. This apparently was as long as his ego could hold out. As soon as he was halfway through the steak he started in on me saying things like 'we should spend more time together like this' and 'now that school was over I should be able to take more time for myself'. I knew he wasn't talking about me he was talking about us. I told him about leaving for Toronto the next week and he blew up.

'Why do you need to go to Canada to train for a competition that isn't even going to be held for another year?' He said waving his fork in the air. He was drawing attention from the tables around us.

'Because it's the Olympics Teddy. I only just started my career a year ago and there is no way I am going to be ready to compete against Michelle Kwan unless I put everything into training from now till next winter. On top of that I have to at lest place in nationals if not take the gold if I want to even get on the team.' I was starting to get aggravated. Where was all that goose bump love we used to have? I wanted that back so badly.

After another few minutes of his ranting I couldn't take anymore so I got up and left. The sad thing is he didn't even get up to stop me or apologize. I ran out to the road and started to tread out of town to where my house was. After a few minutes a familiar SUV stopped in the road next to me. The driver's side window came down reviling Gen's face.

'Hey girlie, need a lift?' She asked me in her faux trucker voice.

I nodded my head and ran around to the passenger side. Thankfully neither of us said anything until we reached my house. We both went in and sat at the dinning room table.

'So care to tell me why you weren't with my brother?' she asked after we had settled down with two tea cups.

I just shook my head trying to think of what to say. 'He makes me so mad.'

'Yeah I know, he got into a fight with mom today about you training too much.' Gen stared down at her tea cup. 'She said that this was why she didn't want you two dating in the first place.'

'I understand what she means.' I said wondering why I hadn't paid attention to that bit of advice six months before. 'At least if he were a skater we could spend time together training like we do.' I mentioned referring to the both of us.

'I agree.' She said giving me a warm smile.

We took our tea into the living room and watched TV until we passed out. It was nice having a friend like Gen. You know what I mean someone who knows exactly who you are and understands what you need. Wish Teddy could have been that kind of friend. Teddy had been the only guy that ever liked me. Too bad he couldn't see who I am beneath the skin.