Summer, to the disappointment of the children, was over. And in typical fashion, that meant the dreaded Back to School shopping. Yuri wasn't too thrilled. He had everything he needed and was ready to go weeks in advance. Alex was another story. The kindergartener was soon armed with pencils, paper, crayons in every colour imaginable, a new dinosaur backpack complete with matching lunch box. Yes, Alex was ready to start school. Yuuri and Viktor had spent a large amount of time trying to find a good school that would accommodate Alex. It wasn't easy but they did it. A few days before the semester started they had to go to Yuri's school to get his school ID done and to pick up his timetable. Because he had to get his picture done Yuri did his hair nice and sported his new team Canada jacket. When they arrived their first stop was the table up front to get all the paperwork situated. Next was his ID photo which had Yuuri trying last second to fix and adjust his hair. The last stop was the office to pick up his timetable. There they were greeted by an enthusiastic parent volunteer.

"Last name and grade please."

"Plisetsky. Grade 11"

"That's a nice Canada jacket you have there. You a big fan of sports?" asked the volunteer.

"Ya, I'm a figure skater for team Canada. This is our team jacket."

"Oh that's so cute!" exclaimed the volunteer as she handed Yuri his timetable. And with that, the family left to practice and enjoy their last few days of freedom.

When September 4th rolled around the house was in mayhem. Yuri was slow to get up and pack and Alex kept misplacing things. Yuuri wanted to double check that everyone had everything, and Viktor just wanted to get everything rolling. Yuri was packed up for Maths, Dance, and English. Alex was ready for their first day of kindergarten. Yuri dropped off first and ran to join his friends at their usual spot. Yuri decided to sport his team jacket to have some bragging rights for the day. Next was Alex, who they had to escort into their classroom. Once they were assured by the teacher that Alex would be fine, Viktor and Yuuri made their way to the rink.

*Yuri's day

"Yo, Yuri what is up?" shouted Chris as Yuri met up with the gang.

"Dude! Is that your team Canada jacket? That is wicked!" exclaimed Sam

"Olivier, how was France?" asked Yuri

"It was good, I'll show pics at lunch"

"Hey Yuri, what's your timetable?" asked Thomas. Yuri handed it over and was pleasantly surprised that once again the gang all had English together. When the bell rang they ran off to their respective classes and started the day. Yuri had first-period math and was introduced to the hell that is first-period math. "Nobody deserves this, not even my enemies." Thought Yuri. After that was English. The group of five all sat together as the class went over the syllabus and got their book list. After that was lunch and the friends made their way to the cave.
"Olivier, tell us about France!" exclaimed Sam. Olivier went into a detailed rundown of everything. He went to the Louvre and the Eifel Tower. The pictures were amazing as well as a Yuri wished he could go. They had gotten the assignments a few weeks ago and Yuri did not get the luxury of going to France with his dads later in the competition. They had a detailed calendar on the door with the breakdown. After a lovely lunch, Yuri made his way to his 3rd and final class, dance. Because of his skating and the upcoming competitions, Yuri had a4th-periodd spare and did not have to attend afternoons on Tuesdays and Thursdays because of the timetable flip. This worked out well to allow Yuri the time he needed to get things in order for the upcoming competitions beginning in October. His dance class was easy for the day. Just basic stretching and barre work. Once he was done his dads picked him up and they made their way to the rink so Yuri could warm up and start practicing before they had to pick up Alex. They had decided that they could trust Yuri alone for half an hour while Viktor and Yuuri picked up Alex.

*Alex's day

Alex was a bit scared once their dads left. There were so many kids and Alex didn't know what they were supposed to do. Did they sit down and stay away or go and try to play? Luckily Alex was spared that decision when the teacher told them to go sit-down in front of a big piece of white paper. Alex ended up sitting at a table with a girl with big, curly red hair and glasses. A boy with stark black hair and a mean stare. And a little boy with brown hair and glasses too big for his face. Alex kept their head down and didn't initiate conversation.

"Good morning class. Welcome to your first day of Kindergarten! My name is Ms. Noble and I'll be your teacher for the year. Now I've planned a simple day so we can all get to know each other. On the paper in front of you I want all of you to draw your family and in 1 hour each of you are going to tell us about your family and yourselves."

The children started drawing eagerly and Alex excitedly began to draw to the best of their ability their family and all the furry pets in their house. Once they were done, Alex held up the picture to admire it. They thought that they had replicated Papa's hair just right, Chichi's cool glasses, Yuri's frowny face, Makachin's fuzzy ears, and Sasha's fluffy tail. It was perfect. Alex had even drawn everyone in their skates and costumes. It was a masterpiece they decided. One by one the class was called in alphabetical order to share their work. Alex was very excited to go up.

"Hi. I'm Alex Katsuki-Nikiforov. I have a big brother and two dads. This is our dog Makachin." Alex pointed to the brown blob on the page. "He is very fluffy and likes to steal food from the table. This is our cat, Sasha. She doesn't like it when I step on her tail by accident. This is my big brother Yuri." Alex pointed at the blond haired blur on the page. "Yuri is in high school and is really cool. He likes rock music and playing dinosaurs with me. This is my Chichi. He's from Japan and makes really yummy food and gives me tickles and reads to me every night. And this," Alex pointed to the tallest silver blob. "is my Papa. He's from Russia and he likes helping me learn to skate. My dads and brother are all figure skaters and have won lots of times. They're also on the Canadian team and we're going to travel a lot to competitions and I get to go to the Olympics to see them skate."

The class didn't clap as loud as they did for the other kids and Alex felt a bit sad. The rest of the day proceeded in much the same matter. The class thought Alex was weird. Alex didn't want to play dolls and princesses with all the other little girls. Alex didn't want to play cops and robbers with the boys. Alex just wanted to dance around and play dinosaurs. When the day came to an end Alex ran to their parents when they appeared at the door of the classroom.

"Ready to go to the rink munchkin?" asked Viktor as he gave Alex a hug. Alex nodded and they made their way to the rink to meet up with Yuri. Alex played with their toys and helped with music while their family practiced. Alex loved watching practice. Every once and a while they would stand on the stands and try to imitate the moves. It always made people smile. Alex liked to make people smile. After practice, they went home and Yuuri put Alex to bed. When he came downstairs he saw Yuri looking intently at the schedule on the door.

"You ready?"

"Psh, I was born ready" They both turned to get a good look at the schedule. It was hectic.

Yuuri and Yuri- Skate Canada, Oct 27-29, Regina

Yuri and Viktor- Cup of China, Nov 3-5, Beijing

Viktor- NHK Trophy, Nov 10-12, Osaka

Yuuri- Internationaux de France, Nov 17-18, Grenoble

GPF, Dec 7-10, Nagoya, Japan

Nationals, Jan 16-22, Ottawa

4CC, Jan 22-28, Taipei City Chinese Taipei

Olympics!, Feb 9-25 (dates TBA) PyeongChang

Worlds, Mar 19-25, Milano Italy

It was certainly going to be an interesting season, and with a little over 2 months until their first event, practice was insane. But in their heads, they had already owned the ice and won. They had all been working hard and were determined to win. And they would. This would be the birth of the podium family. The wins were theirs and hard fought for. It was going to be amazing.

Looky there, a new chapter is done for you all. I hope you enjoyed it. Keep not of that schedule. It's the actual dates for the events. I couldn't find what dates the mens skating takes place for the Olympics but I assume that they need to be there for the whole thing with the gala and all. And Viktor would want them to all walk in the opening ceremony for sure. Get ready because next chapter the competition begins with the second event in the GP Series. SKATE CANADA! See you soon –Shadows.