Back at home, Adelaide sat at her desk, music blaring from her Spotify playlist, a slightly melted Snickers bar in her mouth as she wrote her English essay for her homework. Despite her hectic schedule for her skating, she was still expected to do all her homework on time, no matter how late she had to stay up in order to do it.

She heard the Discord notification go off, indicating a message coming in, she clicked on it to see that it was a message from her best friend, Harper.

HarpieTheSharpie: Addie, you finished the essay that Coney set?

AddieMilton: Just working on it now, what's up?

HarpieTheSharpie: I haven't even started! No idea what I'm supposed to start with or what I'm actually supposed to be doing. Help?!

AddieMilton: Lemme call you and explain everything

HarpieTheSharpie: Okay babe

Adelaide paused her music before she pressed "start video call" and within seconds, Harper answered. "Hey, so I'm pretty sure everyone's essays are starting out the same but basically, how I started it was I just wrote a brief introduction to the essay like gave a summary of the book and just little information about the author. Then I went into my thousand word bullshit tirade."

On the other side, Harper smiled and nodded as she took a sip from her Dr. Pepper can. "I was seriously about to lose my shit. Nobody had any ideas what they were supposed to do."

Adelaide frowned. "Not even Shadow?"

Harper shook her head. "Shadow didn't even reply. He's online but he ain't replying, it's weird."

Adelaide had to hold in her laughter as an idea came into her head, leaning back in her chair. "He's probably cybering with that weird boyfriend of his." Unable to hold it in, Adelaide almost screeched with laughter.

Harper pulled a face before bursting into laughter, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Oh shit, that's good," it took her a few minutes to stop laughing and compose herself. "Oh, dude, have you heard? DogNut's coming back to school after the summer."

Adelaide sat up, her eyebrows raised. "Seriously? I thought they kicked him out for good."

Harper nodded, taking another sip of her drink. "Mhm, they did, but his 'good behaviour' at the other place got him back into school."

Adelaide scoffed. "Good behaviour, my arse. He probably got that from sleeping with one of the teachers."

"Wouldn't be the first time." Harper raised an eyebrow as she finished her drink, throwing the can in the bin behind her.

Adelaide leaned back in her chair again, staring up at the ceiling. "He still hangs out at the rink with his band of gay lords, haven't been able to escape him all year."

Harper watched Adelaide through the screen, shaking her head. "I swear that boy is obsessed with you or something, it's getting creepy."

Adelaide spun lazily in her swivel chair, making a "mm" noise before she sat back up. "Listen, uh, I'm gonna go take a bath. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Harper nodded her head, smiling softly. "Yeah sure, love you."

"Love you too." Adelaide clicked out of the call and leaned back in her chair.

All she truly wanted to do was crawl into a dark hole and just die in it; the throbbing in her ankle had subsided for the time being but she knew that wouldn't get her out of school or her training. The only way out would be death, and even then her corpse would be pushed around the rink by her mother.

Huffing to herself, Adelaide pushed herself out of her chair and did a mixture of a walk and a limp into her bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror for a while, taking in everything; her long dark brown hair that almost went down to her waist, her deep brown eyes, her olive skin tone and the slight redness of a pimple starting to form just above her lip.

All her life, she'd been told she was beautiful and graceful but she never quite believed it. There was always someone better than her at a competition; slimmer, prettier, more deserving of the win. There'll always people like that, no matter how high she'd climb up the hierarchy.

After what seemed like an eternity, Adelaide began to run her bath. She sat on the edge of the tub, watching the water fill it up. Her eyes flashed to her ankle, frowning a little as she saw the amount of swelling it had done. It had swollen almost to the size of a tennis ball and looked even angrier than it had half an hour ago.

Once her bath was ran, she threw off her clothes and left them in a small heap in the corner of her bathroom before jumping into the bath, instantly feeling relief in her ankle.

After soaking for half an hour, Adelaide's mother came in and sat on the edge of the tub. "Let me see," she said in her usual German, patting her thigh.

Adelaide sighed, reluctantly placing her ankle on her mother's thigh, wincing a little. "It hurts."

Her mother studied the ankle, gently pressing it before gently placing it back into the bath. "You'll live. Keep it elevated and you'll be fine tomorrow."

"You don't think I could take a day off? Just make sure it's okay?" Adelaide asked, bringing her legs into her chest and resting her chin on her knees.

Her mother pressed a kiss to the side of Adelaide's head, stroking her hair. "You'll be fine. We can't miss a day of training, it's too close to competition season."

Adelaide sighed, nodding sadly. "I understand. I'll just pump myself full of ibuprofen and magnesium." She watched as her mother left before she submerged herself under the water.

In the morning, Adelaide dragged herself out of bed and got to practice before school, her usual routine. By the time she came into school, her limp was obvious and the pain in her ankle was back in full force.

She limped towards her friend group who were hanging out by the bike rack, smoking and laughing. Her group was small but very loyal; there was Harper, her brother Macca and Shadow, also known as Dylan. They all gave her a half hug before offering her a cigarette, which she greatly accepted.

Harper took a drag of her cigarette, blowing out the smoke before she spoke up. "Don't turn around but DogNut's staring at you."

Adelaide gave a displeased look at her friends before turning around to DogNut and giving him the finger, causing her friends to laugh. "Fucking hate that dude," she laughed as she turned back to her friends.

Macca wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Don't worry, sweetie, I won't let him touch you."

Adelaide laughed, playfully hitting his chest. "I'm sure you'll protect me from the big scary boys."

"Brooke's throwing a party tonight, you coming?" Shadow asked, throwing away his cigarette.

Adelaide nodded. "Sure. I can use you as cover, right?"

Shadow smiled. "Always."

Note

I was debating to have Adelaide use Skype or Discord and since I use Discord more than Skype these days, I went with Discord.

Until next time