Perfection
Chibi Tsuki
A/N: I'm still alive!
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Chapter 11
The Battle on Ice
They queued up patiently in the line, waiting for their turn to purchase a ticket. Today seemed to be a popular day for the ice, because there were over a hundred people waiting in line. Also perhaps because the ice skating rink was recently built, in a perfect location, situated in one of the most popular shopping centres near the middle of town. It was also convenient when travelling since the shopping centre was just above a major bus station, and beside the railway.
"There are more than twenty people in front of us, I just wish that they would open another counter," Sally murmured. As if on queue, another cashier did open which Lu made an instant dash for, missing out on the front of the queue. Lu managed to beat other people to the second place in the queue with her agility. She waved her hands for Sally and Hilde to follow, but because so many people had charged to the second line, there were only three more people left until them. With a shrug, Lu purchased her ticket and waited for them on the other side. The pair came through shortly and together they made their way to a rental locker.
"I like the layout here, it's rather spacey and the lockers are quite big, with two shelves!" Hilde exclaimed as she opened the locker door and peeped inside. She placed her sports bag inside after taking out a pair of recently sharpened skates and sat down to put them on. Sally too followed Hilde's actions and put on her own skates, testing the sharpness of her blades with satisfaction. Lucretzia brought out a totally different set of skates; big and bulky unlike the figure skates. They were black in colour, with a ragged red strips on the sides of both skates. Beside her, Sally and Hilde were ready to scold, their fingers already wagging at her. But before they said anything, she brought another pair of skates out of her sports bag; worn and slightly weathered compared to her friends' skates. "It's not in top condition, but a figure skate is a figure skate, right?" Smiling, Sally grinned and continued to tie the laces up.
"Let's go!" Hilde yelled as they ran onto the ice, sliding smoothly and gracefully in her skating uniform. She glided back over to the pair and watched as they made their way over to her, trying to cross the traffic of people. Once they had gotten to the middle, Hilde started showing Lucretzia the basics while Sally helped her with her posture and grace. Obviously it wasn't working that well since Lu was often being chided by her two tutors who were pointing every single detail out. After ten minutes, she was able to complete an entire circle balancing on a single leg; it wasn't a difficult task since she had a good balance but the hard part was holding her leg that high in the air while bending so far forward with both arms forming a 't' shape. Going backwards while lifting her leg was a slightly different matter, as a matter of fact, it was a great contrast that they had spent over thirty-minutes just trying to help her to keep her balance.
"You can do it Lu," Sally encouraged her as she attempted another in going backwards. She was finally beginning to get the grasp of it and it meant a break for both Sally and Hilde. "Practise a few more times, Hilde and I are going to get some hot chips an coke, do you want any?"
"No thanks," Lu replied as she tried again, this time going further than to attempt prior to this one. I must be able to do this one or else I'll never get to do jumps or spins. But one problem, I'm getting tired… Perhaps I should've gotten Hilde to buy something for me.
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Nevertheless she continued to practise until she finally mastered the basic technique and that was when the other two returned after finishing their meal.
"Can you two teach my how to spin next?" Lu begged, giving them her puppy-dog eyes, not that it worked or anything.
"I'm going to do some skating too," Sally said casually as if she didn't hear Lu at all. She followed the majority of the skaters following the anti-clockwise direction with ease. Without another word Hilde skated off too, leaving Lucretzia to decide what she wanted to do.
She sighed and left the ice rink in search of something to eat and change out of the current skates into a different pair. Some speed skating will revive my spirit! Her dark-coloured skates were a big contrast to her baggy beige-coloured pants, but her black T-shirt with the words 'ice' written in light silvery-blue balanced her outfit. At first the other two had complained that she shouldn't have worn such clothes but Lu had convinced them otherwise. After adjusting the tightness of her skates, she made her way back onto the ice, her recently sharpened blades slicing through the thin sheets of ice. Off she glided, passing in between people, apologising several times when she'd frightened the other skaters. It was hard to speed skate properly when there were other skaters waving their arms at you because you slipped in front of him or her within a split second and they only realised once you'd left. Actually, she pitied them ever since she came to realise that a long time ago she was like them. It's the truth, you can't please everyone. Lucretzia slowed down at the wall where her two friends were, chatting casually to a teenager of their age.
"Hey Lu!" Hilde waved as the older raven-haired teen halted beside her. "This is my friend from school, Cathy. She just finished her lesson."
Smiling courteously, Lucretzia shook the newcomer's hand, noticing how her curly brown hair would cover her cheekbone slightly and her sparkling blue eyes. "It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Lucretzia Noin," Cathy greeted. Immediately returning the courtesy, Lucretzia replied with a similar response. "I'll see you all later, bye."
"Bye," the trio said at the exact same time, not missing a beat. They glanced at each other and corrupted into laughter.
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Three teenagers headed towards them, flashing their pierced nose and ears at everyone with their spiked hair sticking up with lots of gel. The leading male out of the three skated towards them with his head held high, a supposedly flattering grin on his above average looking face. But only looks didn't impress these three. "Hey babes, what are you three doing here?" the dark brown-blond haired youth said smugly.
Beside him, the chocolate-brown haired teenager grinned, his frame slightly bigger than the first teen. One could distinguish his attempts in spiking his hair even though it was too long. He asked a simple question, "You want to join us?" The horror wasn't the question itself but instead when he leaned forward to take Hilde's hand.
Immediately Lucretzia smacked it harshly and slide protectively in front of her. "Are you asking for a challenge?" Her voice wasn't loud and yet it was demanding. Thankfully she had taken the first step in being polite; keeping her temper while promoting war… against some unknown person. A challenge in the rink meant a speed skating race and of course that meant that they would have to wait until they called for the five minutes where everyone cleared the ice, leaving only the advanced skaters to skate with speed.
Once again the leader of the group spoke. "I never turn down a challenge. You will want to remember my name when I win. I'm Max, they call me the Ice Demon."
Lucretzia shrugged and led the other two away, speaking just before she left. "I'll see you when they announce it, just make sure you don't chicken out." When they were out of hearing range, the three conversed freely again. It was their forth round around the ring when they had announced for the intermediate to advanced skaters, clearing everyone out of the rink except those who felt that they were able to keep up with the pace. Of course Lu, Hilde and Sally stayed on the ice, having skated for more than several years now. They could see three pairs of eyes staring towards their direction, as if daring them to go faster, but they ignored it and kept skating until they had called for the advanced skaters only. Hilde and Sally decided to stay off the ice during the intense race since it was between Lu and what's-his-name and no one else. Let their enthusiastic friend do the dirty work.
Side by side, Lucretzia and Max explained the rules within a few seconds. They were to rotate from the inside to the outside and the one inside to the outside once they'd done half of the circle. Also, the winner was determined by the number of laps and who was taking the lead when they stopped after five minutes. That was to be determined by the others. Whoever didn't follow them simply lost. "Go!" Hilde yelled after a count of three and the two sped away. Luckily there were only two other skaters who kept out of the way of their match. Lu, being on the outside was behind, taking the bigger curve. Her blades smashed into the ice, making chunks of ice fly from the impact of her force. Lu allowed him to take the lead, and after two laps she had started noticing a flaw in his tactics. He was trying to keep a large distance between them and try to keep it going until the end. Currently he had showed her what he was, but she hadn't revealed her limit yet. Half a lap ahead; that was the distance he'd managed to get between them and seemingly it kept growing. I should start catching up soon, there's not much time until it ends. Most likely, he'd worn himself down a bit after trying to keep ahead and using up his energy. Using the inner land to her advantage, Lucretzia sped up, shortening the gap to a quarter of a lap distance. On the third lap of doing this, she eventually managed to race side by side with him again, grinning at him when he turned to look at her. Surely under this pressure he would go faster, which he did.
"There's only twenty seconds left!" Sally yelled, unaware of the attention she'd just given herself. The race was intense and it seemed hard to decide which side would win. That is until she noticed the carefree expression implanted into Lucretzia's face. It was as if she thought the race was no challenge, only a warm-up.
Max was determined to stay in the lead, completing another lap as he passed the starting point again. Just when he thought it was a definite win, Lucretzia too, sped up and followed the wide curve in the outer lane and literally ran on the ice, full speed ahead. She was showing no mercy and within a span of ten seconds, created a distance of half a lap; winning the twenty minute war.
"I'm going to have heaps of blisters on my feet!" Lucretzia complained as she went off the ice to her friends. She grinned at them before walking over to the losing party. "Hey you, that was fun. By the way, what was your name again?" Lucretzia asked innocently.
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Gathering around the table, the group listened as Sally relayed he entire story once again. The dining hall sounded with laughter and light-hearted talk. It was most enjoyable to talk as a group. Even Lucretzia's complaints about her sore feet brought grins and chuckles of laughter, except from herself of course.
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A/N: I'm no expert at ice skating… I'm only thinking back to my own experience at ice skating – which is little. I'm not sure whether the next chapter will be up soon or what not because I currently am a very busy writer. 10 ASSIGNMENTS!!! Still more to come... When will the teachers give me a break? . Ja ne!