Learning to Love the Cold
Chapter Two: Waltz Jumps
It's hard to write about skating from a non-skater's point of view. Oh gosh. Like how even. But yes, new chapter! There are quite a few figure skating terms in this, so stick with me here. I'm going to do my best to explain them, but it would probably be helpful to you to look them up and see them for yourself if you're really curious.
Jean was wrong. Very, very wrong.
He's not going to have to learn to like the cold.
He's going to have to learn how to love it.
He learns this throughout the following week of meeting Marco.
For starters, it's cold as dicks in Michigan. His lips have never been so chapped in his entire life and he's surprised his fingers haven't succumbed to frostbite. And, of course, he's spent at least two hours at the rink after school every day with Armin to watch their friends (read: Marco) skate.
Marco was right about the rink though—it isn't too cold. They have heaters for the people in the stands, and even when you get up close to the ice it's not like he's shivering. (He usually does have goose bumps, but that may or may not be related to how close he is to Marco at those times.)
He's learned a few things in the past week. An obvious one he probably could have figured out himself—the sit spin. Seriously, you literally sit. Well, okay, not literally, but literally. You spin on one foot and go into a sitting position while making sure the only part of your body even touching the ice is your blade, even though your blade isn't technically part of your body. Another thing he's learned is that a lot of skaters almost do consider their blades a part of their body, since they feel more confident on a blade strapped to a custom fitted boot than on their own feet.
Really, Jean can't figure it out. How on earth could someone be more comfortable with what is basically overly priced knives connected to overly priced boots while flying around on a slippery surface rather than being on their own two feet on a—hopefully—not so slippery surface?
How do people become more coordinated when they're on these over glorified knives?
Who even came up with over glorified knives anyway?
"Ah yes. Let me strap this knife to my boot and stEP ONTO THIS DANGEROUSLY SLIPPERY SURFACE. TOTALLY NOT GONNA DIE DOIN' THIS."
He really doesn't understand.
He does ask Armin about it, but he's not even sure who came up with the idea. Which kind of surprises Jean, since he's pegged him as the kind of guy to know everything.
"Wait, okay, what's he about to do?" Jean's sort of squinting (guess who was too lazy to put their contacts in or even smash their glasses onto their face that morning?) as he watches Marco cross the ice.
Armin switches from watching Eren and Mikasa to Marco. "I think he's going into a triple lutz," he pauses as Marco actually does the jump, then nods, "Yeah, a triple lutz."
"How do you tell the difference?"
"By their entry. And edges. Skating is full of edges."
"Edges?"
"Okay," Armin shifts in his seat so he can look at Jean while watching everyone on the ice, "So, you have your blade. You saw how Marco was leaning more to one side of his blade than the other when he landed, right?" He doesn't wait for Jean to give any sort of reply, "That's an edge. They're incredibly important in skating. You can get deductions on your skating if your edge is wrong."
"For an edge?" Jean leans back in his seat, looking distressed. He glances at Marco, who's doing some kind of complicated footwork and looking rather frustrated. "Okay, I'll learn about edges later. Different jumps?"
"Well, the easiest one to tell the difference on would probably be an axel. For the entry they're facing forward. They kick through with one leg and launch themselves into the air, to put it simply. It's not that simple though; axels are really hard. It's two jumps put together—the waltz jump and the loop jump."
"Okay, what are waltz jumps and a loop jumps?"
"The waltz jump has the same entry as an axel, but it's only a half rotation. The—"
"Half rotation?"
"The waltz jump is one of the first jumps you learn. Like I said, the entry happens when you're facing forward. Since it's such a simple jump, you kind of jump into the air, turn backwards, and land. That's half a revolution. There are other jumps that are half revolution jumps, like the half flip and half lutz. A full revolution jump would be a loop. You go into the air backwards, spin around in the air once, and land backwards. So if you do a double loop, you've spun twice in the air."
"That makes sense. Okay, so what's a loop look like?"
"There are two different entries—"
"No. No, stop right there. It's not allowed to have two entries. That's just confusing. No. That's enough learning for today."
Armin smiles, "Whatever you say, Jean."
The two are quiet for a while, watching the others skate around. (Jean snorts when Eren lands on his butt. Hard. To Eren's defense, the jump was nearly perfect, but he landed before he was fully rotated.)
"Hey, Armin?"
"Hm?" he doesn't look over at Jean this time, focused on the spin that Eren and Mikasa are intertwined in.
"Did you used to skate? Like, you know a lot and I know that might be from being around skaters, but…" Jean's voice trails off as he notices the way Armin freezes up. "Sorry, I—"
"No, no. It's fine. Yeah, I used to skate. Things happened that prevented me from continuing, though," he smiles sadly. "It's fine though. As long as my friends can keep on skating, I'm happy."
Jean nods, really unsure of what to say. He can't offer comforting words, as he doesn't know what happened. And even if he did know, he'd probably stutter out an "I'm sorry," and leave it at that. Being comforting really isn't his forte.
"I'm glad to see you've already made new friends. You never were all that sociable; I'm genuinely surprised."
"Yes, thank you mom, I appreciate it," he grimaces. God, he can't stand her. His own mother. Aren't moms supposed to be loving and supportive?
He sets down the fork, pushing himself away from the table. "I'm done. Thanks for dinner."
"You didn't eat much," his dad eyes the plate.
"I ate at the rink."
"The rink?"
Jean nods. "Uh, yeah. The rink."
"Why were you there?"
"Well, my new friends skate. So we hang out there after school."
"Your sisters would be interested in that! You should tell them!"
"Um, sure? I will, I guess," he turns and runs up the stairs, nearly falling as he does so. He closes the door to his room behind himself, his phone buzzing almost immediately after.
Unknown Number: hi! it's marco! i got ur number from armin! :)
Jean whisper yells a, "Yes!" and replies, then adds Marco's number to his phone.
Today was a relatively good day, despite the below zero temperatures outside.
To be honest, as a skater I actually am far more comfortable in my skates and on the ice. So are most of my skater friends. So it really is a thing. Anyway, if you guys have any questions about the story or skating, don't be afraid to ask, I'd love to answer! I hope you guys liked it!