"It was books that made me feel that perhaps I wasn't completely alone."
- "Will Herondale, Clockwork Prince"
~Cassandra Clare

Chapter 3

Tris POV

The next morning, I was feeling a bit disturbed. Everything that had happened the night before had been like a dream. Wait… it was more like a nightmare. A skate partner? That could never happen. I planned on entering the Olympics as a solo skater. There was no way that we'd be as good as the other pairs, even if this petty project even worked.

As I got ready to skate, I began to think about all the other skaters who got the day off today. I mean, I like to try new things, but I like to relax as well. We all like to be happy, and I'm super serious about skating. In fact, I'm serious 99% of the time. I want to be happy at least 20% of the time, so I'm about 19% off. And it took Christina a few years to even get that one percent down.

I make my way down to the rink, and I'm not sure what to expect. From knowing Will, I know he's going to try to dissuade Anna from forcing him to skate with Christina. He says he sucks, but he's not bad. Though they are co-teachers, Will has always been more of the guinea pig.

I open the door to rink, and realize that I'm the first one here. The only other person here is Anna.

"Hey Tris," she says.

"Hi Anna," I greet. "Can I skate around a bit? I wanted to practice my step sequence."

"Go ahead Tris," Anna says. "As long as you can still skate strongly afterwards. We don't want you to be all tired when you skate with Four."

A shudder goes down my back. "Why do I have to skate with Four?" I ask.

"Didn't I explain this yesterday?"

"Yes, but out of all the people, why Four? Why not Caleb, or Al?"

"I'll show you."

Anna walks over to me, her phone in her hand. She looks a bit exasperated. She had a video up on her phone. "I taped this for Will. You should watch it. You'll be surprised. You two make a better pair than you would expect."

As the video starts, I pray that we'll do terrible, and Anna is making this up. I'll never get my solo routine perfected in time if this persists. We both skate next to each other. We glide across the ice in sync. Matching each other's moves perfectly. I face palm myself. Four and I did amazing. It looks like I'm going to be stuck with this after all.

I thank Anna for showing me the video, as realistically as I can, and skate on the rink to blow off some steam. I've been trying to convince myself that it isn't going to be that bad, but I'm miserably failing. I end up messing up my step sequence most of the time.

A while later, Will walks in. Christina and Four show up less than five minutes later. I hope that I don't look as flushed as I feel. Blowing off steam is something I do rarely, but I'm not the best at hiding my emotions. I don't want to come off angry, especially not at our first possible practice.

Anna comes up to three of us, with Will by her side. "I want you guys to warm up together. We'll be doing some light skating and practice going across the floor. If you do a spectacular job, then you'll try some twizzles. If you can get the sync pretty good, then you'll be official pairs. I'll work on budgeting your time to practice."

I slide onto the ice first. Christina follows me. "This must be a dream to you, huh?" I ask her.

"Of course!" she squeaks. "You'll enjoy skating with Four eventually."

"No I won't"

"Challenge accepted," she says as she skates toward Will.

I begin to panic a bit. "No, Christina, that's not what I meant!" I shout after her. I don't want her to play matchmaker. Doesn't she know that pair skaters can't participate in the Olympic if they are married to each other?

I sigh, and see that Four is skating in my direction. "Let's get this over with," I mutter.

"Ready to go?" he asks as he falls into place beside me.

"As ready as I'll ever be." I say.

We skate around for a while in silence, but it's not an awkward silence. I finally get some courage, and decide to ask him a question.

"So, is Four your real name?" I ask.

"As far as you know," he responds coolly. "But to answer your question, no it is not."

"What is your real name?"

He looks a bit uncomfortable. "A name that I don't want to use anymore." He speeds up a bit, as if he's trying to leave me behind, but I easily catch him.

"Where did you live?"

"I live here, in Chicago."

"Me too." I say. "I live around Millennium Park."

"So do I. I never saw you in school, when I was younger. I had a tutor , until I moved out off my parent's house and into an apartment. I was done with schooling by then."

"I never saw you at school either." I couldn't help but notice that he looked angry as he mentioned his parents. I'm eighteen and I haven't moved out yet.

"Why did you move out so quickly?" I ask.

"Nosy much." He responds. "I did what I needed to survive. I left at eighteen, and haven't looked back for two years, and I won't ever return. Now, I would appreciate it if you would stop pestering me." He skated as few strides ahead of me, and I sped up to catch him. We spent the next few hours in silence, with only the sound of our skates hanging in the air between us. We did a few more pair exercises. Anna told us that we ran out of time to do the twizzles, and the rink was on rent for the next hour.

"So," she says rubbing her hands together, "my decision is made. Will and Christina you guys need a bit more work, but you'll be a pair. Tris and Four," she says, "I made my decision on you almost instantaneously. You're a pair as well."

We glance at each other, and lock gazes. I look at his dark blue eyes, mesmerized for a second. Then I realize I was staring and quickly look away.

"Dismissed," Anna says, looking amused. No doubt she was watching us. I glance over at Four's expressionless face, and the back at Anna. I begin to pack up.

As I walk out of the rink, I decide to catch up to Four. There's something I want to do. I want to clear the ice between us, if we will continue to work together. "Sorry about all the personal questions," I say to him. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"Its fine," he says, looking over at me. "I'll see you later, then."

I smile at him. "I'm sure you will," I say. "We'll be forced to anyway."

I thought I saw him smile as he turned away.

"Oh my gosh!" Christina squeals. I turn tense all over. I didn't know she had been watching me. "You got him to smile. I've never seen him do that before. Neither has Will, and he was on the hockey team for a while."

As I turn to Christina, I can't fight off a smile. I don't know why. "You're so cute when you smile after I talk about Four," she teases.

My smile comes right off my face. "I don't like him," I say as I glare at her. "How about you and Will?" I ask, changing the subject. She blushes a bit. "That's what I thought," I say. "I'll text you when I get home." I walk past Christina, and towards my house. I can't help but smile when I think about skating with Four. I quickly try to turn my attention to something else. Christina can't be right. I'm not in love with Four. I'll never be. It's not meant to happen, I promise to myself as I walk home. Ever.

Ah, there's Tris doubting FourTris again. I wonder if she'll ever let it work out...hahaha... well, I was supposed to study, but I felt like this story was calling me to update, so I did:) So, I read a lot of good books recently. Most recently, I finished The Infernal Devices, hence the quote at the beginning. Shout Out to luck8y, who got the riddle right. The answer is because he was a cheapskate.

~DauntlessPokemonRide