Roxanne's life at Spoonerville College continued to be both happy and productive. She continued to attend her classes and enjoyed learning a lot from them. And she continued to fulfil her dream role of being a cheerleader. As you know, she was very nervous about doing it at first, but the more she did it, the more the confident and good she became at it and the more respect she got from her fellow cheerleaders and cheerleading coaches. And I enjoyed watching her do it whenever I could. I could only see it when she and her cheerleading team performed at our college for football matches, baseball matches, basketball matches, wrestling matches, boxing matches, swimming events and other sports and cheerleading events. I couldn't see her when she and her cheerleaders had to go away to other colleges with our sports teams for away matches or to other cheerleading events, but I still wished her and her friends the best of luck. And I was very happy that Roxanne was very happy with her dorm room mates Vicky, Valeria and Kenny and she got on very well with them all and they even became her best friends. And she continued to date the college's quarterback, Jeremy Buckett. Seeing her with Jeremy made me still have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I was still secretly jealous of Roxanne being with another guy and wished that I could have had a new relationship with her (though I never forgot how unrealistic that was), but on the other hand, I was glad that she was happy with him and I never forgot that I still wasn't ready for any relationship at all because I was still deeply hurt by what Mona did to me. So I continued to let Roxanne and Jeremy to have their relationship.
When Thanksgiving 2005 arrived, it was time yet again for me to help Spoonerville College do their Thanksgiving service, just like I always did ever since I was a freshman student in 1998. My family was busy in Big Sky for Thanksgiving so they couldn't come to me and I couldn't go to them, but I still wished them a very happy Thanksgiving and they wished me one in return. And this year the college was very lucky because it had more four generous volunteers who gave up their time to help and they were Roxanne and her best friends. Roxanne's boyfriend Jeremy had to go and celebrate Thanksgiving with his family in Columbus, so that was why he didn't help with the Thanksgiving service at the college and there was no more room at his family's place and that was why she didn't go to Columbus to celebrate with him and his family.
But Spoonerville College was very grateful for the help from Roxanne and her friends. As usual, I served the food to the poor and the homeless and Roxanne had the same job as me. Valeria helped with the cooking, Kenny helped with the washing up and Vicky helped with the entertainment staff to entertain the people. Everyone was very good at their jobs.
Roxanne always wanted to help those in need on Thanksgiving Day, but her overprotective father still wouldn't allow her to do that very generous because he believed that she could have gotten hurt or taken advantage by the people she was trying to help. Now that she finally helped those in need for the first time, she felt very good about it and she would like to do it again in the future. She told me so when I and the other volunteers sat down at the volunteers table and ate whatever spare Thanksgiving food was left for us. She also told me that doing it with me made the experience more enjoyable and I was glad because I enjoyed doing it with her as well.
Then Christmas 2005 arrived and it was time yet again for this year's Spoonerville College Ice-Skating Competition. Two weeks before the day of the competition, I was heading to my car after another very busy day when I saw a lot of people ice-skating on the nearby frozen lake to practice for the competition. I first did it in 1998 and over time it became more and more popular with everyone at the college. Then I saw Roxanne was sitting by herself on a wooden bench as she sadly watched the people ice skate on the frozen lake. I went to greet her and she greeted me back and allowed me to sit next to her, which I did. Then she told me that Jeremy wanted to take part in the competition and her to join him. She always wanted to try ice skating, but she couldn't learn because her overprotective dad wouldn't let her because he didn't want her to break her legs or anything like that. Because of that, she was nervous of giving it a try but at the same time she was worried about letting her boyfriend down.
Then I had an idea. I offered to teach Roxanne how to ice-skate. As usual, when I would do something with her, she becomes more optimistic and braver and she usually trusts me, so she decided to give learning to ice-skate from me a try.
After we put on our ice-skating shoes and checked Roxanne's ice-skating shoes fitted her properly, I went onto the ice first and then I slowly showed how her to ice-skate. Then I helped her onto the ice and did it with her first. Then she tried to ice-skate on her own. She fell down a few times, but she only had a few bruises and she wanted to keep on persisting.
For the next few days, Roxanne and I practiced more ice-skating after my work hours and her college classes and cheerleading classes and I taught all I knew about it. And I had to admit that I had fun doing it with her and I was glad that she enjoyed doing it with me too. Then came the days when she had to practice with Jeremy instead of me.
Every day since then, I passed the lake and saw Roxanne and Jeremy ice-skating on the ice. I had to admit that they look very good together and they looked like they were already going to win the competition.
Soon, the day of the ice-skating competition finally arrived. I was there to watch. I didn't have a partner to ice-skate with and, even though I could have taken part in the competition for the solo part, I decided to just watch. And, when it came for Roxanne and Jeremy to do their round, I was very happy to see that she was doing very well with him and that she was using everything I taught her. And the whole college really enjoyed their performance too. They gave her and Jeremy a round of applause when they finished their round.
Soon, everyone who ice-skated for the competition had done their rounds and it was now time for the judges to announce the winners. And the winners of the duo challenge for the ice-skating competition were Roxanne and Jeremy. We all cheered them for their success.
Then Roxanne came to me and thanked me for teaching her how to ice-skate and that she wouldn't have even been able to do it, let alone win it, without me. And she also told me that she even enjoyed ice-skating with me than with Jeremy. Hearing all that made me very happy.
Then it was time for Roxanne to go with Jeremy to Columbus to celebrate Christmas with his family. Before she left, we wished each other a very merry Christmas and told each other that we would see each other in the new year.