"One more time Sasha, you'll nail it this time!"

Yeah I've heard that one before. He says one more when he really means fifty when he knows damn well I can nail them every time.

I build up momentum and leap up twisting my body around, one, two, three times before landing on my right foot and skating back out of it. I land with my arms up and a smile on my face.

"Not high enough Sasha, again!" I hear dad scream and my smile instantly vanishes. So I get ready to try again. The rest of my coaching team sits cold in the penalty box and I desperately wish my real coaches would take a turn coaching me. Kate and Johnathan are pros, they know this stuff but dad always seems to think he knows better.

A triple Salchow is no easy jump to master, yet no matter how I execute this one it's just never good enough. I'll be at this for hours but I know it's worth it, I need to nail my routines at sectionals this year if I want to make it.

Figure skating has been my life since I was a little girl. I work hard everyday to make my dreams come true. I practice at night Monday, Wednesday and Friday and in the morning Tuesdays and Thursdays. Every afternoon is spent in ballet keeping my flexibility up and I squeeze in a physio appointment wherever I can.

The weekends are for competing in small competitions and working on my routines. Figure skating is demanding, technical and requires perfection. Mondays are usually the worst for me, dad runs my practices those evenings and they're much harder than my others.

"Switch it up, you're still landing with a slight inside edge. Show me your triple Lutz!" He yells and I nod. Because those are so different.

I had a small competition this weekend in preparation for sectionals. I knew I'd make sectionals, I just needed to place first or second in my competition two weeks from now.

I loved the ice, the grace, the beauty that came with it all. I felt truly beautiful and free whenever I skated.

"No Sasha!" Except maybe not right now. "We've talked about this, your arms are flailing! You keep them in and under control!" Dad yells and I nod.

Dad loved figure skating perhaps as some would say, too much. He was a figure skater back home in Russia many years ago, but missed his chance at the olympics. That seems to be what he sees for me. The Olympics seemed like a bigger deal than I was really prepared to take on, but dad always pushed me to do it.

"We'll be here all night until you get it right!" He screams and I nod again. I knew better than to say anything to dad, we'd go until the rink forced us out.

I loved my coaches, Kate was set to go to the olympics many years ago but tore her ACL before she could get there. She was really a gorgeous skater and helped me with the artistic side of things. Johnathan was a men's junior world champion, he was responsible for thinking outside the box and getting creative. Dad's mission was to focus on my technique and discipline, which seemed to over-shadow everything else.

But of course that was the most important thing, blowing a jump or a turn would cost you your program. So I worked here alone on Tuesdays and Thursdays, by myself practicing jumps and turns. I worked nonstop and eventually it was going to pay-off.

"One more time!" Dad says and I huff leaping up but not watching my footing. I land hard on my butt as my skates come out from under me and I wince. "Sasha!" He screams angrily. "Focus, you can't skate with a broken leg." Me falling or wobbling in turns really angered him.

I hobble up and shake it off. I fell often, bruises and soreness were things I was used to. But they made for agony the next day when I'd wake up. Hopefully I'd be feeling alright for school tomorrow.

>

"Jeez Sash, what happened? Dad push you too hard last night?" Micheal asks. Micheal was another skater in my club but skated with a partner, Irene. They were wonderful together, had known each other since they were twelve.

"Sort of, I just fell a little too hard." I say with a shrug.

"Uh-huh." He says with vague curiosity. "How many triples did you do last night?" I laugh and roll my eyes shoving open the school doors.

"I think fifty-two? He's really pushing me to nail them without my inside edge." I say and Micheal sighs.

"I've seen you land those hundreds of times, you know you only get minor deductions for that right?" He asks.

"But those add up, besides why waste points on stupid things like that when I could just work extra hard to get rid of them in the first place?" I remind him and he laughs.

"I'll say it again Sash, nobody works harder than you do." He says giving me a nudge and I smile.

"Hey baby!" Irene says walking over and giving Micheal a hug.

Of course they'd started dating, partner work is distinctly intimate. Spending that much time alone with someone in such a connected way took its toll. Their parents had been ecstatic, a blossoming couple. They'd been together now for roughly two years, since they were fourteen years old.

"Hey." He says with a small smile. She attaches herself to his side and we all continue our walk to class. I found myself jealous at times, this was the age when most of the girls I knew were getting boyfriends. Dad was revolted by the idea, he said I could have a boyfriend if I reached the Olympics.

No boys, no parties, not too many friends, no fun. I couldn't tell you the last time I did something non-skating related with someone who wasn't a member of my family. At school I was really only friends with Micheal, Irene and a few other girls in my club. I didn't have any free time for a social life which meant lonely days at school.

"Well, well if it isn't Elsa herself." I hear and see Jake McMaster standing directly in front of us. "How's the ice queen this morning?"

I hated Jake more than words could describe, he and his friend Nate were always picking on me. Two sophomores from the boy's hockey team. We shared the same rink for practices and I'd always be coming in to start my training right when their practice would end.

It was constant teasing, jokes about me being stiff, boring or stuck-up. The whole ice queen thing had stuck in grade seven when the first Frozen movie came out. Everyone said I was Elsa because of all the time I spent on the ice. I almost looked like her, I had bleach-blonde hair and fair skin. People would ask me to freeze their hearts and make it snow. I half wondered if most of the people around here knew my name wasn't even Elsa.

"He asked you a question." I hear and see Nate and his girlfriend Sabrina walking over now. I could hear her stilettos and nasally voice from a million miles away and I just scowled.

"I'm great." I say with a tight grimace-like smile.

"Hey little sis." I hear and see Nik throw his arm over my shoulder.

"Carter, McMaster, you're not giving our sister a hard time are you?" I hear and see Alex emerge on my other side. This was the only good thing about having two older brothers. I stress only.

Nik and Alex or Nikita and Alexi as they were referred to in our house were my twin brothers. Seniors at school this year and played on the Varsity hockey team as well. They were the only ones who could put a stop to the teasing usually. But that usually resulted in teasing of their own, they were too over-protective.

"No way, just asking her how her morning was." Jake says innocently and they nod shoving him out of their way and continuing down the hall.

"You can't let people walk all over you Sasha." Nik says and I shrug.

"I just don't want to fight with people, I just came from practice I'm beat." I say keeping my head down as I walk through the halls.

"Dad's working you huh?" Alex asks and I sigh with a shrug.

"No, I am. I'm working hard on my own." I say and pull away from them slightly walking ahead. "I need to go to class, I'll see you at home after ballet."

I walk quickly down the hallway and slip into my classroom taking my seat at the back. I find my textbook and quickly open it to start working.

"So just because you have your brothers you think you can get off that easy?" I hear and see Sabrina sit down at the desk next to mine. "Don't think I don't see the eyes you make at Nate."

"Yeah, sure." I scoff and open my notebook to write the date in the top corner. Nate was far from the centre of my focus, I hadn't spent any time with him since I was twelve. That was a lifetime ago now, now I was training as an athlete and he'd become a massive jerk.

"You're still all hung up on him aren't you?" She teases and I roll my eyes.

"Hung up?" I say laughing a bit too hard. "Give me a break Sabrina, Nate and I haven't spoken in four years." Unless you count teasing.

"Hey sweetie." I hear and see Nate sitting in the desk behind her. I nearly throw-up in my mouth and focus on school. "So ice queen, am I seeing you at the rink tomorrow night?" He asks and I roll my eyes continuing on with my work. "Maybe I could get you a jersey, I think you're a lot scarier than the guys on our team."

I huff and stand up switching seats in the classroom to get as far away as possible. I didn't care enough to respond to that, I didn't really want to either.

No matter which class I had, one of the guys on the hockey team was always in it. They were all ready to pick on me, I had no clue why either, what had I ever done to them? Then I had lunch with my usual table of figure skating friends. Micheal, Irene, Cassie and Blair. The only one I was really friends with was Micheal though, we started out in the same beginner skating classes all those years ago.

"What did they say to you this morning?" Micheal asks and I shrug.

"Good morning apparently." I huff with a shrug. "Why am I the only one who gets picked on like this?"

"Because you're the only one burning yourself out on that rink everyday." Blair tells me. "Come on, when was the last time you had any fun?"

"I don't have time for fun." I remind her and she nods with a small laugh. "Are you at ballet today?"

"No I only go Mondays and Wednesdays, why is it you go every single day?"

"Because I need to make sure I'm stretching my body properly. I always feel stiff when I don't stretch out and work at it." I say and take out a salad, spinach mostly, low calorie dressing, chickpeas and tomatoes. That was my meal for the day, I couldn't even tell you the last time I'd eaten more than one-thousand calories in a day.

"Well good for you Sash, working hard as always." Blair says and I smile. Despite us girls not being particularly close, we weren't catty. Figure skating was cutthroat but not abrasive, any issues we had were settled between our scores and on the ice.

The rest of the day was just a blur, I didn't think about anything other than skating. When ever I let my mind wander I could picture perfect toe loops and shiny costumes. Then I had a bus ride to the ballet studio. The thing I did always love about ballet was the studio was so warm, sometimes the rink was a bit too cold for me.

I follow my instructor and find a place at the bar stretching my legs and feet. At least she wasn't making me do something fifty times over and over again. At least she wasn't yelling.