The Hockey Star and the Ice Princess (Complete)

Ch. 8 - It begins

The next day Rachel got a text message from Coach Sumners at 8:00 am telling her to meet him at the rink at 10:00. She had worked last night at the bar until 2:00 am so she hit snooze and slept as long as she could and then got up and put on some leggings and a tank top and pulled a big sweatshirt over it. Luckily she had an old pair of ice skates in the closet of her old bedroom, so she threw them in her bag before heading downstairs. 

Her Mom and brother and sister had already gone to work and school so the house was completely empty. She quickly made herself some oatmeal and grabbed an apple on her way out the door. When she got to the rink Coach Sumners was out on the ice waiting for her so she sat down and slipped on her ice skates really fast and tied them up. 

Then she went to the side and stretched for a while to get her muscles loosened up before opening the rink door and skating out onto the ice. 

"Good morning. So a little birdie told me you have a job now," Coach said, when she skated up to him.

"Of course you already know. There's no such thing as a secret in this town," she laughed, shaking her head. "It wasn't actually a secret though. I just started last night and I was planning to talk to you about it today. Things are gonna be different than they were before when you trained me. My Mom wasn't happy about me doing this at all. She said I'm gonna have to pay for everything myself; ice time, travel expenses, food, costumes, your coaching. I'm on my own." 

"Well don't worry about paying for my coaching. I'm the one who asked you to come back and do this so we can win that gold medal. You're actually doing me a favor, so consider my time a gift." 

Her mouth dropped open in shock. "Are you serious? You're not going to charge me for coaching?" 

"No. I want you to pay me in effort. I'll give you a hundred and ten percent out there if you'll do the same. Deal?" 

"Deal," she nodded, still stunned. She had been really stressing about how she was going to afford his coaching without her parent's support so this was a huge relief. 

"But let's keep this free coaching arrangement our little secret. We don't want the other Moms and skaters getting jealous and expecting the same alright?" he whispered.

"Alright," she smiled. "Thanks coach," she said giving him a tight hug and he smiled and patted her back. 

"You're welcome," he said, the heavy creases around his eyes and mouth appearing from the smile on his face. He patted her on the back and said, "Let's get started and see what we're working with. Why don't you just take a few laps around the ice to get warmed up."

She skated around the entire rink a couple times stretching her arms and her legs and shaking out the nerves. It felt so weird to be back on the ice at her old home rink with her old coach. It was almost like she had stepped into a time machine. 

"Ok, let's just see what you can do. We'll start slow alright. Go out there and give me a waltz jump." 

"A waltz jump?" she laughed. "I did that in my second practice when I was five!" 

"Well, I told you we're starting slow. We're going all the way back to the very beginning and once I know you can do each thing and do it with the right technique, then we'll move on to the next. Slow and steady wins the race Rachel." 

"Ugh," she groaned. This was like torture having to start off with baby tricks but she skated out there and did it. She hopped up in the air and landed on the other foot with her leg out behind her, gliding smoothly with her arms out. 

"Good now do it twenty more times until your technique is perfect, only then do we move on." 

As much as she hated it she went out there and did it twenty more times and he said, "Good! Now do the same with a salchow, twenty times!"