He Switched Partners. I Switched Countries. novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: First Program

"No," I said to Paige in the elevator. "He never told me why."

My mother turned her head and looked at me.

"I never asked," I said.

Paige pulled her coat tighter.

"He said you'd teach me the two taps and the count, if you wouldn't be at the boards."

"I'd have to know what they were for."

"I asked him that." She swallowed. "He said it's a rhythm thing and I wouldn't understand it until it was in my body."

"That's not an answer."

"I know it's not an answer," Paige said. "I'm twenty-three years old and I've fallen twice at Nationals, and the man I'm skating for is frightened of something, and I don't know what it is."

The doors opened on the lobby.

She stepped out first and did not look back.

My mother and I watched her cross the marble to the revolving door.

"Don't," my mother said.

"Don't what?"

"Feel sorry for her yet. Wait and see what she does."

Three weeks later, I stood in a service corridor in Vancouver with my braid pinned so tight it hurt.

The Canadian fall qualifier was a small event, a half-empty arena, folding chairs, and a scoreboard that blinked.

Theo and I had just skated the short program.

We had not thrown, so the judges had taken the points for it, and we had still scored second in the field.

The corridor behind the rink was narrow and hot, and it smelled of wet carpet.

Theo had come up it behind me and said nothing.

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