Chapter 24
Arkadiy arrived about an hour after she had started training and immediately began correcting her jumps as they skated across the ice together.
He kept talking about her shoulders, her posture, the angle of her body during takeoff, and after several exhausting corrections she finally started landing more consistently, even despite the fact that she had already spent almost two hours on the ice.
Usually she could endure much more, but this week everything weighed heavier on her body, as if every muscle understood before she did herself how important these Olympics were.
She was at the Olympics.
Alisa still couldn’t fully believe it.
After practice, she headed toward the locker room with a faint smile on her lips despite the exhaustion pulling at her bones.
At the end of training, Arkadiy had even praised her and let her go early, warning her that later there would be a group gym session with all the singles, pairs, and dance teams together, supposedly for “team spirit,” although Alisa suspected most of them would simply end up suffering side by side.
Another group of singles was already inside the locker room, and apparently some pairs skaters too, because the moment Alisa walked in she spotted Tora sitting on the bench, tying her skates. Her cute blue blade covers were practically glowing today.
Tora immediately lifted her head and awkwardly waved at Alisa. They were not alone.
Alisa waved back casually and greeted the others too.
That junior skater Diana was there as well, though she completely ignored Alisa’s existence, so Alisa did not bother greeting her separately either.
She dropped onto the bench beside her bag and began sorting through her things to change.
Unfortunately, there were no showers at the arena itself; everyone had to wait until they got back to the hotel.
Alisa exhaled heavily from exhaustion as she pulled a sweatshirt over her training clothes and started unlacing her skates, when suddenly Tora’s skates appeared directly in her field of vision. Alisa looked up.
Tora stood in front of her holding a small Norwegian Olympic badge.
All athletes had been given metal badges from their countries to exchange with one another.
“This is from Norway,” Tora said softly. “We’re all friends here.” She winked.
Alisa smiled despite herself and carefully took the badge from her fingers, her fingertips brushing against Tora’s palm for just a second longer than necessary, but long enough for the warmth to settle beneath her skin.
“Thank you for the cute badge,” Alisa murmured, examining the tiny design with the Olympic rings, snowflakes, and figure skates. “I can’t give you anything in return.”
Tora smiled slowly and leaned closer.
“Oh, you definitely can,” she whispered near Alisa’s ear, “in my bedroom.”
Alisa immediately felt heat rush into her cheeks.
Before she could even answer, another skater approached, it was a girl from Japan who handed Alisa a badge with a bright smile.
“Here you go!”
“Arigato!”14 Alisa replied automatically, bowing her head slightly.
The Japanese skater laughed softly, bowed back, and disappeared toward the rink doors moments later.
By then Tora had already turned toward the exit too, preparing to head back onto the ice, but Alisa impulsively caught her wrist.
“Are you going to watch the men’s event tonight? At 7:45 p.m.?”
“And you?” Tora glanced back over her shoulder.
“I’m planning to support our team from the fancy VIP athletes’ lodge,” Alisa giggled.
Tora nodded with a grin. “Then I’ll be there too.”
“See you later.”
“See you, Slavic girl.” Tora winked again before finally disappearing through the doors and onto the ice.
And Alisa remained standing in the almost-empty locker room, alone with her thoughts, exhausted beyond belief, but suddenly excited about something very simple and stupidly comforting.
The Olympic breakfast.
* * *
After an insanely intense group training session, Alisa left the gym with aching muscles and a desperate desire to stretch out somewhere in silence, but first she needed food and at least a little rest, and later in the evening there were still the men’s singles and pairs programs to watch.
Alisa genuinely loved watching the other athletes perform, this was the Olympics after all, and she wanted to experience it not only as a skater, but also as part of this huge living world around her.
She dressed warmly because the arena was freezing, wrapping herself in the fluffy oversized jacket with her surname embroidered on the back, the Russian flag, and the Olympic figure skating team badge. The moment she had received that jacket, she already knew she would live in it twenty-four seven.
She met Tora near the arena entrance, and they immediately waved at each other before hugging tightly, Tora kissing her softly on the cheek.
“Hi, how are you today?”
“I’m okay, thanks… and you? How was practice?”
“It was good,” Tora answered right away, and together they headed toward the common athletes’ area, where the front rows were already packed. Apparently everyone wanted the best view tonight.
Since the front seats were gone, Alisa quickly spotted two empty ones closer to the center and immediately threw her jacket over them to claim them.
Tora gasped dramatically. “Alisa!”
“What? Survival of the fittest,” Alisa shrugged innocently, already dragging her toward the drink station.
Alisa pressed the cappuccino button on the coffee machine almost automatically. She was exhausted already, and strangely enough she knew coffee would eventually make her sleepy later instead of energetic.
Tora meanwhile poured herself hot water and dropped in a green tea bag — milk oolong.
Alisa instantly caught the familiar creamy scent and nodded approvingly.
“Good choice.”
The atmosphere around them felt unreal in the best possible way.
Athletes wandered everywhere in jackets with their countries’ flags and Olympic emblems, exchanging badges, hugging each other, introducing themselves, showing photos of pets on their phones, laughing loudly, shaking hands, speaking in dozens of different accents at once.
There was something deeply warm about it all, something united and kind, as if for once the entire world had agreed to exist peacefully inside one building.
Then the staff rolled out trays of hot pizza, and suddenly half the athletes rushed forward like starving animals.
Alisa grabbed two slices immediately — pepperoni and mushroom with ham. Tora took chicken and pepperoni.
They returned to the seats Alisa had heroically conquered with her jacket just as the men stepped onto the ice for the six-minute warm-up.
The first skater tonight was Slava, considered the strongest guy in Arkadiy’s training group.
His entire program was packed with quads, and everyone was excited to see how he would survive it under Olympic pressure.
Alisa herself had only seen fragments of his skate during shared practices before the Games, but even then it had been obvious that he was terrifyingly strong technically.
Tonight was the short program, so everything moved quickly and intensely.
The men circled the rink stiffly during warm-up, some jumping and immediately falling, others landing cleanly to scattered applause, while a few avoided difficult jumps completely and focused only on spins, clearly conserving energy. Everyone had their own strategy.
Then Anfisa appeared and dropped into the seat beside Alisa and Tora, greeting them casually before immediately locking her attention onto the ice the second Slava took center position.
All three of them stared downward almost hypnotized.
Slava landed the opening quadruple Axel cleanly.
The audience exploded instantly.
Then came the combination, he nearly lost the landing on the second jump, the quadruple flip, wobbling dangerously for a second, but somehow managed to save it.
And then the entire arena seemed to hold its breath during the Lutz.
When he completed all four rotations cleanly, people literally stood from their seats and burst into applause.
Slava finished the program brilliantly. First place in his group immediately.
And first overall.
Though there were still twenty-five skaters left to perform.
Tora gently stroked the back of Alisa’s hand with her thumb, and Alisa immediately felt heat creeping into her cheeks again.
They were not even looking at each other at that moment, both pretending to stay focused on the performances below, but the feeling of Tora’s hand in hers filled Alisa with this strange, deep comfort, as if the entire moment suddenly became painfully real.
And then guilt crept in. Alisa glanced sideways at Tora.
“What about your parents? Don’t you want to watch the programs with them?”
Tora only shook her head lightly.
“They’re here for a long time,” she said quietly. “And I haven’t seen you in a long time.”
For a second, Alisa leaned her head against Tora’s shoulder before immediately pulling away again so no one around them would start asking questions. There were surprisingly few women skaters in the athletes’ lounge tonight, which somehow only made her more nervous.
“So tonight is yours,” Tora continued with a smile. “But tomorrow I’m busy with my parents.”
“I see…” Alisa smiled faintly to herself and returned her attention to the ice.
She genuinely enjoyed watching the men skate.
There was something mesmerizing about how differently they approached programs compared to women’s skating or pairs.
By the end of the final group, Slava had dropped to third place overall, though judging by the giant screen showing the athletes’ reactions to the standings, he still looked satisfied with the result.
Honestly, for an Olympic short program, third place was incredible already.
Alisa watched the rankings thoughtfully.
Sometimes she missed pair skating terribly.