Chapter Twenty-One
Despite the rush of the morning and the excitement of the day, Misty still found herself awake at one a.m. Had her nap on the plane thrown her sleep schedule off that badly? She doubted it, so what the hell was going on?
She turned over and tried to figure it out. The bed was big and comfortable with clean sheets. The pillows were a little thinner than she preferred, but it was nothing stacking two of them couldn’t fix.
“You okay?” Tish’s voice came out clear from the next bed.
Misty stiffened. “Shit. Sorry. Did I wake you up?”
“You can’t have when I wasn’t fully asleep. Is it just me, or is it too quiet?”
“Yeah, but what can we do about it?” Spencer had made it sound like the quiet would be a relaxing experience, but Misty hadn’t realized how essential city background noise was to her sleep cycle. If they didn’t get to sleep soon, they’d be screwed tomorrow.
Tish got out her phone. “Got it. Eight hours of white noise on Spotify.”
“Let’s try it.”
Tish pushed play, and the sound filled the room to send Misty to sleep.
But all too soon, the track was interrupted by the sound of Tish’s phone alarm.
Misty groaned and buried her head between her pillows.
She hadn’t spent a night with Tish in months and had forgotten how early her best friend liked to get up.
“You do know we’re starting the day with a workout, right?” she asked from her pillow shield. “You don’t have to get up for your run.”
“You’re right, I don’t have to.” Tish sounded all too coherent for this hour. “I want to clear my head, be ready for this, and make a good impression on the coaches.”
Tish ducked into the bathroom to get dressed, only turning on the light once the door was closed behind her.
Nevertheless, Misty felt resigned to getting up for the day.
She might as well get up and check out the breakfast buffet.
She turned on the big light, pushed herself out of bed, and got dressed.
Downstairs, she grabbed a banana and ate it as she passed Angela, who was on a FaceTime call with a chubby-cheeked little girl, and surveyed a room that brought back college dining hall memories.
A small line had formed by an omelet station, but the waffle irons called her name louder.
Because she wasn’t made of stone, she poured a cup of batter into a machine after gathering some training diet-approved items.
“Keep an eye on that one,” a melodious voice said. “It took its time to heat up, and then I smelled something burning sooner than I expected.”
Misty turned to thank the speaker, musing that that was another daunting thing about the combine.
At a time when most elementary school best friendships might have petered out, the bond between her and Tish had strengthened as they’d hit growth spurts around the same time and spent middle and high school as the tallest girls in their class.
Here, it was a little disorienting to be able to look most of the other women directly in the eye, or even to have to look up at some of them.
Like this one. Misty’s breath caught as she looked up and their eyes met.
Between her French braid, petal pink lipstick, and creatively cut navy blue workout set, the pretty blonde looked more like a fitness model than an athlete.
And yet, her muscular shoulders and arms indicated that she was there for the same reason as Misty.
“I didn’t see you on the way in, did I?” Misty had a hunch she would have remembered if she had.
“No, I’d made other arrangements and arrived later.” The blonde extended a hand. “My name is Tallulah Bellemont. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Misty Kaufman. Likewise.” Yes, as the strength of her grip and the calluses on her palm showed, this girl was stronger than she looked.
The timer went off, and she opened the waffle iron to reveal a perfectly browned breakfast. Misty piled her waffle high with fruit and a drizzle of chocolate syrup, and added a generous side of bacon.
“So what brings you here?” she asked, walking to the tables with Tallulah. “I’m a runner.”
“As am I.” She looked up and nodded, as if to invite someone else to join their conversation. “Eva and I ran track together in college.”
Eva Gardner didn’t accept the invitation.
“I did shot put. You sprinted. We were not on the team together.” Something about her tone indicated that this went beyond the two being in completely different events, but Eva walked away before Misty could ask more about it.
She took a seat alone at a table in the back.
“Someone hasn’t had her coffee yet,” Misty joked as they made their way to a table with Tish, Marla, and some of the others.
“No, I saw a mug.” Tallulah let out a fluttery little laugh, but her smile looked forced. “In other words, she hasn’t changed a bit.”
“Good morning, ladies!” Ms. Coolidge was at the front of the dining room before Misty could ask any more questions.
“I hope everyone got a good night’s sleep and a breakfast that’s going to carry you through the morning, because it’s going to be a busy one.
When we get to the arena, we’re going to warm up with a round of calisthenics.
Then we’re moving onto the ice to get you used to moving on it before we start sledding. Any questions?”
No one’s hands went up. “Then take this time to finish your food and get something warm to wear to the rink. We’re leaving for the arena at 9:30.”
The first workout of the morning, sprints interspersed with calisthenics, was nothing Misty wasn’t used to from her time at the gym.
Hours later, though, any sense of I am so in!
came crashing down along with her ass on the ice.
Instead of skates, they’d rented special shoes that would supposedly let them stay upright, though no one had succeeded in that for long.
Even Tish couldn’t take two steps beyond the rink wall without falling, and the girls who’d gotten their start in winter sports were only faring a little bit better.
“Engage your core and grip with your toes!” Ms. Coolidge put on a short demonstration at the center of the ice. Last night’s Google search showed that she hadn’t competed since the early 2000s, but she looked like she’d just done this yesterday.
Tish stepped forward, wobbling a little but staying upright for the moment. “We can do this! Most of us are from places with actual seasons and cold winters, we’ve had to walk on an icy sidewalk at some point in our lives...pretend that’s what we’re doing now.”
Misty followed, holding the imagery in mind. She made it four steps before landing on her ass again. “See?” she called from the ice. “Doubled my record already!”
“Show-off,” Marla teased. She was doing pretty well, but came sliding down as she bent to help Misty up.
About seven or eight steps in, Angela jumped slightly and landed in a fall.
She scuttled on her ass to pull herself up on the edge, take her phone out of her pocket, and send a text.
“My daughter spilled some cereal, and my husband doesn’t know where we keep the Swiffer wipes,” she said to Misty’s questioning glance.
A few feet away, Tallulah had also fallen. Eva stood near her, smirking under a wool cap that hid all her hair. “If I was as rich as you, I would’ve bought a center of gravity instead of that pretty coat.”
As Eva turned away, her legs shot out from under her, and she landed on her ass.
Because Misty simply could not resist, she sang a line from “Another One Bites the Dust.” Eva glared at her from the ice, but Misty didn’t care.
She got back on her feet, managing a few more steps this time and repeating the song in an attempt to laugh at herself.
“Don’t you know any songs about getting up after a fall?” Lily asked, sliding down again.
Misty mulled it over, coming up with part of “Roar” as she walked around more of the ice.
Everyone who could hear her smiled, and it helped her stay up a little longer.
She had bundled up for the occasion, but her layers only went so far in terms of padding.
She could only imagine how her ass was going to look at the end of this.
She didn’t get to confirm it until she was getting ready for bed that night. “Holy shit,” she muttered, looking over her shoulder at the black-and-blue marks in the bathroom mirror.
“It’ll go down,” Tish said, squeezing arnica gel into her palms. She handed Misty the tube before rubbing it into her ass.
“How bad is yours?” Misty asked, squeezing gel into her palm.
Tish grimaced and lowered her hands to show her friend. Her light brown skin was mottled with red bruises. “Oof.”
Once she was dressed again, Misty reached for her phone to take a first day of combine selfie. A text notification from Spencer was on the lock screen.
Spencer: How’d it go today?
At the sight of a timestamp from a few hours ago, a stab of guilt pierced her already sore body. There hadn’t been much time to sit around with her phone during the day’s workouts, and things were too engaging with the others during breaks. She sent a reply.
Misty: Busy but fun...or it will be once I can stay upright on the ice.
He replied sooner than she had.
Spencer: It’s all part of the process.
She stretched out on her double bed to reply.
Misty: How’s it going with you?
Spencer: I wasn’t on the ice, but I did give a client a core workout that’ll be good for balance. Pretty busy day.
Misty: I’m sure you did great at the gym.
Now that she’d gotten to lie down, it was as if her body could admit that it was tired from the day’s hard work. Her eyes slid closed as she waited for Spencer to reply.