Page 54 of Oh, Flutz!

The second we stepon the ice, Lian’s sugar-sweet façade drops like it never existed, activating Terminator Coach Mode.

“Hurry up!” she bellows. “One, two, three, four! Go! Go! Go!”

“I’m about togothrow myself off the roof,” I hiss under my breath as we skate away from them, and Katya sighs, glancing behind us to make sure we’re clear as we go into backwards crossovers.

“Let’s just get through this. It’s almost over.”

She’s annoyingly logical. Even when I want to strangle her, she usually has a point. “I hate it when you’re right.”

“I hate you all the time.”

I stifle a smile. “Lift?”

Katya nods, and flips to backwards. I ready myself before reaching for her, securing my grip on her wrists before sweeping her off the ice and up over my head. I pivot, keeping steady, holding her up with one hand and balancing on that ever-elusive sweet spot on my blades.

“You good up there?” I say, keeping my eyes fixed straight ahead so I don’t throw our balance off.

“Almost done,” she says, not entirely answering the question, but it still makes me feel better.

We do a throw triple loop, a death spiral, side-by-side sit spins, and then a triple twist. We’re not even bothering with quads yet, but it doesn’t seem to matter.

“You guys look great out there!” Giselle gushes when we head back to the boards sweaty and flushed. “Do you mind showing me some more tricks?”

Me and Katya give each other a disturbed look.Tricks?

Lian looks at us pointedly, a reminder to keep our poker faces on. “Of course. Run the short program through, guys.”

“Weren’t we not supposed to do run-throughs toda—" The look on Lee’s face is enough for me to immediately turn around and do what she asked.

Katya’s already beat me to center ice, and I join her, skidding into a hockey stop.

She makes a face, raising her arms so I can take her hands. “I hate it when you do that.”

I smirk at her, taking them and moving behind her so we’re in the right opening position. “You hate it when I do lots of things.”

“No judge wants to see a sloppy skater who can’t stop without ripping up the ice.”

“You’re boring, we know.” Guess she still hasn’t figured out that I only do hockey stops to get a rise out of her. Her back is to me, so all I can see is her neat-as-a-pin French braid, with not a single damn hair out of place. “You ready?”

“Are you?”

I smother a laugh.

Lian starts the music, and the intro to “Danger Zone” starts playing.

Back when we were fighting over music selection, I only picked Top Gun because it was the craziest idea that popped into my mind. But, apparently, my spur-of-the-moment choice was a good one. This way, not only do we set ourselves apart from the other teams, but we immediately connect with the audience—and hopefully the judges—with a recognizable program.

Even Katya’s come around. Kicking and screaming, of course, but now she’s not hating it so much. Probably because I’ve stopped complaining about our free skate music every five minutes, too. Anne somehow managed to make Swan Lake interesting.

I still like our short better, though. It’s so ridiculous that it works.

When the synth starts building, right before the lyrics start, we take off into crossovers, slowing into dramatic movements as Kenny Loggins’ opening vocals play. I take her hand so she can step up onto my leg and stand there as I go down into a squat, making our first “lift” an element that we won’t get technical points for, but helps us with artistic points.

The chorus starts, Katya dismounts, and we start turning into complicated steps that build up into the guitar break—her cue to turn her back to me, and mine to get ready to throw her for the quad twist.

I position my hands on her waist, checking she’s ready before propelling her into what’s essentially a horizontal jump. I’m a half-second off on the catch, but Katya lands fine. Another step sequence, and then I’m flinging her out across the ice in a massive arc. She completes all three revolutions before coming down.Clean. We take off into crossovers again, waiting for the music to change.

“How’d you know my favorite flavor?” I ask finally, and she rolls her eyes.

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