Page 152 of Irresistibly Wild

“I’m seconds away from skating the best I’ve ever skated in my life,” I say to myself. “The best I’ve ever skated in my life…”

I stare at my reflection in the dressing room, ensuring every sequin on my black and red costume is hanging correctly. My heart is pounding in anticipation of today’s program, and I know I can win if I stay focused.

Even though the past several weeks have wrecked me emotionally, I’ve stunned Miss Price to silence at every rehearsal.

Leaning closer to the mirror, I double-check my eye makeup. As I add a wing with my mascara, the door swings open and hits the wall.

What the…

It’s Penelope.

She storms inside, opening every stall. Then she locks the door.

“Do I need to call security?” I spin around. “I hope you’re not crazy enough to fight me at a competition.”

“I don’t want to skate against sad and emotional Tatiana Brave today.” She glares at me. “I need you to bring back the perfectionist bitch that you are.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m not stuttering,” she says. “Yes, you’re skating better than ever lately, but there’s no fire. No intensity. It’s like you’re on autopilot.”

“Are you on drugs, Penelope?”

“You gave me a compliment at our last meetup,” she says, ignoring my question, “and I don’t appreciate things like that from you. You’re my best rival, my number one enemy—forever,and I need you to fucking bring it today.”

“For the record.” I set down my wand. “Telling you that you ‘sucked ass a little less than usual’ wasnota compliment.”

A slow smile crosses her lips, but she doesn’t let it stay.

“I notice you landed a quad during your warmup,” she says. “Is that part of your routine today?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“I’ll take that as a yes, so I need you to focus and land it as well as possible.” She's speaking like she’s my coach for some odd reason, as if I need her words of encouragement. “I need to see the level of effort you had in Sochi.”

“You mean, better than that, correct? I recall winning second place silver and messing up a few things.”

“You made one mistake in your entire routine.” She shoots me a sympathetic look. “We both you know would’ve won gold if my routine wasn’t half a point more technical than yours.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Ido.”

Silence.

“Not that it matters to you, but my older brother Travis is here today.”

“He is?” My heart betrays me by skipping a beat.

“Yes,” she says. “He hardly ever comes to these, and since he’s here and this could potentially mean that…”

The rest of her words come in muted.

Travis is here.

When I’m able to focus again, Penelope is standing in front of the mirror, smoothing her hair.

“I need you to make this competitive for me.” She’s still talking. “Like, make the judges’ final decision hard as hell.”

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