Hopelessly Devoted ☆ Pierre Gasly

VIII

THE PAST

"Allez, Allez, Allez!"

The trainer clapped in his hands for the rhythm. It was utter silence in the ice hall, you could only hear the blades gliding over the ice, and the two trainers talk. The skaters passed every one with high speed. The skaters finished.

"Juliette! Hannah!" The trainer yelled and pointed at the start. "Go to the start."

Two girls skated to the start and were preparing themselves for the start by standing in the starting position.

"We're right on time," Sara said when she sat down on the grandstand. "Who of the two is Julie?" She looked at the two women standing on the ice, but she had no idea who Juliette was. They were wearing the same spandex skin suit and both glasses.

Pierre scanned the two girls. "How am I supposed to know that? I'm not sitting close enough to see that," he said and smirked.

"Ready..." Silence fell in the colossal hall when the trainer yelled. "Go!"

The two girls pushed themselves away and basically ran over the ice to create speed and grip. Speed skating is an odd sport; you have to push the speed skates sidewards to go forward. They had to skate on the straight as first, so they had created quite some speed when they reached the first turn.

Pierre parted his lips and looked perplexed at the skaters. "How goes nothing wrong when they go through a corner with this much speed?"

The blades of the ice skaters were gliding over the ice, it sounded satisfying to Juliette. She swinged with her arms when she reached the straight again. Juliette was now taking the lead, but she started on the inside, so Hannah would pass her when they were about to switch lanes. After the second turn, they switched lanes. But when the trainers clocked the time, Juliette still had the lead.

"It is honestly so satisfying," Sara said when she watched how Juliette and Hannah were moving in sync. "I never knew Julie was this good. My goodness, look at their feet; crossover, crossover," she whispered, perplexed when Juliette and Hannah were skating through the turn.

When the last lap was about to start, Juliette picked up her trainer's call: it was a close call to her personal record. It gave Juliette more motivation to push herself a bit over her limit; she wanted to show her mother she could make it. Perhaps she pushed herself way too much over her limit. Juliette almost lost her balance when she went through the last corner, but she regains herself. On the final straight, she squeezed the last bits of power away.

As soon as Juliette finished, she opened the zip from her suit, grabbed her glasses from her nose and removed the headpiece from her head. She leaned on her knees and let the skates decide the speed.

"Juliette 2.00.11! Hannah 2.03.18!"

Hannah created some more speed, so she could catch up with Juliette. "Congrats, Jules," she breathed and.

It felt like Juliette's lungs were burning as soon the air entered her lungs. Juliette looked at Hannah and gave her a hand. "Thanks, you too." She took a deep breath and straightened her back. Both of the girls skated a new personal record, and that after being back on the ice for the first time in months.

"One small mistake, but fabulous race. Great job, Juliette," her trainer said when she passed him. They gave each other a high-five.

"Merci," Juliette said and gave him a nod. It was quite a struggle to catch some breath, it had been a long time since she pushed herself to the limit like this. It had been a while since she skated on ice in a cold hall. She looked around and found Pierre and Sara sitting on the grandstand. A tired smile grew on her face, and she waved at them.