Baby May

New Friends: Part 2

"Alyssia!" Brian calls up the stairs, "Are you ready to go?"

"I'm coming," He hears her running footsteps upstairs then thuds coming down the stairs. She runs straight past him and into the car.

In the car, Brian remembers what he needs to tell her, "So Roger is going to pick you up from skating and take you back to his when you finish."

"Why?" Alyssia frowns curiously.

"I'm promised Jimmy I'd go to his Uni presentation, remember? I don't know what time we'll be done and of course, your mum is away for the week with work," With no music commitments at the moment, Brian is enjoying the proper responsibilities of being a dad and going to things he used to be busy to get to, "You don't mind do you?"

Alyssia shakes her head, "No, I don't mind. I like Uncle Roger and I get to see Rufus and Tiger."

Brian does go in with Alyssia when they get there, he has fifteen minutes to kill before he needs to leave. Alyssia puts on her skates and joins her classmates on the bench waiting for the teacher to start the lesson, Katie Haywood is talking to the teacher.

"Are you Alyssia May?" A shy, mousy blonde-haired girl sits beside her.

"Yes I am, Alyssia or Lissy is fine too."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Victoria Roberts though you can call me, Vix or Vicky. Katie told me before Christmas that you were joining this class, I'll be training with you once we reach a professional level. Everyone else in this class is just here for fun, it's only you and I training with Katie."

"It's nice to meet you too, I'm glad I'm not the only one on this journey," Alyssia was honestly concerned about that. She's aware that once she hits a professional level a lot of her time will be dedicated to training so to have a friend in skating that understands the commitments will be a saving grace. Though of course, Zoe is in the same boat.

The teacher starts the class and Katie takes Alyssia and Victoria aside separate from the others and works with them.

For Brian, this is the first time watching Alyssia skate since her first ever experience on the ice, seeing the difference now is mind-blowing but he can see it now.

One day he will be sitting in the winter Olympics stadium, watching his daughter go for gold and he's so sure she will get a medal but he'll be bursting with pride no matter what.

He's a little sad that he has to leave now, but he promised Jimmy he'd be there and he's not going to let him down. As he gets up to leave, Alyssia spots him and waves.

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Alyssia was so in focus on her lesson when Roger arrived to pick her up at she didn't even notice him walk in with Tiger in tow, she insisted that she had to go with him.

He instructs his daughter to be quiet while taking a seat so as not to distract the lesson, but he didn't have much trouble with that, she is mesmerised by watching them skate.

Roger is impressed by Alyssia skill level. As a child, he tried several different sports but never had the dedication to stick to them the way he did for music, so he can appreciate his niece's dedication and commitment to getting this far.

The rest of the class step off the ice while Katie keeps Alyssia and Victoria a little longer getting them to use the entire rink to test what they've learnt before cooling down with a slow lap around the rink.

Stepping off the ice, Alyssia finally noticed Roger sitting on the benches with Tiger and gives them a wave.

She sits beside Victoria to unlace her skates, Katie comes over the talk to them, "Well done for today, girls, I can't wait to start professional training you both, see you next week." She heads out of the room.