Rink

chapter three | break-in

LEONA MONTGOMERY

Once I pull up to the rink I slowly walk inside and to my dad's office. Maybe if I walk slow enough I won't ever get there?

Unfortunately, I do get there eventually. I hear voices coming from inside the office and I knock. "Come in," My dad's voice reaches me and I pull open the door.

A few of the rookies on the team are sitting in there. Precisely the four who were giving me problems when I started teaching them how to add some speed to their skating.

"Give us a minute," My dad says to the guys. I sit in one of the chairs across from his side of the desk.

"I've talked to them and they are going to listen to what you say if you teach them," My dad says. I almost roll my eyes, but hold it in.

They aren't going to just randomly stop. They are probably going to be even worse now because of their egos or something. "I said that I didn't want to do it anymore, dad," I say, holding my ground. I don't want to be surrounded by people all the time. Plus, you can't help people who don't even want your help.

"Wow, Lee, I gave you everything for your entire life and you can't even do this one thing for me?" He says to me.

"I know you gave me everything during my childhood, but I'm not a child anymore. It's extremely uncomfortable to have a lot of those guys looking at me like that. Even the ones who aren't creeping me out aren't listening to what I'm saying. If you weren't there they would not do anything that I told them to." I complain to him, causing him to just shake his head at me.

"You will be fine. Can't you just do this one thing for me? If I didn't raise you the way I did you would have never gone to the Olympics, you wouldn't be a self-made millionaire in your twenties, you wouldn't live the life that you do and you still can't do this one thing for me?" He angrily questions, then laughs.

"Dad, you know that I love and appreciate you but at the same time you aren't the one who grew to hate the sport that I once loved because I had to do it all day every day. You weren't the one who couldn't have a single friend growing up because my father refused to let me go to school. I had no childhood because skating was my childhood," I fume in anger.

I love my dad and know that he loves me but he just doesn't understand that I was not happy as a child.

I didn't get why I had to be in the rink all of the time and not allowed to have friends. I wanted a normal childhood.

We definitely got sidetracked from why I don't want to teach them how to skate, but only because he mentioned it first.

"We got off-topic here. I'm sorry but I need to stand my ground here. I can't reach them. You have funding for the team, anyway. Why don't you bring in a professional?" I curiously ask, calming myself down.

"Whatever. I'll have to since god forbid you could do one thing for me. Don't come back until you are ready to apologize." He practically spits at me. I don't say anything, just walk out.

I'm not in the wrong here. I do not have anything to apologize for. I don't expect him to apologize either, but I didn't do anything wrong.

I made a decision, and I'm not backing down from it. I decide to do a few laps on the rink while I'm here. What I said about growing to hate my sport wasn't a lie. Before my last Olympics, I hated skating and wanted to quit, but I didn't because I didn't want to disappoint my dad.

I don't hate it anymore, because I can do it when I want and just have fun. Back then, I was being forced to train way too hard and way too much to the point where it was no longer enjoyable for me.