Ice frozen dreams turned golden

Chapter 9

This one-shot takes place right after Lizzie quit figure skating... Please bear with my spelling and grammar as the chapter was mostly written on my phone.

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Lizzie was sitting in her bedroom, still too shocked about what she had just done. Had she really just quit figure skating? Had she really just told Taylor she didn't want to train anymore?

She looked at herself in the mirror, trying to find a reason for what she had just done. She knew she was being silly and wouldn't find an answer by looking at herself in the mirror. She still tried it, though.

All of her life had been dedicated to figure skating. When her mom had put her on the ice for the first time, she had barely been able to walk, hadn't been able to talk.

It had never been a dream of hers to become a professional figure skater. It had never been her choice to make. Her mom had forced this dream onto her, and Lizzie had suffered her whole life to make it come true.

Sure, there were certain parts of figure skating she enjoyed. She loved the feeling of flying through the air, rotating as fast as possible. Or the way her head was spinning and feeling dizzy, in a good way.

And she loved watching figure skating, especially the Russian Ladies who had pushed the boundaries in women's figure skating for years. When Taylor had let her decorate her room exactly the way she had wanted to, she had hung up a poster of Alexandra Trusova - the first woman ever to jump a Quadruple Salchow, the first woman ever to jump five Quadruple jumps in one program.

Lizzie turned around, looking at the picture of her idol, sighing. Sure, she had admired Alexandra her whole life and had wanted to be her so badly. But only ever to make her mom happy, not herself. Jumping quads, as impressive as this might be, had never been her dream.

Lizzie could still remember watching the Olympic Games in 2026, where Alexandra had won gold after only getting silver in 2022. She had wanted to be her so badly, not because she wanted a gold medal herself, but because she wanted to have that same love for figure skating as Alexandra had had. As Thea still had.

But no matter how hard she had hoped, no matter how hard she had prayed, stepping onto the ice had always felt like a chore for her. Like something she had to force herself to do or otherwise she would get punished.

But she didn't get punished anymore. She didn't have to fear her mom's beatings or her manipulative games anymore. And maybe that had finally sunk in because today, the girl had been brave. She had stood up for herself and decided not to skate professionally anymore.

She had gotten that damn call from the legend Mishin himself, who had coached so many legendary skaters, including Alexandra, and had realized she didn't want all that. She didn't want a gold medal around her neck, didn't want to be the first woman ever to jump a Quintuple jump. Nothing of that would make her happy, would make her sparkle.

She still couldn't believe what she had just done. She still couldn't believe she had told Taylor she hated skating so much she couldn't enjoy anything else. And she still couldn't believe how cool Taylor had been about it.

"If it makes you feel like that, then let's go."

And just like that, they had left the ice rink, and now Lizzie was looking at herself in the mirror, trying to figure out how she had found the courage to say all this.

A soft knock on the door made her turn around and see Joe leaning in the door frame. "Taylor told me what happened at the ice rink. I'm proud of you," he stated casually, and Lizzie was taken off guard.