Ice frozen dreams turned golden

Chapter 22

Here is a looooong, brand new chapter for you! I hope you like it! It's a little bit hard to read and I apologize for that.

Lizzie had always loved music. When her mom had made her take piano lessons, she had been so excited to learn all about the different keys and how she could make music with them.

And when her mom had made her quit the piano lessons two years later, she had been heartbroken. So heartbroken that she had begged her mom to let her continue, even though she had known the consequences of begging.

For a while, she had even sneaked out of bed in the middle of the night just to be able to play a little bit on her keyboard but after her mom had caught her once, she stopped doing that as well and accepted that playing piano was just another thing on a very long list she wasn't allowed to do.

That's why she had always loved her music classes in school. It had allowed her to make music without her mom knowing, without her mom criticizing every little thing she did.

So as always she was in a happy mood when she walked down the hallway to her music classroom, Thea and Betty right next to her.

"Maths went on forever today... thank god we have music class now and we don't need to solve any equations anymore," Betty sighed, and even though Lizzie liked math she nodded her head.

"Maybe Mr. Leighton will let us sing today again. I always love his efforts trying to make us sing in harmony," Thea said, and they all laughed, remembering their last lesson when their teacher had tried separating them into three groups and making them sing in harmony. It had sounded horrible.

Betty, Thea, and Lizzie were still laughing when they sat down in their respective chairs and exchanged a few grins before Mr. Leighton started his lesson.

"As I have finally realized I will never make a choir out of you guys I have decided to start a completely new topic. In the next few lessons, we will be discussing the opera Carmen. Now..."

Lizzie's smile faded very quickly and her breath was caught. The word 'Carmen' echoed in her mind and suddenly she wasn't in her beloved music classroom anymore, but somewhere else. In a time when the opera Carmen had meant something completely different to her.

Lizzie could see the ice glistening right above her nose. Her back was arched and she had stretched out her arms. She allowed herself a little smile and stayed in the pose for one more second.

As far as she could tell, she hadn't done any great mistakes. She had landed all of her triple-triple jumps (even though she had come out of her Lutz-Loop combination a little bit slow). Nobody else had shown such difficult content, and she hoped her mom would be satisfied with her for once.

She bowed to all sides, taking in the applause. She didn't overly like being watched by everyone, and always felt a little self-conscious, but she still flashed a shy smile to the audience, relieved that the first competition of this season was over. She had tried her best and it had actually worked out!

She saw Taylor and Joe sitting in the audience, clapping and cheering loudly for her, and she smiled a little bit bigger. They were so kind for cheering her on even though she was their own daughter's direct competition.

Still breathing heavily, Lizzie bowed one more time, before she picked up her speed again and skated to the bars where her coach and her mom were already waiting.

"The Lutz-Loop was slow," was the first thing her mom hissed, and Lizzie bowed her head, nodding along and putting on her skate guards.

"And your performance was horrible, you skated like a robot! You're supposed to be Carmen, there should be a fire within you!"