Empty Handed

KARMA (Chapter Twenty-Two)

SOTC
I Know Where I've Been - Glee

MATT
It's Olympic Trials day and I am not okay. I am super nervous; shaking even. Everything I ever worked for leads to this day. Coach Seth asked me if I'm okay like a gazillion times and I gave him the same answer - sure!

I got a text from Scott which was shorter than I'd have preferred. "You can do this. Love you."

The competition started with our short programs (obviously) and can I say - boys came ready! There's been twenty figure skaters that have performed and none of them stumbled or fell. Nothing like that. It was finally my turn and I was ready. Something felt loose in my skates but I just shrugged it off and glided on the ice when my name was announced.

The music started playing and I went for my opening pass - the quad axel. I started my turns in the air but something really didn't feel right. When I landed, the blades on my skates broke and I twisted my ankle; badly. Resulting in me falling shamefully on the floor. There were gasps, screams, oh my goodnesses and it felt like my entire world stopped. I fell. I fell.

The tears didn't need to be called and I started sobbing uncontrollably. There was a ton of cheering and whistling from the crowd. I didn't want their cheers this way...
Lea, Seth and some health officials were right next to me in a heartbeat. They helped lift me and took me to the emergency room.

"My skates. Check the second foot. Something felt loose when I glided on the ice." Seth took my skates off and surprisingly, my blades were not screwed in properly.

Seth left in anger with the skates in his hands. Lea kept asking if I was okay. I just kept nodding as tears flowed freely. This. Is. Pain. I'm never going to get another chance. This is where it might be for me. I'll have to wait like another five years.

The Police came in with Seth to my surprise.

"Hi Matt, I'm Detective Malik and this is Dectective Phillip. We'd like to ask you some questions." I tried to distract myself by looking at the wall behind him.

"Sure."

"Do you know this girl?" He showed me a picture of SUSAN! What the hell?!

"Yes, I know her. Is she here?" I searched around frantically, scared as hell.

"Well, she's on her way to prison as we speak. We've been on the hunt for her. Can you tell us how you know her?"

I told them the whole story and the officers had eye contact. I'm guessing they had some silent communication.

"She's currently under arrest for arson at Ben's rink, amongst other crimes she has committed. She tampered with your skates and is the cause of this unfortunate event. If you would like to press charges, here's our phone numbers. That will be all for now." They got up and left.

My head was pounding. I cried some more and kept asking Lea why bad things happened to me. Scott called but I didn't want to talk. Lea picked up the phone for me and I slept for a bit.

When I woke up, I saw Seth. He was smiling slightly.

"What?!" I deadpanned.

"So here's the thing. You have about... twenty minutes to warm up, stretch that ankle and claim your spot if you still want it. I talked to the committee. You still can compete! You'll perform last."

I squeaked happily.

"No way!"

"Yes way, nerd. Now, let's go."

●●●

I'll say for a fact that trying to compete with a sprained ankle is not exactly the best and it's veeery painful too. Seth and I decided to leave out the quad axel and bring it down to a triple.

It was time. I walked to the ice and glided. My name was announced again and people cheered for me. It was extremely heart warming.

My opening quad salchow was easy on my ankle surprisingly and I went straight into my triple axel which was evidently the best I've ever done judging by the screams from the crowd. I gave a quad lutz + half flip + triple toe loop which sent a sharp pain to my brain but I managed to land it. For my bonus, I did a triple axel + triple flip + triple toe successfully. I finished my free skate with a quad lutz.

The crowd cheered and threw flowers, teddy bears and all sorts. I was just there on my knees crying, waving and mouthing thank you to everyone. Seth came to lift me up and carry me to the kiss and cry.

"You did it." Seth huffed, obviously affected by my weight as he walked.

We sat and waited for the score.

Ladies and gentlemen, without the score for Matt Fox announced, he has been given a spot on the US Olympic Team as an alternate. His long program score however, is two hundred and eleven point six eight; the highest score on the free skate in today's competition.