Frosted (Frosted Series Book 1) Read online

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  TAYLOR ROSE

  FROSTED

  (Frosted Series #1)

  Copyright © 2017 by Taylor Rose

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be conceived as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental. Any familiar names or places are just coincidence. The story in this book is the property of the author, in all media both physical and digital.

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmitted in any form without express written permission from the author. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.

  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Dedication

  Ice Hockey Terms

  Figure Skating Terms

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Epilogue

  THE END

  Author’s Note

  PLAYLIST

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  To those of you who have found the kind of love everyone dreams of finding. Hold onto it. Keep it close. Fight for it.

  To those of you who haven’t found it yet, don’t give up. Keep looking. Keep trying. Keep fighting for it.

  I promise you, it’s worth it.

  A Hit: A “body check” which removes the opposing player from the puck.

  Attacking zone: The opposing side of the ice, extending from the blue line to the end of the rink.

  Assist: Players from the scoring team who passed or deflected the puck to the scoring teammate.

  Backhand: A pass or shot that is taken from the backside of the stick.

  Back checking: Rushing back to the defensive zone when the opposing team attacks your goal.

  Blow a tire: When a player falls to the ice for no apparent reason other than they lost their balance.

  Blue line: The lines separating the attacking/defending zones from the neutral or middle zone.

  Blue liner: A defenseman.

  Boarding: Checking a defensive player in the back, making them fall into the boards. Usually a penalty.

  Boards: The glass walls that surround the rink.

  Body checking: Using the body or hip to knock an opponent.

  Breakaway: When a player possesses the puck and there are no defenders around other than the goalie.

  Change on the fly: Substituting a player from the bench during a live play.

  Defensemen: One of two players that stay further back on the ice, closer to the goalie.

  Defensive zone: The zone of the defending team.

  Double minor penalty:Some minor penalties, which are two minutes, may be doubled if there is an injury. This usually happens if blood is drawn.

  Drop pass: When a player passes the puck behind themselves to another teammate.

  Dropping the gloves: When one or more players toss their gloves to the ice in preparation for a fight. All players involved incur a five-minute penalty.

  Empty net goal: When a goal is scored and the goalie has been pulled from the net.

  Enforcer: A player quick to fight, who defends his teammates against violent members of the other team.

  Faceoff: The method used to start the play at the beginning of a period or after a play has been stopped. One player from each team will line up and face each other. They attempt to take control of the puck after the ref drops it on the ice between them.

  Fighting: When two or more players punch each other repeatedly. A major penalty is issued to all players involved.

  Five on three: When one team has two players in the penalty box leaving the other team with five players on the ice, creating a five on three.

  Five on four: When one team has one player in the penalty box due to a penalty.

  Goal: When the puck crosses the red line into the opposing teams net.

  Hand passing: The act of passing the puck with the players’ hands.

  Hat trick: When a player scores three goals in one game.

  High sticking: The act of hitting a player in the shoulders or head with a stick.

  Hip check: Using the hip to knock into an opponent.

  Icing: Occurs when a player on one team shoots the puck across both the center line and the opposing team’s goal line without the puck being touched.

  Neutral zone: The area of ice between the blue lines.

  Overtime: An extra session of play added on after the regulation time has ended and the game is scored in a tie.

  Open net: When the goalie is not on the ice.

  Penalty box: The bench a player will sit on when given a penalty.

  Power Play: When one team has more players on the ice than the opposing team.

  Rink: The playing surface.

  Axel: A skater takes off from the forward position, just outside the edge of the opposing skate. A single Axel consists of 1 ½ revolutions, a double is 2 ½ revolutions, and a triple is 3 ½ revolutions in the air. It is one of the most difficult jumps in figure skating.

  Approach: Steps or movements across the ice leading into a jump, spin, or other move.

  Back spin: Any one footed spin where a counter clockwise spinner rotates on the right foot and a clockwise spinner on the left.

  Camel spin: A spin that is done with one leg, with the non-skating leg extended in the air parallel to the ice.

  Check: The motion of controlling rotation, shoulders counter rotating against hips.

  Chocktow: A turn from forwards to backwards and backwards to forwards from one foot to the other in which the curve of the exit edge is in the opposite direction to the curve of the entry edge. The change of foot is from the outside edge to the inside edge and vice versa.

  Combination spin: The combination of several spins where the skater changes feet and positions, while maintaining speed through the entire spin.

  Compulsory dance: A dance that has prescribed rhythms and specific steps that must be done by each skater in an exact manner wi
th an exact placement on the ice. All skaters do the same compulsory dance in an event, creating an equal playing field for each skater.

  Crossovers: Gaining speed and turning corners where skaters cross one foot over the other. There are both forwards and backwards crossovers.

  Edges: The two sides of the skate blades on either side of the grooved center. There is an inside and outside edge to each skate which equals four total edges.

  Edge jump: A jump where the skater takes off from the entry edge of the skating foot without bringing the free foot in contact with the ice to assist take off. (The Axel, The Loop and Salchow, etc.)

  Entry: Refers to the edge immediately preceding a spin or jump.

  Falling leaf jump: A jump taken from a backward edge, as in a loop jump takeoff, the free leg turning a ½ revolution. The landing is forward on the toe of the lifting leg, and either steps into a further glide position on the opposite leg, or steps into a forward inside three-turn.

  Flip jump: A toe pick assisted jump taken from the back inside edge of the skate of one foot, and landed on the back outside edge of the opposite foot.

  Footwork: A sequence of steps or maneuvers that carry the skater across the ice. Generally straight, circular, or serpentine, footwork is intended to show off the precision of the skater.

  Glide: A one or two footed movement across the ice, either forward or backwards.

  Isi: International Skating Institute.

  Isu: International Skating Union, the federation for figure skating.

  Layback spin: An upright spinning position where the shoulders and head are dropped backwards and the back arches. Mostly a spin done by women.

  Lobe: The pattern made in the ice by the blade of the skates that forms an arch or a circle.

  Loop jump: An edge jump taken off of the back outside edge of a skate and landed on that same edge.

  Lutz jump: A toe pick assisted jump taken off from the back outside edge of one skate and landed on the same edge, opposite skate. The skater glides backwards on a wide curve, taps their toe pick into the ice, and rotates in the opposite direction of the curve.

  Mohawk: A turn from forward to backward, or backward to forward. From one foot to the other, each edge of the skate forming parts of the same curve.

  Power: Acceleration and strength in skating.

  Toe pick: The teeth at the front of the blade, used for jumping and spinning.

  Thirteen years old…

  The saying “crash and burn” wasn’t one I was familiar with.

  Until today.

  Crash and burn. Crash and burn. Crash and burn.

  That’s exactly what happened to me.

  I crashed and burned.

  Exploding into nothingness.

  The skin under my leotard and tights was rubbed raw, red, and aching. Heat seeped through the fabric that was clinging to my body, causing steam to roll off of me in waves. Sweat trickled down the sides of my face, leaving lines of cold, wet, almost frozen particles stuck to my cheeks.

  Tears prickled my eyes, aching to release. My lids fluttered together rapidly, blinking them away. Far away.

  I kept my eyes clenched together tightly, needing to make sure a stray tear didn’t escape.

  I was stronger than that. I would not cry, especially over something that was out of my control.

  Breathe in. Breathe out.

  The coolness from the air in the rink was pulled into my lungs, chilling them. Freezing them. Frosting them. Healing them.

  Breathe in. Breathe out.

  Accidents happen. Just get back up and try it again.

  Practice makes perfect.

  My body shivered, reminding me that I was still sitting on the ice. Soon, my limbs would clench together and constrict, rendering me unable to continue with practice for the day.

  The sound of skates shaving the ice near me flitted through my ears.

  Ice flecks fell around my body. My eyes snapped open. The shavings fluttered around me, floating seamlessly throughout the air. Intricate. Beautiful.

  A straggled coughing sound captured my attention.

  “You look great hugging the ice, Figueroa,” snickered Janey, her small body bouncing with laughter about six inches from me. Before I had a chance to reply, she skated away from me, causing more ice flakes to swirl around my body.

  No matter how beautiful the flurry of ice shavings had been, Janey hadn’t meant for me to appreciate her blatant attempt to embarrass me. But how could I be upset about something so beautiful?

  Rather than give her the reaction she aimed for, I ignored her antics and watched, entranced by the ice flakes still flying through the air. It was as if I was enclosed in my own personal snow globe.

  My face broke into a smile as a laugh bubbled out of my mouth. Holding my hands out, I tried to catch the flakes in my hands. But every time one of them landed on my gloves, it immediately melted. The heat from my body melting the fluffy, white, snow-like ice.

  Slowly, as if afraid of scaring away the flurry, I moved my body from a sitting position into a standing one until once again, the blades of my ice skates were resting on the ice rather than my body.

  Falling down was an accident. Staying down was a choice.

  “Again, Figgy,” Henry ordered urgently, his voice ringing through the rink, bouncing off the walls. Demanding attention. Demanding complete authority. Demanding my compliance.

  I nodded, letting him know that I understood what he wanted before taking off across the ice. My skates cut through the ice, fiercely. My momentum pushing me in the direction I wanted to go.

  Skating around the rink three times, I got my balance and momentum back to its optimized place, my sweet spot. I let my arms wiggle around the air, and swiveled my skates so that different parts of the blade were touching the ice. I was loosening my muscles back up to where they were before I fell the first time.

  Feeling the cool air on my face as I quickly made my way around the rink was exhilarating.

  Skating forward in my approach, I hit the speed needed for my jump. Digging my right toe pick into the ice, I pushed off the frozen surface. Spinning through the air, my body rotated three and a half times before the blade of my left skate landed wobbly on the ice.

  Skidding to a stop, I inhaled a huge gulp of oxygen. I held it in my lungs, unable to believe the miraculous feat I had just accomplished.

  A pin drop could be heard in the arena. Everyone was in a state of shock. Rendered speechless. I just landed a triple axel. This was unheard of for most professional ice skaters, let alone someone as young as myself. I was only thirteen.

  Letting the oxygen out of my lungs, it created a puff of steam which escaped from my mouth.

  “You go, girl!” Helen cheered, breaking the ice for others to finally talk again as well.

  Murmurs sounded throughout the arena. Whispers of awe. Whispers of outrage. Whispers of respect.

  “Holy shit,” I breathed out, talking to myself. I was unable to believe that I had actually done it. That I had actually landed a triple axel. My triple axel.

  I had braced myself for another fall, figuring the ice needed another hug, another mistake, or for another bruise on my bum. I didn’t think I’d actually land one of the hardest jumps in the figure skating circuit.

  Henry and Helen really knew what they were doing, pushing me the way that they did.

  My parents worried about a lot of things. They mostly worried that my coaches were pushing me too hard, too far, and too fast. Or that I would get injured trying to land something so advanced at a young age. Trial and error, they said, letting me know that if something bad happened, they wouldn’t let me risk myself, no matter how much I begged.

  So I made sure that I was always safe no matter what I was doing. I stretched safe, ate safe, slept safe. I did everything safe, needing to protect myself at all times. Not wanting anything, and I mean anything, to get in the way of my dream. Before trying any trick on t
he ice, I always tried my jumps and spins connected to a harness until I perfected them over and over again. Repetition and practice are the key parts of my mindset. Finally, after eons of practice on my harness, I would finally try out my skills on the ice.

  Where I belonged.

  Where I thrived.

  Where I lived.

  I wasn’t as worried as my parents, partly because I had confidence in myself. But also because no matter what I was doing, figure skating was my life. Ice was running through my veins, etched into my heart, and branded on my very soul. Chilling me to the bone until I became frosted.

  Frosted with love.

  Frosted with life.

  Every part of my body, mind, and soul were frosted.

  “Figgy!” a familiar voice yelled, dragging me out of my thoughts. Looking up, I locked gazes with my mom in the stands. Tears were shining in her eyes, her face beaming with pride. One hand clutched her chest while the other played with the scarf wrapped around her neck. Her nervous tick.

  Using both of my hands, I formed a heart shape in the air showing her how much I loved her. How much she means to me. That if it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be here right now.

  A tear escaped, falling down her face. Quickly, she used the pad of her thumb to swipe it away. A wobbly smile formed, and her lips shaking slightly with pride, love, and just a shit ton of emotion.

  Slowly, she sat back down on the bleachers, her unwavering eyes locked on my every move. She was so focused, she looked unmovable.

  Shaking my head, I focused on the task at hand. Landing my triple axel again. I couldn’t add it into my routine or use it in competition until I had it mastered. I had to perfect the landing instead of wobbling around. Determination sunk into my mind, planting seeds and taking root there. It was becoming a permanent thought, a permanent reality.

  Smiling to myself, I pushed my skates into the ice, propelling myself forward around the rink. Pushing myself to hit the speed needed for my triple axel, faster this time, needing to improve if only by half a second.