“Violet, you must be? My name is Caitlyn, and I am going to be helping you with your figure skating lessons.” Cait rehearsed her greeting over and over in the mirror, repeating it to herself as she paced back and forth.
She opened her mouth to start again, a knock on her door startling her out of the trance she had formed herself into. Cait walked over, trying to seem like she wasn't completely out of it over the prospect of having to teach someone.
“Hey sprout.” Jayce started, adjusting the duffel that had been haphazardly slung over his shoulder. “You uh, you going mad in there? All I could hear was just you saying the same thing over and over.”
“I am perfectly fine.” Her left eye twitched as she kept going over her introduction in her head, almost completely zoning out from whatever Jayce was now saying.
Jayce raised an eyebrow, shrugging it off. “I believe you. You got your stuff?” He gestured inwards to the small studio apartment where she had quite obviously, not, prepped her gear.
It sat strewn across the table, her skate towel hanging off the edge, her guards on opposite sides, only one leg warmer actually visible from a distance. She sighed, waving her hand as a way of saying wait for a second.
Her skate bag was fairly small, but she still managed to cram everything inside. Her skates- a fairly new but still broken-in pair of Edea Ice Flys, that were her go to for training, sat tucked into the side, making room for her water bottle, a jacket, her gloves.
She zipped it up carefully, draping it across her body in a much more secure fashion than the way that Jayce was wearing his own. Cait made her way back over to the door, grabbing her keys on the way out.
“Seriously, it's gonna go fine. Vi’s cool, you'll get along great.” Jayce tried to reassure her as they left for his car, but Cait still couldn't shake the nervous feeling of having to actually teach someone.
Skate? Oh she could skate, but teach? That wasn't her strong suit. She'd been told she came off too strong, got tunnel visioned and struggled to empathise when people couldn't do things after the first couple tries.
Her own coach, Mel Medarda, was lovely, and understood very well what she could and couldn't do, and how exactly to instruct her in a way that she could comprehend and work out for herself. Cait longed to have a chance to talk with her before she got to teaching, even if it was just for a second to get a few pointers.
//
“My next program- think. We need to brainstorm.” Jinx plopped down in front of Viktor, her knees pulled up to her chin. Her skates sat haphazardly next to her, having been flung onto the bench alongside the rest of her belongings when she sat down.
“Brainstorm what exactly?” Viktor asked, hardly looking up from the boring admin stuff he had been working on all day, his fingers still tapping away at the keys of the arena assigned laptop.
“It needs to be special. Seriously. It's my last one ever in singles before I start training for pairs. I need to go out with a bang...” She paused, thinking to herself, her hands rubbing together in something reminiscent of a cartoon villain.
“Something wrong?” Viktor replied again, this time actually glancing up from his work and watching Jinx fiddle with the end strands of her plait, her nail polish chipping away at the small metal pieces she'd intertwined within her hair.
“I need to go out with a bang, Viktor that's it!” She jumped up again, excitedly walking around her chair and rambling about her idea for her program. Viktor couldn't catch much of it, but what he did hear sounded like exactly the sort of thing Jinx would come up with- something about fireworks and sparklers.
The door to the rink opened, the cold air fizzing as it hit a new batch of people. Cait and Jayce walked down the ramp, immediately putting on more layers as they got closer to where Jinx and Viktor were sitting.
Jayce settled his own bag by the reception desk, grabbing a pair of gloves from one of the front pockets before he continued on with Cait. They stood awkwardly for a couple seconds, watching Viktor silently work and Jinx babble on about something that sounded rather fiery for an ice rink.
Cait spoke first, breaking the harsh silence with her voice. “How's that new program coming along? Any ideas?” She queried, leaning against the barrier by where they were sitting. The corner of Jinx’s mouth turned upwards with glee as she began to explain her dream program, gesturing wildly with her hands like a madman.
“We were thinking, what if- and do not say that it isn't a good idea, I had fireworks during the program. Like as in, I hold a little sparkler stick and we get some on my skates as well!” Jinx’s eyes lit up with excitement as she carefully analysed Cait’s face for her reaction. Cait kept a steely expression, not one of any emotion really, just considering the logistics of it and how it could work in practice.
“Hey I uh, I hate to be the health and safety guy, I really do, but fireworks? On ice? Is that- is that up to regulation?” Jayce stuck his head into the conversation, setting his stuff down next to where Viktor was sitting. Viktor moved over slightly for him, giving him just enough room to be able to put his arms on the table and not bump into him as he typed endlessly.
Jinx shrugged theatrically. “Dunno. Guess that’s what makes it exciting!” She pranced off down the edge of the rink to go and let Heimerdinger know of her plans.
“I don't foresee that going well.” Cait spoke, her arms folded into her chest. She wasn't talking about the program really, more about the actual telling Heimerdinger part. Most of the time he was right, and had great advice, but occasionally he could be quite stuck in his ways about everything, not willing to listen to new ideas and perspectives.
“It's Jinx. We can trust her to be responsible.” Viktor responded, continuing typing on the old rink laptop. His voice was laced with friendly sarcasm, the kind that comes without venom but with just dry wit. If he meant it badly, that would come with a severe amount of hypocrisy on his part, especially considering he actually liked Jinx’s idea and was willing to work something out with it.
Cait heard the doors to the rink slam shut, groaning internally. Because someone coming into the rink half an hour before learn to skate started meant one of two things.
One, it was a middle aged parent armed with a stanley cup and ‘healthy fun snacks’ for the kids that would hardly get them through the twenty minute warm up time and briefing, let alone the hour long lesson time afterwards.
Those kinds of people were ready to come in and stand on their phones, taking 30 minutes to get the Wordle in 5, and once in a while taking the time to yell at Mel and Heimerdinger because their kid fell over whilst doing literal ice skating lessons.
Or two, it meant that Violet had arrived and her time of rest before she had to begin teaching was over. She desperately hoped for the former, willing to be yelled at by someone's parents rather than actually have to try and teach basic skills.
She glanced up, allowing herself a view of whoever had just arrived. The person coming down the hallway was slightly above average height, probably around 5 '7 if she had to guess, and from the look of things was probably a hockey skater.
Her arms were humongous; her bicep was probably the size of Cait’s head, and she walked like she knew the place already, like she frequented the rink and had memorised the people who worked there. Still, this could just be a random hockey kid. Someone's older sister, someone who'd just come to see the show.
Jayce got up, patting Cait on the shoulder as if to send her off towards the hockey girl. Shit. This was probably Violet. Cait stood up, her legs carrying her towards her before she could even think about doing so herself.
“Violet, you must be? My name is Cait, and I am helping you with your lessons.” Cait blurted out, mentally cursing herself for forgetting some parts of it, white knuckling the blades of her skates behind her back. For once in her life, she was glad for hard guards, as she'd certainly have a deep cut by now if she'd forgotten them.
“Vi’s just fine. You’re awfully uh,” She looked her up and down, “Tall. Really tall. Holy shit.” Vi’s expression changed, suddenly realising how odd that whole interaction was.
Cait paid her no mind. “And so today you’ll be starting on lemons and slaloms, as I trust you can already skate considering the glowing reviews I’ve heard from Jayce.” Her fingers twiddled with the laces of her skates absentmindedly as she rambled on about techniques and if Vi had her own skates or if she was using rentals.
“... Kinda like a mongoose.” Vi continued, her face lighting up as she figured out what exactly Cait reminded her of. Cait was less than pleased, but quickly masked a baffled expression for one of more carelessness.
“Mongoose?”
Mongoose? This was possibly the worst insult she'd ever received. Cait was a huge animal nerd back when she was a kid, so picturing a mongoose was incredibly easy for her, making the insult much worse.
Because she was right.
Cait did look like a mongoose when she stood up tall, her elbows tucked into her sides as she played with the zipper on her jacket as a way to avoid unnecessary conversation with parents.
“Well- “ Cait stammered, looking for something she could call Vi, something at least vaguely insulting just to show that she could hold her own. “Your hair. You… look like an angry oil slick.”
Vi’s hair was red at the roots, unnaturally so, and messily coloured black on the tips as if she'd had a breakdown one night and went at it with a sharpie. It looked good on her; the whole emo shtick. Cait would never say that out loud, but she certainly thought it.
Vi laughed to herself quietly, the kind of laugh that made Cait’s heart sputter with each small noise that came out of her. “Don't sugarcoat it, Cupcake.” Cait froze. Cupcake? That was better than mongoose, certainly, but cupcake?
Normally a nickname like that she'd just write off as teasing- something that she could easily forget or put behind her. But there was something addictive in the way that Vi said it, something that drew her closer with every syllable that left her mouth. But Cait would never say that out loud.
//
Cait skated a couple laps of the rink, just enough not to be rude but also enough for her to get used to the feel of the ice after having had a week off. Vi followed, scrambling against the boards as she tried to make sense of the new blades.
Cait stopped in front of her, casually skating backwards as Vi struggled to move forwards towards her. “I thought you were some star skater from what Jayce told me, but uh, here you are. Living off the boards.” She shrugged, trying to be nonchalant as Vi moved towards her, backing away from the cold comfort that was the boards.
“Star skater my ass, I mean look at you. Can you actually skate?” She continued. She wasn't trying to be cruel, no, much the opposite. Whilst tying her laces she thought of something Jayce had told her on the drive over about Vi having quite a temper, and had the idea of using that to get her out of her comfort zone once she’d put on her skates.
It was working, much more than Cait had expected. Vi was getting visibly worked up, trying her hardest to move in the foreign skates whilst still being halted every couple seconds by her toe pick.
“I mean, I was twice the skater at half your age-” She was cut off by Vi flying forwards, all concern for how she was moving on the skates having gone out of the window. Cait cheered, speeding off into laps around the rink.
Vi chased her down, surprisingly fast considering the limitations of new skates. Cait slowed down, allowing her to catch up as she stopped again by the boards. Vi tried to follow suit, her attempts at a regular hockey stop thwarted by the toe pick.
Cait stifled a laugh as Vi shifted her weight on the ice, extending a hand up to her. “You gonna help me out, cupcake?” She looked up, managing a small smile through the pain of the rough landing.
“Stop calling me that.” Cait pulled her up, allowing Vi a chance to rest on the boards and take a couple breaths. Cait snuck a glance at her chest, watching carefully as it rose and fell with every hasty breath. She looked away, suddenly realising how weird that looked.
Her phone buzzed on the table where she had left it, the screen lighting up with a message. After painfully excusing herself from Vi, she picked her phone up and scanned over the preview of what she had been sent.
jinx > that was gay as fuck kiramman
viktor > Yeahhh I second that.
cait > I’m blocking you both.