
In a Heartbeat
Practice
"What is this place?" Liam asked, staring out the window.
"Centennial Park Arena," I said, grinning at him and getting out of the car.
"Why are we here?" Liam changed his question.
"Today's Sunday," I said as if it was obvious. I grabbed my skate bag and pulled it onto my shoulder.
"Which means......?" says Zayn.
"I missed practice for a few weeks. The show is coming up in two weeks, and I can't miss any more practices!"
"Practice for what?" It was Harry's turn to ask.
I grinned. "Skating."
I changed quickly in the locker room and pulled on my skates, lacing them tightly before waddling into the arena and onto the ice.

I held on to the edge and pulled my blade protectors off and sat them outside the barrier. I was glad I had the arena to myself on Sundays, not because I don't want people watching me, but because the boys are here.
They're in the bleachers, watching me.
Or goofing off.
Or something similar to that.
Probably both.
And then some.
I skated across the ice and over to the box, where I plugged in my iPod.
Now this was weird. I was usually here alone, so nobody had to listen to my skating playlist, so this was kind of awkward, but I pretended like nobody was there, and it was just me. Nobody internationally known, nobody famous, no coach, no peers, nobody.
Except there were five internationally-known boys sitting up at the top of the bleachers.
Watching me.
Well, THAT didn't help.
I pressed play and the first song on my playlist started. It was "Monster" by Skillet. I put this one at the top of my playlist (not the easiest thing to do) to get me going before the not-so-hardcore songs started.
I started skating around the ice, going forwards and backwards, doing bubbles and stroking. When I got back to the box, I put my foot up on the edge and bent over to touch the toe of my skate and held it, then repeated for the other foot before skating around and practicing some of my jumps and spins. After about half and hour of messing around and falling, I changed the song, took off my sweatshirt, and skated to the middle.
The music began and I took a deep breath before starting.
Harry's POV
Watching Melody skate made me think about the time that I went skating and failed miserably. She seemed so comfortable with falling. She would mess up on a jump or a twirl and topple over, either landing on her bum or on her hands and knees, but neither of those as much as she landed on her side and skidded. She would laugh and stand back up and do it again and again until she got it right, then moved on to the next thing.
I was talking to Louis about something that I don't remember when the music stopped. I looked up and saw Melody in the middle of the rink. The music started, soft and slow, and so did she. She started off skating gracefully, then went up into a jump-spin thingy and landed it, then spun with her hands above her head. She went faster and faster and faster, then she was sitting on her ankle, still spinning with one leg out. She was nothing but a whirlwind of color, then she was back up on her feet. She slowed down and skated again.
"How is she not dizzy?!" Niall asked. His eyes were trained on Melody, watching her every move with such intensity that I wondered if he didn't have a crush on her. I felt a pang of jealousy, but ignored it.
She ended the routine with her hands up and her right foot crossing over her left. She brought her arms down in a sweeping motion and bowed to the imaginary audience.
Whoa.
Notes
Okay, so I finally updated an actual update! YAY! One of the kids JUST woke up and ate breakfast. I have to go now. We may or may not have naptime today. It depends on the weather. Stupid rain.ENJOY!
HEY. Your official-unofficial announcements sadden me. No promises or not, I really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY hope you decide to eventually continue. I won't even be mad if you do a rewrite but dude, you gotta do something. I WILL DIE IF THIS STORY DOES NOT CONTINUE.
5/2/16