Pucking Fantastic

Chapter 29: Good Riddance

Because of the Corona Virus, I get to work from home for the next few weeks.

To celebrate, here is a chapter! Also, look out for the <>! Enjoy!

Darla H

As Cami drove me home, all I could think about was what Kris told me. The word 'train wreck' played on repeat. Her intention wasn't to hurt me, but it felt like a knife was getting plunged repeatedly into my stomach.

Cami and I didn't talk during the drive and I was glad about that. I was fuming so much about Kris that I wouldn't have been able to have a solid conversation. I was so sure Kris and I had a bond that couldn't be broken, but I was wrong. She lost my trust and the relationship we had was over. There was no coming back from this. I would never want to work with Kris again.

As much damage as Kris made, one thing I was glad for was that she didn't do was call my parents that I passed out. At least I had some of my dignity around my shoulders.

Cami pulled into my driveway and sighed. "Don't be too hard on them. They're all worried about you," Cami said softly.

I didn't want to have this conversation with her. I was so tired of hearing that everyone was 'worried' about me. If they were, couldn't they see that I was falling apart mentally? Didn't they care about that? 

"See you later Cami," I said as I got out of her car with my skate bag in hand. I walked through the front door of the house and quickly closed the door behind myself. "I'm home!" I called out into the house as I pulled off my shoes.

Instantly mom walked down the stairs as she put on some gold pearl earrings. "El, we're leaving to do that college tour with Paulo," mom said as she slipped on her coat. She was in a hurry that meant they were heading out the door.

I nodded. I remembered Paulo talking about this on the way to the rink this morning. I was just hoping that I would miss them by time I came home. 

They were going to see all of the schools that Paulo got a sports scholarship for. They didn't need to do this for Jaimie, because unlike his brother, Jaimie actually had an idea of what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Often Paulo focused too in the moment. For him, it worked, but for school, my parents needed to push him. "How long will you be gone again?" I asked, even though I knew how long they would be gone for.

"Five days," she said as she looked down the hall, trying to find something. Her mind was distracted.

Ok. That gave me five days to train, five days closer to nationals. With them gone, I could skate as much as I wanted without them throwing disapproving looks at me or putting their foot down about the matter. This time allowed me to call the National's committee and put my name back on the list. Five days meant there was still hope.

"Eliza, we have to get out of here in the next 10 minutes if we want to get to the hotel at a decent hour," dad said to mom as he dragged some large luggage bags down the stairs.

I was sure he was the one that called the committee. He went behind my back. My own family let me down. I had to talk to them to get all of this off my chest. This conversation would be messy but I needed to do it now. "We need to talk about nationals," I said to them.

Dad stopped in mid-walk whereas mom frowned at me. They didn't think I would find out so soon.

I felt my eyes well up with tears. This just showed that they purposely went behind my back. They weren't planning on telling me about this. But the thing was, how would I have not found out about it? There was no way to hide this secret for long. Kris was bound to spill. Right now she was the most honest person that I was surrounded by and even she went behind my back. "How dare you do this to me."