The Comeback: A Figure Skating Novel by E. L. Shen

Author:E. L. Shen [Shen, E. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary, Childrens
ISBN: 9780374313791
Goodreads: 52516021
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Published: 2021-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

Cannon Fire

There should be a rule that after a big competition, I get the whole following week to lie on my bed, limbs outstretched like a starfish, and do absolutely nothing. Mom, unfortunately, does not agree with me. On Monday morning, she makes me do my usual twenty crunches and then pushes my very sore legs out the door and down the hill to school. Now I’m sitting in the library yawning every three minutes while blinking at a computer screen. At least I got to sleep in. Judy said I deserved a three-day break from morning practice. This is the first morning in months that I’ve woken up on a weekday with the sun streaming through my window.

Mr. Warren is rattling off a series of best research practices, but his voice crackles against my ears like radio static. I look at my fingertips. I can still feel the touch of the cool pewter of the fourth-place medal, now proudly hanging on a hook in our living room next to a Polaroid Dad snapped from my free skate.

Hollie won gold, like I knew she would. She really did skate beautifully. I still stand by the fact that Celine Dion is cheesy, though.

Crack! I am jolted out of my daydreams by what sounds like someone taking a fist to their keyboard. I turn, the ice and Celine Dion melting before my eyes. Instead, I find Alex pounding on his keyboard—a library performance for the boys laughing beside him.

I glare as he smashes the keys, a heavy-bellied snort escaping from his lips. Today, his spiky hair situation is at an all-time high. Literally. I am convinced that there’s a porcupine growing on his head.

I wish I could tell him how stupid he looks, how infantile, but my body still feels small and empty around him. Instinctively, I want to curl into a corner.

“Alex Macreesy,” Mr. Warren’s voice thunders, jumping by six decibels, “have you ever heard of the phrase, ‘You break it, you buy it’?”

Alex glances up at Mr. Warren’s puffed-out chest.

“Huh?”

“You break it, you buy it,” Mr. Warren repeats, stepping forward. “If you break that keyboard, I will personally send your parents the bill. Understood?”

Alex’s cheeks turn the color of ripe strawberries. He slumps down in his seat, his porcupine head drooping. I didn’t even know Alex had the capacity to feel embarrassed. The realization almost makes me feel powerful, strong. Laughter builds, bubbling up to my nose. I can’t help it. I let out a snicker.

Alex’s eyes whiz toward mine, sharp and ugly. His face is still blotchy, but his fists ball up like he’s waiting to punch me in the gut. Okay, I totally take back that snicker now.

Mr. Warren turns around to help Elisa. Alex’s friends squirm in their seats, pretending to be thoroughly engrossed in their research. I try to focus on my computer screen.

Paragraphs on paragraphs about Mary Ludwig Hays loom before me. I yawn. Why is she important again?

I scroll through a couple of articles, too lazy to move my hand from the mouse and read anything.

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