Page 150 of Wonderstruck

Hence why I was letting my mind think anything but that impending skate.

My laughter faded as my mind tried to grip it again, reaching for anything to distract me from the pressure in my chest. From the routines I kept rehearsing in my head. From the tiny voice whispering that maybe I wasn’t good enough to be here at all.

So,I focused on Taylor Swift conspiracy theories. On Finn’s dimples. On how the light cut across his cheekbone and how the room smelled like his cologne and the laundry detergent we both liked. Anything but the ice.

But Finn noticed it. Of course he did.

He brushed my hair back from my face, his thumb lingering at my temple. “You don’t have to do that, you know.”

“Do what?” I whispered.

“Pretend you’re not nervous.”

My throat caught, and for a second, I didn’t say anything.

He kissed my forehead and pulled me against him again. “You’re allowed to be scared, Rory. That doesn’t mean you’re not ready.”

I closed my eyes and breathed him in, letting the words settle.

Letting myself believe them. Letting myself remember that his words meant everything to me now.

I finally settled into his hold. "I love you, Finn Rhodes."

The same smile I fell for a year and a half ago shone down on me, as his dimples deepend, and the green embers of his eyes lit up. "Love you more, bambi."

Therink was eerily quiet before the music started. Just the hiss of my blades against the ice as I glided to the centre, and the familiar sting of nerves in my stomach.

But atleast it wasn’t fear. Not anymore.

No, after a pep talk with myself in the bathroom earlier, it was peace.

Well, almost all of it was. That overthinker that had a perminant residence in my mind was fuelling whatever panic coursed through me.

I exhaled slowly, watching the white puff of my breath vanish in front of me. Every inch of me was alert—my muscles poised, my heartbeat steady, my fingers curled ever so slightly at my sides.

You’ve got this, Aurora. You were so right to choose this path.

Apsen’s voice echoed in the valleys of my mind as I looked up, letting the white arena lights bathe my face, my petal pink costume, and as the music swelled, I skated into it—into the first of many spins, into the footwork, into the performance that had once terrified me and now made me feel whole.

The first notes bloomed through the speakers, soft and aching and so utterly perfect for the story I was skating to. I moved like the music lived in my bones, each motion a conversation between my heart and the ice. The sound of my blades slicing across the surface was rhythmic, clean, satisfying—like punctuation on a sentence I had rewritten a hundred times until it finally said what I meant.

There were moments—fleeting but precious—where I felt like I was flying. Like gravity forgot me. Like the weight of griefand doubt and all the years I’d lost didn’t matter anymore. They’d brought me here, hadn’t they?

To this routine. To this breath. To this chance to begin again.

Aspen stood just off the boards, chin lifted, eyes trained on me. Her arms were crossed, but the subtle smile on her lips gave her away.

She believed in me.

And so did the people in the stands.

Finn was there, pressed against the railing, his Liberty Grove hoodie bunched up in his hands like he couldn’t quite stay still. Daisy stood beside him, recording everything on her phone, while Jesse yelled my name loud enough that the judges definitely heard. Goldie had glitter under her eyes, and tears in them, too. And Tristan had his chin resting on her head, holding her like the anchor she probably needed.

I barely had enough time before my axel to notice that Cora’s seat was empty, but I did, and I think that was what made me fall.

I sank into the collective sigh from the crowd as I tripped over myself, barely spinning in the air before I collapsed, my arms burnin with the sting from the ice as we became one. It was as though I’d left my soul on that corner of the ice as I shakily rose to my feet and carried on like nothing had happened.

But I wasn’t replaying what I’d just done, I wasn’t thinking about how I’d probably ruined my chances of qualifying.

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