Spinning Away

by Jake Maddox

  The man began to skate over to the girls, stopping on the other side of the Plexiglas wall and smiling wide. Maggie noticed that he had a colorful tattoo sleeve that snaked up one arm. Oh, her mother was really not going to like that.

  “Hey, girls. You’re here early,” the man said. He lounged against the wall. He seemed so confident and completely unaware that there was a loud argument happening — about him — just a short distance away.

  Maggie could feel Beatrice’s whole body stiffen beside her. Beatrice would be waiting to see how she should react from their mother.

  “We always show up early,” Maggie said. “I’m Maggie, and this is my twin sister, Beatrice.” She stood up and smoothed down her warm-up. “Are you our new coach?”

  “I’m Coach Stone, and I sure hope so,” he said. He nodded toward the group of adults who were still talking loudly. “But I guess we’ll see.”

  Looking up — way up — at him, Maggie noticed how very tall Coach Stone was. She also noticed a mischievous sparkle in his eyes.

  Just then, Maggie’s mother appeared, storm clouds in her eyes. “Girls, we are going home,” she said, pulling her white gloves out of her designer purse and brushing invisible dust from them. “Go grab your things.”

  Coach Stone smirked and said, “It was nice meeting you, Maggie and Beatrice.”

  Maggie’s mother walked away without saying a word to him, her heels clicking loudly on the cement floor. Beatrice jumped up and followed her like a mouse.

  Maggie sighed and waved limply at Coach Stone, saying, “See ya later.” She started to walk to the locker room to change back into her school clothes but then turned and said, “Well, maybe.” She didn’t have much hope of that, though.

  “Hey, Maggie,” Coach Stone said.

  “Yeah?” said Maggie, looking back at him one last time.

  “Nice hair.”

  CHAPTER 4

  COACH STONE’S SURPRISE

  In the week since Coach Bennett quit, Maggie and Beatrice hadn’t been allowed back to the skating rink. Beatrice had begun to act even more miserable and moody than normal, sulking around the house and snapping when spoken to. Their mother had been trying to get the local skating association to match Coach Bennett’s new salary. But she wasn’t having any luck. Coach Bennett was happy with the change and wasn’t interested in coming back.

  Maggie was busy decorating her bedroom ceiling with glow-in-the-dark stars. One of her dad’s favorite Rolling Stones songs blasted out from the speakers in her room. Maggie placed another sticker above her head and then jumped around on her mattress, playing air guitar like a rock star.

  Just then, her door swung open with a bang and there stood Beatrice, looking like she could spit fire. “What did you do, Magnolia?” Beatrice shouted over the music. She brandished her bright red headphones in the air like an angry flag.

  “Nothing?” said Maggie, sitting down on her bed and picking at the threads of her comforter nervously. She had lost her own headphones the week before. While borrowing Beatrice’s, she’d accidentally spilled a glass of water on them. She’d been hoping her sister wouldn’t notice.

  “You never take care of your stuff, Magnolia,” said Beatrice.

  She picked up Maggie’s torn and bedazzled sweatshirt that was lying on a chair. “If you don’t lose something, you wreck it by cutting it up into pieces.”

  Maggie shrugged.

  “And now you’re ruining all of my stuff too,” said Beatrice, her voice slowly approaching the sound only dogs could hear. “And, by the way, you look completely and utterly crazy with your messed-up hair.”

  “You’re just mad about Coach Bennett,” said Maggie.

  Beatrice threw her headphones down, and they bounced on the floor. She glared at Maggie. “Don’t . . . touch . . . my . . . stuff.”

  With that, she stomped out of the room, slamming Maggie’s door behind her. Beatrice’s elephant-like feet pound down the hallway, followed by a shrill call of, “MO-OM!”

  Maggie cringed.

  Being in even more trouble was just what she needed. She flopped down onto her bed, closed her eyes, and tried to let the music take her to a different place. She pretended that she was doing a perfect Biellman spin, her leg stretched out behind her. She could feel the arch in her back and the ice beneath her skate as she whirled in a perfectly spun circle. Her parents were going crazy in the stands.

  Maggie smiled to herself.

  The first couple of days without skating had been pure bliss for Maggie. She’d slept in and been able to come home right after school. She’d even gotten all of her homework done with time left over to read for fun.

  Slowly, though, it had begun to feel like bugs were crawling underneath her skin. Having all the extra time had ultimately become boring. She’d started to actually miss skating. She missed the cold air at the rink, no matter the temperature outside. She missed making patterns on the ice with newly sharpened blades.

  The spinning, though — she missed the spinning most of all.

  Maggie missed twirling so fast that no one could see her face. She became someone different when she spun. Not Magnolia, Beatrice’s twin sister. Not her mother’s daughter, who always had to be perfect. She became simply Maggie.

  * * *

  Maggie’s dad walked in the door from work. He sat down at the dinner table and started to pile pot roast onto his plate, smiling away at his family.

  “How’s life for my three sunshines?” he said.

  He started to whistle. He was almost always in a good mood. It was as if her parents had been allotted only one person’s happiness, and her dad was the one who got it. He was a bit oblivious to any drama in the house, but Maggie loved that.

  Maggie’s mother set her fork next to her plate. She looked up and had dark circles under her eyes “Well, girls,” she said all of a sudden, “your father and I have made a decision.” She gave her husband a squint-eyed look. He stopped his whistling and straightened up, sensing that he needed to look serious.

  Maggie’s fork, filled with mashed potatoes, paused mid-flight. She looked over at her dad. He gave her a thumbs-up. She felt like there were bees buzzing around in her stomach.

  “Do we get to skate again?” Beatrice asked, her face lighting up like the belly of a lightning bug.

  “Well, we are going to talk with . . . Coach Stone,” their mother said. She choked out his name as if it tasted bad in her mouth. “Tonight, actually. He’s coming over.” She paused and stared right at Maggie. “So we’ll need you two to go do your homework right after dinner.”

  “But we already did it,” Beatrice said.

  Maggie kicked her hard under the table.

  “Ow!” said Beatrice.

  “We have that other project . . . in science, remember, Bea?” Maggie said. She smiled big and then widened her eyes at Beatrice. “We have loads to do.”

  Beatrice frowned at Maggie but didn’t say another word. Maggie sure wished that they had that creepy twin telepathy sometimes. After dinner the girls went to their rooms like their mother had asked.

  They’d only been in their rooms for a short period of time when Maggie heard the doorbell. She tiptoed out of her room and tapped on Beatrice’s door and beckoned her out into the hallway. Despite being clueless at dinner, Beatrice seemed to catch on.

  The two girls found a spot at the top of the stairs where they could stay invisible but see and hear what was happening.

  It felt like one of those late nights when they were little and had snuck out to take in one of their parents’ parties.

  They had to squeeze together in the tight spot, their legs piling up on top of each other. Maggie thought that it felt good to be on the same team as Beatrice for once. The thought made her so happy that a giggle bubbled up inside of her, and she snorted.

  Beatrice elbowed her. “Shhh,” she said. “He’s talking now.”

  Coach Stone had worn a suit and tie — no tattoos in sight. Maggie gave him a high-five for e
ffort in her mind. It sounded like he was talking about his education and all of the places he’d worked before.

  And then Coach Stone finished his last sentence with the words, “and then for the past two years, I’ve been working at the Olympic Training Center.”

  The breath whooshed out of Maggie at once. She looked over at Beatrice, whose eyes bulged in shock. Maggie felt like she had a marching band drumming through her veins. Coach Stone had worked at the United States Olympic Training Center.

  Surely their mother would have to approve of him now.

  CHAPTER 5

  MAGGIE FINDS HER MAGIC

  Maggie stood next to her mother inside the arena. Her mother’s breath puffed out like a dragon’s in the cold air. The effect gave her face a scary quality.

  “Nothing has changed, Magnolia,” her mother said.

  Maggie cringed at hearing her full name.

  Her mother stared straight ahead, her back as straight as the ironing board she spent so much time with. “We’re going to stick with your normal routine and the classical music.”

  How did she know what I was thinking? Maggie thought to herself.

  She had just been day-dreaming about ice-skating. Led Zeppelin had been playing in the background in her fantasy, and she was wearing a dark purple velvet skating outfit with rhinestones. She imagined doing a double axel just like Beatrice — but looking way cooler than Beatrice while doing it.

  “Okay, Mom,” Maggie said, feeling the familiar sadness whenever her mother put her foot down. Having tried many times before, Maggie knew that it was useless to argue.

  Five minutes later, Maggie’s mother was up in the stands. All of the other skaters were laced up and standing on the ice, shivering a bit. Coach Stone skated toward them. He turned backward and started picking up speed. He steadied himself before swinging his right leg up, sending him flying into the air.

  One, two, three and a half turns. A triple axel.

  All the girls gasped and started to clap.

  Maggie couldn’t believe it. That was the most amazing jump she’d ever seen in person. Butterflies floated inside of her. No other coach of hers had ever done anything like that.

  As he landed and skated over to the group, Coach Stone’s grin spread across his face.

  “Good morning, young skaters,” he said, planting one skate across the other and leaning onto the railing. “Before we begin,” he continued, making sure that he directed his gaze at each girl individually, “I want to repeat for our two new athletes, Maggie and Beatrice, what I told the rest of you last week.”

  The girls all gave knowing smiles to the twins.

  Maggie glanced up anxiously at the stands toward her mother, who was watching closely but was probably too far away to hear Coach Stone’s words.

  Coach Stone pushed off the Plexiglas wall with his hands. He said, “I believe that skating should be, most of all . . .” He spun around with his limbs flying in all directions. “Fun.” He finished his move and raised his arms high above his head. He waggled his eyebrows.

  Many of the girls started to laugh. Maggie fidgeted with the tips of her gloves.

  “Let’s get started,” Coach Stone said. He skated over toward the stereo system and pushed a button. Pulsing music began to pump out the arena speakers, seemingly on all sides of them. “Today, I want you all to just skate. Forget about what you’re supposed to do. Move to the music.”

  Maggie felt her feet come alive. They slid back and forth to the rhythm of the song. She began to tap her hands on the tops of her thighs.

  The rest of the girls gawked at each other, willing someone to do something first. Under Coach Bennett, they’d always been told to practice specific skills before. They did warm-ups, then drills, then new skills. It was always the same. They weren’t quite sure what to do with their brand new freedom.

  Beatrice looked completely confused. She kept glancing up at their mother. Maggie knew how much Beatrice liked to have a plan, a checklist of activities. A plus B equaled C. A logical sequence.

  Finally, Zoe beamed at Maggie and started to move out onto the ice. She shot her hands into the air like she’d just been attacked by the music. She’d already spent a full week practicing with Coach Stone and was clearly more familiar with his odd techniques.

  Maggie chuckled out loud and decided right then that she wasn’t even going to look in her mother’s direction. In fact, she wasn’t going to think about her at all. She was going to follow her feet, which seemed to be skating around in a circle all by themselves. She moved her hips from side to side and twirled, letting the music flow into her blood, her muscles, her limbs.

  Now this I could skate to, Maggie thought as she began to fly across the ice, kicking her feet up and feeling all of her cells bounce to the music. It felt amazing. She began to skate faster, turning right at the last moment before she plowed into the wall. Then she went into her combination sit spin, crossing her arms in front of her, leaving perfect circles carved into the ice below.

  Maggie stood up and skated hard, moving into an axel and then a double toe loop. It all seemed so easy as her body took over. She glided across the ice, avoiding the other skaters as they loosened up, moving and jumping and spinning to the beat. Most of the girls seemed to be having as much fun as she was.

  Maggie ignored them as she leapt and shimmied and skated. Her muscles felt incredibly strong and sure. All of her hours of training seemed to click right into place. This is what Beatrice feels, she thought with amazement. This is why she’s so good at skating.

  The peak of the song was coming up. Maggie skated backward, her feet crisscrossing. There was an open space on the ice, and she wanted to try another axel. Actually, she was feeling so confident that she wanted to attempt a double axel. She’d tried to pull it off before but never had done it.

  Maggie sped across the ice and jumped into the air. She completed the normal axel rotation and then the full extra revolution before landing just as the music slowed down.

  Maggie couldn’t believe it — she’d just landed her very first double axel. Her heart pounded to the bass line of the song, and she spun around and around with the dying notes, not wanting the feeling to end. As she slowed, she started to realize that the rest of the skaters had stopped. They were staring at her, mouths hanging open.

  Beatrice glowered at Maggie. Their mother sat as still as a tombstone, pursing her lips.

  Maggie wrapped her arms around herself. What just happened? she thought. Did I really just land a double axel?

  * * *

  As Maggie lay in her bed that night, she overheard her parents talking. Her mother used words like “unbalanced” and “outlandish” and “bizarre” to describe Coach Stone and his methods. Her father asked questions but didn’t put up much of a defense.

  When Maggie finally fell asleep, she tossed and turned with strange visions. In one, Coach Stone leapt into the air, and then the snake tattoo on his arm came to life and hissed at Maggie that she would never be as good as her sister.

  The next morning, Maggie felt her mother shaking her shoulder gently.

  “Hey, sleepyhead,” her mother said.

  She stroked Maggie’s forehead.

  Maggie looked out her window and saw that the worried face of the moon was still shining into her room. The sky was still pitch black.

  “What time is it?” Maggie asked. She rubbed her eyes, trying to make sense of what was happening.

  “It’s early,” her mother said, “but we’re driving the hour to train with Coach Bennett from now on.” She patted Maggie’s leg and then, as if an afterthought, “If Beatrice wants to make regionals, she really needs to get back on the ice with someone more traditional.”

  Even though Maggie’s brain wasn’t quite awake enough to process that information, her stomach dropped. She had known she hadn’t had much of a shot to make regionals herself, but it was crushing to hear it come directly from her mother’s mouth. Maggie noticed there was also no mention of w
hat Maggie wanted or needed.

  Her mother walked out of Maggie’s bedroom. Seconds later, she heard Beatrice staggering to the bathroom. Maggie moaned and pulled the covers up around her head. Her mother had officially lost her mind.

  In the car, Maggie’s mother explained to her daughters that they would to continue to train with their ballet and jump coaches after school in their old rink, but every morning they’d go to Coach Bennett’s.

  Beatrice soon fell asleep beside Maggie. She looked peaceful, knowing that she would get to train with her old coach again.

  While Maggie watched her sister’s steady breathing, she felt like her own heart was breaking. Just the day before, she had experienced a passion for skating she’d never felt before. She’d gotten only the smallest dose, but now it was being taken away because her mother couldn’t handle “unusual.”

  The drive to Coach Bennett’s new skating rink was an hour long one way. That meant a two-hour round trip each day. Maggie wasn’t sure what was worse: the dreariness, how tired she was, or worrying that she was going to be that tired every single morning — maybe the rest of her life.

  Maggie decided that things really couldn’t be worse. Her mother had made a decision and didn’t care what anybody else thought about it.

  CHAPTER 6

  DECISIONS

  Over the next period of time, Maggie’s entire family grew more and more short-tempered. Instead of greeting each other with, “Good morning,” they simply grunted. The puffy circles under her mother’s eyes were so large they began to resemble bean bag chairs. The long hours in the car were wretched. And training with Coach Bennett made Maggie feel like she was getting painted into the wrong picture all over again.

  At practice one morning, Maggie collided with Beatrice from behind. Both girls fell down onto the ice.

  “Watch it, Magnolia!” Beatrice hollered, rubbing her elbow.

  “You watch it,” Maggie snapped, shoving her sister’s leg off of her own. It wasn’t fair, Beatrice getting everything she wanted. She always got everything she wanted just because she liked the same things their mother liked.