As the cold snowflake lands on the warm earth I live,

Priceless gifts and joys do I receive,

But the one that would be etched forever in memory,

A graceful figure, moves swiftly on the ice. The crowd cheers and can’t help but watch in awe. She flips her aqua hair and stands up tall. She skates on ice, but it seems as if she soared through the sky. To her, even the sky was no limit.

“Raine!! Stop staring around and hurry up! I’m so excited, I can’t wait any longer!” expressed my friend Lina, a tall girl of 16, dressed in the cutest blouse, waving to me together with a group of my other friends.

I was pulled away from my current thoughts and snapped back to reality. We were at the ice skating ring, at Trinity Mall, a popular hang out for teens. It was the winter holidays and we were all supposed to be spending ‘quality time’ with each other since we had spent hours cramming for the final exam.

“Ugh…” I replied, still making a stand that I was reluctant to do this. Unlike all of them, I hated winter. There was nothing to like about the coldest season of the year that only froze ice and took lives from the poor. Sometimes, the snow was so thick, we have to stay locked at home. I hated winter and every activity to do with it. Mostly because… Never mind.

“Lina, I still don’t understand why you’re excited in embarrassing yourself… You can’t skate right? Why don’t we just hit the arcade or something like that?” I suggested, hoping she would still change her mind, even now.

“Haha, there’s my cute little Raine, still sounding like a guy… Raine, you have to act more like a girl. You are already 16 after all,” Rosy said, making me sweat drop as always. “Sixteen…Tis’ the time of falling in love…”

“You don’t have to add in that accent—”

“Besides, the reason we’re here is because that’s the only way we can spend quality time together since YOU hate shopping…” Sally made a point.

And with that said, there was nothing more that I could throw in to change their minds. Its scary how my three best friends were always great at making me do something that I hated. And their debating and negotiating skills were hard to ignore. All I could do was let out a huge sigh.

“There they are!” Lina pointed towards the four guys sitting on the bench.

I identified them immediately. After all, they really do stand out. Senya, Christ, Tom and Kyle. Senya had short hair with bangs, an earring on his left ear and somehow loved to wear vests. Christ and Tom who were twins, loved teasing people and dressed identically, even though the patterns had a few differences. As time passed, it was easy for me to tell them apart. Christ always combs his fringe to the left and Tom, the right. And their personality would tell them out. Christ was the elder one but the more mature one was Tom. Both of them were great to know. Lastly, was Kyle. New boy in town and was already the most popular guy in school with a lot of girl fans. He had green hair that was just long enough to tie up and brownish eyes. That much I knew of him. He was someone that I just knew, so there was nothing much I could say about his personality.

               Lina and the others greeted them and were soon chatting, leaving me, who was now staring grimly at the ice, out of the picture.

“So you can’t skate?” Kyle asked, surprising me as he appeared so suddenly.

I just shook my head. I wanted to blurt out that I hated anything to do with winter, but some secrets are best kept to yourself.

“Haha, don’t be shy. I can’t, either. Let’s help each other out there, ‘kay?” He asked politely and I just nodded.

I pulled on my skates, wondering when the last time I used these was. As far as I remember, I’ve always hated winter. I was sure that I was just wasting my time on the ice. I took my first step into the ice and almost slipped, but I regained my balance soon after. I grabbed on to the sides of the ring and steadied myself. Great, I thought to myself. How am I supposed to move? I took a look at the strangers in the ring that were able to skate. I decided to copy their movements. Very soon, I was able to move on the ice without grabbing on to the sides. But, somehow, instead of putting my legs in parallel like how the others were skating, I had a habit of putting my right leg in front of the left and skating on one line, like how the people I copied would do when they were turning at the edges.

Sally, Lina and Rosy were surprised at me. They were still clinging on to the bars at the sides of the rink helplessly and were helped by Christ, Tom and Senya.

“I thought you couldn’t skate well,” Kyle uttered, as he slowly balanced on the ice.

“I thought so too,” I replied as I started moving around the ring, slowly and steadily. After going a few rounds, I increased my speed a little. I was a bit confused. I hated everything connected to winter, yet ice skating felt so good. I stopped at this thought. I hate everything connected to winter. This was something that I’ve always held on to. At that moment, some one from the opposite direction nearly bumped into me, but he evaded at the last minute and somehow avoided collision. However, the shock of almost knocking into another person made me lose my balance and I fell.

I must look pathetic. I thought to myself, trying to get up. I stood on my two feet, not as confident as before, holding the sides of the rink to support me as I recovered from my shock.

“Hey, I’m sorry about that. Let me help you,” The guy earlier held out his hand to me but I refused. He was a boy about my age, but he was tall. He had long greenish blue hair tied loosely with a red piece of string. His eyes were blue, almost aqua like mine. There was a warm sensation about him and I just could figure it out.

“I’m fine, thanks,” I replied, brushing off some ice from my shoulders.

“You were skating so well and I didn’t think you’d suddenly stop in the middle like that. You looked like you were thinking about something,”

“Erm, I really don’t think there’s a need to explain it to a stranger, especially one that just almost knocked me down,”

He blushed at this and I almost let out a little laugh.

“Err… I’m Alexial Ryan Frost. Nice to meet you…I’m sort of new in town.”

“I’m Raine Aen Kristil. I wouldn’t say it was THAT nice meeting you since I was almost knocked—” I stopped to laugh when I saw the expression on his face. “I’m just teasing, you know. I’m fine.”

I started skating towards the exit and sat on a bench. My eyes were still fixed on that Alexial guy. Apparently, he was good at this. It was actually kind of cool how he moved so swiftly on the ice, moving backwards, sideways and doing tricks in between. He reminded me of someone in many ways, but I just couldn’t recall who. Soon, Lina and the others joined me, tired and hungry. While the guys were busy chatting amongst themselves, the girls pulled me aside.

“So, Raine, who was that back there…?” Rosy eyed me, with a sinister smile.

“Huh…? Who do you mea—”

“You know, that tall, handsome guy with the long hair,” Lina added.

“Owh, you mean Alexial…? He’s… no one. He almost bumped into me and  that’s all,” I explained.

The girls didn’t seem satisfied with my answer. They were about to bombard me with more questions if Alexial wasn’t walking towards us.

“Hey, Raine,” He called out to me.

“Hey,” All three of the girls cried.

“Erm… Hey…” Alexial looked surprised, while I sweat dropped.

“Hey, Alexial. These are my friends, Rosy, Lina and Sally.”

“Owh. Nice to meet you all then.” He smiled.

All three of them immediately melted and made excuses to leave me alone with him. Do they think that Alexial and I are…? Arghh… what’s the use…? They’re great debaters, remember? I told myself.

“So, why’d you stop skating? Are you hurt from your previous fall? I can’t tell you how sorry I am,” Alexial explained.

“No, I just hate skating.” I replied promptly.

“Owh… I see. Do you think you could tell me why?”

“I...” I was surprised that I couldn’t think of an answer. Why? Why? The answer wasn’t there like it should have been. I couldn’t think of anything.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, I understand. But it’s kinda weird, you know?”

“Huh? What’s weird?” I asked, curiously.

“Erm, nothing… It’s just that, when I first saw you skating, you looked like you were someone who loved skating. That was until, you stopped… Haha, maybe that’s just my imagination,”

My eyes widened at his words. Someone who loved skating, huh? Maybe it was true, even though I denied it.

“Alexial, do—”

“Call me Alex,” he smiled.

“Alex, do you think you could teach me how to do tricks like you did just now?” I asked, shyly.

He looked a bit surprised for a minute and just smiled. “Sure. I do owe you, after all,”

I stepped into the ring and skated a few rounds in my own way. Alex joined me and he did a spin before stopping.

“Wow, what move’s that?” I asked, awed.

“It’s a Lutz,” he replied. “You take off from the back outside edge of the left foot and launch it by the right toe pick. It’s quite a complicated move. I’ve tried doing a Triple Lutz, but it hasn’t worked.”

At the end of the day, I was able to skate sideways and backwards. I even managed to do a Flip. It felt natural and it was great how Alex was always there to catch me when I lost my balance. I was really grateful.

“Thanks,” I panted out, a bit exhausted from all that skating. “It was fun.Thanks, Alex.”

“No problem. It was my pleasure. You’re a really fast learner. Maybe you should try out figure skating,”

Figure skating, huh? I thought.

“Maybe I will,” I replied with a smile, as I caught up with my friends.

By now, almost everyone was eye-ing me.

“Who’s that?” Kyle asked, looking a bit concerned.

“His name’s Alex. We bumped into each other in the skating rink back there. He taught me how to skate. Watch,” I said, as I showed them the moves Alex taught me. All of them watched in awe.

“That’s kinda cool. Aren’t you glad we dragged you here, Raine?” asked Sally.

“Yeah, if you didn’t, you might not have met ‘Alexial~’, right?”

I blushed at that comment and immediately denied it.

“I say, you shouldn’t mix with him too much. He looks suspicious. I mean, what real guy could skate that well with a hairstyle like that?” stated Kyle and all eyes turned to him.

“He’s probably—”

“Hey, Raine, would you like to hang out some other time?” Alex cut in.

“S…Sure,” I replied. “After all, I still have a lot to learn right?”

He only smiled and let out a little laugh.

               Later that day, my mind was filled with thoughts. Do you think you could tell me why? …you looked like you were someone who loved skating… Alex’s words repeated constantly in my head. Why? Why? My eyes focused on the picture next to my bed. It was a picture of my family. Dad, Mum and me. Then, I remembered. I hated winter, but not since forever.

When I was a kid, Mum would tell me all sorts of stories. And the one I loved the most was about the Snow Princess. The Snow Princess was the one Mum made up herself. Mum had always been creative enough to write stories. At that time, it was snowing outside as well.

“A long time ago, there was a princess who was as white as snow. She was born during winter and so they named her Winter Laine Snow. She was very beautiful and very graceful. One day, Winter saw ice for the very first time. She tried to walk on the ice, but it was very slippery. She fell many times. Her parents, who fulfilled her every wish, ordered the whole kingdom to come up with a plan to make it possible to move on ice. Many tried and many failed. 16 years passed and there was no success. Winter was very sad as all she could think about was running on the ice. The King wanted to cheer her up and declared that whoever that could think up a plan would win Winter’s hand. A young man by the name of Skate, managed to make a pair of special shoes no one had seen before. He made a pair of boots with a wooden bottom and then hammered blades under the shoes. The top part of the blade was rough, so the Princess could push herself and the slippery blades would enable her to move swiftly on the ice. His plan worked and they were married as a couple. Winter was very good at moving on ice. She called it skating after her beloved husband. And that was how skating was discovered.”

I remembered her words perfectly. I would always ask her to tell me the story time and time again. But one year, when I was six, on the first day of winter, Mum left me. She was coughing and coughing endlessly, yet I asked her to take me out to skate at the pond nearby. That’s right, I’ve skated before, when I was a small child. Lastly, Mum coughed out a mouthful of blood before she collapsed on the floor. I was too small to know the reason back then, but it was some sort of disease. Ever since then, I hated winter. I hated the cruel winter that took away my mother. I hated skating because it made me neglect my mother.

I paused my thoughts there. Yet, today, I loved skating. I loved that cruel activity that took my mother away. I hated it, yet it had felt good. I closed my eyes, trying to remember more.

“Mummy, look at me! I’m spinning!!”

“That’s fantastic, darling. I’m sure you’ll be a great figure skater someday,”

My eyes widened as I remembered Mum’s sweet voice saying that sentence. Did I imagine it? Could I have made that up just because I enjoyed skating so much today? I let out a sigh. I was confused.

Years had passed after that incident. I began acknowledging it less and less. I didn’t want to remember how she died. Some part of me blamed myself for it. I wanted to escape from the truth. I couldn’t accept her death. I denied it. No wonder I couldn’t remember the reason why I hated winter. I had denied it for so long, I almost forgot. A tear rolled down my cheek. I’m sure you’ll be a great figure skater someday. Mum’s words lingered in my head. I was positive she had said that. My thoughts stopped there as my tired body soon let sleep claim it. What would tomorrow hold for me? Winter was finally going to be interesting, once for a very long time…

-End of Chapter 1-