This is my first proper story so please tell me what you think!

Summary: Ella is head over heals in love… with pairs figure skating. And her partner and best friend, Kyle, is head over heels in love with her. But when an injury threatens her life as a figure skater, will she finally realise the love not only for the ice, but for Kyle as well? And will she ever be able to skate again?

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"Oof!" I huffed as my toe pick caught and I fell to the ice again with a bump. I felt frustrated at myself. The competition was a week away now; I shouldn't be falling at the first hurdle.

"Ella!" Kyle skidded to a stop beside me, showering me in tiny, cold fragments from the ice.

"Help me up," I laughed, holding out my hands.

"Are you okay?" he pulled me to my feet, "That looked like a nasty fall."

"You worry too much, Kyle," I grinned at him, "I'm fine. Come on, let's try again."

He sighed and nodded and took his place opposite me. I counted to three quietly and we both skated backwards in perfect unison, the beginning to our choreographed routine.

As we finished our routine, a small applause came from the sidelines. I looked up to see my Mum stood there watching us.

"It's brilliant guys! If you don't win, I'll be surprised," she called.

"You have to say that- you're my Mum," I called back, weaving around the edges of the ice.

"Come on, then," Mum said, "We have to go now."

"No, can we do it one more time?" I asked.

"Ells, the competition's not for another week. You've got it nailed as it is and Kyle's Mum will be wondering where he is."

"She won't mind, honest, Mrs Thompson," Kyle said, gliding around the rink.

"See?" I raised my eyebrows at Mum and turned back to Kyle, "Race you?"

"Okay," he agreed with a grin on his face.

"Ella Kate Thompson!" Mum shouted, "Come on!"

"Fine," I sighed, settling for racing Kyle to the exit of the rink instead.

Ten minutes later, my white boots were slung over my shoulder in my bag as we left the rink. I was always sad to leave; skating was my life. I spent every minute I could there with Kyle. We were training for the national finals now, and we were tipped to win. But I wanted to be sure, so I was stuffing in as much practice as we could manage between us. Ice skating was to me like pets were to some people; I don't know what I'd do without it.

"…So Beth and Sam are our main challenge…" I was telling Mum and Kyle on the way home in the car.

"Ella, you'll be great, honey," Mum said, a proud smile on her face. A lot of people thought that I didn't enjoy what I did, that it was pushy parentage rather than pleasure, but it wasn't like that at all.

"Yes, but we have to be better than great," I pointed out, "We have to be the greatest."

"We are the greatest," Kyle grinned at me from the front seat, his emerald green eyes glinting with excitement.

"Hmm…" I said thoughtfully, "Mary and Brandon are quite good as well…"

"Ella?" Mum looked at me in the mirror.

"Yes?"

"Stop worrying. However you do, we'll be proud of you. Both of you," she added, shooting a look at Kyle as well as we drew up in front of his house.

"See you tomorrow, Ella," he said.

"Yeah," I nodded, "4 o'clock at my house. Don't be late!" I called through my window after him.

"I won't!" he called back, waving.

"Are you sure you need to practice tomorrow Ella?" Mum's tone was concerned as we started to drive off again, "I mean, it's good that you two are so enthusiastic and everything, but you heard what the doctor said- you really mustn't push yourself…"

"Yeah, whatever," I blocked that thought before it could get to me. The doctor was wrong; just because I had gone through a hard time these past few weeks doesn't mean that I had to stop practising. If anything, it should have the opposite effect, I needed the practice.

"Ella," Mum's voice was reproaching now, "I'm serious; don't just blow it off. I'm proud of your achievements and everything, honey, but if you don't chill out about it then you'll suffer even more than you did a few weeks ago…"

"That was just a bit of stress…"

"That was just a lot of stress, actually, Ella," Mum corrected, "And if that's what you're like a month before it, I dread to think what will happen when…"

"Yes, but they were piling stuff on me at school then, Mum," I interrupted, "That wasn't skating stuff, that was worrying about school."

"But…"

"Besides…" I continued, "This is the national finals, Mum. I can't take it lying down. This is like the semi-finals. I'm so close to the internationals, I can almost touch it…"

"I'm just worried about you sweetheart," Mum sighed, "I'm very proud of you, Ella, and you know that, but it's possible to take these things to the extreme… to the point where it becomes an illness."

I sighed. Mum was a psychiatric nurse so she always seemed to be worried that I would develop a mental illness. The stress-induced exhaustion period hadn't helped, especially not when it had escalated into glandular fever. That had had a huge effect on our timing slots at the rink. Kerrie, the owner, kindly let us skate there when it was empty or when a small amount of people came. Sometimes she even shut the public out of one of the rinks for us. But there was a price; we had to help out as much as we possibly could. So I wasn't exaggerating when I said I spent every moment I had there. I was always practising with Kyle, training with our personal trainer or helping out there. But I didn't mind; it was worth it.

I dreamt that night that we came third in the nationals. Though this was a great achievement, it wasn't enough to get us to the international competition a few months afterwards. Kyle and I had to watch and clap whilst Beth and Sam and Mary and Brandon took all of the glory. And I looked up into the crowd. I saw Dad and my little sister Casey smiling at me, proud, but Mum was crying.

I woke, gasping and looked at the clock. It was 3am. I shook the image of Mum's devastated face out of my head and turned over, falling back into the much-needed sleep.

I had the same dream a week later, on the way to London for the national finals.

"Are you okay?" Kyle asked, when I woke gasping again.

"Yeah," I muttered, "Bad dream." It was stupid. I shouldn't find something as trivial as that scary. I knew that Mum would be proud if we came last, but suddenly a feeling of unease washed over me. I was abruptly worried sick as a load of what ifs burst into my head.

"Are you okay?" Kyle repeated, pulling me out of my chain of thoughts, "You look a little green."

"Nervous, that's all," I replied, turning my head to stare out of the window. I looked, but I didn't see. Maybe Mum was right, I thought to myself, maybe I am taking this a little too seriously. Was it possible to push yourself too far? Don't be silly, another part of me said, this is the national finals we're talking about here. You're allowed to be a little nervous and a bit melodramatic.

I glanced back at Kyle to see him still staring at me, worry colouring his face. I smiled weakly and looked back out of the window. Rain was beginning to fall as we got closer to London, where we would be skating in front of hundreds of people just tomorrow.

Tomorrow came sooner than I would have thought possible. The night spent in a posh hotel room passed dreamlessly, for me at least, and it wasn't long before Casey prodded me awake.

"What?" I asked her as my eyes opened warily. She blinked at me with her chocolate brown eyes, her dark hair shimmering in the light. It was easy to tell that Casey was my younger sister; we looked almost identical.

"Mummy says you have to get up now 'cause you have to have a shower and eat some breakfast and get all ready and… um… then you have to go," she told me, counting each one off on her fingers.

"Ok," I smiled at her, "Thanks Case."

"You have to get up, Ella," she reminded me.

I laughed, "I know. I'm up, I'm up." I swung my legs out of bed and stretched to prove to her that I was getting up and then went to have my shower.

The warm water calmed me down as it trickled down my back, but nothing could get the butterflies out of my stomach. I washed myself methodically, massaging shampoo and conditioner into my shoulder-length hair before I got out and blew it dry, making sure that the ends curled under neatly; this made it easier to curl it, as I would be doing later on.

Mum forced me to eat some breakfast before agreeing to help me get ready. I had a gorgeous ballerina pink, lycra dress with sequins sewn on in pretty patterns. Casey adored it almost as much as I did. It had cost a lot of money, but I was sure it would be worth it. I had told her that I would wear it to every skating competition I went to in the future when she had told me to rent one instead. Eventually, after much persuasion, Mum had agreed to buy it for me, despite the scarcity of our funds recently.

I put it on and marvelled at myself in the mirror.

Then Kyle's Mum, Julie, came in.

"Shoo," she said jokingly, waving her hands at Mum, Dad and Casey and turned to me, seating me on a chair, "Makeover time."

An hour later, I really did look beautiful. My make-up was perfect and my face glittered almost as much as my dress. My mahogany-coloured hair had been extravagantly curled and lay around my heart-shaped face perfectly.

"Wait here," Julie told me and went to get Mum, Dad and Casey back.

"You look like a fairy-pwincess," Casey told me, when they came in.

"You do look beautiful, Ella," Mum said, tears in her eyes. She hugged me and whispered in my ear, "I'm so proud of you."

Dad wolf-whistled and I flushed scarlet. Then Kyle came in behind them. He wore a pink lycra top, to match my dress, and black trousers.

"You look nice," he said simply, but I smiled hugely, from ear to ear.

"So do you," I complimented shyly. There was a slight pause

"Come on then," Julie broke the silence, "Let's get these super-stars to the church… sorry, I meant rink."

The adults laughed at her joke and Kyle and I blushed furiously. Casey stared at us blankly.

"What's so funny?" she demanded.

"Nothing," Mum shook her head, "Let's go."

We piled into one of those big taxis that fit seven people, ignoring the funny look the nosy driver gave us and told him to take us to the big ice rink.

Kyle and I waited nervously in the wings as the first few couples skated. We were the sixth out of ten pairs to skate. Some of them looked brilliant, and suddenly every couple there was a rival, even Savannah and William, who achieved a brilliant score of 32.5 (seven fours and one four-point-five) out of 48.

The butterflies increased as our turn neared.

Mary and Brandon were the fifth couple to go, right before us. They did fantastically, Mary in a gorgeous blue designer dress that looked like it had cost twice as much as mine. Their routine was even better, including things like the float spin and Brandon even managed a successful axel. They got 41 (six fives and two five-point-fives) out of 48. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I wondered if my dream was about to come true.

"And our next couple is Ella Thompson and Kyle Warrington from Dorset…" the loudspeaker announced. I looked up at Kyle and he squeezed my hand. I smiled at him, plastering the smile to my face as we skated out onto the rink…

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What did you think?

Please note that I do not do skating, well, not professionally, and I am very sorry if I have got anything wrong. I have tried to do my research, but if there are any little mistakes, feel free to point them out and I will correct them. Thanks.

I'm not sure when I'll update but reviews give me motivation so the more reviews I get, the quicker the update will be.

There are links to what they all wear on my profile!

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Thanks

Steph