"Parker how are my eye bags," I ask as I pour myself a cup of coffee.

"Sweetie do you even sleep anymore," he asks his voice laced with concern.

"I sorta got distracted last night planning my routine until 2am." Parker looks mildly disappointed but not even a little bit surprised. Everyone on our team knows that when I have a vision, I keep going until it is complete, even if that means running off 3 hours of sleep on my busiest day.

"Maya is so lucky," Luna grumbles as she emerges from our room with all her stuff. Wednesday is the only day we team skate together but because of the hockey teams schedule, we have to be there at 5:30 in the morning. The remainder of our week, we have two thirty minute private slots with the team coaches and then 3 days a week, we have strength training and conditioning together in the gym.

"We should wake her up and make her suffer with us." Is that mean of me to suggest? Yes. Am I bitter she gets to sleep until almost 9am because her first class isn't until 10am? Also yes, sue me.

"I did already," Parker says proudly before opening his bedroom door loudly and obnoxiously grabbing his bags. I hear a soft sleepy string of curse words from the bedroom as he exits once again.

"Tristian is here," Luna informs us. There is a collective groan as we grab our stuff and shuffle down to Luna's boyfriend's car.

"Morning team," Tristian greets as we all pile in. Tristan and Luna have been skating together since they were 6. Their connection was so strong even as kids, that neither of them have ever skated with anyone else. Of course when they started dating in high school no one in the skating community was surprised, their chemistry has always been untouchable.

The drive to the arena is quiet. No one is particularly happy to have to practice at such an ungodly hour but we do what we must. Besides it could be worse, the guys hockey team practices almost everyday from 6am to 8am on the ice and then have workouts at night. Wednesday they switch, so they can scrimmage at night to prepare for their weekend games, which is why we have morning ice once a week.

When we arrive at the arena, Tristian drops us all out front close to the doors before going to find a parking spot. "He is so sweet," I smile as Luna bounces by the front door, waiting for him to walk in so she can do what she always does and pounce on him to warm him up.

"You'll find a Tristian one day."

"She would have to stop blowing off dates for ice time first, Luna," Parker reminds her. I have had casual relationships before including one last year for about 2 months but no one ever seems to be able to handle my schedule. They think all the extra time I put in and the fact I rarely deviate from my schedule is ridiculous. I disagree but I don't try to change people's opinions anymore. I have come to realize that few people get it and that is ok, because it is my life so I don't need others to understand. One day hopefully I can stand on an Olympic podium and show them that it was all worth it.

"It was 3 weeks before Nationals I couldn't turn down an extra hour of practice."

"I liked her, you shouldn't have dumped her because you felt she required too much of your time." I am about to rebut Luna's statement, when the door opens and Tristian walks in and I know I have lost all her attention. Tristan picks her up effortlessly and I walk toward the rink with the two of them whispering lovingly behind me.

Most of the team is already on the ice when I arrive, so I quickly slip my skates on and join them. I lead team stretching and then tell everyone to grab a sip of water before we move on. As I grab my own water, I hear a small commotion to my left and I see a bunch of the girls huddled together. "What's wrong," I ask, moving into the huddle.

"A bunch of the hockey players are watching us," Kerry, one of the freshmen, tells me tilting her head toward where I assume they're sitting.

I look over my shoulder and see a handful of big guys in Michigan hockey gear hiding not very discreetly at the top of the bleachers. "Don't make it so obvious Francesca," another girl Jackie scolds me.

"What are they doing here?" someone not in our small huddle asks the rest of the team, all of them also noticing our new spectators. Ryder isn't among them from what I can see but if I had to guess, they're here looking for me. It is likely he bitched to them the same way I bitched to my roommates and now they want to see the ice skater their poor teammate has to share with.

Well boys, eat your heart out.

I push away from the wall and my team watches me in confusion. I take a casual lap throwing in a few easy jumps. I steal a glance and notice that I now have the hockey players' full attention. Ramping it up a little, I turn backwards and do a couple more easy jumps, things most figure skaters are doing as children but the players now are at the edge of their seats, impressed nonetheless. I end my little routine for them with a double lutz, I could do a triple but I am less consistent with that and falling right now would be extremely embarrassing.

I turn directly toward the gaggle of jocks who actually look impressed and give them a dramatic bow. I can't clearly see their faces but I guess they're embarrassed they were caught, because quickly all of them jump to their feet and run off. I make a mental note to tease Ryder tomorrow about this as I turn back toward my team away from where our guests just were.

"Francesca," Luna and Parker yell as they skate over and tackle me into a hug.

"Maya is going to be so jealous we got to see hockey players this morning and she didn't," I tease before we separate and focus back on practice.

Practice is nothing special after our hockey sighting and by 8am I am back home, showered and ready for my long day. Wednesday besides being the day I have 5:30am practice, is also the day I have a weekly quiz in Linear Algebra, plus I have office hours from noon to 2pm and then, because the class I am a teaching assistant for has weekly Thursday quizzes, I also host a 7pm to 9pm review session. Once I leave for my 10am class, I will not be back in the apartment till almost 9:30 so I make sure I pack myself lunch and dinner while I make myself breakfast.

I leave for class with Maya at 9:30am and she spends most of her walk hounding me about the hockey players. We did not originally plan to tell her but someone mentioned it in the team group chat, which Maya is also in, so by the time we got home she was awake and demanding details. As we continue walking she pulls up the roaster and asks me which ones were there. I tell her I can't tell and she gives me a disapproving lecture about how I am ruining her life before we split up.

My first class of the day isn't bad but I can already feel the exhaustion hitting as I drag my legs to the front of the room to hand in my quiz. From there, I drag myself upstairs to the office the Calculus TAs share and wait hoping for a quiet two hours to focus on homework. But of course, because I hoped for it, I jinxed myself and for 2 straight hours have a swarm of nervous students preparing for their first quiz tomorrow. I have so many students that I end up running over until past 3pm and have to sprint to my 4pm class across campus shoveling my salad into my mouth like a mad woman.

When my second class of the day is a drag, I am thankful for something more chill than the over three hours of math tutoring I just did. By 5:30 I am done with my classes for the day and while normally I would use my hour and a half to go to the gym, I instead decide to find a warm spot somewhere and call the twins.

"Sup little," Sal answers on the third ring, "long time no talk."

"Is that Fran?" Anthony yells from somewhere in the distance.

"No it is our other little sister, asshole," Sal calls back to him and I question why I even bothered calling. Every time I call them it is just me listening to them fight about something stupid and barely speaking. And yet I still call because being in the middle of Michigan, so far from family and home, I welcome the chaos.

"Ask her about the game, actually I will ask, she likes me better!" Seconds later I hear cursing and screaming and I assume it is the twins fighting for Sals phone.

"What game," I ask when the commotion finally ends and all I hear is heavy breathing on the other end of the line.

"Hockey game, mom and dad said that they would cover the cost for our flights as a graduation gift." Not the gift most people would want for graduating college but the twins, our older brother Joe and our dad love Hockey. When I decided on Michigan they all made wild plans to come to a ton of games but with the twins in Florida, Joe going to college at Bama, and my dad in NY it never happened. My dad and Joe last year went to the Frozen Four game in Boston where Michigan won and my dad swears it was one of the best days of his life. After the day I entered this world, I checked.

"Where are you staying?" Let me guess, with me.

"With you," they both reply sweetly. Shocker.

"Figured," I sigh. "When?"

"February 18th to the 20th, want to come with us?"

"Can I say no?"

"You can," Sal replies and for a second I think my family have finally accepted hockey will never interest me.

"But we already got you a ticket," Anthony laughs sadistically.

"I hate you both, I need to go teach a review session."

"Bye smartie pants, we love you," the twins yell in unison before I hang up.

Despite the fact I will likely be dragged to a hockey game that I definitely don't want to go to, I have a smile on my face as I open my dinner and begin working on my algebra homework until I have to go teach.

No surprise, like my office hours my review session is packed and complete madness. Most of the students are freshman and I try to be as patient as possible. Finally at 9:30 I need to cut everyone off and leave. Luckily, I already finished my assignments for tomorrow and I don't have my Wednesday classes again till Monday, so when I get home I go right to bed. I want to be well rested so tomorrow I can do my first attempt at my new routine to Ryders song.