s k a t e

"Found Jeff!!" Tyler sang from his seat.

"What?!"

"How did he --?!"

"I can't believe this!!"

All four hockey players held their hands to their heads as they watched their teammate with wide eyes skate to center ice.

"He's even wearing the nice suit and everything," Tyler observed with awe.

"What is he doing?" Sidney groaned as he ran his hands down his face.

Music soon began to play through the speakers, prompting Jeff to launch into an impressively high jump. His arms kept close to his chest as he spun at a fast rate, before landing steadily on one foot.

"Hey, I saw him do that trick at practice!" Tyler exclaimed.

Jeff continued to skate with quick agility around the rink, lifting his arms in the air, encouraging the crowd to cheer him on.

"Let's go, Skinner!!" Ryan called out.

"Show 'em what you got, Skins!" James clapped his hands in support.

Jeff drifted to the center of the ice before leaning over and lifting one leg off the ground behind him to be parallel with his upper body. To the gradually increasing beat of the music, Jeff propelled his body to spin, faster and faster before he leapt onto the other foot.

Delicately, he twirled one foot, lifting his leg behind him before reaching his hand back to grab onto his skate as he bent his knee.

The crowd erupted into applause as he continued to spin before he slowly came to a stop.

"Yeah, Skinnerrr!!!" Tyler called out, cupping his hands over his mouth.

"How does he even do that?!" Ryan asked as he slid to the edge of his seat.

Jeff resumed to skating gracefully around the ice, lifting his arms to move to the beat of the music. Each stride he took was carried out with more and more force until he lifted himself off the ground and twirled in the air. Landing perfectly, he began to skate with power once again, gaining speed to propel his body into the air and spin one, two, three complete turns before landing on one foot with perfect control.

"Come on, Skins!!" the hockey players cheered from the stands as they watched their teammate skate with poise around the rink, throwing his arms in the air.

Suddenly, Jeff lifted one foot behind him before leaping onto the other foot and spinning rapidly. He then lowered himself to the ground, bringing his leg in front of him as he spun at an even faster rate.

"Oh my days," James said quietly as he brought his hands up to his red cap.

Jeff quickly raised himself up to full height as he hopped onto his other leg in a flash. Grabbing onto his leg in front of him, he continued to spin before crouching to the ground again and twirling at the same fast rate.

His twirls gradually became slower as he rose up and placed both feet on the ground.

"No way," Tyler said in awe as Jeff slowly hopped on one foot before completing a small leap to land on his other foot and lifted his leg directly behind him.

"He's doing it!!! He's really doing it!!" Sidney exclaimed eagerly.

Jeff brought his leg in front of him as he continued to twirl before quickly switching over to his other leg, bringing it directly behind him, in line with his upper body as he leaned over.

"How is he not dizzy? I'm dizzy just watching him!" Tyler remarked as he watched his teammate twirl and twirl at an impossibly fast rate.

The music slowly came to an end as Jeff's spins dwindled to a complete stop. With much pride and triumph, he thrust his arms in the air and threw his head back as the final beat echoed through the arena.

The crowd rose to their feet, breaking out into applause immediately and tossing bouquets and various gifts onto the ice.

"Yeah, Skinner!!!"

"That's what I'm talking about, baby!!"

"Attaboy, Skins!!"

"Canada represent! Let's go!!"

The Canadian hockey players cheered as they stood to their feet and clapped for their teammate.

A large grin spread across Jeff's face as he bowed to the audience. After sweeping a few stuffed animals and bouquets off the ice, Scott slowly made his way toward the exit.

"He's getting the gold. He has to get the gold," Paul told his teammates sternly after they had settled in their seats.

They simply nodded along as they lifted their eyes to the scoreboard.

Not a word was spoken between them as they kept their eyes fixed on the blank scoreboard in front of them.

After much nail-biting and lip-chewing, the red digital numbers soon appeared on the screen, revealing Jeff had earned the highest score in the competition!

"YEAHHH!!!!" the four hockey players exclaimed loudly, jumping out of their seats, creating quite the ruckus in the balcony of the seating area.

"We're getting gold, baby!! Canada's getting gold!"

The Canadian teammates high-fived each other as they jumped with joy.

"Let's go, Skinner!!"

The smile on Jeff's face never faltered as he stepped onto the podium.

"O Canada!!! Our home and native land!!!" belted the hockey players proudly from the balcony.

They linked arms as they sung their anthem loudly, not realizing the vast amount of attention they had drawn.

They continued to sing, swaying side to side as they watched their teammate be awarded his well-deserved gold medal.

"O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!!!" Tyler, James, Sidney and Ryan finished loudly, and slightly off key, as the crowd applauded for Jeff.

Jeff grinned from ear to ear as he waved at the crowd before looking down at the gold medal placed around his neck and smiling even wider.

"Oh, we've definitely gotta celebrate now." Tyler turned to his teammates as the skaters left the ice.

"Hey." Ryan placed his hand on Tyler's shoulder. "Jeff got his gold medal, but we still gotta gold medal to win."

"Come on! Let's go find Jeff and congratulate him!" Sidney called to his teammates and they followed him out of the seating area.

After weaving their way to the arena and showing their official olympic athlete badges to security, the four hockey players entered the resting area by the ice rink.

Several athletes were gathered with their families and trainers, receiving praise or words of comfort after their performance.

"Jeff's over there!" James called out, pointing to the back corner of the room.

There Jeff was, pulling on his red Team Canada jacket with a smile still etched on his face and his gold medal hung around his neck.

The four athletes immediately sped toward their teammate, who was now very focused on sorting through his gifts.

"Jeff!!! You got the gold, baby!!" Tyler exclaimed as he pulled Jeff into a tight embrace.

"Yeah! Congratulations on the gold, man! And your talent," James added with a chuckle as he slapped Jeff playfully on the back.

"Let's see that gold medal, Skinner," Ryan told Jeff with a smile

"Thanks guys!!" Jeff exclaimed with wide grin. "Look at all these stuffed animals I got!! They don't give you this after hockey games!" He held up a light blue and purple teddy bear with a wide grin.

Sidney laughed loudly. "Dude, I didn't even know you could figure skate!"

"Yeah, I used to figure skate competitively when I was younger. Haven't done it in awhile though. As you can tell, all I know how to do anymore are triple axels," Jeff told them with a laugh.

"No kidding!" Tyler exclaimed. "You were doing so many spins and twirls out there, it was making me dizzy!"

Jeff laughed even louder as he pulled on his red Team Canada cap over his short brown hair.

"Coach and I had to think of a routine real quick and I told him all I remember how to do are triple axels, so that's what I did."

"You didn't even tell us you were going to be competing in the figure skating!" Ryan exclaimed.

"'Cause I didn't even know!" Jeff cried. "My old coach is coaching one of the competitors that was supposed to compete today but he got injured last minute. So Coach called me up and asked if I could be the last minute replacement."

"And you won the gold!!" Tyler cried out happily before jumping up and down and bringing Jeff into a tight hug.

"Hey, hey, hey," Jeff began as he pulled away from Tyler and looked at his teammates. "We still have a gold medal to win."

Notes