*1 hour earlier*

"And this is the rink!" Lia announces as were burst through the front doors.

She's taken me on a tour across campus today, tactfully staying away from any and all hockey players. 

After Mason and I's public showdown last night, the girls made me tea and we all got to know each other a little better. Turns out Kate is an incredible singer and got scouted by Bridewell's music department for a scholarship after NYU's previous showcase. She sings while she moves around the apartment so even though it's only a small taster, it's not hard to tell she has serious talent. Lia skates on the team with me and is doing an English Literature degree because in her words she 'loves books more than people'. Sophia is a Bio-Medical Sciences major and wants to become a researcher in the future but she's undecided about a field of study as of yet.

Seb came over pretty soon after we'd gotten home to make up with Soph and they seem to be good now. He apologised for trying to tell her what to do and she reiterated the point that she wouldn't be going back to the hockey house for parties until I was welcome there too. I tried to jump in and tell her it wasn't necessary but she was pretty adamant about it. The atmosphere between me and Seb was pretty frosty though I think he tried to hide it from Sophia. I can only imagine what Mason's been telling the guys he lives with about me but clearly none of it was good.

Now Lia and I are at the rink because Grinsky wants to meet with me before the joint figure skating and hockey practice begins. Lia said she probably wants to check she's still getting the skater she gave a place to two years ago. So no pressure.

It's easy to spot her as we approach. Coach Grinsky is a tall, lean woman with a jet black hair up in a refined bun. Everything about her screams 'not a hair out of place', both figuratively and literally. She wears the same thermal clothing most figure skaters do, the only difference being her jacket has 'Coach' on the back.

"Coach, this is Lexi" Lia says as we walk up to her at the side of the rink.

"I know who Lexi is Ophelia" she replies with a sigh. "Your team jacket is on the bench but before you take it I want to make sure I'm still getting what your scholarship pays for so skates on Turner. Let's see if you can live up to your name"

No wonder Lia calls her grouchy.

I shed my coat and lace my skates up as quickly as I can, sensing Grinsky isn't the kind of woman who likes to be kept waiting.

"Warm up with laps of the rink and then I want to start with your double lutz, sit spin and flip jump" she calls out as I skate onto the ice.

I have a feeling this practice will be brutal.

~~~~~

*Present time - following on from Mason's POV*

I can feel Mason's stare burning into the back of me as I skate away, not giving him the opportunity for a most likely snarky or cruel reply. 

His team mates once again watched out interaction with curiosity and confusion though Hugo Morris was definitely glaring at me the entire time.

"Did what I think just happened... actually happen?" Lia asked wide-eyed as she skates up to me.

"What do you think happened?" I sigh.

"Mason hacked the speaker system and played that song, which sounded awful by the way, to mess with you?"

"Bingo"

"Woah. So Anthony wasn't kidding." She said the last part without appearing to realise she had.

"Anthony? Which one's that?" I ask, I don't remember meeting an Anthony last night but he's clearly close to Mason if Lia knew something through him.

Lia pointed to a blonde skating parallel to Sam, working on his defence, "That's Anthony Preston. He rounds out the Hockey Kings of Campus, also known as Mason's personal cheerleaders."

"So what wasn't he kidding about?" I ask, still watching the hockey players. Some of them are pretty good but Anthony's feints are too predictable. Sam is getting the puck off him every time they run the drill.

"He text me to tell me to keep my distance from you. He said Mason's on the warpath and you're in the line of fire so anyone near you could get caught up in it." She chuckles, "I told him thanks but he can shove it if he thinks I'll let him or Mason Jennings dictate who I am or am not friends with"

"Mason's really an arrogant prick now isn't he?" I say as I watch him call out plays to his team.

"Yup" Lia replies, popping the 'p'. "As long as I've known him he's been so far up his own ass he can't see the sunshine. Sophia and I assumed that he was just 'that guy' who was an entitled dick but when Seb and Soph started dating, he shut that theory down pretty damn quick. He claims Mason has good reason to be mad at the world and well, I guess they all now think that reason has something to do with you"

I nod subtly in response, still watching Mason skate. It looks to effortless to him and I can see him smiling with Seb and Hugo as they run drills. He looks so at peace on the ice, just like he did when we were kids. It's oddly comforting in a way to know that the boy I held so dear to me isn't truly gone, even if Mason claims he is. I can see him skating in front of me.

"Lexi?"

"Hm?"

"You're staring." Lia says, trying not to giggle and I urge my cheeks not the blush.

"I'm just thinking." I cover.

Lia shifts awkwardly on her skates like she doesn't know whether she should or shouldn't ask the questions I have no doubt are swimming around her brain.

"I know you want to ask me Lia."

She looks startled, "What? No. We purposely didn't ask you anything last night because it's none of our business what happened between the two of  you years ago. I'm just uh... I'm a little confused."

"About?" 

"Well, you and Mason seem to hate each other, maybe more so him hating you though you still don't appear to be his biggest fan but..."

"But..." I nudge.

Lia sighs, "But you look at him like your heart is breaking every time he smiles or even glares directly at you. I can't decide which one is more painful for you"

"Who says I feel anything about Mason or his emotions?" I reply, immediately defensive and totally giving it away that some part of me definitely does care about him even when I'm trying so hard to stamp it out.

"Your face tells me. I'm good at reading people Lexi and your face gives the game away every time he's near you." She replies and I can hear the undercurrent of sympathy in her tone, "Were you guys more than friends when you were younger?"

"We never labelled it. We were just friends I think but he was my safe place. I was always my happiest with him and the way things went down... let's just say I'm not innocent." I sigh.

"Maybe not" Lia shrugs, "but I don't think you did whatever you did to hurt him."

"No. I didn't" I reply quietly and turn my head to watch him again, "The opposite actually"

"Couldn't you just tell him that?" Lia asks.

I scoff, "As if he'd believe me. Besides, it's been a long time and I just want to focus on skating and leave Mason in the past."

Lord knows if I let him get under my skin every plan I have in place will fall apart without me being able to do a damn thing to stop it. I refuse to let that happen. 

I tried to sound confident but I'm pretty sure Lia isn't fooled. She mercifully drops the subject anyway as we skate over to Grinsky who's now calling for us and the other 4 figure skaters on the ice.

"Sooo are you and Anthony a thing then?" I ask. Why else would he message her to stay away from me to protect her from Mason?

Lia visibly retches, "I'm gonna pretend you didn't just say that"

"What? Why? He's cute!"

"Again, ew! He's my cousin on my Mum's side. We have different last name and I get ginger hair from my Dad's side so no one ever suspects it but I basically grew up with him. He's the closest thing I have to a sibling I guess, a very irritating sibling too."

"Ah, so he pulled the big brother card with the text message" I chuckle.

"Tried to but he seems to forget I'm 43 days older than him" She said proudly.

I put on a terrible British aristocrat accent for my reply, "And I assume you do your duty to your family and peers by reminding him daily" 

"Why of course. I approach such a task with the upmost determination and resilience." She replies in a similarly awful British accent.

We both laugh, stopping only when Grinsky shoots us a death glare Medusa should be jealous of.

"Skaters, meet Lexi. She's a junior and your new team mate for the remainder of the year. Before anyone claims double standards, she auditioned just like all did and as of this morning she is the most advanced skater on this team."

Way to help me blend in Grouchy.

"How is she the most advanced?" A girl I don't know spits in my direction.

"Do you have your triple axel Poppy?" Grinsky rebuts.

Poppy looks mortified and shoots daggers my way. Fabulous, not I have Mason and a catty bitch with a superiority complex to worry about.

Grinsky sends us further onto the ice for turning practice and one of the guys who was just stood opposite me skates up beside me.

"Ignore Poppy. She's irritating on a good day and a plain bitch on the bad ones. Grinsky knows but she's a good skater so she keeps her around. We never see her unless it's for practice or competitions."

"Thanks, uh..."

"Nick. Nick Stone." He replies, kindly filling the gap for me.

"Ohhh, you're the guy who got extra practices for letting 'Grouchy' slip out"

"So I see Lia told you all the good stuff about me" He groans.

"I think it's pretty funny actually" I chuckle.

"Yeah well tell me that when you skate so much in one week that it takes another one to be able to feel your toes again."

"That bad huh?" I say on the end of a laugh.

"Put it this way, I decided Hell definitely exists and Grouchy is its leader" he chuckles back and I join him.

I abruptly stop giggling and let my face fall as I look over his shoulder, "We were just about to start turning Grinksy, I promise"

Nick's face drains of colour slightly as he whips round to look behind him only to find Grinsky is in fact giving Lia direction. I'm hysterical when he looks back to me with body language that screams 'seriously?!'

"Pretty brave for a new girl" He states.

I hold my hands out and bow, "Well I am the most advanced on the team"

"Prove it Turner. Live up to old ye mighty name and do your oh so advanced turns for me" He challenges, skating to the side of me.

"Happily Stone. Watch and learn from the master" I reply, skating further away to have more space as we chuckle together.

Maybe this practice won't completely suck.

~~~~~

I grab my phone out my locker after practice and find a missed text. It's an unknown number which it strange seeing as I purposely keep my contact details as private as possible. Kate had to basically beg for my number last night for room mate related problems.

My nerves aren't made any better by what it says. I instantly ask who it is but get nothing helpful back apart from knowing they reply quickly. Then I ask how they got my number, this time receiving an even more cryptic reply.

Then it hits me.

Mason.

I slam my locker shut and storm out of the girls' locker room, not bothering to response to Lia's confused calls after me.

Sam and Seb are walking out the guy's locker room when I get to the door.

"Get your Captain." I demand.

"I'm gonna go with no?" Seb replies.

"It wasn't a request. I don't give a shit what you think about me, you either get Mason out here or I go straight to Coach Rickards."

Seb almost definitely was about to say no again but Sam holds out a hand to him which surprisingly for me shuts him right up. I wouldn't have taken Sam for the authority type but what the hell do I know?

Sam opens the locker room door slightly and yells in, "Jennings! Hurry your ass up and get out here. You have a visitor."

Some of my anger fizzles away as Sam gives me an apologetic smile, "Thank you"

He just nods but I feel like he's studying me as we wait for Mason. It's hard to tell who is closest out of these guys but it's like I can sense Sam knows the most, if not everything about what happened between Mason and I. Yet he somehow seems the least mad about it...

The locker room door opens and I'm greeted by a freshly showered Hockey Captain and fuck me, he looks good with wet hair and a shirt clinging to his upper body where he probably didn't dry properly.

Stop it Lexi. You came here to yell at him, not drool.

"May I help you Princess?" he says smugly and the door closes behind him.

"Don't call me that" I snap.

"I'm amused that you think you can tell me what to do" He replies.

Smug bastard.

"Whatever" I huff, "I just came to tell you to lose my number."

"When could I have possibly gotten your number Lexi?"

"How should I know?"

"I don't have your number" He huffs.

"Yeah and you also didn't hack the music system today for a cheesy F U message to me."

"Glad the message got through" He winks.

Was he always this frustrating?!

"If you can hack a speaker system, I don't think it's past the realm of possibilities that you could somehow get my phone number."

"It's so sweet of you to compliment my abilities." He grins.

I scoff, "Your abilities are nothing to brag about sweetie"

I kind of forgot Seb and Sam had been watching our entire exchange until they start to chuckle at my retort. I take a deep breath and re-centre myself on the reason I came here in the first place.

"Delete my number Mason. Find someone else to mess with" I scold.

"Appreciate the offer but I'm good with finishing the game you started. I don't like lose ends" He jokes sarcastically.

"Enjoy playing with yourself then."

"I've got people for that but again, appreciate the offer."

I roll my eyes and walk away from them all, meeting Ophelia outside our locker room and then continuing on to the doors of the rink.

Screw practice being brutal, life is brutal and its only getting worse with Mason in it.

~~~~~

Author's Note:

Hope you enjoyed the double update!!

Let me know what you think!

I promise within the next few chapters, bombs will drop...

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