Elie looked back over at Kevin when he asked about coming to watch her practice. He had never actually come to see her practice before and was slightly taken aback by his sudden request. He had never really seemed particularly interested in her skating and in fact had never even seen her compete before. She didn’t mind though, figure skating was a pretty girly thing that she didn’t figure most boys were into, why should Kevin be any exception? But then why was he asking now? And why did she suddenly feel so self-conscious about him coming to watch her skate? Still, she didn’t want to turn him away and it would actually be kind of cool if her best friend took an interest in one of the most important things in her life.

“Sure!” she said at last, hoping the enthusiasm in her voice would mask the fact that it had taken her a minute to respond. “We can walk over to the rink together after school.” “Pizza sounds good to me,” she added, “I’m usually starving after practice.” Ice skating looked pretty effortless, compared to running for example, but burned almost as many calories. She'd probably be extra hungry too for not having eaten much for breakfast. Shoving the remainder of the granola bar in her mouth, she chewed slowly and tucked the wrapper into her coat pocket until she could get a chance to throw it away.