The matter being the queasiness in my stomach because I hadn’t been able to eat dinner yet. Only a few early arrivals to nationals week watched from the stands, including Mom and Dad, and Mom sharply observed every tentative stroke I took. I’d hoped to wait and tell her my news after the event so she wouldn’t hover over me the entire week, but I suspected she was going to start asking questions soon.Chris skated to my side and took my hand. “You’re not gonna throw up on me, are you?”“I think I’ll be okay, but no more spins.”“We can do the footwork sequence.”I nodded and swallowed a couple of times, clearing the sour taste from my throat. “We have to practice at night again tomorrow. I want to kill whoever made this schedule.”We finished the forty-minute session by doing our footwork and our spiral sequence, two things that wouldn’t make me dizzy. Skating over to Sergei behind the boards, I gave him a little smile but he looked too anxious to return it. He’d been wearing the same tense look every time I stepped onto the ice.“You’re usually one of the most relaxed coaches at these practices,”
