[Rybinsk] Anything you can do I can do better [Zhenya]

The seniors this season were good, and she knew that wasn’t all of them, either. She didn’t typically pay attention much to the male performers, save to ogle the pretty boys, but she noticed a few faces missing from the debut who would still be competing as seniors this upcoming term. The first one she knew would be competing was Yevgeniya’s brother Rodion, who was very handsome. As much as she hated the family, she thought Rodya was well enough to look at. The other was Nikon Zima, another firey seventh year in her house and pretty competitive artistic flyer. He was not part of the family, yet still placed well in competitions. She saw how hard he worked on the pitch, even if his off-arena personality rubbed Iroda, and many others, a bit raw. There was some respect for him there, under it all.

She turned around to go inside after watching the opening, and smacked face-first into someone, causing her to stumble back. She flushed crimson in annoyance and embarrassment. It wasn’t often the girl was rough on her own feet. She was typically graceful, even off the pitch. Of course it was Yevgeniya she had smacked into. She rolled her eyes.

“Shishkina, can’t you watch where you’re going? You were way too close to me.” She snapped, huffy. She needed to go inside to start her own training up again, and didn’t need this distraction. People might have even seen their collision!  â€œSeriously, more accidents like that and you won’t be placing first in the European Championships for long.”

@Zhenya Shishkina

The spring break wasn’t really a ‘break’ for Zhenya. Being back in Rybinsk felt good but the sixth year student felt under pressure and was quite stressed. She had to get her new routines for the season ready within the brief time that she spent at home, she needed to try and study for her OWLs as well and, of course, being at home meant that her parents and her grandparents tried to influence her more than they could when she was at Durmstrang.

Besides, since her family ran the artistic flying school, they expected her to help with the preparation of the season opening. It wasn’t such a big event, really, just for the athletes, family and some selected friends, but it was still kind of a show  that needed to go smoothly.

Her grandmother and coach always took her grandchildren and a few selected grandnieces to watch the performances from the vip lounge of the arena and explained to them what to pay attention to. She pointed out the flaws in the performances as well as the highlights. What was quite frustrating, though, was when Aleksandra looked at Zhenya and told her that she should look particularly carefully at how another athlete did an element that, apparently, Zhenya didn’t do well at all.

Of course, her grandmother also told Zhenya’s siblings and distant cousins things like that, but the Drakonya Krov always felt hurt when Aleksandra pointed out the flaws in Zhenya’s technique in front of others. Today her coach had been exceptionally blunt about Zhenya’s jumping technique and had spoken more about her flaws than about mistakes the others made. The girl felt humiliated after the opening ended and just rushed away from the arena, thinking that she’d never be as good as Aglaya, Sveta, or even Larisa. She sought a place where she could be alone for a little while when she bumped into Iroda out of all people.

For a moment she just gaped at the other girl, taking in her nasty comments. Then she took a deep breath and glared at her. “What makes you think that this is my mistake?” she snarled. “Honestly, you should better focus on where you are going and on where you are placing. I won the championships also because you failed the technical exercise, remember?”

Iroda rolled her eyes, scoffing. “You didn’t deserve to win, and you know it. You didn’t win any of the exercises. Face it, you’re a hack. You’re only flying through because of your surname. Either you know it and are just pretending to be obtuse, or you’re much more unintelligent than even I thought.” There was no ‘frenemy’ business between the girls, at least not at this point, not when Zhenya was intentionally pushing her buttons. Maybe once they girls could have been friends, best friends even, like Rodion and Nikon (who were also fierce rivals), but those days had passed. Iroda only had nasty things to say to her after her title was stolen. 
 
She began to push past her, but turned around again. “It’s no wonder your coach always tells you what a mess you are.” He had overheard Zhenya’s coach calling her out in front of everyone. Iroda’s mother was her own coach and, while she did well at the job and knew the sport, she was more tactful with telling her daughter when she wasn’t doing well. She wanted to keep Iroda’s confidence high, as she performed better when she was sure of herself. 
 
She flipped her hair over her shoulder, and turned away again, feeling content that the other girl would keep her mouth shut—perhaps even go cry over that sick burn—and that she had won the fight. 

“Well, you might have won the free program,” Zhenya said sweetly as her eyes narrowed dangerously, “but your technical exercise was so flawed. I, at least, was consistent.” She didn’t really feel like it, though. Truth be told, others had praised her consistency during the championships, had told her that she had done well to avoid any big mistake in both her performances but she never really felt like a real champion anyway.

“You only say that I won because of my surname because you don’t want to face it that I’m better than you,” Zhenya shot back at Iroda, her voice trembling with anger. “You should really focus on yourself, Iroda, and train harder if you want to actually challenge me at the upcoming world championships.” She didn’t sound as sure of herself as the words might imply. Zhenya was very self-conscious about her European title but with the months she had learned to accept that she had won, that nobody could take this away from her anymore.

“My coach is strict with me so that I know my faults and can improve.” She called after Iroda, feeling somewhat envious that the other girl was supported rather than criticised most of the time. “You have a very wrong self-perception because of all the unwarranted praise you get from your mother.”