Tuesday
Ding Dong!!
    Mrs. Mizuno rushed down the stairs of her penthouse apartment, while her hands were still busy putting on her earrings. There was almost an hour before she had to go to work, but she liked to plan ahead. She opened the door, surprised that Usagi, Rei, Minako, and Makoto had arrived so early today.
    "Is Ami home yet?" Usagi immediately bit her lip self-consciously, she knew that she should have first greeted Mrs. Mizuno politely, she wished that she had remembered.
    Mrs. Mizuno merely smiled, disregarding the rudness of Ami's friends. She was used to it by now, the girl with black hair was much more ladylike, but the others, she had to overlook their behavior... "Girls, I didn’t expect you to be so early, Ami should be home soon, she is practicing for her test at…"
    "We know, the usual, juku (cram school)." Minako blushed, she didn’t mean to sound rude, well… at least, not to cut Mrs. Mizuno off mid-speech but it was an unconscious act.
    Mrs. Mizuno’s face registered surprise at this announcement. She turned away, gesturing them casually for them to make themselves at home, something she did out of politeness and habit, not actually because she wanted them to. She muttered quietly to herself, "so she hasn’t told them….". Her remark escaped them, unnoticed, but the discomposure in her face was all that was needed to show them that something was wrong.
    They stared at her, but didn’t dare to say a word. Mrs. Mizuno was nice to them, but not exactly friendly enough for casual talk or jokes, and they didn’t foresee that in the near future either. Mrs. Mizuno suddenly remembered her place, she turned and smiled at them. "The Ashuri Skating Championship is on television right now, I’ll turn it on so that you can watch while you wait."

    The four of them (Usagi, Rei, Minako, Makoto) sat very still, some would even call it stiffly, on the three seater couch, in the Mizunos’ living room, no one dared sit in the two seater by themselves. While Mrs. Mizuno sat with them in the single couch, watching the Championships. They were still, not because they were absorbed in what they were watching (Akiyama-san – their idol, wasn’t due to compete until practically last because of his good results), but because they dared not move.
    They would have preferred to have the meeting at the Temple where the atmosphere was more relaxed, where screaming and yelling was allowed. And where the surrounding ornaments, not to mention the glasses they drank out of, did not cost a small fortune. The last time they were there (last week, Tuesday – they were there every Tuesday instead of at the Temple because Ami did not go to the usual juku close to the Temple), they had knocked over a vase, worth an obscene sum. Ami merely frowned as she cleaned up after them. They all saw the slight displeasure on Mrs. Mizuno's face, and didn’t understand why. Afterwards, according to Ami, the vase had dated back to the days when she was dating Ami's dad, a vase made by a struggling, but now famous artist, thus her favorite vase worth a small fortune.
    It was probably one of the only times when they had hoped that someone would yell at them, but Mrs. Mizuno only sighed when she heard the news and left them to themselves. She did not blame them. She was always like that, calm and courteous, a professional woman, but perhaps that was what caused the gap between them. None of them planned a repeat of last time's episode.

    They all sighed in relief as the front door opened, revealing an exhausted Ami in the doorway holding a large tote-bag. "Ami, how was juku?"
    "Juku? What?  I wasn't…" Ami suddenly looked completely lost and confused for a moment, then her face cleared, and her brow unlocked, "oh… um… Ok I guess." She turned away from her friends and hurried upstairs to her room, throwing her bag in the wardrobe at the foot of her bed.
    "Hey Ami!" Ami jumped, she hadn’t noticed that Mina had followed her into her room, now everyone was there.  "What do you keep in there? You usually don’t use that wardrobe."
    She blushed, "just… the miscellaneous things that I gather… over time."
    "Dear, a letter came for you."
    "Thankyou mother." Ami took it from her mother’s hand. Looking at the post office stamp, she blushed once again as her heart leap to her throat. It was from Ashuri. The disheveled writing on it instantly recognisable. As she opened the letter, she could feel the stiffness of the envelope that usually signaled that a photograph was enclosed. No, she couldn’t open it until they were gone, otherwise, the whole secret would be out.
    At that moment, Akiyama’s name being announced on the television caught their attention. He was on! "Umm…  Girls, I think…" Once again, Mrs. Mizuno’s remark remained unfinished, the girls had all heard the television presenter announcing his warm-up before his competition.

    "There’s his favorite move, the triple axle – double luntz, fantastic landing from Akiyama-san."
    "His arms are beautiful, look at that grace, like wings."
    "That’s how he gets his nickname Tsunami from, sweeping everything up as he passes. He’s coming up to his single spin following the double loop jump, it’s almost become his trademark, the tracing of the figure 8 with the vertical split, the run-up to the triple-toe now..."

    "Oh no! His left foot touched the ground!" Everyone’s attention turned to Ami at her remark.

    "Oooo! Did you see that, his left foot touched the ground, a double footed landing, now that was a careless mistake on his behalf."
    "Any chance of recovering?"
    "He might lose his first place to Tsuzuki then, heavy penalty for a mistake like that, but he might recover some of that in his quad-triple axle-toe."

    The girls gasped at the news from the commentator, also surprised that Ami would pick up something that only a professional would.
    "Ami, is that true, what they said?"
    Ami turned to her mother. "Tsuzuki will get all 6.0’s, unless Akiyama gets all 6.0’s in his designs – free skate, there’s no way he can win. Tsuzuki is weak on that part, but he won’t let the first place slip from him that easily, Akiyama will have to work hard to get it. That was a good quad-triple axle-toe though…"
     The music signaling the end of the routine faded away, they waited for the scores anxiously, almost as if they were in the competition themselves. "Wow! Look at that! He got 5.8’s and .9’s! He'll definitely win!"
     "That's not enough. He’s left the door wide open for Tzusuki. I think the designs will be good to watch tomorrow night…" Ami turned and left the sitting room. The silence that followed showed their surprise at Ami's knowledge in that area, leaving them trying to absorb what she had just said, and figure out what the phrase ‘door wide open’ meant.

    ‘Hi Ami, I’m in Ashuri at the moment, two more days to go. I’m counting down every minute of it, I hope that everything will go well, although as I mentioned last time, I am having some difficulties concentrating. I hope that you have been practicing, have you still got my lucky charm?…’
    The door opened as Mrs. Mizuno stuck her head in the doorway. "They’re in the kitchen having snacks. I know you’re anxious to read the letter, but try not to be so long, you know I feel… uncomfortable…"
    Ami nodded and smiled. She understood her mother’s feelings. Her mother still hadn’t figured out why her daughter had mixed with friends like that yet, so unlike herself. Ami hurriedly placed the letter back in its envelope, and opened the wardrobe at the end of her bed. Reaching in, she took out a wooden box, full of letters, and placed the letter with the others. White crepe from a short mini-dress draped across her forehead lightly, she looked up and touched the dress material lightly, her mind drifted off into a dream.
    A sudden sharp crash forced Ami from her reverie, Usagi’s scream and… Ami didn’t need to be a genius or use any part of her 300 plus IQ to know that Usagi must have broken yet another one of their long stemmed glasses. She smiled, luckily, her mother had now learnt not to serve them juice in crystal.

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