Typical Day
Ice Cutter stumbles out of bed at 4:00AM to start his day. He's exhausted—so he hops into an icy cold shower to wake up. It works—kind of. Three generous cups of coffee and a jelly doughnut later he's ready to roll.
By the time Ice gets to the rink at 5:00AM, the freestyle girls are stretching and getting ready to take the ice. He shyly waves at one of the girls, Goldie Golden, one of the top skaters in the country. She gives him a quick smile and goes back to her stretching. One of these days Ice is going to work up the nerve to ask her out, but today is not that day.
Ice climbs aboard The Beast—which is what he calls his Zamboni—and takes his time on the first ice cut of the day. He pays close attention, making sure not to miss any spots and to make it perfect—especially for Goldie Golden. Ice wouldn't want to leave any rough spots for the skaters to hurt themselves on.
Ten minutes later, the ice in the skating rink is indeed perfect—a flawless, glossy, glassy sheet of ice. "It is a thing of beauty," thinks Ice. The freestyle skaters hungrily rush to the clean ice as soon as The Beast has made its way off the ice and back into its stall. The skaters devour the clean ice and zip around it, each trying to be the first one to make their mark with a waltz jump or a scratch spin. Ice watches Goldie and the others skate until the ice is completely full of marks—which only takes about ten minutes. "Oh well, it'll be back to its pristine state soon enough," he thinks.
At 5:30AM, Ice hops back onto The Beast and cleans the ice on the hockey rink. There's a pick-up hockey game that begins at 5:45AM, and despite the early time, it's usually pretty crowded. He cuts the ice hard and cold so the players will be able to glide faster. He doesn't recognize any of these guys. They aren't the team that he practices with—in fact, they're kids from the local high school.
He remembers the days when he played high school hockey. It was always so hard to get up for these morning games, but totally worth if once you got on the ice. It's much harder to get your energy up after a full day of college classes, like Ice is doing now.
The minute Ice finishes the cut, the teen players start pouring in to enjoy the clean ice and bash sticks for a while. In fact, they're so eager to start playing that Ice almost gets hit by a flying puck that smashes into The Beast's glossy metal exterior.
At 6:15AM, Ice has to hop back on The Beast to clean the ice for the next freestyle figure skate group on the skating rink. Goldie Golden is there to skate this session too.
He takes his time this round, making sure to clean the ice completely and not miss any patches. While he does this, the figure skaters stretch and wait for him to finish. One of the girls says something to Goldie and they both giggle. He wonders if they're talking about him. At 6:30AM, Ice is done cleaning the ice for the figure skaters. It's time for his hour break—however it's not much of a break at all, as he has to do some of the other chores the rink manager has given him.
Ice quickly checks the bathrooms to make sure they're clean and have plenty of toilet paper stocked—his least favorite part of the gig. He then moves to the rink floors and starts sweeping. He makes some happy chit chat with customers who are coming in for the next freestyle session. Time flies and before he knows it, it's 7:30AM and time for the next ice cut on the freestyle rink. The hockey game in the other rink is going on full speed and the ice there won't need resurfacing until they're done playing.
As his shift comes to an end, Ice does one more ice cut at 9:00AM on the freestyle rink, then a cut on the hockey rink.
At 9:30AM, Ice heads off to classes at Shmoop U, where he's studying physics and biochemical engineering. But he'll be back at the rink in the evening to play in a hockey game of his own.
Ice returns to the rink at 6:00PM and cuts the ice prior to his game. He laces up his skates and hits the ice to play with the Waxel Warriors. Ice has such a hectic schedule, but he makes sure he finds the time to play. But he's not off the clock tonight, as he cuts the ice between periods and again after the game.
At the end of the night Ice heads home and collapses, totally exhausted, into bed. When he dreams, Ice dreams of electric sheep...and the loud hum of The Beast creating a perfect frozen sheet of ice to skate on.