Hiya! it is easy to find the <> this time!

I stared at my reflection in the mirror, looking at my eyebrows, swearing that they were thicker a month ago. I rubbed my finger over my blotchy, thinning eyebrows to smooth them out. Oh geez, I was turning into my grandmother, Maria.

I took out a brown eyeliner pencil from my makeup bag and penciled them in thicker. I sighed as I looked at my penciled-in eyebrows. "I am grandma Maria," I said to myself, not happy with that statement.

<>

Braking me from my thoughts was Paulo. "Where are you going today?" he asked as he leaned against the door of the bathroom.

I looked at his bandaged, bruised and broken nose as his eyes showed light blackeyes but despite how terrible he looked, he somehow maintained his confidence. "You look like hell."

He shrugged as if he had heard it all before. "That's the price I have to pay for being the best person on the team."

I rolled my eyes. And this was why I tried so hard to let my family know I was here. Because if I didn't, I would be brushed to the side with Paulo and Jaimie's actions. Saying nothing, I took out some foundation and rubbed it on my pasty, slightly freckly skin.

Since they forced Paulo to stay home today, he was bored and that meant he was going to me for entertainment. Funny, I was only interesting when he had nothing better to do. "I saw you with Garret yesterday. Are you two dating now?"

I looked at him with a straight face, knowing he just wanted details so he could gossip about my life to the team, since a few of them were interested in me. "Nope." Even if we were, I would want to share since we all knew he couldn't keep secrets to save his life.

He looked at me with a smile as he wiggled his eyebrows. "But you want to."

I felt my cheeks grow hot, and that was enough of an answer for him.

"I knew it."

I looked around the hall as if people were here; they weren't, but I had to make sure. "Shhhh. I don't want the entire house or town, for that matter, knowing it. We all know how much you like to talk. This secret does not leave this bathroom," I threaten.

"Well, technically, I'm not in the bathroom," he said as he looked at his holey socked feet standing in the hallway.

I grabbed his shirt and pulled his 6-foot frame into the bathroom with enough force he almost lost his balance. "Now, you're in the bathroom."

He laughed, finding amusement in this. "Oh El. I promise I won't say anything. But the thing is, I think my team already got some ideas."

I looked up at him with despair. Great.

"So what are you getting ready for?" he asked again.

I sighed, knowing he wouldn't drop it until I answered his question. "I have an interview with the local newspaper," I said proudly, with a smile.

"Really? The Weeks? How did that happen?" he asked, as if he couldn't believe that I had enough talent or interest to be written about.

"Believe it or not but your little sister's in the big league for skating now. Callum's interviewing me for a spread."

"Callum, like Callum Weeks?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

He frowned, suddenly looking upset as he put his hands in his dark washed jean pockets and for a second, he looked like a protective brother, but Paulo wasn't protective. He never had to be, nor did I think he cared enough to be. "Be careful," he warned.

I knew little about Callum, but for what I knew, he seemed ok. His father owned the newspaper in town and that he was in the same grade as Jaimie and Paulo. He was rich and a little stuck up, but quiet. No one I talked to had a solid opinion of him which made him more interesting. "It's just an interview."

"Callum has a reputation. He's a partier. He's in a band. He's wild."

I chuckled, finding humor in the statement. My brother, who was also known as a partier and wild, was warning me about him. But what I wanted to know was how did Paulo know so much about Callum when no one else did? Besides, Paulo never cared much about what I did. I didn't understand why he showed an interest now.

I felt anger rise in me. I wanted to shut him out, but I remembered what Jaimie said in the car a few days ago, 'all people had to try'. He was trying to have a conversation, wanting to know about my life, but I wasn't sure if it was because he genuinely wanted to know or if he just wanted something to do. "Nothing is going to happen," I said as I patted his shoulder.

"That better be the case, or he'll be talking to me."

I had never seen this side of Paulo. Most of the time, he only talked about himself. But for a second, he seemed to actually care about me. I wondered if Jamison talked to him about the conversation that we had in the car. "Did you talk to Jaimie?"

Paulo looked confused. "What about?"

I shook my head with a slight frown, knowing that Jaimie didn't bring it up, so that didn't explain why was Paulo acting like this. "Nothing," I said and put mascara on.

"How are you going to get to the interview?"

I shrugged, as if the answer was simple. "Probably bike," I said and thought about how the ice cream shop was just about two miles down the road.

"You know it is raining, right?"

I shot him a look as if it was all his fault that my dream was crushed. "No."

"I can take you," he added as he walked out of the bathroom.

I eyed him, not sure what his motives were, but regardless of them, I had to take his offer since I wasn't about to bike in the rain. "I really need to get my driver's license."

Paulo nodded with a chuckle. "It's about time you came to that realization."

I lightly punched his shoulder as I followed him out of the bathroom. "In my defense, most juniors in our school don't have a license."

"Yeah, but most juniors don't go to the ice rink at the butt crack of dawn."

I chuckled lightly. "You have a point. Can you take me now?"

This small conversation was more then we had in a while and I wish this Paulo was around more often to have these. Maybe he was around now because he hit his head last night and wasn't thinking clearly since he wasn't like his normal selfish self. But I liked this side of Paulo even though it was slightly annoying at the same time.

"Sure can," he said and took some keys out of the pocket of his button-down flannel shirt as if he had been ready for this moment since this morning.

We got into the car, and Paulo drove out of our driveway in silence but I quickly broke it with a simple question. "Have you heard from dad recently?" I had been so busy with school and training that I hadn't been a part of the family night calls he had when he was gone.

"He called at the hospital, thought he would congratulate me for a win, instead, he was consoling everyone that my nose heal straight," he chuckled.

"Do you think he'll be home for my sectional competition?" I asked with hope. It wouldn't be the first time he missed one of my competitions because of work.

Paulo shrugged. "He said the plan was to come home the day before it and he would meet us in Seattle," he said, but there was a hint of skepticism in his voice.

"I really want him to be there," I frowned.

"Why don't you call him and tell him that yourself?" Paulo asked as he parked at the ice cream shop. "If you want it bad enough, let him know." He looked into the shop window and pointed to Callum. "Callum's waiting for you. If anything goes wrong, call me. I'll be here in a heartbeat."

I smiled lightly, enjoying the sight of him waiting for me. "Thanks, Paulo," I said as I got out of the car.

"No problem," he said and drove off.

Callum looked at me from the window and smiled at me as I hurried inside, trying to dodge the raindrops. I shivered as I walked into the shop, swearing to myself that I should have worn a thicker sweater. It was just as freezing in here as it was outside.

"Ellis, hi," Callum said, and pushed a milkshake to me as I walked up to his small table by the window. "I hope you don't mind, I ordered one for you."

I sat down across from him, then looked at the white milkshake with dark pieces of cookies in it. "Cookies and cream?"

He nodded.

I smiled. "This is my favorite flavor."

He smiled at me as if he was waiting for me to say that. How he knew what my favorite flavor of ice cream was beyond me, but I brushed it off as he leaned back in his chair casually. "So how was the game last night? Is Paulo ok?"

"It was, um, exciting. He's ok, he just needs time to heal."

"Of course. That's to be expected."

I nodded. "So, you never told me why you were at the rink watching me skate a week ago." As far as I knew, Callum was an only child, so he would have no reason to go to the rink since he didn't skate.

"My niece, she's five, she was in the program," he explained. "Her father, my brother, and his wife work a little too much and so I try to step in when I can."

"Sounds like she is lucky to have you," I said and took a sip of the sweet drink. I smiled as the sugar reminded me I hadn't had a milkshake in way too long. Maybe the skating diet was a little too restrictive. It was nice to break it once in a while.

He nodded as he took a drink of his chocolate-colored shake. "I just try to give her a good childhood, with great memories."

Ok, one thing I knew about Callum, he wasn't an only child. Slowly my opinions of Callum were shifting the more I talked to him. I believed Callum Weeks was like a Diamond, depending on the light, he shined differently. "What's her name? I might know her."

"Her name's Darcy. I have a photo of her from the performance," he said and showed me his phone.

I looked at the curly, dark-haired, toothless girl next to Callum looking happy. I racked my mind with little girls that I might know, but I came up with nothing. "She's cute."

"She's stubborn and she has me wrapped around her little finger. What's scary is that I think she knows it. But yes, she's cute," he said with a chuckle. "And you just have your brothers, right? Do you have any cousins?"

I shook my head. "My dad, Rafa, is from Brazil so all of his family is still there. I see them maybe once a year. And my mom, Eliza, she was an only child, so no extended family for me, at least that's close to me."

"I have always wanted to go to Brazil. What's it like?" he asked as he leaned closer to me.

I smiled as I thought about the warm beaches with clear water and the coxinhas that my Avo Lidia makes. It was paradise there. "It's like a second home. We don't go often but when we do, it's like we never left. It's a magical feeling, but I'm sure you've felt like that about a place before. I think many people have."

Callum frowned as he shook his head, for a second, he looked sad. "I have nowhere like that." He shrugged. "But, hey, that's ok. I'm ok with that," he added, although I heard regret in his voice.

I held my shock to myself. He didn't have a place that felt like home. I wanted to know why. There was silence, as we both did not know what to say until Callum brought out his laptop. "Well, do you mind if I ask you about skating?"

I smiled with a chuckle. "Sure. After all, that's why I'm here."

He chuckled back at me although it was dry. "What does skating mean to you?" Callum asked as he typed on his laptop.

I thought about his words for a moment, letting them sink in. Skating was my life, it was my oxygen, what I needed to survive. In fact, without it, I was nothing. For 13 years of my life, I devoted everything to the sport. I have no social life outside of the rink; I had no other events or groups I was in; it was just skating. I had nothing else. "Everything. Skating is my air. It's my sanity. Without it, I would be nothing."

"What got you into skating?"

I thought about how I skated at the age of four with my parents. My twin brothers and my father were at the time obsessed with hockey, that's until they actually tried it. But what my parents didn't know, is that they instantly got me in love with the sport. "My parents paid for a few group lessons when I was around 3. My dad though it might be fun to do some cold weather sports as a family. Truth is, he hated it and everyone else didn't really like it. It was only me who found love."

"Do you feel like skating is a job?"

I shrugged. "Of course it is. I have to work at it every day for hours at a time. But it's a job that I love to do."

"Spending hours at the rink, training, some people wouldn't like that. Why do you?"

"It's home. The ice is predictable. I know it like the back of my hand. The way my skates feel on it, the way my body moves to the music. It's like I wasn't supposed to do anything else. I love it because it makes me feel complete."

His eyes were distant as he typed as if he was in a different place, until he stopped to look at me. "The way you talk about skating. It's beautiful. I've interviewed a lot of people, but no one seemed to be so sure as you are about skating."

I blushed. "Thank you. I just speak my mind."

"It is a beautiful mind that you have then," he said as he typed again.

I felt my cheeks grow even redder. He had a way with words that I had never seen before. The people I talked to spoke on a surface level since most were more comfortable on the ice or stabbing each other in the back than having a deep conversation. But Callum was so confident, like he owned everything he said with no regrets. "Have you ever had a job that you felt so strongly about?"

He stopped in mid type as he looked out the rain falling on the glass window beside us in silence. He looked lost for a second until he spoke again. "No. I thought I did at one point in time, but I lost that."

"I've read some of your articles. They're beautiful. Don't you feel strongly about writing?" I asked, remembering reading his work before I came for the interview today.

"My articles for my dad's newspaper? No, not really. I like it but it's not a genuine passion."

"Then what's your passion?" I asked with a ghost of a smile on my face as I leaned forward in my seat. I found him incredibly fascinating. Unlike every one else at the rink, he was different, the way he talked, the way he thought. I couldn't understand Callum Weeks and that was something that I hadn't seen before.

He was about to answer when his phone rang. He answered it instantly and frowned as a muffled sound came from it. "Ok. I'll be there soon," he said, then hung up the phone and turned his attention back to me. "I have to go, but I think I have everything I need from you."

I nodded, although it disappointed me that our time was done. I felt like we were getting somewhere with him. Callum was like a diamond with millions of angles. "Great. Thanks for the milkshake."

"It's the least I could do. Do you have a ride home? I can take you," he said as he put away his computer into a leather bookbag.

Getting in the car with a man I barely knew... "Sure, why not." I got up from my seat and lost my balance, stumbling back to the chair with a frown.

"Whoa now," Callum said with concern, and quickly by my side, ready to help.

I chuckled, even though it wasn't funny. I wanted to brush it off, wanting him to brush it off, too. "It's nothing, I probably stood up too quick," I lied to him.

"Ok," he said, although his eyes told me he wanted to say more.