The Shared Rink: From Conflict to Connection

What Is the Shared Rink?

The shared rink is Arena Two at the University of California, Maple Hills (UCMH)—the primary training facility for both the figure skating team and the ice hockey team. After an act of vandalism destroys the cooling system and generator in the hockey team’s separate arena, Director Skinner announces that repairs will take months due to parts shortages. The two teams must share a single rink for the foreseeable future.

This forced co-tenancy is not a minor scheduling inconvenience. For figure skater Anastasia Allen, her ice time is sacred, meticulously planned, and non-negotiable. She has regionals in five weeks, and her entire athletic identity depends on uninterrupted practice. The hockey team, captained by Nathan Hawkins, carries a reputation for reckless pranks—though Nathan has worked hard to end that tradition. When the rink becomes a shared resource, it transforms from a simple athletic surface into a charged symbolic space where territorial battles, mutual observation, unexpected admiration, and eventually deep intimacy unfold.

The epigraph to the novel—a quotation from Olympic figure skater Peggy Fleming—frames the rink’s symbolic potential before the story even begins: “Skating was the vessel into which I could pour my heart and soul.” This declaration elevates the ice from a mere sporting surface to a conduit for emotional release. The shared rink becomes precisely this kind of vessel for both Anastasia and Nathan, absorbing their frustrations, fears, vulnerabilities, and ultimately their love.

Where the Shared Rink Appears

The shared rink surfaces repeatedly across the narrative, marking pivotal shifts in character dynamics.

The Announcement (Chapter 3): When Skinner informs both teams they must share Arena Two, Anastasia feels drowned by the realization. She storms toward Coach Brady, frantic about regionals. Nathan approaches her afterward with a pity grimace and an invitation to a party, but Anastasia refuses to be charmed—this is a disaster, and she blames the hockey team for causing it.

Territorial Standoffs (Chapter 14 and surrounding chapters): As the sharing arrangement grinds on, the rink becomes a battlefield of passive-aggressive tension. The hockey team routinely runs over their allotted time, leaving Anastasia seething at the boards. In one memorable moment, she skates directly into the middle of a hockey practice, middle finger raised, performing her routine among the players as they dodge around her. Nathan, terrified she will get hurt, struggles to catch what he describes as “a fucking butterfly. A vision in blue spinning and gliding, unfazed by the danger.”

Training Together (Chapter 25): When Nathan is benched from hockey pending an investigation into Aaron Carlisle’s injury, he agrees to train as Anastasia’s pairs partner so she can continue practicing lifts and partnered elements. The shared rink shifts from contested territory into a collaborative workshop. Coach Brady drills them relentlessly, critiquing Nathan’s early attempts as “like a drunk deer, misguidedly stepping onto a frozen lake.” But the ice also becomes a space of playfulness, inside jokes, and growing physical trust.

The Competition (Chapters 48–49): At the Spirit Center in San Diego, the competitive rink becomes the stage for Aaron’s ultimate betrayal—a nonconsensual kiss in front of cameras after their flawless pairs skate. Anastasia flees the ice, declares she will never skate with Aaron again, and reclaims her autonomy. Nathan, who has driven hours to support her, punches Aaron and becomes her refuge.

The Aftermath and Epilogue (Chapters 50–53): In the novel’s closing timeline, Anastasia has won Olympic gold and Nathan a Stanley Cup. The ice that once divided them has become the symbolic foundation of their partnership, poured into as Fleming’s epigraph promised.

How the Rink’s Meaning Transforms

The shared rink does not remain a static symbol. Its meaning evolves through several distinct phases.

Phase 1: The Rink as Battleground. Initially, the shared rink represents forced conflict between two cultures. Hockey players are loud, territorial, and physically dominant. Figure skaters are disciplined, precise, and resentful of the intrusion. The ice is a zero-sum resource, and every minute the hockey team runs late is a minute stolen from Anastasia’s carefully scheduled life. Her anger at Nathan is partly about the rink and partly about her loss of control.

Phase 2: The Rink as Stage for Mutual Observation. Once forced into proximity, both teams begin watching each other. Hockey players see figure skaters’ grueling athleticism up close. Figure skaters witness the hockey team’s camaraderie and Nathan’s leadership. Henry Turner, a sophomore on the hockey team, approaches Anastasia in the library and explains Nathan’s protective decision to shield Russ from scandal. This information would never have been exchanged without the rink merger.

Phase 3: The Rink as a Site of Trust-Building. When Nathan becomes Anastasia’s temporary pairs partner, the ice demands physical vulnerability. She must let him lift her, catch her, and support her body through complex maneuvers. This is not merely athletic cooperation; it mirrors the emotional trust they are simultaneously building off the ice. The rink witnesses Nathan in laughably tight leggings, Brady’s blunt coaching, and the pair’s growing synchronization.

Phase 4: The Rink as an Emotional Vessel. By the time Anastasia competes at nationals, the rink has absorbed her years of ambition, her toxic partnership with Aaron, her therapy work with Dr. Andrews, and her new relationship with Nathan. When Aaron forces that kiss on competitive ice, he violates the sanctity of what the rink has come to represent. Her flight from the ice is a flight from him, but her return to skating—eventually to Olympic gold—affirms that the rink remains hers, not his.

Character Connections

Anastasia Allen: For Anastasia, the rink has always been her domain. She pours every ounce of discipline into it, and her identity is fused with her athletic performance. Sharing the rink initially feels like losing a part of herself. Her gradual willingness to share ice time with Nathan parallels her gradual willingness to let him into her tightly controlled emotional life. The trust exercises on ice—lifts, catches, synchronized movement—are physical manifestations of the intimacy she struggles to articulate verbally.

Nathan Hawkins: Nathan enters the shared rink as an intruder in Anastasia’s eyes, but he quickly proves himself respectful of her space. His willingness to train as her pairs partner—despite bruised knees, her sharp critiques, and Brady’s grueling standards—demonstrates a humility his hockey captaincy rarely requires. On the ice, he is vulnerable in ways the hockey rink never demanded.

Aaron Carlisle: Aaron’s relationship with the rink is possessive and ultimately destructive. He resents sharing Anastasia’s attention, undermines her confidence, and finally violates the competitive ice with a nonconsensual kiss intended to claim her publicly. His forced kiss on the rink—captured by cameras—represents his refusal to accept her autonomy. The rink exposes him.

Coach Aubrey Brady: Brady’s authority over the rink is absolute. She critiques Nathan’s skating bluntly, warns Anastasia about romantic entanglements, and drives both athletes toward excellence. Her presence reinforces that the ice is a professional space, not merely a backdrop for drama.

Theme Connections

The shared rink intersects with several novel-wide themes. For more, explore consent and communication in intimacy and toxic manipulation vs. healthy support.

The rink physically enforces the theme of healing through found family. Nathan’s hockey team rallies around the figure skaters; Henry’s library confession, the team’s support during the competition livestream, and the house filled with teammates eating Thai food in the final chapters all stem from relationships catalyzed on shared ice. See healing through found family.

The rink also foregrounds balancing ambition and personal relationships. Anastasia’s panic about regionals shows how deeply her athletic goals define her. Nathan’s benching forces him to find value in skating beyond hockey. Their ability to eventually support each other’s careers—Olympic gold for her, a Stanley Cup for him—without sacrificing their partnership is the resolution this theme demands. See balancing ambition and personal relationships.

Finally, the athletic body and its pressures are ever-present on the ice. Anastasia’s disordered relationship with food and body image exists alongside the physical demands of skating, and the rink is where these internal battles play out in motion. See disordered eating and athletic body image.

Study Questions

1. How does the forced sharing of the rink function as an inciting incident for Anastasia and Nathan’s relationship?

The rink merger forces sustained proximity between two people who would otherwise move in separate athletic circles. Without the shared ice, Nathan’s initial apology and party invitation might have been their only interaction. Instead, daily practices create opportunities for observation, conflict, grudging respect, and eventually collaboration. The rink is the physical container that holds their relationship long enough for it to take root. Anastasia’s territorial anger gives way to recognition of Nathan’s integrity, a shift that requires repeated exposure the shared rink makes unavoidable.

2. In what ways does the pairs-skating training sequence deepen the symbolic meaning of the ice?

When Nathan becomes a figure skater—however temporarily—the rink ceases to be contested territory and becomes a laboratory for trust. Lifts require Anastasia to place her physical safety in Nathan’s hands. Synchronized movement demands communication and mutual attention. Brady’s coaching underscores that this is not recreational; it is work, and the ice is a professional proving ground. The training sequence transforms the rink from a symbol of division into a symbol of partnership, foreshadowing the romantic relationship that deepens alongside their athletic partnership.

3. Why is the setting of the competition rink significant to the novel’s climax?

At the Spirit Center, cameras broadcast every moment. Aaron chooses this public stage for his nonconsensual kiss, attempting to script a narrative where Anastasia belongs to him. The competitive rink—normally a site of achievement and validation—becomes a site of violation. But Anastasia’s immediate flight and her declaration that she will never skate with Aaron again reclaim the ice as her own. The rink has absorbed her years of work with Aaron, and by walking off it, she severs that partnership forever. Nathan’s physical presence at the rink—having driven hours to support her—contrasts sharply with Aaron’s possessiveness.

4. How does the Peggy Fleming epigraph shape a reader’s understanding of the shared rink early in the novel?

Fleming’s words appear as a standalone epigraph before any narrative action. By describing skating as “the vessel into which I could pour my heart and soul,” the quotation instructs readers to view the ice as emotionally expressive, not merely athletic. When the rink becomes shared, this framework suggests that both Anastasia and Nathan will pour their emotions onto it—frustration, rivalry, admiration, love. The epigraph also aligns the novel with real figure-skating tradition, adding gravitas to Anastasia’s artistic ambitions and framing her eventual Olympic success as the fulfillment of a deeply emotional, not just technical, journey.

Return to the main Icebreaker guide, explore Anastasia Allen and Nathan Hawkins, or read about the antagonist Aaron Carlisle.