Julia Wallace was in chill mode. 

The first-year figure skater was relaxing in the stands, making Tik Tok's with her team and watching her teammates wrap up the final events of the Waterloo Winter Invitational.

The Mississauga, Ont. product was sitting back, munching on Chocolate filled Hello Panda cookies, Welch's Fruit Snacks and Brookside dark chocolate — all picked up by her coach during a Costco run earlier that morning.

"Probably stuff shouldn't be eaten before we compete," admitted Wallace.

But for Wallace — that wasn't a problem. She wasn't scheduled to skate. After wrapping up her solo — her final skate of the event — she was reminding teammates to smile and enjoy themselves prior to making the walk down from the dressing room and through the gate onto the ice for their own events.

What she didn't know was that a teammate would be unable to compete in her fours event — a skate featuring four skaters — which was one of the final skates of the event and that she would need to be stepping through that gate once more herself.

After not practicing fours all season long, head coach Lyndsay Burrows and co-captains Marion Pollard and Tina Mai thrusted the first-year skater into the spotlight.

With Pollard and Mai still completing their respective solo's throughout the opening day of the competition, the quartet had limited time to prepare together.

Wallace took it on herself to get acclimated to the routine. She found a quiet spot above the stands, played the music out of the speaker on her phone and began to memorize and rehearse a new routine off-ice — and in less than 24 hours.

Thankfully for Wallace and the Bold, a randomly selected skating order allowed the team to regroup before taking the ice, after both Pollard and Mai completed their solo skates.

"If we were the first skaters I honestly don't know what would have happened," said Wallace.

While the Bold were unable to reach the podium in Waterloo — the competition was important for the team to know where they stood ahead of OUA's.

Growing up in skating, Wallace has always been a soloist. In this moment, she was able to share the ice with three of her teammates 

"It was a really cool experience. (I saw) what it's like to go onto the ice and have three other girls who are about to skate together," said Wallace. "We're all feverous together. We're all in that same mindset."

The experience is one that, as of this moment, is the standout moment for Wallace's first season with the program.

It's been a year and an experience that Wallace didn't think was possible.

Before the season, she was in her bedroom, swiping up-and-down on her Instagram feed when she came across a post from the TMU Figure Skating account. A quick Google confirmed her findings that, in fact, there was a team at her school.

"Right away it was just kind of like all of this feels meant to be," said Wallace, who later reached out to see if she could try out for the team.

From there, her spot on the 17-skater roster was confirmed.

Wallace is now able to call the Mattamy Athletic Centre home each week. After her classes, she can make the walk over to the old Maple Leaf Gardens.

"It's really nice. Every time I think about it, I just feel really lucky, honestly," said Wallace. "I love how convenient it is."

"I feel like the other schools definitely don't have arenas as nice as ours."

Wallace's final stop of the season will come at an arena away from home, as the Bold's final event of the season will be the OUA Championship.

"I'm definitely excited. I had fun in the last competition. I definitely think we can do better than we did," said Wallace. "I'm excited to see how everything turns out."