ODDS AND ENDS (Chapter 52)

Warren and Sophia were clearly on a roll. They went to Junior Worlds, and won, with Evan and Shawna winning the silver medal again.

After returning to Oceanview, Warren got a phone call.

"Warren? This is Jim Golick, from the University of Wisconsin admissions office."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Golick, what can I do for you?"

"Actually, it's what I can do for you. I have been authorized to offer you a full academic scholarship, covering all tuition, fees, and room and board, to attend the University of Wisconsin."

"Wow! Mr. Golick, this is great news!"

"Is Wisconsin your first choice, Warren, or are you waiting to hear from someone else?"

"Both, actually. Wisconsin is my first choice, but I need to see what other schools are offering."

"If Wisconsin is your first choice, Warren, you're not going to do better than a full ride."

Warren laughed. "True, but I'm only half of the equation."

"I don't understand."

"Mr. Golick, is there anyone in your office who is a figure skating fan?"

"Yeah, Linda Allard."

"Is she there? Call her over."

"OK." There was a brief pause. "She's here. I'm putting you on speakerphone."

"Hi, Ms. Allard," Warren said. "Mr. Golick tells me you're a figure skating fan. Do you know who Warren Kelleher is?"

"Sure!" Linda said. "He's an ice dancer. Won the silver medal at nationals, and just won junior worlds."

"That's me."

"Really?" Linda said. "Wow! I'm a big fan!"

"Thank you," Warren said.

"OK, there's a point here, but I'm missing it," Mr. Golick said, bemused.

"Ice dancers have partners," Warren said. "Mine's name is Sophia Daniels. As an added bonus, she's also my girlfriend. You'll find her application on your desk, somewhere. We know she got in to Wisconsin, but we haven't heard about her financial aid deal yet. Wherever we go, we go together."

"Got it. Let me find Miss Daniels' file and see where we're at."

"Great!"

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Warren called Sophia and told her about the phone call. Thirty minutes later, Warren got called back.

"Full scholarship!" Sophia crowed into the phone. "And, it had nothing to do with you, I was getting it anyway, I was just further down on the phone call list."

"Great! I told you they'd ignore freshman year." Warren enthused. "Are we going to Wisconsin?"

"We're going to Wisconsin."

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But first, they had to go to Paris, for the Senior World Championships. They were on the same practice ice as the defending world champions, Olga Bradochkina and Nikolai Zhargov of Russia, and the defending world bronze medallists, Renee Damphier and Christian Gaudler of Canada. This was, at least at first, very intimidating.

It turns out that Renee and Christian were great. They were ballroom-oriented in their dancing, also, and immediately took a liking to Sophia and Warren's style. After their first practice of their free dance, Christian skated by them, and said, "Glenn Miller? I like you guys already."

As they stood by the boards, they saw Bradochkina and Zhargov approach. Olga Bradochkina had the reputation of being the Diva of Ice Dance, but Sophia and Warren's teammate Sharon Nicholas had told them, "Don't worry about her. Her bark is much worse than her bite."

"So….." Olga began, "you are new American dancers. Varren and Sophia?"

"That's us," Sophia smiled. They shook Olga and Nikolai's hands. "We know who you are," Sophia smiled at them.

"Of course you do," Olga said in her thick Russian accent. "We are the best. But, you, you dance different. You smile and smile."

"We do smile a lot," Sophia admitted. "We love this."

"Ah. Is good. You dance like old times, but is very good dance. I like it."

Sophia and Warren looked at each other, amazed. "Thank you very much. From Olga Bradochkina, that's high praise." Warren said.

"Ah. Nothing. We see you next practice," and with that, Olga and Nikolai were gone.

"Wow," said Sophia

"I'm wondering if Nikolai is allowed to speak," Warren said with a giggle. Christian Gaudler, skating by, overheard him and said, "Generally, no!" Warren and Sophia collapsed in laughter.

The competition was a hoot. Sophia and Warren finished tenth, far beyond their expectations, as their teammates Nicholas and Coleman finished sixth, their highest Worlds placement ever. Jack Garrison, after winning the bronze last year, won the silver this year. Their friends Andrea and Brett, in their first world championship in pairs, finished seventh. And Liz Cushman had a few problems, and gave up her World Championship—to a stunned Christine Arsenault. "If I had to lose, at least it was to Christine," Liz said to Warren after it was all over.

Most of the skaters left Worlds to immediately join the Tour of Champions, but Warren and Sophia had to get to school. They did join the tour for a few weeks later on, picking up some money for their troubles, and leaving audiences enraptured with "You'll Be In My Heart."

Warren missed out on being salutatorian, but was OK with that. Both of their proms were great, and graduation was fine. Jessie threw a massive graduation party.

They spent the summer working, back at the donut shop, and getting ready for the move to Wisconsin, and reworking their Frank Sinatra free dance for next year. They had already declined an invitation to participate in the Grand Prix series, wanting to leave the autumn for adjusting to college, but planned to go to Nationals again.