THE OLYMPICS BEGIN (Chapter 97)

"I got on my laptop and read a lot of the articles from the various papers," Warren told Sophia at lunch the next day. "They were great. You got them back on our side, I think."

"Even though I am a pregnant nympho?" Sophia teased.

"Even though. You know what? I love you."

"I love you, too, Snugglebear."

"I hope that took care of everything. I want to enjoy the Olympics."

"We will."

After they ate, they took a little walk around the Olympic Village. It was a lot of fun. They saw athletes from all kinds of sports.

"Hey, isn't that Liesl Schraeder, the Austrian skier?" Sophia asked Warren.

"Yeah, it is. She's great. Best slalom and giant slalom skier in the world," Warren confirmed.

"And look, over there, that's that new American downhiller, Shannon Gentry."

"This is great. I'm so excited," Warren admitted. They strolled through the village, meeting and introducing themselves to athletes from all over the world. Lots of them knew who Sophia and Warren were, which was neat.

They ran into Jennie Sellers and Denis Poulin, the Canadian pairs skaters.

"Hi guys!" Sophia greeted them. "Nervous?"

"Oh, yeah," Jennie told them. "We skate tomorrow, you bet we're nervous."

"Are you guys going to skip the Opening Ceremonies?" Warren asked them.

"Nah," Denis told them. "We thought about it, our coach said we should, since we're competing tomorrow. But, we figured, what the heck--this might be our only Olympics, right?"

"Yeah. I'm glad we have a week, didn't have to make that decision," Sophia said.

"Good luck to you guys," Jennie said.

"Same to you!"

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"I skipped this last time--not making that mistake twice," Liz Cushman was telling Warren and Sophia, as they gathered in the staging area, getting ready to parade into the opening ceremonies.

"I've been waiting my whole life for this," Sophia said. "When I first started dancing, when I was a young kid, I dreamed about going to the Olympics, of course. Then when I stopped, I thought I had given that dream up. Even when Warren and I started skating together, we just did it for fun. I never thought we'd make it this far. Somebody pinch me!" Warren and Liz both laughed at that.

"You getting tips from the Olympic veteran?" Christine Arsenault said as she came up next to them.

"Not a veteran at this," Liz told her. "I skipped opening ceremonies last time."

"Geez, I wouldn't dream of doing that," Christine said.

"I know. Which is why my agent and parents are not here yet, dig?" Everyone laughed at that. "I got talked into it. Not this time." Liz sighed. "Everybody treated the Olympics four years ago as a deadly serious thing. Everyone around me, I mean. It was, at the same time, deadly serious and 'just another competition'. Well, it's neither, and I told all the people around me that I wasn't going to do that this time. This is the Olympics, for Goodness' sake. I plan to enjoy myself. I told my coach I'd see him at the rink for practice and not before or after, I told my agent to stay home, and I told Rich to get his ass over here!" She giggled.

"Is he coming?" Warren asked.

"Yup. He's either here or on his way right now. He flew in today, was hoping to make it in time for the ceremonies, but, if he didn't, that's OK, too. At least he's going to be here."

They chatted for a few minutes more, and then Christine and Liz wandered off, greeting other friends.

Sophia and Warren stood there, looking around, when they saw a tall, wiry guy with blonde hair approaching them.

"How you doing? Alan Zimmer, downhill skiing."

"Hi, Alan. I'm Warren Kelleher, she's Sophia Daniels. We're ice dancers." They all shook hands.

"Hey! I know you guys! You're the lovebirds, right?"

"That's us," Sophia grinned, blushing.

"I've heard of you, too," Warren said. "Didn't you get top five in a couple of the last World Cup races?"

"Yeah, thanks! Fourth in a downhill in Austria, and fifth in a Super GS in France. Nice to know somebody notices!"

"I like watching skiing," Warren told him.

"We're going tomorrow, to watch the downhill. We can't wait," Sophia added.

"Hey, Mister Gregarious! Chatting up the ice dancers?" a dark-haired guy said from behind Alan.

"You got it, buddy!"

"How you doin'? I'm Toby Corr, I'm also a skier. I know who you guys are, my girlfriend is a figure skating nut."

"Nice to meet you," Warren said, as he and Sophia shook hands with Toby.

"I'm surprised you guys are here. Aren't you skiing early next morning?" Sophia asked them.

"Yeah, but we couldn't miss this. We'll get out early enough to get a good night's sleep, so we decided to come," Alan told them.

"Great! Enjoy the opening ceremonies!" Sophia told them.

"You too! C'mon, Toby, let's go meet more people!" With that, they were off.

Sophia and Warren milled around for a little longer, greeting friends and meeting new people. Then, the USOC officials with them started herding all the USA athletes together. It was time to enter the stadium.

"This is all so exciting," Sophia said happily. "I still can't believe we're actually here!"

"I know what you mean," Warren said. He took her hand, and they started walking with the rest of their teammates.

They proceeded through the tunnel leading to the stadium, and walked out the other end, to the sight of 50,000 people yelling and cheering.

"Les Etats-Unis d'Amerique!" the announcer intoned, heralding in French the arrival of the American team.

"Look, the president is here!" Warren told Sophia.

"Great, you found the president, where're our parents?" Warren asked with a laugh.

"They might be harder to find, Snugglebear, they're not in the VIP seats," Sophia teased him.

"There's the president of the IOC, though," Warren said.

"Look, a TV camera, right on us!" Sophia said, and then, with an impish grin, gave Warren a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey, none of that!" Andrea Wallach called from behind them. They just giggled and kept walking, hand in hand.

"Look, Sophia, there's your mom! Wave!" Warren said. They did, as did half of the figure skaters, prodded on by Jack Garrison yelling, "Everybody wave at Sophie's Mom!"

"Is this your first Olympics?" a woman behind them asked.

"Yup. I'm Sophia Daniels, this is Warren Kelleher, we're ice dancers."

"I'm Claudia Moore, I'm a luger. It's my third Olympics. Walking behind two first-timers is great. You guys are having a ball."

"We're still pinching ourselves to convince ourselves we're actually here," Warren told her.

"I know the feeling," Claudia laughed.

They kept walking, waving to the crowd, until they reached the end of the line and were herded into the infield for the rest of the ceremonies.

A few hours later, they stumbled back to the village, exhausted (and hungry) but excited and happy also. "Just think, Pookie," Sophia told Warren over a late snack in the village dining hall, "we're going to be able to tell this unborn kid of ours that he or she marched in the Olympic opening ceremonies. How cool is that?"

"Very cool. Almost as cool as us marching!"

---end of chapter---