				BACK AT NATIONALS (Chapter 71)

"Ah, Seattle. Never been here," said Warren.

"Yeah, it's going to be a west coast kind of year, what with Worlds being in San Jose," said Sophia.

They were at Nationals. Their friends in the skating world were very glad to see them, together, and seemingly as happy as ever.

"Hey, Dance King!" Christine Arsenault greeted Warren in the lobby of the hotel. Sophia was off chatting with Jack Garrison and his wife. "How's it hanging, Warren?"

"Fine as always, Chris. You ready to renew the battle with your arch-nemesis Liz Cushman again?"

"Of course. And you and Sophia are ready to go after Nicholas and Coleman?"

"You betcha."

"So, Warren. What happened? Really."

"Sophia and I broke up, in late September. She broke up with me, actually. It was a huge mistake, it's been resolved, but we were apart for almost two months."

"Damn. Well, I'm glad everything worked out."

"So am I."

"Your training must have suffered."

"Yeah, but we're coming along. Thank God we had decided not to do the Grand Prix this year."

"Hey, waitaminnit. You were apart from her for two months and you didn't come out to Colorado and give me what I've been waiting for for five years? You creep!"

"Sorry, Chris."

"Ah, I bet you were celibate, pining away for her, anyway."

"I was pining, but I was not celibate. If you had been in Wisconsin, you would have gotten your wish. Sorry." He walked away with a grin.

"I HATE YOU!" She shouted after him, laughing.

-------------------------------------------

The practices were fine. A little ragged, but Warren and Sophia felt that they could pull it together for competition.

The compulsory dances were held on Tuesday. Warren and Sophia had spent a lot of time on their original dance, redoing it, and on fine-tuning the Sinatra free dance. The compulsories had been a bit neglected. Nevertheless, the first compulsory was the Tango Romantica, and they handled it fine. They finished third, behind Nicholas/Coleman and Vickers/Pogdar, which was fine. 

The compulsory dances are a group of twenty-odd dances, the steps strictly prescribed. Every team does the same steps to the same music. Every year, four of the dances are picked, and two of those four are skated at each competition. A small error can be disastrous. A large error can be fatal--and that's what happened to Warren and Sophia. In the second dance--which was the fairly difficult Golden Waltz--their skates clicked, and the undertrained duo went down, in a heap, completely obliterating the rhythm. They frantically caught up, but had missed a whole lot of steps by the time they did. Compulsories never draw much of a crowd, but the small audience let out an audible gasp at Warren and Sophia's error.

Amazingly, they left the ice laughing. "When we fuck up, we do it right," said Warren. When the marks were posted, they had finished a disastrous eighth. It left them tied for fifth overall. 

When they got backstage, Evan and Shawna were offering condolences.

"Ah, thanks, but fuck it," said Sophia. "We knew we weren't in peak form."

"And you know that's the one damn compulsory that they're going to play on the TV broadcast," Warren laughed.

"I can't believe you guys," Shawna told them. "We'd be devastated."

"What the hell. Ice is slippery," said Warren.

"Besides which, we'll just have to kick your butt in the OD!" added Sophia, as she and Warren walked away, hand-in-hand.

-------------------------------------

Laughing off a bad skate was very much keeping with their philosophy--that they did this for fun--and they knew that they hadn't trained enough. That didn't mean they planned to give up, as they discussed in their hotel room that night.

"I still wanna go to Worlds," Sophia said.

"We have to win the OD. Not second, not third, we have to win the thing," Warren opined.

"We can do that. I'm so glad we changed OD's. This one can win."

"Yup. Attack, Sophia, we need to skate the thing full-bore."

"Risk disaster by going for it? I agree. We've already had our disaster, right?" They both laughed. "Law of averages, and all that!"

-----------------------------------------

The OD was Wednesday night.  Sophia and Warren went after Evan and Shawna, but before Coleman and Nicholas. They had seen most of the OD's in practice. Most of them were traditional marches. They hoped to stand out by skating a march to an up-tempo pop song. But, first of all, they had to skate it. Perfectly.

They did. They attacked the program from the start, digging into the ice, executing their steps flawlessly to the pounding beat and soaring wash of vocals. When they were done, Warren pumped his fist and yelled, loud enough for the crowd to hear, "Tied for fifth place my ASS!" provoking laughter from Sophia and half the crowd.

The marks came up. They had beaten Evan and Shawna. After Coleman and Nicholas had skated, they discovered that they had beaten them, also. They had won the original dance. It left them right back in contention, in third overall and very close to second.

-------------------------------------------

Thursday was the free dance. It was time to break out Sinatra: "How Little It Matters (How Little We Know)" and "I've Got You Under My Skin." It was a classy, elegant, steadily-building program. They really had sharpened it up. 

They skated first in the final group, and skated near-flawlessly. The crowd ate it up, going nuts when they were done. They were pleased with the way they had skated, and thought the marks were decent, but all the other contenders were yet to go. Nicholas and Coleman went first, and they only defeated Sophia and Warren in the free dance by one judge. That made Sophia and Warren feel more confident. Evan and Shawna couldn't beat them. They finished second in the free and second overall, going home with their second--and very special, considering what had preceded it--silver medal.

-------------------------------------------

Sunday was the day for exhibitions. Sophia and Warren loved this. All their friends were there, showing off their own exhibitions, and the backstage scene was fun. 

The TV network had taped comments from each skater about their exhibitions to play on the broadcast, but they also played those comments on the big screen in the arena before each skater took the ice. Warren and Sophia's was playing as they stepped out by the ice entrance.

Warren: "We hit a rough spot this fall."
Sophia: "Yeah, we actually broke up, on and especially off the ice, for almost two months."
Warren: "We're back together now, and very happy about it, and we kissed and made up a while ago."
Sophia: "But now we need to kiss and make up on the ice!"

They took the ice, to wild applause, both dressed in black flowing costumes with a big red heart on one sleeve. "Kiss Me Baby" began, and they gilded around the ice, renewing and repledging their love for one another, on the ice. Warren steered Sophia around the ice, in a program build on long flowing edges, elegant turns, and close embraces. At the end, they kissed, as the crowd went nuts. The First Couple of American Ice Dance were back.

-----------------------------------

They flew home to Boston, then piled back into Warren's van almost immediately for the haul back to Wisconsin. When they arrived there, they were surprised to get recognized a lot around campus.

Their friends had spread the word. They got what was almost a hero's welcome back to campus. They found themselves being recognized more than ever. It was great.

Fame, however, has a dark side.






