Dance of a Lifetime

by Frank Downey

  "She's not coached by Frank, is she?"

  "No. And if I tried to keep up with her ever-rotating roster of boyfriends, I'd give myself a headache."

  "LOL!"

  "But I do hope she makes the Olympic team. Sincerely. The Olympics won't be half as fun if Crazy Stephie isn't along for the ride."

  "Hee hee. You just make sure you get yourself healthy and make the team yourself, OK? I want to be able to say that I chat on the internet every day with an Olympian."

  "Aye, aye, captain. Got to go. Kisses to you and Sophie."

  "Kisses back, Liz. See ya."

  Chapter 30 - TV Surprises

  "Good, good," June, their ice dance coach, was saying. "Excellent." Sophia and Warren skated over to her. "You're really getting that sequence down. I think you guys will be ready to test for juniors this spring. Then you can compete as Juniors next fall."

  "You think we're ready to test?" Sophia asked.

  "Just about," June smiled. "You've made amazing progress in five hours a week."

  "Oh, here we go again," Warren quipped, "The you-should-train-more lecture."

  "Oh, I know you guys have other priorities. It's just a shame to let such natural talent go to waste."

  "Well, if it helps, June," Sophia told her, "we've been discussing it. We don't know if we can do anything right now, but we intend to up our schedule significantly over the summer."

  "That is," Warren added, "if we can afford it."

  "Guys, if you guys pass the junior dance test, I can guarantee that I can get you some help from the USFSA for that."

  "Great!" Warren exclaimed. "We'll just have to pass that test, then. But, now, we have to go home and watch some real skaters on the TV."

  "Oh, yeah, Nationals is on! Have fun, I'm gonna go catch it myself."

  They were showing ice dance and men in the afternoon, ladies in the evening. Pairs had been on the day before. They never showed juniors on TV, but Warren had found out that his friends Andrea and Brett had won the junior pairs' national championship.

  In dance, Michelle Marino and Stefan Thomas had won their fourth straight national champion. Warren and Sophia loved them-they were a romantic, classic pair, which was Warren and Sophie's style, as opposed to the overly-theatrical style that had become prevalent in ice dance. Youngsters Sharon Nicholas and Steve Coleman had won the silver, buying into the theatrical side of ice dance.

  Next came the men. Ed Voorhees had been the US Champion forever, and was fully expected to defend his national title in an Olympic year, but Warren and Sophia were hoping that their friend, John Garrison, could finish second and make the Olympic team.

  "Jack looks good in warm-ups," Sophia commented.

  "Yeah, he just nailed a quad."

  First up after the warm-ups was Dennis Kurlow, a whimsical and humorous skater who was always a crowd favorite. He fell on his first triple axel attempt, but was fine on everything else, and had Warren and Sophia smiling with his funny facial expressions and hand movements. Plus he had fantabulous footwork.

  A couple skaters later, Dennis was still in first place, and it was Ed Voorhees' turn.

  He was perfect. Eight triples, a quad, and his usual stylish, flawless presentation.

  "He's such a good skater," Sophia commented. "And he always seems like such a good guy in interviews."

  "Jack says that's genuine," Warren told her. "I quote, 'Ed Voorhees is the nicest guy in figure skating, and that's a fact.' Everybody in the US figure skating community loves him, because, besides being a great skater, he's so classy."

  Jack was last up. Skating to Mozart, he exhibited a style and flair all his own. He landed a beautiful quad-better than Ed's-but two-footed his second triple axel. Still, Jack was known as an inconsistent skater, and he was plainly thrilled with his performance. As were Sophia and Warren.

  "Oh, I am so happy for him!" Sophia exclaimed. "I think that's the best I've ever seen him skate."

  "I agree. I doubt he'll beat Ed, not the way Ed skated, but that's got to get him on the podium."

  It did. Jack successfully defended his silver medal, Dennis Kurlow was third, with Ed first. All three would represent the USA at the Olympics.

  After a trip to the local seafood restaurant for some supper, Warren and Sophia settled in back at Sophia's house for the ladies' long program.

  The first skater up was Christine Arsenault, Warren's chat buddy, who was fifth after the short program. She was thrilled to just be in the final group at her first senior nationals, and she skated very very well. Warren was shouting and cheering in the living room the whole time, prompting laughter from Sophia. She popped a triple salchow into a single, and her presentation wasn't quite as good as the top skaters, but overall it was superb. She was thrilled as she left the ice, and thrilled with her marks. And, as she stood up to leave the kiss and cry area, she turned her back to the camera, flipped her skirt in the air for two seconds, turned back around, and shouted, "That was for you, Warren!!!"

  Sophia just about died laughing. Warren turned purple. "I can not believe she just did that on national TV!"

  After the next skater, who Zamboni'ed, they showed a backstage interview with Christine. After happily discussing her skate, the interviewer asked, "So, who's Warren? Your boyfriend?"

  Christine turned red, but laughed. "No, he's not. And I'd better not say he is, because I know he's watching this with Sophia, his girlfriend. Warren is a very good friend who I chat with regularly on the internet. Last year, when I was trying to learn the lutz, Warren, as encouragement which I very much appreciated, would tell me to get the lutz down because he expected to see my derriere on TV at Nationals."

  The interviewer was bemused. "He certainly did."

  "I know," said Christine, "and now I'm embarrassed. I apologize, America, it was an impulse. However, it was worth it, because I know it made my buddy turn bright purple. Love ya, Warren!" She walked off, leaving the interviewer in stitches.

  "She's shameless," Warren said, still blushing.

  "Reminds me of Jessie," Sophia commented astutely.

  Next up was Warren's favorite, Stephie Eberhardt. She shaked her booty and landed enough jumps to pass Christine in the standings.

  "Stop drooling, Romeo," Sophia commented dryly.

  "Hey, did I give you crap about drooling over Jack Garrison?"

  "You got me." Sophia smiled.

  Next up was Ashley Ferris, the 14-year-old pint size jumping wonder. And she hit everything. Two triple-triple combinations, seven triples in all, and she skated with speed and attack.

  "But there is nothing in between the jumps, and she's about as musical as a pork chop," Sophie said.

  "I agree," said Warren, as he watched the marks come up. "I can see the high technical marks, but 5.8s for presentation? That's insane."

  "Well, they've left room for Liz, but not a whole lot of it."

  Elizabeth Cushman was the final skater of the evening. She skated well, but did not have a triple-triple combination, and touched down with her free leg on her triple flip.

  "They've gotta give it to her," Warren said. "Her presentation mark should be 5 tenths higher than Ashley's-of course they didn't leave room for that."

  They didn't give it to her. By a 6-3 split, Ashley Ferris was the new US Champion. Liz finished second, with Stephie Eberhardt third. Christine finished fourth, a placement Warren knew would thrill her.

  "Damn," Sophia said.

  "Damn is right. Sometimes this sport drives me up a wall."

  Warren spent much of the next couple of weeks chatting with Liz online, trying to pump her spirits up before the Olympics. It didn't work. Ashley Ferris became the Olympic champion, with Liz getting the silver. Liz told Warren she was going to stay in for another four years. Ashley grabbed the money and ran for the pros.

  It was a more successful Olympics for the American Men, as Ed Voorhees won the silver medal, and Jack Garrison finished an impressive and encouraging sixth. He, too, planned to stay in for the
next Olympics.

  Dance was completely infuriating. Marino and Thomas were completely breathtaking-and finished sixth. Some typically over-theatrical super-frenetic Russian couple won.

  "That ain't ice dance," Sophia commented disgustedly.

  "Do we really want to compete?" Warren joked.

  "Sure, but here is reason one to not put all of our eggs in the Ice Dance basket. If Ice Dance is becoming doing pompous ridiculous theatrical movements to music that noone with any sense of rhythm can actually dance to, we won't ever win anything!"

  Chapter 31 - A Ghost From Her Past

  It was report card day. Sophia sat in her homeroom, waiting for her second quarter report card. The first quarter had been fantastic, mostly B's with even a couple of A's, the first she had seen in some time. She hoped the second quarter would be even better-she thought she had done well.

  Mrs. Curtis finished handing out the report cards, but Sophia still hadn't gotten one. "That's strange," Mrs. Curtis said. "I don't know what happened to yours, Sophia. I'll see if I can find out." Just then, the phone connected to the main office ran. "Yup. OK. I'll send her right down." She hung up the phone. "Sophia, you're wanted in the main office."

  Sophia got up to go, her classmates hooting and hollering about "big trouble." Sophia herself didn't know what to think. She didn't remember doing anything that would get her into trouble.

  "Hi, I'm Sophia Daniels. I was called down here." She said to the secretary.

  "Yes, dear. Mr. Carvalho is waiting for you, go right in." Mr. Carvalho, the principal? This did not sound good at all. Why did the principal want to see her?

  She opened his door. "Mr. Carvalho? I'm Sophia Daniels. You wanted to see me?"

  "Yes, Sophia, I did. Come right in. Have a seat." He pointed to the chair in front of his desk. She sat. "Sophia, I have something that I want to show you." He withdrew a piece of paper from his desk.

  She recognized it-it was her report card from second quarter last year. It was mostly D's with a couple of F's thrown in for good measure. All the comments spoke about what a disruptive, unteachable student she was.

  "I remember this, unfortunately. Why did you want to show me this, Mr. Carvalho?"

  "So you would remember. I wanted to make sure you remembered."

  "I can scarcely forget."

  "Good. There's a reason for this, Sophia. I've talked to your teachers, so I could make sure there was no monkey business going on. I've also talked to Mr. Doherty, and he talked to me about some of your work with the Peer Counseling group, and he gave me a bit of an idea of what was going on when you were getting these kinds of marks. I take it that things in your personal life are better this year?"

  "Much," smiled Sophia, although she was a bit confused.

  "Good. Now, I took this little pleasure away from Mrs. Curtis, because, as Principal, I tend to deal with mostly bad stuff, so I hoard the good stuff whenever I can." He smiled at Sophia, who smiled back, but still was confused. "Don't worry, dear, I'm getting to the point." She laughed. "I wanted you to see this"-he pointed at the old report card-"this, from just one short year ago, so you could remember. Because I wanted you to truly appreciate the magnitude"-he withdrew another piece of paper-" of this."

  He handed her the paper. It was this year's report card. She looked at it.

  A... A... A... A... A... A... A... A

  "Oh my God," she gasped. She had gotten straight A's.

  "Congratulations, Sophia. This is a turnaround the likes I have rarely seen in 25 years of teaching. You should be immensely proud of yourself."

  "Oh my God," Sophia said. And then she started to cry. "I can't believe it, I just can't believe it. Straight A's? Me? Oh my God," she said, sniffling. Mr. Carvalho just laughed, and handed over a box of tissues, which Sophia gratefully accepted. She blew her nose, and sniffled, and wiped her eyes.

  "You recovered?" Mr. Carvalho asked.

  "Yeah," Sophia smiled at him. Then her smile got wider. "I can not wait to show this to my boyfriend!"

  "Boyfriend?" Mr. Carvalho asked.

  "Yeah. My boyfriend, Warren, is a genius studyaholic Preppie who's ranked in the top ten in his class at St. Michael's, no less."

  "Really? Did he inspire you to this turnaround?"

  "Yeah, he did, at least partially. He made me care just by caring himself."

  "Then, I would say he's going to be enormously proud of you, also."

  "Yeah, he will be... but that's not the only reason I can't wait to show him this report card."

  "Really?"

  "Yeah. We've been going out for a year, now. He always, as you might imagine, gets astounding grades."

  "If he's ranked top ten at St. Mike's, of course."

  "Right. They got their second quarter report cards last week. Warren got his typical, all A's... but there was one A minus," Sophia grinned.

  Mr. Carvalho smiled. "Oh, you mean..."

  "I got better grades than my genius preppy boyfriend!" Sophia burst out exitedly. "We've been going out for a year, and I've never even gotten close!"

  Mr. Carvalho cracked up laughing. "And he'll never live it down, right?"

  "Oh, not really-I know well enough that if I was taking the courses he is, I wouldn't be looking at all A's. No offense to the school you run, Mr. Carvalho, but St Mike's is St Mike's. And he's in all of the top honors classes you can take over there." She smiled. "But he is my boyfriend, and he does love me, and he will let me get away with gloating, at least for a little while."

  Mr Carvalho laughed again. "Good for him. Enjoy this, Sophia. You deserve it. Congratulations, again. And keep it up!"

  "I plan to," she said, leaving the office beaming.

  Sophia walked up to her house, still grinning from ear to ear. She looked up, and saw Warren sitting on her porch, waiting for her.

  "WARREN!!" She screamed, running up the street and practically tackling him with a bear hug. "Warren, you'll never believe it!"

  Warren giggled. "Boy are you in a good mood today!"

  "Uh-huh." She reached into the backpack and withdrew the card. "Look at this!" she exclaimed proudly.

  Warren looked. "Wha... Straight A's? Sophie, you got straight A's?"

  She nodded her head, beaming.

  "Sophie, this is FANTASTIC!" He wrapped her in a bear hug of his own. "I am so proud of you!"

  She giggled. "I hope you noted the absence of any A-minuses," she said with an evil grin.

  "Yes, I did," Warren said with a smile of his own. "You, Sophia Daniels, officially got better grades than your preppie boyfriend." She giggled again. "Enjoy it. You deserve it."

  "Oh, Warren, you are the best. C'mon, I wanna show this to my Mom."

  They ran into the house, still giggling, and saw Ellen Kovach standing in the kitchen.

  "MOM! MOM! You gotta look at this!"

  "Alright, Sophia, what's the big excitement? Hi, Warren." She took the report card from Sophia's hand. "Sophia, these are all A's!"

  "Uh-huh."

  Ellen looked like she was going to cry. She enveloped her daughter in a hug. "Sophia, I am so proud of you I can't put it into words. This is one of the most fantastic things I have ever seen."

  "Thanks, Mom."

  Ellen took a deep breath, and the smile disappeared from her face. "Come on in the kitchen. There's someone I want you to meet."

  "OK," Sophia said, puzzled. She walked into the kitchen and saw a man, about her Mom's age, sitting at the kitchen table. "Mom, you bringing strange men home?" Sophia giggled.

  "Not hardly," Ellen said with a weak attempt at a smile. Sophia looked at the man, questioning, but Warren didn't. Sophia hadn't figured it out yet, but Warren took one look at this man and knew exactly who he was. The resemblance was unmistakable. "Oh, shit," he muttered under his breath.

  Ellen confirmed his suspicions. "Sophia..." she took a deep breath..."this is your father."

  "My... father?" Sophia managed to squeak out. Brian Daniels looked up at his daughter.
<
br />   "Hello, Sophia. You certainly have grown into a beautiful young woman."

  "You... are my... father?"

  "Yes, I am." Brian replied.

  Warren had had his hand on Sophia's shoulder, as reassurance. Suddenly, he felt that shoulder go to steel. He almost withdrew his hand, but Sophia grabbed it and put it back.

  "How can you be my father? I don't have a father!"

  "Ellen, what did you tell her?" Brian asked.

  "She knows she has a father. Sophia, I never told you you didn't have a father."

  "You didn't have to tell me. I never had a father. I had a sperm donor, and an abusive one at that. You don't get the right to be called father when you disappear for twelve fucking years!!!"

  "Sophia, I..." Brian started.

  "Sophia, calm down," Ellen said at the same time.

  "CALM DOWN???? Mother, how could you let this maggot into our house, and let him call himself my father? So, tell me, "father", where have you been for twelve years?"

  "The time wasn't right," Brian offered weakly.

  "Oh, no, the time was right, 'father'. You should have been here, oh, about a year and a half ago. You would have seen the results of your wonderful fatherhood. But you weren't. So where were you, 'father'? Where were you when I was a complete drunk, just like you? Where were you when I was letting myself get beat up by guys, because of the subconscious memories of you beating me, 'father'? Where were you when I had one foot in the fucking grave? WHERE WERE YOU, WHEN ALL THE DAMAGE YOU CAUSED ALMOST DESTROYED MY LIFE, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE! WHERE WERE YOU?????????"

  And with that horrific outburst, Sophia tore up the stairs to her room, crying so badly she was almost screaming.

  Warren was standing with his head in his hands, leaning against the wall. "Oh, lovely."

  Ellen was moving towards the stairs. "I'd better go up there."

  "NO!" Warren shouted. "You stay right here, Mrs. K. I will go up. I love you dearly, but bringing him in here was so colosally stupid I can't believe it. And she's going to take your head off if you go up there."

  "HEY!" Brian yelled at Warren. "Who are you to talk to Ellen that way?"