All ten teams did their 30 second intros, but ours was definitely the most stunning. After watching my team’s sorry practice clips, you’d almost swear they weren’t even the same team out there on the ice performing! At the end of the show, we finally got to hear the comments made by the panel of judges and guest skaters who had been brought in.
I was happy, most of the comments were pretty positive. The judges and the guest skaters all thought that team Muramsatsu had the most raw talent, though several had commented that despite my team’s rocky start, they had definitely seen a glimmer of potential.
I was content enough, it was good that the judges had recognized us as actual contenders in this competition, without putting the idea into people’s heads that we would be the team to beat. I really preferred to fly under the radar a little bit. I didn’t want to be everyone’s enemy right off the bat.
The rest of the week went by very quickly. My team had finally settled into a routine of sorts and they seemed to be working quite hard, and surprisingly, without a lot of complaints.
The days seemed to be racing by, on Wednesday we would be taping yet another show, it seemed surreal to me, that our first elimination would be this week. I was pretty stoked about our “Gypsies” routine. I knew we were going to blow everyone away!
Our last run through on Wednesday went perfectly and I knew my team was ready for their performance in front of the studio audience that night. Our team would be second in the lineup to perform, right after team Maricelle.
After the director briefed us, we were brought into the arena as a group. There was an entire section of seats designated for the skaters and their coaches. Across the ice was judges box with the studio audience seated directly behind them. Of course, this was our first real taping, so things didn’t go real smoothly, we weren’t really into a routine yet. The viewers would never know of our difficulties working through the first episode, all that would be edited out.
Team Maricelle was first up. I smiled to myself as I watched their program. The concept was cute, they were skating to “Don’t stop till you get enough,” by Michael Jackson, their steps were good, but their lift never really got off the ground, both skaters stumbled clumsily, then they went back to their lame dance moves.
I suppressed a little giggle, if my team performed as good tonight as we’d been doing all week, we definitely wouldn’t be the first team eliminated.
Finally, team Maricelle had finished, and they were taking their bows at the center of the ice, the three judges each gave them fives, giving them a score of fifteen out of thirty.
I smiled as Ron and Elena were introduced. They skated confidently out onto the ice, they looked so cute, all done up in their gypsy costumes. I tried to ignore the cameraman who was hovering nearby, ready to record my reactions as I watched excitedly. I smiled serenely as my team pulled off a nearly perfect performance. The crowd seemed to enjoy the performance too, as the applause seemed to be deafeningly loud as they both skated back over to me.
I hugged them both as they returned to me at the edge of the ice. I had hold of both their hands as the three of us sat in the judging area, dubbed the “Kiss and Cry” just like a real skating competition, while we waited for the scores.
I was actually pretty happy with the producer’s choices for the judges. They were all accomplished skaters who were well known and creditable and it was actually kind of entertaining to listen to their comic banter.
The first judge was Natasha Webber. She had been a legend in her own time and an Olympic gold medalist. She had retired from skating years ago but she was still well known, and quite witty.
The second judge was Jack Montrose, he had been a men’s world champion several times and was now a popular coach and sports commentator.
The last judge was Hal Luther, he was the oldest of the judges and probably the best known figure skater of all time! As a judge, Hall Luther was proving himself to be quite a hard ass, he craved perfection, though at this point in the competition, perfection was hardly attainable. I was enjoying his sometimes, awkward comments. If he had something to say, he didn’t hold back, and it was cracking me up.
Finally, my team received their scores, eight, eight and a seven, from Hal Luther, of course. I was beside myself with excitement! That was even better than I could have imagined for our first week doing a full program. In fact, I had originally imagined that my team would be eliminated tonight, now I was certain that we would be able to stay, at least, one more week! I could have went home right then and there, I was so excited over my team’s performance. Most of the teams did well, though no one really stood out to me, and so far, no other team, had beaten our score. All the teams, including ours, were still a bit shaky. I was a bit worried about the next team that was preparing to skate, Jorge had seen them in action and he told me they looked really promising.
The team consisted of retired Canadian figure skater, Ed Costello, and his partner, volleyball star Valerie Vasquez. The team was skating to the song “Stairway to Heaven”, by Led Zeppelin, which seemed perfect, because Valerie looked like an angel in her white dress, she was so beautiful.
I watched their program in awe, the program was beautiful and mesmerizing. It was hard to believe that in such a short time period they had pulled together such a technically perfect program. Even I had to admit, the choreography was stunning, and the program was well practiced, even to my trained eye, I hadn’t noticed one tiny flaw. I was waiting to see the required element, their lift, I was sure it was planned to be the grand finale.
I was almost holding my breath as I watched couple skating rapidly around the rink, obviously to gain speed for their lift. I gasped as Ed lifted his partner up into a star lift, which was very difficult. Too difficult, I thought, for a pair that were not seasoned professionals and had only just begun working together.
I could feel my heart beating nervously in my chest. I guess maybe it was the mother in me, but I was a stickler for safety. The last thing I wanted was for one of my students to get hurt. I was almost panicking as I watched them, the scary part, for me, was that Ed was spinning across the ice, almost too fast, as far as I could tell. I was cringing nervously, these pairs were way too inexperienced to be attempting stunts like this.
I had a sick feeling of dread when Valerie changed her position to come down from the lift. My worst fears were realized as Ed lost his footing somehow and fell, I cringed as they both crashed full speed into the wall.
I had already jumped up from my seat and was heading that direction. It seems as if everyone else had the same idea, their coach was already on the ice with them and a crowd had gathered around Valerie, who was laying on the ice perfectly still and had not gotten up from the fall. I was almost sick to my stomach, seeing her laying there, it was heartbreaking to see someone get hurt like that.
Finally, I let out a sigh of relief as they helped Valerie to her feet and she waved self consciously to the cheering crowd. The ice was now covered with her blood and her coach was holding pressure with a bandage to a large gash on her chin.
The ice was resurfaced and the host was forced to do multiple takes when he finally announced the last few teams. Valerie’s crash had shaken everyone. I can’t really say that either of those last two teams stood out to me in their performances. Maybe it had nothing to do with either of the actual performances, I was still numb over poor Valerie’s crash.
Soon the host had returned to the ice and was announcing that the judges had made their decision and they would be announcing which team would be eliminated tonight. I figured it would be team Maricelle, they’d had the lowest score of anyone.
I was surprised when Ed and Valerie’s coach stepped up to the microphone to announce that their team was withdrawing from the competition. Apparently, Valerie had injured her shoulder badly and would be unable to continue in the competition.
So that was it, the judges chose not to eliminate a team this week, based on the fact that Ed and Valerie had withd
rawn due to injuries. It was sad, they had truly been a beautiful team, but I was happy that Ron and Elena would be back for another week. We had even earned the high scores for the week, which was very exciting.
I went back to my condo that night, very pleased with myself. Tomorrow night this episode would air and my team would be in first place. I wasn’t planning to watch the show on TV tomorrow night though. I wasn’t sure I could watch Valerie plow into that wall again. It had been much too painful to watch the first time.
Tomorrow my team would begin working on a brand new program, new music, new costumes, and a new required element. It seemed like an awful lot to get done in one short week.
CHAPTER 14
I sat in my condo that night planning our program for the following week. Our theme this week was 50’s music, which was okay, though I couldn’t really find myself all that inspired by letterman sweaters and poodle skirts. As far as I was concerned, that era had been done and overdone.
But of course, the network was concerned with ratings, not creativity, and as their employee, I was bound to follow their guidelines. Still, I wanted to think outside the box a little bit and come up with some music that was a little different than your normal sock hop music, which I assumed, is what everyone else would be picking for their programs.
After doing quite a bit of research on the internet, I finally decided on the song, “That’s Amore’” by Dean Martin. I liked it! It was kind of quirky and more mature than some of the other songs I had been considering.
I spent the rest of the evening playing the music over and over and dancing around the living room, trying to come up with a plan for my choreography. Each week the producers would tell us what required element they were adding to our programs, that element would be added to the element from the previous week and that would give them an entire list of required elements by the end of the season. This week we were required to add a pairs spin to our program. So this week, our program would have to include a lift and a pairs spin, no problem.
I was thinking about teaching Elena and Ron a simple cartwheel lift and a pretty fool proof version of a pairs spin. I was pretty excited about the choreography I’d come up with so far, I thought that this was going to be a fun week for us.
The next morning in practice I told Ron and Elena our plan for 50’s week. Ron was game, but Elena was pouting, she wanted to skate to “Good Golly Miss Molly”. Oh well, I guess you can’t make everyone happy.
We got right to work, luckily Elena was not adverse to learning the pairs spin, I was hoping that meant that she was trusting Ron a little bit more, but I seriously doubted it. Our new cameraman was on the ice with us this morning. His name was Javier and he was very polite. The best part was that he was a lot less obtrusive than Maurice had been.
We worked hard all week and our program seemed to be coming together nicely. Elena was even enjoying playing up the quirkiness of our song, I was happy she was finally enjoying herself. We had a pair spin, though it was still quite shaky. The size difference between Elena and Ron was quite substantial, if Ron didn’t bend over far enough, Elena would just crash into his chest, it was kind of comical.
Tuesday morning I poured my coffee into a to go cup and headed for the rink. I grabbed my mail out of my mailbox on the way out. I had quite a stack, I’d forgotten to get it for a couple of days. I immediately noticed a thick envelope right on top. I pulled it out and looked at the return address.
It was from Greg’s lawyer in Colorado Springs. I ripped the envelope open and stared numbly at the contents. I let out a distressed sigh, it was all over...my divorce was final.
It had taken months, but it barely seemed like any time at all. It seemed crazy that a union that had lasted more than twenty years, could end, in just a matter of months. Just reading the words that made it all final seemed to tear a hole right in my chest. I bit my lower lip and fought the tears that seemed to come to my eyes almost automatically.
I shook my head angrily and gave myself a silent reprimand, I wasn’t going to cry any more. I had cried enough about this. I tried to tell myself that Greg wasn’t worth my tears, but I had put my heart and soul into our relationship, and our family. I had thought that we were happy. How was I to know he would throw it all away for another woman who was almost young enough to be my own daughter?
I tossed the letter and the rest of the mail into the passenger seat and drove to the ice rink. I blasted the stereo in the car and sang along as loudly as I could, I was trying to turn my morose mood around. It really wasn’t working, but I was attracting quite a bit of attention whenever I stopped at a stoplight. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t shake the feeling of overwhelming sadness that was engulfing me.
When I got to the rink, Elena was there, sitting on the bench waiting for me, but Ron was nowhere to be found. I was a little worried, it was not like him at all! Ron was never late. I put my skates on and checked my e-mails on my phone, but he hadn’t called or e-mailed me.
“Elena, have you heard from Ron? Did he tell you he was going to be late?” I asked, I was getting more and more worried.
“No, he not call me,” said Elena, shaking her head.
I tried his cell phone, but there was no answer. More than twenty minutes had passed and my heart was pounding nervously. Finally, I broke down and called Jorge.
“Jorge, have you heard from Ron? He’s not here at practice, he’s never late, I’m worried that something has happened to him,” I cried, no matter how much I tried to disguise it, my voice was raising in fear.
“Did you happen to see the news last night?” asked Jorge, his voice was flat and calm, in contrast to my own voice, that was rising in hysteria.
“No, why?” I asked, not sure what the evening news would have to do with Ron.
“There is a bit of trouble in paradise. Have Javier show you the news clip. I’m going to run over to his condo to check on him now, I’ll call you back,” said Jorge.
I stared at my phone in confusion after he ended the call. News clip? What, exactly, was going on?
“Javier,” I called, waving him over to me. He skated over, eyeing me with concern.
“Yes, Ms. Jensen?”
“Jorge said that you could show me some sort of a news clip, I’m not quite sure what he was talking about,” I said.
“Yes, I have it here, on my phone,” said Javier, pulling out his I-phone and pulling up the video clip for me.
I stared at the clip on the small screen. It was hard to tell, but it looked like the woman in the clip was Jenae Brannon, but I couldn’t really tell who the man was. I still wasn’t really sure what I was looking at.
“I’m sorry Javier, I don’t know what this is about. Why does Jorge want me to see this news clip?” I cried in frustration, I had no idea what I was looking at, or what this had to do with Ron not showing up for practice.
“This clip was on the news last night, it’s secret footage taken in Hawaii. It is Ron’s wife, she’s out with Roman Fleming, a professional football player,” said Javier.
“Oh shit!” I exclaimed, as I finally realized what the news clip meant. The woman in the video was not acting like a woman who was currently married to someone else. She was sitting on Roman Fleming’s lap, whispering in his ear. I shook my head disgustedly. As angry as I was about Jenae’s indiscretions, I was not all that surprised. I had suspected that she was a gold digger, unfortunately, this was not a good way for Ron to find out.
Poor Ron, everything he did was for his wife and his daughters, this was like a sobering slap in the face. He was busting his ass trying to learn how to figure skate for a reality TV show and Jenae was stepping out on him while he was gone!
I jumped anxiously, startled by my phone, which was playing music in my pocket and vibrating annoyingly, I pulled it out nervously and nearly dropped it in my haste.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Brannon won’t be there for practice this morning,” said Jorge, I almost cringed at his tone. His voic
e was sharp with anger on the other end of the line.
“Is he okay?” I asked, I realized I was pretty much holding my breath.
“He will be, he’s suffering from an incapacitating hangover at the moment,” said Jorge, his voice was laced with sarcasm.
“I’ll be right over,” I said.
“I’m very sorry Lane, but if you wish to keep your job, you will stay right where you are. Despite the recent turn of events, I really think we need to keep playing things cool, am I understood?” asked Jorge, his voice was tight and serious. I sighed, what could I do? He was the producer, and my boss. He was not happy at the moment, I didn’t want to do anything to further piss him off.
“Is there anything I can do?” I asked.
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