Laying Low In Hollywood

by Stanberry, Jean

  My team would be performing second tonight. The first team skated out onto the ice all decked out in their eighties glam. I had to smile when I saw them, all spiked and teased hair and sequins. I shot Elena a satisfied smile as the music started, they were skating to Michael Jackson’s “Wanna be Starting Something”.

  The program as a whole was okay, the concept and the choreography was good. Technically, their program was a train wreck, their throw jump barely got off the ground and the lift they did, could only be described as lame. I was feeling a bit more confident about my own team, after seeing this one skate, though after we performed, there would still be four more teams left to skate their programs.

  Finally, my team was announced and they skated to the center of the ice. I smiled proudly as they took their positions on the ice, their costumes were very cute and Elena had her hair up in a high ponytail that was all teased up Cyndi Lauper style. The program was fast paced and showy, and neither Ron or Elena missed a beat.

  I was beaming proudly as I watched them, they had come back in high style and I was so proud, I was ready to burst! The entire arena gasped when they finally did their throw double axel. When Ron and Elena finally took their bows, the entire arena got to it’s feet in a standing ovation. The response of the crowd was overwhelming. I was nearly moved to tears.

  Ron and Elena both skated back to me at the edge of the ice, while the judges were called upon to comment on their performance. All in all, the judges were completely blown away by the entire program, not to mention the fact that they had nailed a throw double axel!

  I was hugging them both excitedly as the judges revealed their scores. Three tens! I was completely beside myself with excitement, we had scored a perfect thirty! We were all three jumping around excitedly like a bunch of school children. We were definitely not going home this week!

  When the show was over and the next team had said their goodbyes I was still at the edge of the ice socializing with everyone. I was talking to two of the producers and Elena was there hanging on our every word as Jorge approached us with a huge smile on his face.

  Elena gave him a shy smile, as he approached. I think she was expecting Jorge to say something to her. I was smiling at him happily until he did something completely unexpected. Jorge told Elena hello briefly, then he gathered me into his arms and gave me a passionate kiss on the lips. I was completely caught off guard, it took all the restraint I had, to keep from slugging him.

  “Darling, your program blew me away, it was completely incredible,” he gushed, he was still holding me in his arms, looking deeply into my eyes, a proud smile on his lips.

  I was staring at him, completely stunned, unable to utter a word. The passionate kiss had totally thrown me off, I really wanted to grimace and make faces, but of course everyone thought that Jorge and I were lovers, so I refrained from making a scene. I knew that Jorge was acting, possibly for Elena’s benefit, and I was obliged to go along with it, despite the fact that I really didn’t possess good acting skills.

  Luckily, Ron was across the ice talking to another group of people and he hadn’t noticed the scene that was playing out over here. Thank goodness, he already gave Jorge jealous glances. I was afraid if Ron had witnessed the kiss, maybehe would have slugged Jorge!

  I wasn’t sure if Jorge’s little show was for Elena’s benefit, or for the benefit of all the cameras that were always there rolling in an effort to catch every single moment of the “reality”.

  “Thanks babe,” I crooned as I tried, almost uselessly, to disguise my disgust with the kiss.

  Jorge had draped his arm around my shoulders possessively and was animatedly conversing with everyone in our little group. Soon the crowd began dying down and we told everyone good night. I gave Ron a wry smile and a little wave as Jorge pulled me past him and out to our waiting limo.

  “What was that all about?” I cried, when we were safely inside the limo. “Are you afraid Elena’s going to grab hold of your dinkus again?”

  “No, I’m almost afraid to admit, I actually enjoyed that. I’ve never had anyone attack me with such...hunger. I thought that she was going to gobble me right up,” said Jorge, giving me a sly smile.

  “Oh god,” I cried, cringing and shaking my head distastefully.

  “That’s exactly what I said! All I could really do was surrender and let her have her way with me. It’s impossible to run away when there might be teeth involved.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Jorge why did you kiss me like that?”

  “People were talking, I was trying to squash the rumors! Unfortunately, I think it may be too late. Everyone can see right through your little act. It’s perfectly obvious that you and Ron are attracted to each other!” said Jorge.

  I sighed. “But I didn’t do anything!”

  “Lane you don’t have todo anything, I’ve been able to read you like a book since day one. I don’t know what it is, but the two of you have chemistry, if only I could bottle it and sell it, I would be a very rich man!” said Jorge.

  I sighed, hopefully the the clips that aired on TV wouldn’t be too revealing. I had to admit, it was hard for me to hide my feelings anymore, the more I was with Ron, the more I knew I was meant to be with him. Everyone could see that we were a perfect match. I could only hope it wasn’t going to ruin things for Ron, if his soon to be ex-wife figured it out.

  CHAPTER 24

  Five teams were gone, five were left. It seemed completely incredible that my team had made it this far, considering what I had to work with when I began this competition.

  I had to admit, it was beginning to become quite obvious when you watched the entire show, that Ron and I were becoming closer and closer. It was almost impossible not to notice it, the lingering glances, the emotional hugs.

  Unfortunately, every little emotional moment had all been captured by the camera and like any good reality show, the editors felt the need to play up any little bit of drama for all it was worth, though I’m sure the show’s editors thought I was a terrible cheater. Nearly everyone at the network was convinced that Jorge and I were lovers. We lived together, and of course, Jorge was always there at my side, they all assumed that we would be engaged soon. That thought always made me giggle!

  It was a reality show and the camera was always rolling, and it was getting very stressful for me. I had never been good at hiding my feelings. Ron had told me that he was falling in love with me and I already knew that I was falling in love with him, but there was still more than a month left till the end of the show, when we could safely do anything about it. I was tired of living this lie as Jorge’s girlfriend.

  This week we were working with music from original movie scores. This was when my need to be different and all my creativity seemed to go right out the window. The only movie score I could even consider for this program was the music from “Pirates of the Caribbean”. It was my all time favorite movie and Klaus Badelt was one of my favorite composers.

  Ron was loving the idea of dressing up as a pirate and wearing dreadlocks. I thought that the program was going to be awesome even though Jorge had rolled his eyes miserably and said. “Oh my God, are you kidding me? Lane Jensen is going mainstream? Couldn’t you find anything remotely austere?”

  I know, mainstream is not really my style. As a rule, I usually tried to stay away from the popular stuff, but I couldn’t help it, I was a sucker for a sword fight! Of course, the best part about the show was the costumes and the props, and I was like a kid getting ready for halloween. I was so excited, I was almost giddy. The disappointing part was that Elena actually got to do the program, not me.

  I would be transforming Ron into Jack Sparrow and Elena into Elizabeth Swan, and they were going to play out a “love, hate relationship” which shouldn’t be too hard, they already had the “hate” part down.

  This was the last week before, what the show considered to be, the finals. There would be four teams in the finals. Next week would be a recap week. I was happy about that, i
f we made it through, we would have a bit of a break as the show would air clips from all the final four teams programs and clips of their practices showing their progress. There would be no new program to learn next week.

  Then the last four teams would face off in the finals and each week during the finals things would progressively get harder.

  I was certain everyone would be pulling the stops out from here on out, so each routine had to be a little bit better than the one prior.

  This pirates program was probably our most ambitious yet. The music was very dramatic and I wanted every second of that drama conveyed to the audience through our program.

  Our last practice before taping was stressful. I had so much I wanted to focus on, yet it was hard for me to focus on anything, as obtrusive as Javier had become.

  When he had first started working with us, Javier had been polite, and he had tried not to get into the way. Now he was seriously cruising for bruising, as he felt the need to be in the midst of everything all the time! I guess it wasn’t completely his fault, he was only following orders. Each week the drama was increasing and the producers were pushing the cameramen to make sure they didn’t miss a beat.

  That evening, I sat in the ice arena waiting for my team’s turn to perform, we were to perform third out of five, right in the middle. That was fine with me. The studio had stepped up the drama by giving everyone assigned seats for the show, from now on. Of course, the network wanted to make sure that all the teams were at the side of the ice so that we wouldn’t miss a moment of the action, except for the performance prior to ours when the skaters were allowed to leave the area for their warm up.

  Of course, my assigned seat was right there between Ron and Elena. It was an evil plan, implemented by the network to ensure that the camera men could catch our every expression as the show was taped. The shock, the tears...it was all about the drama. What drama we didn’t provide to them, I was certain they would edit in later. I had been practicing my poker face, as a result, I wasn’t getting a lot of camera time whenever the shows aired...whoo, hooo!

  The first couple to perform, skated to music from the movie “Braveheart”. It was a fine performance, but it was almost the finals. Technically, this team had done nothing to step up their performance.

  After that performance, I headed down to the warm up area with Ron and Elena. They were both stretching and warming up as I gave them a few last minute pointers. As the second couple skated off the ice from their performance to the music from the movie “Twilight” I hugged Ron and Elena hard and they skated out onto the ice for their warm up.

  After the other teams scores were announced, Ron and Elena skated out to the center of the ice and the announcer’s voice rang out across the arena.

  “Skating to music from Pirates of the Caribbean, Elena Denkova and Ron Brannon!”

  The music began and I watched as Ron and Elena performed to the crowd. The music was fast paced, and so was the program, but Ron and Elena seemed to do better with that type of music anyway. They nailed every single element, including our most ambitious lift, which required Ron to complete two full rotations, while supporting Elena off the ice. When it was over, it almost seemed like it was much too soon. Like a dream that you woke up in the middle of. I wasn’t ready for it to be over.

  Ron and Elena bowed to the crowd as they received a standing ovation. The crowd was overwhelmingly loud! They skated over to me and I hugged them both excitedly. Then we all walked, hand in hand to the “kiss and cry” area.

  The judges had nothing but good things to say about the performance. Even Hal, who was notoriously harsh on everyone, had nothing but praise for the program. I was pretty excited. When the scores were revealed, we had two tens and a nine. We had almost certainly earned a place in the finals.

  We returned to our assigned seats. Both Ron and Elena were flying high. I doubted anything could bring them down at this point. We only had to watch the last two performances and see who was eliminated tonight.

  The fourth couple was on the ice skating to music from “The Lord of the Rings”. I was surprised when I felt Ron reach out and take my hand and hold it in his. I almost giggled, I felt like I was back in junior high. Of course, it was all we could get away with at this point, everyone was watching us constantly anymore. The arena was relatively dark, except where the spotlights illuminated the skaters. No one would even notice that Ron and I were holding hands. I wrapped my fingers around his tightly.

  Finally, the elimination portion of the show had arrived, all five couples skated out to stand in front of the judges and await their fate.

  I breathed a silent sigh of relief when the team was announced. The team that had skated to “Braveheart” was going home. My team was once again safe. Elena and Ron skated back to me excitedly and they both hugged me. Ron actually lifted me up and spun me around, planting a kiss on my neck. I pulled away nervously. Hopefully Javier hadn’t got that on film.

  CHAPTER 25

  The next several weeks flew by. There wasn’t much we needed to do for the recap show, we were scheduled to do a few interviews, but fortunately, I had no program to throw together that week. I was quite relieved to have a little bit of a break. Plus, it gave me more time to work on our next program.

  I was not relaxing and taking it easy by any means, there was no time to rest on our laurels. We had been the top team at week six with our “In a Big Country” program and we had tied for first with team Muramatsu, in week seven with our “Pirates” routine.

  The theme for week nine was music of the sixties. I loved sixties music, though not all of it was good to skate to. When I was growing up, my own skating coach Hans, had loved sixties music, so I had already skated to a lot of it. I tried to avoid those songs, I felt like it would be hard for me to develop a program to music I had skated to years ago. It was a bit like reheating your dinner, it was never as good the second time around.

  I had finally decided on the song “Hit the Road Jack”, by Ray Charles. It was an upbeat song and I felt like it was something my team could work with.

  As the weeks passed, Ron was growing into a real performer, so I had choreographed a series of complicated dance steps to bridge the gaps between all of the required elements. It was an ambitious program, but I knew my team could do it.

  I tried to keep our practices as light and professional as possible, but Ron and I were attracted to each other, unfortunately it was becoming harder and harder with each passing week to disguise that fact. I was feeling scrutinized by Elena and Javier. Every look, every touch, between Ron and I was being recorded by the cameras.

  I knew now that Jorge was no longer worried about the negative publicity, I mostly worried about Ron. He was not officially divorced yet and I didn’t want the media to make a big thing out of our relationship.

  I had been feeling especially tense today. Ron had been very flirty and not at all discrete. I was losing the will to keep this whole thing under wraps.

  I went back to Jorge’s house that afternoon feeling blue. I did feel a bit like a pawn on a chessboard. My life had never been my own. Here I was, waiting for the show to end, or Ron’s divorce to end, just so that we could pursue our relationship.

  It reminded me of my teenage years. When I was just fifteen years old, Justin and I had been offered a contract skating with the European Theater Company. Of course, it was a lucrative offer of fame and fortune my parents didn’t want to miss out on. Unfortunately, I was a minor, and unable to tour Europe without a parent or guardian.

  My father was the one that came up with the brilliant idea to arrange my marriage to Justin. We were best friends, he reasoned, who else would I possibly marry?

  So that was it, at the age of fifteen, my own father had me married off to my best friend and skating partner. It seemed fine at first, we went away to tour Europe and endured nearly three years of marriage until the unthinkable happened. I fell in love...

  The taping of the first installment of finals was o
n Wednesday. After our morning practice, I was sure we were ready. That night we were back in our assigned seats next to the ice. Of course, the cameras were there to catch our every comment and expression on our faces. We were slated to perform last, which was fine, we would watch the first two performances, then we would do our warmup, while the third team performed.

  I watched the other performances as expressionless as possible, as I secretly clung to Ron’s hand. It was the most contact we allowed ourselves anymore since every touch, every glance while we were together, could possibly end up on TV.

  Finally, I was back beside the ice watching Ron and Elena skate out onto the darkened ice. Their program was announced and the music was soon playing. I smiled as I watched them, they were perfect! Ron and Elena did the dance steps in perfect harmony and their throw toe loop was stunning! We had a different cartwheel lift this week, I almost gasped as the landing came off a bit uncontrolled. Elena managed to recover from the uncontrolled landing, but I was staring at them blankly, trying to figure out what had happened. The program was nearly over, but Ron was suddenly moving in slow motion, and I cringed when I finally realized that he was hurt.