Chapter 8
Weeks drifted into months, and months into years, the calendar being one long round of competitions rather than holidays, Buffy won her fair share, her mother having to get another trophy cabinet to store all her cups and medals.
With her nineteenth birthday looming, and the winter Olympics on the horizon, Buffy was safe in the knowledge of her place on the team. She’d become over the last three years the ‘darling’ of the circuit, and along with Faith Hamilton, things were looking rosy in the medal hopes for them. Faith and Buffy didn’t even speak, their paths never crossed, even at the same meetings and events, and when asked about each other in interviewers, they always just smiled and complimented each other.
******************
“More height Buffy, you need more height on that triple lutz if you’re going to land properly” Illyria said.
Buffy skated round, getting more speed up, and executed the perfect triple lutz.
“I can do it, but not straight after a toe loop – I can do a double, not a triple!”
“Well try harder!”
Buffy sighed, and tried for the rest of her 45-minute practice, she just couldn’t get it.
Illyria met a totally fed up Buffy as she was changing out of her skates.
“I know what I think it is – it’s the music”
Buffy looked up and said,
“I was thinking that – I don’t usually do classical music anyway, doesn’t suit my dance – I need something with more beat – a definite pace to it”
“Yes Buffy, but this is for the set pieces – you can use what you want for the free-dance programme – it’s just that the judges like to see that you can do all the basics with a certain amount of discipline…I suppose we could always put it first…triple lutz, double toe loop then the salcow…leave it with me, and I might change the music, still something classical, but with a bit more ‘oomph’ in it than Bach” Buffy nodded and left the rink.
***************************
Illyria was sitting in her office, at her computer working out the choreography to Buffy’s set piece, when there was a knock at the door.
“Yes, come”
“Hi, s’me – I did it – I found out what Faith’s doing for her free dance programme” Angel said smugly
Illyria swivelled her office chair so she was facing Angel
“You do? – How?”
“Got myself an insider in the camp, haven’t I!”
Illyria sat there waiting for him to elucidate.
“Well, I know the music, very cute, she going to use George Michael’s ‘Gotta Have Faith’, and old Rupes himself is choreographing the dance.
Illyria swivelled back to face her monitor
“Well just be careful, we can’t know too much, else they’ll say we cheated, that’s all – we’ve already got one law-suit in the offing”
“THAT’S Going to go away, our lawyer states that it was the gymnast herself that was negligent – she should have chalked her feet as well as hands it wasn’t MY fault she didn’t follow company procedure, she’s been here long enough to know the rules!”
Angel’s mobile started ringing, so he said a quick ‘’bye’, and left
******************
The next four weeks Buffy trained extra hard. Illyria had come up trumps with changing the music for her set piece, and had gone totally the opposite of the quiet Bach piece that Buffy was having so much difficulty in skating to, and changed it to Tchaikovski’s 1812 Overture, complete with exploding canons!
For her free-dance routine, Buffy had chosen to do something that little bit different, she was going to be the Ice Queen from the Brother’s Grimm fairy tales, she had the most fantastic costume, the purest white encrusted with crystals that shone and sparkled a myriad of colours like diamonds, her boots too, and she was even going to wear a crystal encrusted skull-cap – she sparkled and shimmered from head to foot, and when skating the effect was spectacular.
For the final four weeks leading up to the Olympics, she was totally strict with herself not only because she was going to represent her country, but she knew she could wind down after the games, she could have a really good Christmas and New Year at home – and not worry about having to start any serious training again until mid February, when she would begin to train for the Ford Classic America’s Cup – a prize that had eluded her when she was a junior.
*******************
Buffy couldn’t help grinning as she got off the plane – she was in Switzerland – and going to represent her country doing the thing she loved most in the world – life didn’t come much better than that!
A luxury tour bus took them to the Olympic village in Lausanne, they were staying in an apartment block right near Lake Geneva, the view from her room window was so beautiful that Buffy vowed to herself that one day she’d come back here for a holiday…but now – to the matter in hand, to train lightly for the next three days, get through the heats and then – the free-dance, it was what she lived for!
********************
Little niggles about costumes, skates make-up were ironed out, and it was Buffy’s turn to be skating her set piece for the heats. She felt calm, she’d decided to try as much as she could to treat this like every other competition she’d ever been in – to start thinking that the eyes of the world were on you, - Man! THAT was scary – she couldn’t block it out altogether, flags with the five rings hung everywhere, with the words Lausanne 2002 just to remind everyone – and the banks of foreign TV commentators you had to walk past, but the rink was a standard, honest-to-goodness oval of pure white ice, just what she was used to, so that was comforting.
To get into the finals, Buffy knew that she’d have to get into the top 15 to stand any sort of chance – the thing was, there seemed to be more girls than ever – and then she realised, since the Soviet Union had broken up, there were lots of other little countries sending girls.
At 6.30pm, on Monday, November 18th, 2002 Buffy skated her set piece, she chose her favourite blue for her outfit, and when the time came, she barely had butterflies – she skated with aplomb and confidence, and didn’t fault. She wouldn’t know her exact placing until the Wednesday; that was until all the competitors had skated.
Illyria and Angel were very pleased with the way she’d skated, they knew she’d done her best – that was the most anybody could have asked of her.
Buffy was excited and when the information came through on the Wednesday morning that she was lying in 5th place, she was overjoyed! She was shocked to see that Faith had only just made it into 14th place…………
******************
Joyce knew better than to wish her daughter ‘good luck’ – it was the kiss of death as far as both of them were concerned.
“Did you watch me?”
“Of COURSE I watched you! Mrs Koplinski from next door came in – she bought a tray-bake, and Willow and her mother Bernice came over, bringing wine and chocolates, and I had Rachel, Susanne and Dorothy from the gallery, and old Mrs Keogh came round, bless her I’d ordered pizza – we had a real girlie night, we watched, AND I taped it, AND I phoned our father to remind him you were on”
Buffy smiled, her mother continued,
“Are you going to phone him?”
“Not before the main event, no – he always forgets and say’s those two kiss-of-death words, then he bangs on about his precious ‘Princess Chelsea’, and how she uses the potty on her own, and ooh, it just annoys me”
“Well I ring him again then, he should know when you skate”
“Just so he can boast around the office you mean – okay mom, I’ve got to go, my training slot is in half an hour, and they are very strict with the times as there are so many dancers wanting to practice”
“Okay then love – well, you know, and phone me afterwards, okay?”
“Will do, bye – oh, and say hi to everybody for me – tell Willow we’ll hit the town when I get home!”
“Okay love, will do, bye!”
“Bye mom”
********************
Buffy sat in her room, she was doing her little routine, sipping her glucose-based isotonic drink and fondling Mr Gordo’s ears, it was slightly uncomfortable to sit in the costume, the crystals made it lumpy – her make-up was immaculate, her eyes heavy with white and silver glitter and long false lashes, and even white sparkly lips – she was an ‘Ice Queen’ after all.
Illyria went to fetch Buffy, so she wouldn’t have to run the bank of TV reporters and commentators on her own.
“Oh god, oh god not her – NO!” Buffy pulled back in the doorway leading to the rink.
“Who, what is it Buffy?”
“Her, that, that what’s her name – Cassie Newcome, she does that ‘Sport Today’ on channel 6 on satellite – I DON’T want to speak to her – coz she always wishes people the ‘L’ word!”
Angel joined them and could see Buffy wasn’t happy
“What’s wrong?”
“That woman down there in the blue jacket – Buffy doesn’t want to talk to her”
“That’s okay, follow me”
“Where are we…”
“Press room – come on, we only need let in the people we want”
“But I don’t want, not until after!”
“Then we won’t let anybody in, relax!” Buffy felt he stomach muscles relax and she followed Angel, Illyria bringing up the rear.
With two minutes to go, Buffy went out to stand by the rink. She saw the girl from Belarus in the final throes of her routine; she’s chosen to do the dying swan from Swan Lake.
Buffy heard the announcer mention her name and country, and the title of her dance. The lights dimmed and then she was picked out by a spot-light and she began her routine – she skated it perfectly – she didn’t put a foot wrong, the audience ‘oohing’ when she did her particularly complicated set of jumps – her costume was something else, commented upon by all the sports commentators of every nationality.
Coming to the end of her routine, Buffy raised her arms above her head and spun, pulling them close together to spin faster she stopped, eyes closed, heaving for breath – she heard the roar of the crowd and opened her eyes with a huge grin – flowers raining down on the ice – the American’s in the audience on their feet waving their flags, cheering and hollering – Buffy knew that it was the best she’d ever skated, she practically floated to the side of the rink, Angel and Illyria beaming.
It was Illyria that hugged and kissed her, holding her hand leading her to the scoring bay.
Buffy got a mixture of 5.8 and 5.9’s for technical merit, for Artistic merit she got mostly 5.9’s, with the exception of the judge from the Balkan States and the French, who both gave her 5.7, and were booed by the crowd, it was totally unfair and it was political, because both of those countries had skaters with vested interests – they had yet to skate, the Belarus girl was favourite to win gold.
Waving to the TV camera’s Buffy went off to do her chat to the waiting commentators and press………
***************
In the end, it was the girl from Belarus that won gold, Buffy came second with silver, Faith came nowhere – she said that a recurring knee injury had spoiled her chances, but she was philosophical about it and said she was still young enough to take part in the next Olympics.
The Belarus girl announced her retirement straight after the medal ceremony, leaving Buffy to take the waiting ‘world number one’ crown that was now in the offing.
Little did she know what catastrophic events would be waiting just around the corner………………………………………………
[Reviews - 219]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 3193 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:
We hope we've left you wanting more, with a little cliffie there......