Laying Low in Hollywood (21 page)

                           
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, if 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 on 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.

   The program finally came to and end, I was happy that Ron had managed to finish the program, but inside I was worried, I could tell by the look on his face, he was in serious pain. 

   The program had not been perfect, but it had still been good.  I guess it was up to the judges now, to decide if it was good enough to take us through to next week.  Ron and Elena were smiling and waving to the crowd.  I could tell by the way that Ron was carrying himself that something was not quite right, he was injured, but I had no idea what had happened.  When they finally turned and skated off the ice to me, I bit my lower lip nervously, it was obvious that Ron had been hurt, there was no disguising the pain on his face.

   What’s the matter?” I cried, as Elena skated into my arms, I hugged her briefly, then pushed her away.

   “I felt something pop in my back,” said Ron, he was obviously in a lot of pain.

   “Oh crap,” I sighed, hugging him carefully.

   I helped Ron to the “kiss and cry” area.  He was lumbering slowly, obviously in a lot of pain.

   Before I knew it, the show’s host, Zach Reid, had caught on that something big was up, and soon he was there with us, in the “kiss and cry”.

   “Ron, you suddenly look like you are in a lot of pain.  Did you get hurt out there?” asked Zach, coming over and sticking his microphone in Ron’s face.

   “I hurt my back,” said Ron.  I cringed painfully, his face was completely distressed.  I was biting my lower lip, fighting tears.  I felt like it was my fault for pushing him so hard.

  “Wow, that could really put a damper on things, do you think you can continue in the competition?”

  “I can continue,” said Ron, waving him away disgustedly. 

   I was so worried about Ron, I was clinging to his hand nervously as we sat there, completely unaware that everyone was watching us, not that I even cared at this point.  My concern was for Ron.  I was feeling guilty that maybe I had pushed him too hard!

   “Lane, in recent weeks, your team has been one of the most promising teams on the show.  Do you feel like you’re going to have to withdraw from the competition?” asked Zach, turning and hoisting his microphone into my face.  He glanced down at my fingers wrapped tightly around Ron’s, but he didn’t say anything.

   “It’s too soon to tell.  Of course we don’t want to withdraw, but if circumstances are beyond our control...” I was suddenly close to breaking down in tears, I felt like I personally, was responsible for Ron’s pain.

   “We won’t be withdrawing from the competition.  I’m a football player, I’m used to pushing through the pain.  I’m not a quitter,” snapped Ron, snatching the microphone from the host angrily.

   “Okay then,” said the Zach, raising his eyebrows at the camera.  “Let’s see what our judges have to say about their performance.”

   All three judges were mostly positive, they worried that Ron wouldn’t be able to recover from his injury by next week, to give a stunning performance.

   Finally, the scores were announced.  Three nines, not bad, but would it be enough to take us through to next week?

   All the couples were brought to the ice for the announcement, I held my breath nervously as the decision was read.  I finally sighed in relief, when I realized that we had nearly been eliminated, but we had made it to perform again next week!

   I was hugging Elena and Ron excitedly.  As things were winding down the team doctor approached Ron and took him to the back office so he could check him out. 

   I chewed on my lower lip nervously, I was worried, I hoped that Ron had just pulled something and that he would be fine to skate again next week.  I wasn’t so sure.  He was forty, not a kid any more, besides, football had abused his body for years, of course, there was a serious chance that he had injured himself badly and wouldn’t be able to skate next week.