I couldn't believe it was finally here. The Disney Olympics Winter Games. Sofia and I had been training for a year and a half to be ready for this. Twenty-five kingdoms had sent enchanted ice dancing teams this year, including Friezenburg, Wei-Ling and of course, the favored competitor, Arendelle, the ice capitol of the world. I would be skating against the ice queen herself, Queen Elsa, and her partner, a cheerful little snowman named Olaf. It was their first Olympics as a Disney kingdom, but everyone expected them to do very well.
Sofia took my hand as we walked into the arena for the first time. I looked down at her and took a deep breath. My princess squeezed my hand.
"Three days from now we'll be out there competing," she breathed.
It was a nerve racking thought, but she was right. We had two days to practice on the ice, the first divided into 30-minute sessions for each nation to have practice time alone on the ice; the second day the rink was open to everyone all day. The next day was the opening ceremony. Ice dancing began on the very first day of actual competition, so we had very little time to prepare.
We arrived to our practice session fifteen minutes early, only to find they were running behind. I sighed. Of course they were late. Sofia and I warmed up together, then spent a little time on one of the many trampolines that lined the side rooms of the arena. Fifteen minutes was barely enough time to run through all of the routines once, so I saved my solo routines for the ice and we spent our time on the trampoline solely on the partner dance.
There was one move that was more challenging than the others: the Spiral Goose. With me in a low split, I lifted Sofia so she could plant one knee in the small of my back. Then, with as much force as possible, I stood straight up, tossing Sofia into the air, where she spiraled four times, tucked two somersaults, and caught my hands on the way back down, where she landed facing away from me, with a full beat and a half to recover before we went into the next Stargazer Spin. It had always been our weak spot, so we usually started practice by running that move before we went through the whole routine.
We started facing each other, and counted up our three bounces to give us the momentum, then Sofia pushed off my hands and I swung her around as I dropped into my split. Her knee contacted my back, and before she had a chance to lose any speed I threw her upward, releasing her hands. I stepped backwards as she spiraled, and held my hands out to catch her when she somersaulted, but as she descended, her left hand only barely grazed mine on the way down. With a quick reaction I reached down and caught her by the wrist, enough to safely transition her out of the landing, but the falter was visible nonetheless. The judges would spot something like that a mile away, and points would be taken off.
Once she was balanced, she turned around to look at me with big, scared eyes. "I almost missed-"
"Hey." I silenced her by pulling her into a quick hug. "Don't let it get in your head. Let's do it a couple more times just in case."
Three more perfect Spiral Goose lifts and she was satisfied, then we ran the whole routine, by which point my father came in to let us know it was almost our turn on the ice.
Even though the partner dance was the last event of the ice dancing competition, we always practiced it first. On the ice we ran through the routine without a hitch, performing it as smoothly as we ever had. My other dances were solid; my natural talent for ice dancing coupled with the hard work I had put in over the years was more than enough to cement them in my muscle memory. Sofia watched from the sidelines and applauded in between each dance as I finished. Every time she did it gave my confidence a boost, even though I knew she would always applaud, no matter how poorly I had skated. Just having her here was enough.
Even though nearly a year and six months had passed since Sofia and I started dating, I still got butterflies when she looked at me, when she smiled, when she touched my hand. The longer I knew her the deeper in love with her I fell, and every day I was priviledged to watch Sofia grow into the most remarkable young woman I had ever seen. She was a powerful, fiery princess with a strong conscience and a leader's instinct to rival any royal in the hundred and thirty-eight Disney kingdoms. Sometimes I looked at her and I couldn't believe she was really mine.
I glided off the ice and into her arms, and before I put the blade covers onto my skates I leaned down and kissed her softly. "Can you believe it's finally here?" I whispered to her. She giggled and shook her head.
"I'm so excited for you, baby," she said, kissing me one more time.
I grinned. This was the start of big things. Very big things.