Today is the day we all compete in our sports, the school calls it simply Competition Day. Parents and families are allowed to come and watch, it's like parents weekend, but it's way more important. My brothers are here somewhere in the crowded stadium
with Carolyn and her daughters. Carolyn is watching the twins for me.
The winning two teams (First and Second place) will compete to go to the Olympics. This always takes place January 15, when we come back from break. We don't have classes today because of how important these competitions are.
I would love to be able to watch everybody compete, but we aren't allowed to leave the rink until we are done. Looking down at my phone for the hundredth time since leaving the twins with Carolyn I see that Cristina has texted me, Hey we came in first
place in the relay and I came in first on all the sprints!
I can't believe it I'm so happy for her I just wish I could be there to see. Cristina will be in the 2016 Olympics in Rio if she beats out everyone else. If Derek and I win we will be in the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and we will have to start training
immediately. I quickly text her back and she says she is headed over to the rink to watch us.
I get texts from Alex, Callie, George, Mark, Owen, and Izzie saying they are done and headed over to first watch Lexie swim then come over here to see us. They all came in first and second place which is great because we will all go to the Olympics! I
text them all back saying congratulations and I can't wait to see them. I hope Lexie wins too, she is such a great relayer and has awesome times for the strokes she is competing in today.
Bryan our coach tells us to put our phones away and hands us a water bottle and tells us to start stretching before we warm up on the ice. I'm nervous this time because it all comes down to how we skate out here today. If we skate really good, better
than everybody else we are going to the Olympic trials, but if we don't it's over for us. We have been to the junior Olympics multiple times and won there along with the Olympics so I'm hoping we get to go again.
After we stretch our music and costume director Mira comes over to wish us luck. Bryan says we won't need any luck and that we have this in the bag. We finish stretching and now we have to wait for the announcers to introduce us so we can practice on
the ice. We warm up normally to fast music to get our heart rate up, but with everybody practicing it will probably be not as fast and loud.
Our outfits that we have on are for me a gray dress with silver sparkles all over the bodice. The back is open and Derek has on a basic gray shirt and pants. He hates any ruffles or glitter so Mira always tried to find something to work for him.
There are five sets of pair skaters, some are underclassmen and some are upperclassmen like we are. It's always fun to see everybody's different taste in music, clothing, and choreography.
We have to perform a short dance and a long dance. Also we all perform in a group dance at the end for a finale. Before all of that we have a dance with the top two best pairs, Derek and I, and Katie and Grant. They usually come in third place up against
us, it's normally Libby and John that we skate with, but John broke his foot so that held them back from doing this dance with us.
The judges will announce our scores after the short and long programs. They won't judge us in the group dances. The winners are announced and we have a medal ceremony after that and lastly we do a group finale dance.
The zamboni has just gotten off the ice so now they will start calling pairs out onto the ice to practice. "Grant Banks and Katherine Hassen, John Lock and Libby Day, Henry Carter and Julia Parks, Derek Shepherd and Meredith Grey, and Theresa Ford and
Michael Polly," the announcer says as Derek and I make our way towards the door. We hand our guards on our skates to Bryan, "Go knock them dead!" He smiles as we take the ice.
With four other pairs on the ice we have to be careful on where we are skating. The song "I Can't Stop" by Flux Pavilion comes on Derek and I circle around the ice to warm up. We weave around the other pairs and do a combination of twizzles. After a couple
songs the announcer says they will begin the program. Everyone all groups together by the door to step off the ice.
Only Katie, Grant, Derek, and I remain near the ice in our gray outfits. The lights go dark as we start to get to our spots on the ice. The song we will be dancing to is "Try" by Pink. I enjoy this program because it's fun music and it's entertaining.
As we do a lift the whole crowd erupts into screams and clapping. As usual we block it out and continue skating. We do our last big move and the crowd goes wild! It's always fun to see and hear the crowds reaction after performances.
We take a small bow and Derek and I skate over to Bryan. He gives up a huge hug and is smiling really big as we are too, "You two were amazing as usual! The dream team!" Mira comes over and gives us a big hug too. "Thank you!" I say as I take my skate
guards and put them on my skates and take the bottle of water Bryan is holding for us. "Okay go get changed now," Bryan says as Mira is already moving down the hall to the changing room.
Mira unzips the hanging bag exposing a black body suit/top with a few rhinestones on the bodice and black pants. The back she shows me as she spins it around is backless and it ties at my neck. I quickly step out of my gray dress and pull the black costume
over my nude bodysuit.
Mira goes over to a bag and pulls out for Derek a folded black shirt that is sheer in the arms and a pair of basic black pants. He changes and puts them on and fixes his shirt around the arms. I get up to help him as Mira spins the arm of the other side
and I do the same. "Okay you're all set, go out there and win the gold!" She pats us on the back and we walk out hand in hand to Bryan.
"Okay Henry and Julia are almost done, she fell and they weren't in sync, you guys just need to focus on each other and the music. I know you know this music like the back of your hands so prove to me and everyone out there that you deserve to win!" Bryan
says to us getting us hyped up. "We got this Mer," Derek kisses my cheek, "Definitely we do Der."
Julia and Henry exit and walk by us clearly disappointed. The lights are dim so we can take our spots on the ice. The music we are skating too is called "Carmen," it's an intense and fierce dance with a lot of difficult step sequences throughout it.
The music starts when we get to the middle of the ice and we are leaning on each other back to back. Our first moves are a very simple, yet fast step sequence we just have to make sure they are perfect to lead us into our first little lift. We do a few
more sequences and then Derek turns and lifts me up bridal style, I then lay across his knees and rest my arm on his foot to support myself.
Now the music changes darker, and the lighting is a pale blue on the ice as Derek lifts me up and I go under his legs. We do a few small spins and Derek lifts me up so my feet are resting on his thighs as I stretch out my arms to connect to his outstretched
arms. My body is out as Derek holds me still. I jump down and turn to face Derek pressing my body against his. The music is now softer and it becomes faster and fiercer. We start slow and go full speed into spins, jumps, and sequences. I do a back
flip into Derek as he spins me around perfectly to end it.
Everyone is on there feet screaming and applauding as we end. Derek and I turn a few times to bow for the different sections and skate towards the door to see what Bryan and Mira thought. Before we can change we have to get our scores.
"That was perfect! Just perfect!" Bryan is jumping up and down as he hands us our guards and hugs us tightly. "That was marvelous Meredith and Derek! So much passion and it was so fierce!" Mira says hugging us and pulling us toward the bench to hear our
scores. Bryan hands up our waters as we wait for our scores to be announced.
"We will now reveal the scores for Derek Shepherd and Meredith Grey, currently in first place are Henry Carter and Julia Parks with a score of 35.42. Now the scores for Derek Shepherd and Meredith Grey are 56.76, they are currently now in first place
with Henry Carter and Julia Parks sitting in second." The announcer says. The crowd goes wild when they say we are now in first place. Derek and I hug each other and hug Mira and Bryan. I turn back to Derek and kiss his lips resting my hand on his
knee.
"Okay you two can go get changed while Grant and Katie, and John and Libby skate," Bryan dismisses us as Mira follows us back.
"Okay Meredith you will be in a black jumpsuit and Derek for this you only need to change shirts." Mira says as she hands me a sleeveless V neck cut black top. She passes to Derek a quarter length black turtle neck shirt to put on. We both change and
decide to wait a little bit in here before going out. Mira leaves to go talk to Bryan leaving us alone for now.
"I love our next dance it's a lot of fun and the music is upbeat," I say sitting in Derek's lap. He kisses my cheek and plays with my hands, "I know I like this one too, it's Pink Floyd how could you not love it?" He smiles, "I wonder how Libby and John
are, they are our biggest competitors," he nods, "Probably not as good as we did," he lifts me up and kisses my lips.
"We should practice a bit with the lift," he says moving to an area where there aren't any bags there. "Okay," he bends down so his legs are apart and directly under his shoulders. I step up onto his thigh and lift my other leg into the air bended upwards
like an L. I spin off him and jump down lightly since we still have our skates on. "That was good, we just need to practice the other lift now," he says as he pulls me around. I do a backflip up into his arms and he spins me around above his head
he then slowly let's my one leg touch the ground and I move away like I'm skating. "Okay we are good, let's go see Bryan and Mira." I say as he kisses my cheek again and pulls me in for a hug. "Okay now we can go," he says pulling away, taking my
hand as we walk out of the room.
"Did you guys practice a bit?" Bryan asks as he notices us standing to the side of him, I nod since it's very quiet, "Good, Grant and Katie got a 36.45, they fell once and weren't in sync the whole time. Libby and John did pretty good, but it was pretty..."
He says not able to think of the word, "Bland?" Mira says, he nods, "Yes bland, nothing to it just a good skate, not energetic or anything new." We both nod, "So you two are going to go out there after Theresa and Mike skate and skate the best long
program anybody has ever seen," he says patting us on the back.
The scores were revealed and Libby and John got a 40.58, none of the pairs were that close to us which was pretty nice! Theresa and Mike's music starts as they get on the ice. There music is to "Baby It's Cold Outside" so far it's a cute dance, but they
haven't done any lifts or jumps just simple step sequences which won't get them any high numbers from the judges. When the song ends I'm still shocked that they didn't incorporate any lifts or jumps, they skated fine, but it was pretty boring to watch
them just skate in circles around each other.
They exit the ice and go to sit on the bench to find out there scores. There coaches congratulate them on a successful skate and they all hug. Bryan looks over at us, "Don't ever think I'd be happy with that, I would only be happy with that if you were
6 year olds," he grumbles, Derek and I hold back our laughs and just say, "Yes Coach," there scores come in and no surprise they get a low score of 32.23.
"Okay get out there and show them what the dream team is about!" He holds his hands up so we high five him and Mira tells us to skate our best. We are dancing to a medley of Pink Floyd songs "Great Gig In The Sky" and "Money."
Stepping out on the ice we circle it a few times before the announcer announces us. "Derek Shepherd and Meredith Grey," we skate faster around to get to our positions to start. The crowd starts to cheer when they hear our names and the Great Gig In The
Sky starts to play.
We stand again leaning on each other, but this time facing the same way. The music starts off slow and I push away from Derek so I can do a small turn I lean back into Derek so we can spin around together. We spin around getting all the points for executing
the spin properly and doing a complex spin.
We skate around and the music starts to change as we do our lift. Another back flip I do into Derek and he flips me so it looks like I'm a plane. He lets me go and we do a difficult step sequence that I enjoy doing. It brings us to my favorite part after
the twizzles to our signature lift. I stand on Derek's thigh balancing as he lets go of my hand, the crowd goes crazy as I always expect them too and then I step back down to do more twizzles. We continue doing a small step sequence when the music
changes over to "Money."
This part is my favorite it's fun to dance to. I love dancing, it's a crowd pleaser, it's upbeat, and a quick part of our dance. Derek lifts me again and we continue to do more sequences. We skate as one which I love and end it with a lift as Derek is
spinning. I get off him and we spin and then kneel down on the ice as the crowd starts cheering again. Derek pulls me up and we bow for each section. The clapping and cheering still hasn't stopped making me smile even brighter. I hug Derek on the
ice as we are bowing and the crowd goes even more crazier.
Derek takes my hand and leads me off of the ice. Bryan greets us with a huge mega watt smile, "YOU KILLED IT OUT THERE!" He shouts so we can here through the cheers, I laugh and thank him. Mira agrees with him as he walk over to the bench to get our long
dance scores.
"May I please have your attention, the scores for Derek Shepherd and Meredith Grey who are currently in first place with 56.76, there score is 112.42 for a total of 169.18 and are in first place." The crowd goes insane as Derek and I kiss each other and
hug Mira and Bryan. Bryan gets up to bring us in for a big group hug, "I am so proud of you two!" He says. "Thank you," we say. "Okay so you can get changed now if you want for the group dance." We both nod and follow Mira back to the dressing room.
Mira unzips the hanging bag revealing a dress with silver and gold sequins on the top and the bottom a black skirt. I take it from her and get undressed and step into the new dress. For Derek she has a long sleeve black top and black pants so all he has
to change is his top. Once we change we go back out to watch everyone's long dance. Libby and John are dancing too some kind of Russian ballet music. They perfect there jumps, but they don't have any lifts throughout the routine. Normally in their
long programs they have a lot of lifts, but they don't as they end it. They both bow and go over to the bench to get there scores. They get a score of 135.75 and are the closest to us so far.
Theresa and Mike are on now and they dance to some long drawn out ballet music. They do two lifts and a few jumps, the jumps they were not in sync at all and the lift was rather sloppy. At the end the crowd cheers as they bow. They skate over to there
coaches and sit down on the bench to receive their scores. "The scores are for Theresa Ford and Michael Polly are 98.60, to combine for a total of 130.83. They are currently in fifth place." The announcer says.
Bryan claps us on our back, "You are going to the Olympics!" He screams as we jump up and down in a circle hugging each other. Derek kisses me and picks me up, "Olympics here we come!" He says smiling. I kiss him again as he puts me down. The medal ceremony
will take place now and after we will do our group number.
A group of people set up the stands for first, second, and third place and a rug for us to walk onto. Our president and principle of our school walks out on the rug talking about how marvelous we all were and how much hard work has been put into pulling
this off. He thanks all the sponsors and the coaches and says now we can begin the medal ceremony.
He introduces the fifth and fourth place winners and goes onto saying how we should skate out and step up onto the stand for the standings of first, second, and third place.
"Introducing third place with a score of 133.56 Henry Carter and Julia Parks," everyone claps as they skate out and do a spin over to the stand. They receive a bronze medal as well as flowers. the cheers stop as Principle Dennis Best starts to talk again
into the microphone. "Introducing second place John Lock and Libby Day with a score of 135.75." The crowd starts to clap and scream again as they do a lift and step up onto the second place stand.
"And to our first place winners with a score of 169.18 Derek Shepherd and Meredith Grey!" The crowd erupts into screams and cheers as Derek and I step on the ice. We do our signature lift and this time I do a triple salchow off of Derek. Skating around
each other we meet at the first place stand. Derek jumps up first and reaches down to grab my hand to help me up.
Mr. Best comes over and places the gold medals around our neck as the crowd is still screaming and a woman gives us flowers. We hold up our hands and the crowd grows louder, Derek and I smile at each other as Mr. Best says the medal ceremony has been
concluded.
A photographer takes pictures of us on on the standings and then we are able to hop down. We all hug each other and congratulate each other as we skate off to the side to wait for our group and finale dance to come on.
Once the rug is rolled up and the stand is removed we start to go back on the ice. We are skating to "Rolling in The Deep," by Adele. The guys first do a little dance as us girls wait for our cue to come on. Once the music starts we move onto the ice.
Each pair does something differently, but we come together and do a lift. Grant does a huge spin. We all line up and go our separate ways to do another lift. Libby and I do a little sequence before returning to the group. We all stand in a line going
backwards and the lights dim. All of us skate around in lines and the guys lift us up in the air to finish the dance. The crowd goes crazy as we all bow together.
We next perform to the song "The Dog Days Are Over" by Florence and The Machine. Our final dance is to "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. As we all bow roses and bears are throw on the ice for all of us. Derek and I skate off towards Bryan and Mira. They
each give us a big hug and we all walk towards the dressing rooms. We change and I text Mark to see how Lexie did.
He responds with a emoji on a swimmer and the number one next to it. I text him back to tell her congratulations and that we will meet at home since that will be easier than meeting now.
Mira takes our costumes and starts to load them into the hanging bags to take to her car. Bryan helps her pack up as we tell them we are going to leave. We put our backpacks filled with all of our other things on our backs and head towards are car to
meet with our families.
They are already outside standing by the cars as we approach them. Amy, Sam, Chris, and Jason all run over to us giving us big hugs and saying congratulations to us. We thank them and put our bags in the trunk. Derek drove his car and I drove mine this
morning so we would all fit.
Carolyn comes around to give us both a big hug and kiss and I take Sarah and Logan from her to give them each a hug and kiss. "I haven't seen you two all day!" Pulling them closer to my body I say to them. Derek opens the back door so everyone can get
in the Navigator before I put the twins in. Jason, Chase, and Matt get in the back while Amy sits next to the twins, I put the twins in their car seats and they start to fall asleep after the long loud day out. Chase sits in the front with me and
I put my purse at his feet.
Derek let's me pull out in front of him and we are on are way home. When we get home I'm exhausted. I pick the twins up and lay them in there swing in the den while I sit in the kitchen talking to everybody.
"Those dances were incredible to watch, you guys looked so good together," Kathleen says as I pull out a fruit and vegetable tray to snack on. "Thank you Kath, I couldn't believe how poorly everyone else skated, it was strange normally Libby and John
are decent." Derek smiles, "Well not today because we won and we were on fire," he pulls me close to press a kiss to my forehead.
"I have no idea how you stand on Derek's let and jump off like you do," Chase says to me, "I don't know that was a lot of practice, now it's very easy to do."
Everyone then talks about the rest of the competitions today. George tells us the race was very close in the begin, but then the other team just lost control. Owen says the one guy collapsed on the mat after 150 pounds so he easily won. Callie said the
hockey tournament was close and that they had to play best out of three at the end because it was split.
Alex told us that the boxing wasn't that bad because he thought he was going up against another guy, but in fact he went up against a guy that was very weak. Cristina said the relay was a breeze and the sprints were easy too for her. The soccer game Mark
told us was tiring, but it wasn't that hard because they had the lead the whole time. And finally Lexie said the relay for swimming was a nail bitter, but all that matters is her team pulled it off. She won in the butterfly, breaststroke, and freestyle
stroke, all the strokes that she competed in today.
We all congratulated each other and were truly too exhausted to do anything else for the day so we decided to put on a movie called "Nursery University." It was only 8 when we finished the movie so Carolyn said she would make soup and grilled cheeses
for us and we could go to sleep after dinner.
I feed the twins and played with them on their play mat and rocking horses until dinner was ready. Izzie and I placed them back in their swings so we could eat and after we all ate Carolyn said that we should all go upstairs to go to sleep. Nancy and
Sam cleaned up while everyone else in our families played with the twins.
We all went up to bed while they were downstairs chatting. Derek and I got to our room and changed before shutting our blinds and pulling our bed down. I turned the ceiling fan on and Derek shut the lights out as we crawled in bed. We spooned each other
and said how excited we are to be going to the Olympic Trials again and then we kisses each other and feel asleep.
Author Note
So the dances I described (or tried too anyway) are real dances that Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (my favorite figure skating couple) have performed. If your are interested here are the links to all of the performances to get a better picture of what the
heck I was talking about-
Try by Pink
watch?v=3BpFL1tA6lY
Carmen
watch?v=jvRrwcnxf7o
Pink Floyd Medley
watch?v=qsyYC7_fAFw
Rolling in The Deep by Adele
watch?v=6snY8OI2Ap4
Dog Days Are Over by Florence and The Machine
watch?v=OgZW8_D14rg
And Lastly Don't Stop Believing by Journey - for this one the first part is another dance of Tessa and Scott's, but the second half is DSB
watch?v=7WAtIJcHtAQ
Hope you enjoyed this chapter it took forever to write! ?