Chapter Text
Ever since she could remember Charlotte loved Ice skating. She skated with a passion she had in all parts of her life but Figure Skating held not just a special place in her heart, it was her dream come true.
At first her parents loved to take her to the lessons, but eventually it became harder and harder to maintain, but Charlotte was adamant. Encouraged by what her trainer said, that she ought to not just train an hour after school but come early mornings before school she did just that. From then on she started to train every morning at 6am. That gave her an extra two hours of practice daily. She was only nine years old.
The next step was to enrol her to competitions and things started to get complicated and expensive, but her trainers thought she needed exposure so that they could attract sponsorship.
Once Charlotte became aware of the bigger world of figure skating out there, she started to watch competitions on TV or online and occasionally she was lucky to go to life events.
Realising that her parents could not quite afford it, having five more kids to look after, her trainers took her along to events as a support person whenever the situation allowed it.
Charlotte had her first competition on national level at the age of 11, which was quite late for the sport, but nothing could stop her enthusiasm. She loved everything about it, the costumes, the programs she had trained to perform and the atmosphere and being one of 6 siblings she was used to struggling for attention and had a healthy sense of fighting for her place, which made her a good competitor.
Charlotte had a graceful skating style and was sporty too, and managed to do several triple jumps early on and her spins were inventive. On Youtube she watched the Swiss skater Stephane Lambiel who sometimes seemed to win his titles by doing good spins alone, well not entirely, but Charlotte fancied to think so.
At her first competition Charlotte placed immediately at third place and that attracted the much needed sponsorship of a Mrs Susan Worchester, an ice skater who never quite made it, but had the finances and the love for the sport. She also loved to support young girls who not just did what they were told but who brought a sense of independence and own ideas to the sport. While at that stage they still had to listen very much, but even at that age Charlotte showed an own style that would distinguish her.
The next two seasons where very successful for Charlotte. She was always in the top groups and had quite a few medals and now there was the talk of bringing her to the international junior competitions.
But all was not easy gliding, Charlotte now 13 had just started her period and started to get rounder shapes, something her trainer watched with a weary eye and hoped very much that she could stay slim and light enough to be able to continue to compete in the sport.
Charlotte herself was aware that there was a danger for girls at her age and if you had problems when your body changed and weight became an issue your dream could literally slip away on the ice.
But for now she managed to keep the weight down and she was 9th in the European Junior Championship*, which was an incredible success for an English skater, who not very often managed to qualify for the long program, so for her to get into the top 10 in her first competition of that level was an enormous achievement.
Charlotte was also the first time part of a team travelling together. There were other girls and young men and pairs as well as ice dancers. The times she didn't compete or practise she would always watch the other skaters practice.
''Common Charlotte! Will you never come away from the ice? Let's look around in town.'' Her friends would say.
They were in Lillehammer in France, in the actual stadium where the Olympic games were in 1994 and where Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean skated. No town could be so interesting for Charlotte than being in that same ice ring where those legends skated and competed.
And there was another reason she wanted to spend time there. She hoped to catch a glimpses of him. Well they were a figure skating pair, but she was a total fan of Sidney Parker. He was two years older than her and it was his last competition at the junior level with his partner Eliza Porter. Parker/Porter where a very promising figure skating team and rumour had it that they were a couple off the ice too. Something Charlotte didn't want to know about. But for the time being she was a bit star struck that she was travelling on the same team as him.
She had seen him in competitions for that last two years and he had never paid her a single moments attention, so for her it was love from a distance. Well one could not speak of love when one didn't even know each other, but one could dream.
The figure skating pair's training had just finished and Charlotte decided that it was time for some fresh air after all and she picked up her bag and run down the corridor and that very instant when she turned the corner, she bumped into somebody.
Her bag dropped on the floor and the person she bumped into nearly lost his balance. Charlotte was apologetic and saying sorry and crawling on the floor to pick up her belongings.
When she looked up it was no other than Sidney Parker.
''Can you not pay attention where you are going!'' He said quite forceful. ''Some of us have to keep themselves safe for important things. Competitions for example.''
He didn't seem to realise that Charlotte was part of the competition too. And in that moment Charlotte was so mortified that she had no response for him.
Internally Charlotte was infuriated. How dare he talk to her as if she was a nobody. She might not be as pretty as Eliza Porter and not as attractive as the other girls on the team, but she was a good skater and therefore she felt she deserved his respect, even though he had never acknowledged her, but surly he must know who she was.
He walked off with a huff and Charlotte's crush was turned into dislike within a few very brief moments.
This was fuel for her fire. Charlotte wanted to proof that she was worth his attention and she would do it in the only way she considered worthy of her. She would skate her butt off, of that she was sure. And if she had a good placement she would get attention in the team.
The next morning was the short program of the pairs and Parker/Porter were in the second starting group, but they hoped to score high enough that in the long program they would be able to be in the last group. One can dream thought Charlotte. Sidney was probably good enough for those dreams, but Eliza certainly wasn't. Not that Charlotte would ever voice that, but she could see all the tiny mistakes and untidiness of Eliza's skating and while in normal situations she was able to cover that up, but once one got nervous those weaknesses would show.
They all sat as a team in the third row and were waiting for Sidney and Eliza's turn. Charlotte, who under normal circumstances would have fully supported them, but now she had a dilemma. As a British team she wanted them to do well. In fact she wanted everybody to do well and only the sporting ability should make the difference who won, but she still felt sore from her encounter with Sidney and she found it hard to be supportive. Not that she would say that aloud, but in her heart of hearts, she almost wished for them to mess up.
The second Warm Up group was now on the ice and the whole team had only eyes for Sidney and Eliza. There seemed to be some tension between them and both Sidney and Eliza fell before their program even started.
''What's going on with them two?'' Asked Clara, the other single female skater on the team.
''Not sure.'' Said Charlotte non committal. ''Seems the big and beautiful pair are in trouble.''
Clara looked over slightly surprised, not used to any criticism from Charlotte.
''What's on with you?'' She asked.
Charlotte didn't dare look over to her and just shrugged her shoulders.
''Nothing.''
Clara wasn't a person who went into depth in a conversation but noticed that something was off with Charlotte. She just shook her head and left it at that.
Finally Porter/Parker were on the ice taking their position. The music started and they began their program. They had beautiful positions and they both were graceful skaters and therefore easy on the eye. Now the first element came, a throw triple flip. Sidney threw Eliza and she managed to land with a good running edge, but Sidney slipped and landed on his knee the moment he had let go of her. Now that would cost them quite a few points.
It took a few moments, maybe too long for Sidney to get back into the step sequence and into the next element, which was a synchronised triple Salchow. This time Eliza opened up the position too soon and had a very untidy landing. Again a costly mistake.
The whole team was sitting with bated breath and kept calling:
''Common, Sidney, common Eliza.'' Not that would help their concentration.
Nothing major happened for the rest of the program, but somehow everything just seemed to be on shaky ground. They were out of sync at their spins and everything was just a bit untidy. Charlotte thought to herself that she would show them how to compete properly. She wanted Sidney to notice her and make him feel ashamed of his arrogance, not that that was likely to happen.
The afternoon was for the men short and the following day it was Charlotte's turn.
She was also in the second starting group and this time far more nervous than ever before. While she waited after the warm up that had gone well, she reflected on how she got drawn into this petty competition with Sidney and wanting his attention and she finally remembered that she had to focus on herself and that she did.
Charlotte kept breathing and reminded herself to focus on the music. She had chosen music that she really loved and it reminded her of a young man who used to be homeless, but had fallen in love with singing and entered a singing competition singing this song and nearly won. Charlotte wanted to win for him by choosing one of his song: Cinema Paradiso**.
Reminding herself of that background story, she was finally able to stay focused on her own performance.
She started off with a graceful step sequence leading into a jump combination of triple flip, triple toeloop. She landed both jumps confidently. Getting completely lost in the music and her skating she went from one element to the next without a single slip.
Only when she came to the very last spin, did she let her excitement shine through and had to hold it together not to make any last minute mistake, but all went well.
Her points had gone up and up and it was no surprise that she went far ahead of all previous skaters and there was no skater after her that could overtake. So Charlotte finished her short program in first place and nobody was more surprised than herself. She had always wished for it, but so far she never managed to hold it completely together, but now she had and she could not have been more chaffed.
*There is no such thing as a European Junior figure skating Championship, so I took some artistic license her.
**The Korean singer Sung Bong Choi was model for that.
In this clip he sing another aria, but later he recorded a CD and Cinema Paradio was on it.
https://youtu.be/-SIxSbTSBTc