Dark Night

Party time

I woke up the morning feeling like I hadn't slept at all. I certainly hadn't felt this jet lagged when  I got to China, but I was absolutely dragging today, made worse by a vigorous drill practice. We had two more basketball games to perform at, and there would be a pep assembly for John. I even nodded off briefly in English, which was just embarrassing. I regretted not taking the night off from work, but on the other hand, I'd just taken off two weeks and I really needed to keep an eye on my bank account.

My friends gave me a couple of days to get rested, then we met at a coffeehouse before I went to work on Thursday. I distributed the pins I'd gotten them as souvenirs and answered questions and told stories. They thought the reaction shots of me had been hilarious and they'd seen the edited version of the interview and said I looked smashing. They'd used very little of the interview with me and Paul, mostly the part about Starry telling how he earned his medal and the  bombing and John's recovery. That was fine with me, the focus of the story was rightfully the skaters. I'd just enjoyed the experience. They loved the Instagram and teased me about my cluelessness. I'd gotten kind of caught up, at least skimming the comments. They were mostly positive and I tried to ignore the ones that weren't. It had only been meant for my friends, after all, and they had loved it.

They caught me up on goings on while I was gone--Maya had acquired a boyfriend, oooooh--and it was fun to talk with my friends again and get back to normal. Todd was able to show up partway through and he got to talk about his competition and getting the bronze. I hadn't heard this part from his perspective and it was really interesting and funny. Todd was almost always entertaining, but his stories now were riotous, and he told us that the stories about the Olympic village were true as far as the sex went; he said that once people's competitions were over they were mostly looking to relax and have a good time. "All those good-looking people, all so very fit..." and we did not ask what he'd done, if anything. He had brought home a couple of the Olympic-branded condoms as a souvenir, which made me laugh.

My brother had gotten home late Monday night and had slept for the better part of two days. John was in a similar situation and didn't show up for class until Wednesday, where he was using a cane and had his ankle extensively taped. He'd reinjured it during the free program, and that was the cause of the wobble I'd seen.

"And then you did your big quad in the exhibition," I said, half in exasperation. "I had no idea." He smiled at me.

"People love the quad, I wanted to thank them for the support," he said. "The rest of the jumping wasn't hard at all. And by then, I don't know how coherent I was, I was so tired. I got in about a half-hour nap right before skating. Mikhal had to wake me so I could get warmed up."

I surprised him at lunch with a little chocolate cupcake with seven minute icing, nice and fluffy. I'd made them and took most of them to the drill team for a treat but saved the best for my friend. Small, because he still had one more competition at worlds, but a treat nonetheless. His eyes lit up and he ate most of the cupcake first to maximize the frosting:cake ratio. "I should win Olympic medals more often," he said, and I laughed. "What do I get if I win Worlds?"

"I'll bring you two big cupcakes," I decided, and we shook on it.

"Deal. I won't have to watch my weight anymore. I can eat them both at the same time," he said dreamily.

"You'll be sick from all that sugar," I said indulgently.

"Got to live it up while I'm young," he said optimistically.

Friday we had the pep assembly and we pulled an old routine out and performed to Queen's 'Princes of the Universe.' John trotted out his gold medal and thanked the school for its support. We got out of English class and a good time was had by all.