Post by Lindsey on Jun 21, 2007 11:55:29 GMT -5
This chapter takes place over the span of a couple weeks, just so ya'll aren't lost! 
It's another slightly transitional chapter, but it hints at some stuff that will be important later. Enjoy/comment/etc.!
---------------------
Her hand on her apartment door, Grace turned toward Apolo. “I’m glad I stayed tonight,” she said.
“I’m glad you did, too. It feels good to have a friend here.”
“Yeah,” Grace nodded. She opened the door and stepped backwards into it. “Good night.”
“Good night.”
“You seem so happy lately, Grace,” Lisa remarked as Grace packed up her briefcase to leave the newsroom. “Any particular reason why? Have you… met someone?”
“Well, not really. I’ve got a new friend, that’s all.”
“Oh, sure. A friend,” Lisa nodded, her eyes twinkling.
“Hey, we can just be friends,” Grace insisted.
“Tell me you don’t find him attractive,” Lisa demanded playfully.
Grace shook her head, laughing. “I’ve got to go!” was her only response.
Apolo was awfully good-looking, she admitted to herself. But they’d been having so much fun in the past week or so, she couldn’t imagine them being anything more than friends. As Grace walked home to her apartment, she relived the events of the last few days: Apolo and her chatting over coffee, the two of them going shopping for a new blazer for him, Apolo chilling at her apartment watching TV while she worked on a late assignment, the two of them checking out tunes at his favorite music store. Grace smiled. Today Apolo had invited her to visit him at the skating rink he trained at during the times he was at home.
“Sorry,” the saucy-looking teenaged girl behind the desk said, shaking her head. “The training rink’s closed for private use right now.”
“I know that,” Grace replied. “I’m just here to watch.”
The girl snapped her gum. Hard. “I said, ‘It’s closed.’” She emphasized the words like she thought Grace was deaf.
Grace leaned forward and whispered so the growing line of people behind her wouldn’t hear. “Look, I know it’s Apolo Ohno in there, okay? Can you just go back there and ask him if I can come in?”
The girl leaned forward, mockingly. “No,” she whispered loudly back. “Look, I got a job to do, lady.” She waved her aside and motioned to the group of mommies and toddlers behind Grace.
Grace frowned, put off. This is ridiculous. She pulled out her cell phone and stared at it, wondering if she should call Apolo. No, he’ll be on the ice. Probably won’t hear it.
She glanced sidelong at the girl, who was now busy filling out registration forms with the group of mothers.
Some security, Grace thought. She slipped her cell phone back into her purse and then slung it over her shoulder, casually walking past the distracted girl and into the main hallway, completely unnoticed.
Now that she was on the other side, Grace wondered what to do. She didn’t have a clue as to where Apolo was. The training rink didn’t appear to be anywhere near the main skating rink. She decided just to walk until she found it. Making her way down the long, deserted hallway, Grace looked on both sides for some sort of entrance. The hallway got increasingly darker the farther she went, but Grace finally saw a short, side hallway that led to a set of double doors. She could see white light under the door, and she thought she heard music coming from inside. Cautiously and quietly, Grace pushed open one of the doors.
Loud techno music pulsed high above her as she entered the rink. Stretched out before her was a frozen sea of white ice, the center of a huge, high-ceiling arena, complete with stands on either side of the floor. Grace found herself speechless in awe. The sheer size of the room overwhelmed her. She had had no idea such a room existed in this place.
A gray blur flashed by her.
Apolo. It couldn’t have been anyone else. Grace watched spellbound, as Apolo sped around the oval. Apolo’s body moved with such fluidity and such beauty that it was hard to believe he was skating at nearly 30 miles per hour. At the same time, he looked faster than she’d ever guessed from watching short track on TV. His legs moved with methodic precision, powering his long stride, and the tips of his fingers skimmed the surface of the ice just lightly enough to keep him steady without throwing him off balance.
Grace had never seen him like this before. He was like a machine. Even from a distance, she could see the steely focus of determination in his eyes as he concentrated every muscle in his body on making his crossovers smooth as possible in the tight curves of the track. It was perfection.
Somehow in the last few days, the realization that Apolo was one of the best speed skaters in the world had slipped her mind. That fact was never more apparent than now. Grace felt that she could watch him for hours.
The music stopped and the spell was broken. Apolo looked up, noticing her. Grace smiled as he skated over to the boards to greet her.
“Hey, you made it.” He took off his helmet and shook out his hair, a few locks of hair falling over his red bandana.
“Yeah. You looked pretty awesome out there,” Grace said.
“Naw,” he laughed. “You wanna try?”
In a few minutes, Apolo had found Grace a pair of ice skates her size and he was lacing them up for her on a bench outside the rink.
“Now, don’t break a leg on me or anything,” he warned with a grin as he stepped out onto the ice backwards and waited for her. He held out his hand to help her but she waved it off.
Grace shot a look at him. “I’m from New England, you forget. I’ve been on ice before. River ice, at that.”
“Oh, excuse me!” Apolo feigned remorse, then laughed.
Although she was sure enough of her footing on the ice, Grace was well aware of the fact that Apolo practically moved better on the ice than he did on the ground. Apolo was about to leave Grace in the dust as they circled the rink, but then he reached back and took her hand. It was all Grace could do to stay standing as Apolo literally took off. She was flying faster than she’d ever done before—it took her breath away.
Two hours later, Grace sat back down on the bench, laughing and fanning herself. “I’ve never had so much fun ice skating,” she admitted.
Apolo plopped down beside her, bending over and yanking the laces out of his skates. “Hey, I’ve got something for you.”
Grace looked at him, puzzled and surprised at the same time. “For me?”
“Yeah.” Apolo stood up and walked over to where a pile of his equipment and clothes lay. He returned a second later with a white box.
“You got me clothes?”
“Ahh, but just not any clothes. Open it.”
Grace took it from him slowly, suspiciously. She lifted one corner of the lid and peeked inside. In a second, the lid was gone and she was pulling out a floor-length black evening gown.
“Apolo, it’s gorgeous!” she gushed, trying to hold up the bottom so the hem wouldn’t fall into the ice that had fallen off their skates as they’d exited the rink. She held it to her, admiring the design. She stopped suddenly and looked at Apolo. “What’s it for?”
Apolo cleared his throat and bowed chivalrously. “I would like to request the honor of your presence at the Annual AIDS Charity Campaign Ball tomorrow night,” he said in an equally chivalrous voice.
Grace giggled. “What?”
“I need a date for this ball, okay?” Apolo laughed. He saw the look on her face and stopped quickly, holding up his hand and grinning. “It’s not a date—I just need a date. I know I’m asking a little late. But, you know, it’s one of those things where they want people to bring someone else so they have a bigger party.”
Grace chewed her bottom lip.
“Please?” Apolo pouted.
She smiled. “Of course I’ll go with you. I don’t have to do anything, do I?”
“Just look lovely,” Apolo grinned, taking the dress back and folding it carefully before placing it back in the box. “Which I’m sure you won’t have any trouble doing.” He winked at her.
Grace turned away, blushing. Then she whirled back around. “Apolo, wait. Will the press be there?”
“Probably. It’s not a big deal. Just pictures and stuff,” Apolo replied, his back turned to her as he started to gather up his stuff.
Grace’s heart jumped into her throat. “No. I mean, I don’t want to go.”
Apolo turned around, dumping his armload of equipment on the floor. “Why not?”
Grace fumbled with the zipper on her hoodie. “Apolo, we’ve purposely avoided places where the media would see us. But this is like, way out in the open. Of course, they’ll see the two of us there together. What if they get the wrong idea?”
“I’m beyond caring about the media.”
“Thanks,” she shot him an annoyed look.
“You know I don’t mean you. You’re not the media. You're not like them.”
“Well?”
“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” he said. Grace saw the look of disappointment that he was trying to hide and felt guilty.
“I do want to go,” Grace said quickly. “I’ll go.”
Apolo’s eyes lit up. “Thanks, Grace. You’re a real pal.”
Grace laughed and snatched up the box. “I guess this will do as a consolation prize.”
* * * * * * * * * *
Grace followed Apolo through the back door of his dad’s salon the next day. Yuki’s Diffusions used to be one of Apolo’s favorite haunts, a place he used to chill after his afternoons at the rink. But lately, Yuki, who’d always had enough clientele to keep him busy, had been flooded with spoiled rich girls hoping to catch a glimpse of his heartthrob son.
Apolo peeked around the corner into the main room of the salon. “It’s just a couple of old ladies,” he whispered to Grace over the shoulder. “But just the same, I’ll let you go in first.”
Grace approached Yuki with a smile. She was fortunate that her date’s father was a world-class hairstylist—he’d do her hair for the charity ball for free. Yuki noticed her and nodded before hairspraying the final touches on a woman’s cut.
“Hi, Grace,” he called to her.
“Hi, Yuki,” she smiled, sliding into an empty chair. “Don’t rush for me. I’ve got all afternoon.”
“I’m just finishing up here,” Yuki said. “How do you like it, Mrs. Harris?”
“Splendid as always,” the woman replied, obviously pleased.
A few minutes later, Yuki had cleared out the place and had gotten to work washing Grace’s hair.
“You’ve got beautiful Japanese hair,” Yuki remarked.
“Thanks,” Grace said. She remembered the first time Apolo had asked if she was Asian, and how pleased he’d been that she was half-Japanese like him. He said that would be a hit with his dad, and he’d been right. Yuki had taken to her immediately, welcoming her almost as if she was a long-lost daughter.
Yuki was truly a pro at hairstyling, Grace realized, as the man managed to keep up a lively, entertaining conversation while creating a masterpiece of Grace’s hair. Grace caught Apolo watching them in the mirror, an amused expression on his face the whole time.
“How do you like it?” Yuki asked, smiling as he patted the last flyaway strand into place.
“I love it, Yuki,” Grace said simply.
Yuki beamed. “Wait! Just one more thing,” he added. He disappeared into a back room, and then emerged a second later with a little antique-looking box.
“They were my mother’s,” he said, withdrawing a set of hairpins, each bedecked with the most exquisite pearls Grace had ever seen. He interwove them all into the part of Grace’s long hair that he’d pulled up onto the top of her head, completing the elegant look of the hairstyle. “She gave them to me, hoping one day I’d have a daughter who could wear them.”
Grace suddenly felt her eyes begin to get misty and she looked down.
“I don’t deserve these, Yuki,” she said softly.
“Of course you do!” he insisted. “Anyway, my son’s hair has been long enough to wear them, but for some reason he’s never wanted to,” he chuckled.
The three of them laughed together.
“Now you’d better get ready,” Yuki said, shooing her out of the chair.
“Thank you, Yuki.”
Apolo dropped Grace off at her apartment a little while later in the evening. “I’m going to send Jake around 7:30 to pick you up. I’d come myself, but I need to be there earlier to do some photo op stuff. I figured you wouldn’t want to be there for that.”
“Yeah,” Grace laughed. “You’re right on that.”
“I’ll meet you inside the convention center, then.”
“Okay,” Grace agreed. She got out of the car and shut the door behind her.
“Hey,” Apolo called to her, rolling down the passenger window as she walked away.
She stopped and looked at him. “What?”
“Don’t be nervous, okay?”
“Who said I was nervous?” Grace shot back playfully. She walked up the stairs to her building as Apolo drove away.
She didn’t know why, but she’d never been this nervous in her life.
It's another slightly transitional chapter, but it hints at some stuff that will be important later. Enjoy/comment/etc.! ---------------------
Her hand on her apartment door, Grace turned toward Apolo. “I’m glad I stayed tonight,” she said.
“I’m glad you did, too. It feels good to have a friend here.”
“Yeah,” Grace nodded. She opened the door and stepped backwards into it. “Good night.”
“Good night.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
“You seem so happy lately, Grace,” Lisa remarked as Grace packed up her briefcase to leave the newsroom. “Any particular reason why? Have you… met someone?”
“Well, not really. I’ve got a new friend, that’s all.”
“Oh, sure. A friend,” Lisa nodded, her eyes twinkling.
“Hey, we can just be friends,” Grace insisted.
“Tell me you don’t find him attractive,” Lisa demanded playfully.
Grace shook her head, laughing. “I’ve got to go!” was her only response.
Apolo was awfully good-looking, she admitted to herself. But they’d been having so much fun in the past week or so, she couldn’t imagine them being anything more than friends. As Grace walked home to her apartment, she relived the events of the last few days: Apolo and her chatting over coffee, the two of them going shopping for a new blazer for him, Apolo chilling at her apartment watching TV while she worked on a late assignment, the two of them checking out tunes at his favorite music store. Grace smiled. Today Apolo had invited her to visit him at the skating rink he trained at during the times he was at home.
“Sorry,” the saucy-looking teenaged girl behind the desk said, shaking her head. “The training rink’s closed for private use right now.”
“I know that,” Grace replied. “I’m just here to watch.”
The girl snapped her gum. Hard. “I said, ‘It’s closed.’” She emphasized the words like she thought Grace was deaf.
Grace leaned forward and whispered so the growing line of people behind her wouldn’t hear. “Look, I know it’s Apolo Ohno in there, okay? Can you just go back there and ask him if I can come in?”
The girl leaned forward, mockingly. “No,” she whispered loudly back. “Look, I got a job to do, lady.” She waved her aside and motioned to the group of mommies and toddlers behind Grace.
Grace frowned, put off. This is ridiculous. She pulled out her cell phone and stared at it, wondering if she should call Apolo. No, he’ll be on the ice. Probably won’t hear it.
She glanced sidelong at the girl, who was now busy filling out registration forms with the group of mothers.
Some security, Grace thought. She slipped her cell phone back into her purse and then slung it over her shoulder, casually walking past the distracted girl and into the main hallway, completely unnoticed.
Now that she was on the other side, Grace wondered what to do. She didn’t have a clue as to where Apolo was. The training rink didn’t appear to be anywhere near the main skating rink. She decided just to walk until she found it. Making her way down the long, deserted hallway, Grace looked on both sides for some sort of entrance. The hallway got increasingly darker the farther she went, but Grace finally saw a short, side hallway that led to a set of double doors. She could see white light under the door, and she thought she heard music coming from inside. Cautiously and quietly, Grace pushed open one of the doors.
Loud techno music pulsed high above her as she entered the rink. Stretched out before her was a frozen sea of white ice, the center of a huge, high-ceiling arena, complete with stands on either side of the floor. Grace found herself speechless in awe. The sheer size of the room overwhelmed her. She had had no idea such a room existed in this place.
A gray blur flashed by her.
Apolo. It couldn’t have been anyone else. Grace watched spellbound, as Apolo sped around the oval. Apolo’s body moved with such fluidity and such beauty that it was hard to believe he was skating at nearly 30 miles per hour. At the same time, he looked faster than she’d ever guessed from watching short track on TV. His legs moved with methodic precision, powering his long stride, and the tips of his fingers skimmed the surface of the ice just lightly enough to keep him steady without throwing him off balance.
Grace had never seen him like this before. He was like a machine. Even from a distance, she could see the steely focus of determination in his eyes as he concentrated every muscle in his body on making his crossovers smooth as possible in the tight curves of the track. It was perfection.
Somehow in the last few days, the realization that Apolo was one of the best speed skaters in the world had slipped her mind. That fact was never more apparent than now. Grace felt that she could watch him for hours.
The music stopped and the spell was broken. Apolo looked up, noticing her. Grace smiled as he skated over to the boards to greet her.
“Hey, you made it.” He took off his helmet and shook out his hair, a few locks of hair falling over his red bandana.
“Yeah. You looked pretty awesome out there,” Grace said.
“Naw,” he laughed. “You wanna try?”
In a few minutes, Apolo had found Grace a pair of ice skates her size and he was lacing them up for her on a bench outside the rink.
“Now, don’t break a leg on me or anything,” he warned with a grin as he stepped out onto the ice backwards and waited for her. He held out his hand to help her but she waved it off.
Grace shot a look at him. “I’m from New England, you forget. I’ve been on ice before. River ice, at that.”
“Oh, excuse me!” Apolo feigned remorse, then laughed.
Although she was sure enough of her footing on the ice, Grace was well aware of the fact that Apolo practically moved better on the ice than he did on the ground. Apolo was about to leave Grace in the dust as they circled the rink, but then he reached back and took her hand. It was all Grace could do to stay standing as Apolo literally took off. She was flying faster than she’d ever done before—it took her breath away.
Two hours later, Grace sat back down on the bench, laughing and fanning herself. “I’ve never had so much fun ice skating,” she admitted.
Apolo plopped down beside her, bending over and yanking the laces out of his skates. “Hey, I’ve got something for you.”
Grace looked at him, puzzled and surprised at the same time. “For me?”
“Yeah.” Apolo stood up and walked over to where a pile of his equipment and clothes lay. He returned a second later with a white box.
“You got me clothes?”
“Ahh, but just not any clothes. Open it.”
Grace took it from him slowly, suspiciously. She lifted one corner of the lid and peeked inside. In a second, the lid was gone and she was pulling out a floor-length black evening gown.
“Apolo, it’s gorgeous!” she gushed, trying to hold up the bottom so the hem wouldn’t fall into the ice that had fallen off their skates as they’d exited the rink. She held it to her, admiring the design. She stopped suddenly and looked at Apolo. “What’s it for?”
Apolo cleared his throat and bowed chivalrously. “I would like to request the honor of your presence at the Annual AIDS Charity Campaign Ball tomorrow night,” he said in an equally chivalrous voice.
Grace giggled. “What?”
“I need a date for this ball, okay?” Apolo laughed. He saw the look on her face and stopped quickly, holding up his hand and grinning. “It’s not a date—I just need a date. I know I’m asking a little late. But, you know, it’s one of those things where they want people to bring someone else so they have a bigger party.”
Grace chewed her bottom lip.
“Please?” Apolo pouted.
She smiled. “Of course I’ll go with you. I don’t have to do anything, do I?”
“Just look lovely,” Apolo grinned, taking the dress back and folding it carefully before placing it back in the box. “Which I’m sure you won’t have any trouble doing.” He winked at her.
Grace turned away, blushing. Then she whirled back around. “Apolo, wait. Will the press be there?”
“Probably. It’s not a big deal. Just pictures and stuff,” Apolo replied, his back turned to her as he started to gather up his stuff.
Grace’s heart jumped into her throat. “No. I mean, I don’t want to go.”
Apolo turned around, dumping his armload of equipment on the floor. “Why not?”
Grace fumbled with the zipper on her hoodie. “Apolo, we’ve purposely avoided places where the media would see us. But this is like, way out in the open. Of course, they’ll see the two of us there together. What if they get the wrong idea?”
“I’m beyond caring about the media.”
“Thanks,” she shot him an annoyed look.
“You know I don’t mean you. You’re not the media. You're not like them.”
“Well?”
“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” he said. Grace saw the look of disappointment that he was trying to hide and felt guilty.
“I do want to go,” Grace said quickly. “I’ll go.”
Apolo’s eyes lit up. “Thanks, Grace. You’re a real pal.”
Grace laughed and snatched up the box. “I guess this will do as a consolation prize.”
* * * * * * * * * *
Grace followed Apolo through the back door of his dad’s salon the next day. Yuki’s Diffusions used to be one of Apolo’s favorite haunts, a place he used to chill after his afternoons at the rink. But lately, Yuki, who’d always had enough clientele to keep him busy, had been flooded with spoiled rich girls hoping to catch a glimpse of his heartthrob son.
Apolo peeked around the corner into the main room of the salon. “It’s just a couple of old ladies,” he whispered to Grace over the shoulder. “But just the same, I’ll let you go in first.”
Grace approached Yuki with a smile. She was fortunate that her date’s father was a world-class hairstylist—he’d do her hair for the charity ball for free. Yuki noticed her and nodded before hairspraying the final touches on a woman’s cut.
“Hi, Grace,” he called to her.
“Hi, Yuki,” she smiled, sliding into an empty chair. “Don’t rush for me. I’ve got all afternoon.”
“I’m just finishing up here,” Yuki said. “How do you like it, Mrs. Harris?”
“Splendid as always,” the woman replied, obviously pleased.
A few minutes later, Yuki had cleared out the place and had gotten to work washing Grace’s hair.
“You’ve got beautiful Japanese hair,” Yuki remarked.
“Thanks,” Grace said. She remembered the first time Apolo had asked if she was Asian, and how pleased he’d been that she was half-Japanese like him. He said that would be a hit with his dad, and he’d been right. Yuki had taken to her immediately, welcoming her almost as if she was a long-lost daughter.
Yuki was truly a pro at hairstyling, Grace realized, as the man managed to keep up a lively, entertaining conversation while creating a masterpiece of Grace’s hair. Grace caught Apolo watching them in the mirror, an amused expression on his face the whole time.
“How do you like it?” Yuki asked, smiling as he patted the last flyaway strand into place.
“I love it, Yuki,” Grace said simply.
Yuki beamed. “Wait! Just one more thing,” he added. He disappeared into a back room, and then emerged a second later with a little antique-looking box.
“They were my mother’s,” he said, withdrawing a set of hairpins, each bedecked with the most exquisite pearls Grace had ever seen. He interwove them all into the part of Grace’s long hair that he’d pulled up onto the top of her head, completing the elegant look of the hairstyle. “She gave them to me, hoping one day I’d have a daughter who could wear them.”
Grace suddenly felt her eyes begin to get misty and she looked down.
“I don’t deserve these, Yuki,” she said softly.
“Of course you do!” he insisted. “Anyway, my son’s hair has been long enough to wear them, but for some reason he’s never wanted to,” he chuckled.
The three of them laughed together.
“Now you’d better get ready,” Yuki said, shooing her out of the chair.
“Thank you, Yuki.”
Apolo dropped Grace off at her apartment a little while later in the evening. “I’m going to send Jake around 7:30 to pick you up. I’d come myself, but I need to be there earlier to do some photo op stuff. I figured you wouldn’t want to be there for that.”
“Yeah,” Grace laughed. “You’re right on that.”
“I’ll meet you inside the convention center, then.”
“Okay,” Grace agreed. She got out of the car and shut the door behind her.
“Hey,” Apolo called to her, rolling down the passenger window as she walked away.
She stopped and looked at him. “What?”
“Don’t be nervous, okay?”
“Who said I was nervous?” Grace shot back playfully. She walked up the stairs to her building as Apolo drove away.
She didn’t know why, but she’d never been this nervous in her life.
Both spellings are correct, but the last one is the one I most commonly see.
