Chapter 52: Odds And Ends

Warren and Sophia were clearly on a roll. They went to Junior Worlds, and won, with Evan and Shawna winning the silver medal again.

After returning to Oceanview, Warren got a phone call.

"Warren? This is Jim Golick, from the University of Wisconsin admissions office."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Golick, what can I do for you?"

"Actually, it's what I can do for you. I have been authorized to offer you a full academic scholarship, covering all tuition, fees, and room and board, to attend the University of Wisconsin."

"Wow! Mr. Golick, this is great news!"

"Is Wisconsin your first choice, Warren, or are you waiting to hear from someone else?"

"Both, actually. Wisconsin is my first choice, but I need to see what other schools are offering."

"If Wisconsin is your first choice, Warren, you're not going to do better than a full ride."

Warren laughed. "True, but I'm only half of the equation."

"I don't understand."

"Mr. Golick, is there anyone in your office who is a figure skating fan?"

"Yeah, Linda Allard."

"Is she there? Call her over."

"OK." There was a brief pause. "She's here. I'm putting you on speakerphone."

"Hi, Ms. Allard," Warren said. "Mr. Golick tells me you're a figure skating fan. Do you know who Warren Kelleher is?"

"Sure!" Linda said. "He's an ice dancer. Won the silver medal at nationals, and just won junior worlds."

"That's me."

"Really?" Linda said. "Wow! I'm a big fan!"

"Thank you," Warren said.

"OK, there's a point here, but I'm missing it," Mr. Golick said, bemused.

"Ice dancers have partners," Warren said. "Mine's name is Sophia Daniels. As an added bonus, she's also my girlfriend. You'll find her application on your desk, somewhere. We know she got in to Wisconsin, but we haven't heard about her financial aid deal yet. Wherever we go, we go together."

"Got it. Let me find Miss Daniels' file and see where we're at."

"Great!"

Warren called Sophia and told her about the phone call. Thirty minutes later, Warren got called back.

"Full scholarship!" Sophia crowed into the phone. "And, it had nothing to do with you, I was getting it anyway, I was just further down on the phone call list."

"Great! I told you they'd ignore freshman year." Warren enthused. "Are we going to Wisconsin?"

"We're going to Wisconsin."

But first, they had to go to Paris, for the Senior World Championships. They were on the same practice ice as the defending world champions, Olga Bradochkina and Nikolai Zhargov of Russia, and the defending world bronze medallists, Renee Damphier and Christian Gaudler of Canada. This was, at least at first, very intimidating.

It turns out that Renee and Christian were great. They were ballroom-oriented in their dancing, also, and immediately took a liking to Sophia and Warren's style. After their first practice of their free dance, Christian skated by them, and said, "Glenn Miller? I like you guys already."