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“Dance for yourself, Felicity. Screw everyone. If you mess up, fuck it—just dance again,” he said as if he could read my mind.
Dear God, it’s Felicity. I know I don’t talk to you, like ever, but please, please, do not let me screw this up. When the lights dimmed, I took a deep breath, fighting the urge to puke. Hands shaking and head spinning, I inhaled deeply. Melrose came up beside me, her red hair pulled back. She gave my hand a tight squeeze before letting go and running out onto the dark stage.
There was no going back now.
Theo
It looked like the dancers were caught in whirlwind, they glided so easily over the stage. The women were dressed in long, flowing white dresses, while the men’s pants were made to be loose as well. Felicity’s music opened up the scene like the calm before a storm. The sound of the wind pushing the dancers on their tip toes from one edge of the stage to the other. Over and over their bodies spun, as if they were caught up in the wind and being lifted off the ground. Two dancers met in the middle, and they leaped into the air hand-in-hand, legs together to the other side of the stage.
There was crash of thunder, then darkness, and when the light appeared, so did Felicity, dressed in the same flowing dress as everyone else, only black, her honey-brown hair down. She took one step forward, then two, then ran to the front of the stage, the back of her dress rising in the simulated wind, the music quickening.
She spun and spun and spun, to the point where I couldn’t even see her face clearly. She had become the storm.
“Wow,” my mother said beside me, clapping her hands along with a few others. “She’s good.”
She wasn’t just good, she was amazing. She was the only one I could see. The whole point of the dance was that she was the storm terrorizing the other dancers. A dark smirk crossed her lips as she leaped beside them while they danced. She mirrored their steps perfectly, better than them, and in the process pushed them slowly toward the edges of the stage so she could command the middle. Each time a dancer came close, she circled around them, getting in their faces, as if to taunt them, and each one of them would back down. It was all part of the villain she was playing on stage. The rivalry in dancing, the sport of it all, was all part of the piece Walt had put together.
Finally having the center to herself, she performed better than I had ever seen her. But most of all I couldn’t look away from the smile on her face. It was all about her until the rest of the dancers came rushing back, surrounding her. She spun one way and they spun another. They closed in on her like walls trapping her in the middle. She stopped glancing around them as they slowly creeped up on her with no escape… but to jump over.
It was the hardest move in the whole piece. I found myself sitting up. Come on, Felicity.
She backed away slowly, almost fading into the background, then charged the line, throwing herself over their heads.
Shit. She’s too high. She’s not going to make it down well.
Even my mother gasped, because for split seconds, it looked like she was flying. But she came down perfectly.
My jaw dropped, and everyone applauded as if it were over, but they kept going.
“Did she have a wire?” Arthur whispered, leaning over Lorelai to talk to me.
I shook my head. No, it had been all her.
Finally, all the dancers were behind her, and their feet moved so fast it was hard to believe. Like a swarm of bees or a parade of drums, they were all in sync.
The music stopped once again, and Felicity held her position, smiled for the audience, and then ran to the back of the stage with one final leap before disappearing for a few seconds. When she returned she had changed, now wearing shorts, a black shirt, and another shirt around her waist. On her feet were sneakers and thigh-high red socks.
She walked upstage as if she were on a catwalk. Then she clapped twice for the music to change. Two of our R&B and hip hop artists came out from the sides of the stage. The dancers behind her had changed as well.
I’d had no idea she was doing this number.
All the soft gracefulness was gone. Now she danced hard and fast. She shook her shoulders, bending down to the music, her waist twisting at the same time.
Holy shit was all I could think when our eyes locked and she gave me a small wink. I wanted nothing more than to grab her and take her in every possible way. She and a few of the other dancers even jumped into the audience. I didn’t even realize how strongly I was fixated on her until someone accidentally stepped on my shoe. Everyone was up on his or her feet. Even my parents.
She’d done it.
Getting up, I squeezed past my parents. Buttoning up the top of my jacket, I headed toward backstage. I grinned when I saw how alive everyone was, cheering her on. Shaking my head at them, even though I
couldn’t help the smile from my face, I met up with Nolan, who gave me the large bouquet of roses and a bottle of water.
“Am I a genius or am I genius, brother?” Walt clapped his hands together over his head, dancing his away over to me with the fattest grin on his face. “We did it!”
“No, Walt, you did it. You are a genius,” I admitted, giving him his five minutes of praise.
“I wish I could say it was all me.” He smiled. “But it was all her.”
The routine came to an end. I wished she’d get a chance to stop and accept applause, or have people throw roses at her feet, but it wasn’t that type of event. So she wouldn’t get them on stage, but the moment she stepped behind the curtain, everyone applauded.
