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The new routine is basic, it’s mostly to get us used to being in each other’s space and also to see how much we can memorize in a short amount of time.
We all pick it up quickly and perform it almost perfectly. Before I know it, our hour is up and Hammond is telling us that he expects us to come up with a new one-minute routine each that involves each other.
I can tell the guys aren’t happy with that but what else can they do? I’m not exactly thrilled at the prospect myself.
I meet Alice at lunch as she sits with her friends, grateful when I see Carter and his band of dicky fucktards aren’t present in the cafeteria. I take a banana from my backpack and listen to Alice’s friends talk about the influence of gases on the environment and how our children are going to be born stupid.
“How did it go?” Alice asks when the conversation dies down and I’ve placed my banana peel on her tray. “Were they nice to you?”
Snorting, I drink some water and look at my schedule.
“That good, huh?”
“I need a shower so bad.”
She leans in and sniffs. “You don’t smell bad.”
“I feel tacky and gross.”
“Why didn’t you shower after dance?”
“I didn’t want to go alone.”
Smiling softly, she nods towards the exit. “Come on, let’s go get you clean, I’ll keep watch.”
We hit the girls’ locker rooms which are empty thankfully and I have the quickest shower in the history of man under a colder-than-should-be spray of water.
I only wash my body but I feel better afterwards, especially when I’m in my clean school clothes.
“You good?” Alice asks as I apply makeup in the mirror beside her.
“Thank you.”
“No problem.”
We exit the locker room and head to our next class arm in arm. For the first time since walking the halls, nobody pays me much attention.
“Teach me how to shuffle later?”
“You know it,” I reply, even though I’m exhausted, I don’t want to waste a single chance to keep my new friend.
“Does that mean you’re coming to my house after school?” She doesn’t look up from her phone as she asks. Not unusual for her.
“If you like.”
“I like. Just don’t do the splits around my brother… he’s so fucking horny and gross.”
I laugh loudly. “How old is he?”
“Twenty, but he’s a total dog. He attends New Orleans College and thinks he is hot shit.”
I wonder if he’s as frizzy and dorky as his sister.
“I promise not to do this.” I tilt forward and stand on my hands, spreading my legs like scissors in the air, my front pointing leg is bent but my back one is perfectly straight and pointed. My back is arched and all the blood is running to my head.
“OH MY GOD!” she gasps, finally looking up from her phone. “Let me take your picture!”
“Hurry,” I wheeze, laughing lightly but not so much that I lose my balance.
When she gets the shot, I place my foot on the ground, toes first and gently glide up to standing.
We both start laughing hysterically when we see our peers gaping at the trick. I just made them notice me again. Oops.
Mr. Hammond raises a brow at me as I pass him outside the teachers’ lounge. “Showing off?”
I shoot him a mischievous smile and we keep travelling to our next classes.
After calling Lane from Alice’s phone, because I still don’t have calling credit, we head to her house and I teach her a few basic moves. She’s got no rhythm, but then, most people don’t when they first start out. Rhythm comes naturally to some, but not so much to others and that’s fine.
We stand in her yard on the short grass, practicing three steps over and over again.
“I don’t know how you can just look at a dance and copy it off the bat.”
“It’s because I already know the moves, or I know how to get my body to make the move. It’s kind of like math but for the body. Once you memorize the answers to the sums…”
“Show me again,” she insists.
“Teaching the baby elephant how to dance?” a male voice asks from behind and I come face-to-face with Alice’s brother, Liam, and my mouth goes dry. “Who’s your friend, alley cat?”
“Liam, this is my new BFF. Her name is Scandal.”
“Scandal?”
Suddenly my name feels stupid.
He grips my hand and smiles down at me with perfect teeth on a perfect face. I think I might be in love. He is so attractive, from his perfectly styled light brown hair, to his hazel eyes, to his broad shoulders and thick thighs…
“Hi,” he says with a suggestive tone.
“Ew, no, go away.” Alice pushes him by his smiling face back towards the house. “She’s way too good for you.”
Laughing, he retreats, giving me another look up and down.
