Passion and Pain (Dancers and Divas) (9 page)

“Better love than hate.”

“Heard of
Fatal Attraction
?”

They turned to the front to concentrate on the new routine. Elena was sweating with the effort, putting all her strength behind each movement.

Again, groups of four were randomly selected. Elena wiped her face with a towel while she waited for her turn. She watched as some of the students pulled out all these break dance moves and tricks during their freestyle. She didn’t have that sort of skill.

Sebastien was up first. Elena smiled as she watched her friend try to be aggressive. It looked all wrong. As he walked back towards Elena, he raised his arms in a body builder pose, teeth clenched in an effort to show his toughness. Elena couldn’t help but laugh
-
he was so not a tough guy.

The guy in the blue pants was in the second group and Elena watched him carefully. He was amazing! He added Krumping and breakdance moves into his freestyle and danced with such power and precision, Elena was impressed.
But also nervous.
How was she going to compete with that?

Next it was her group. She inhaled deeply and thought of Letitia. Instantly her body tensed and Elena expelled her frustration into every move. But when it got to the freestyle, Elena was desperate to make an impression so she threw in whatever small tricks she knew
—
a basic walkover and a simple freeze step. They didn’t even work with the music.

When she finished, she slumped her shoulders and walked slowly back to the corner. “Shit! I totally blew that.”

“Why didn’t you do your usual type of freestyle?” Sebastien asked her.

“I thought I needed more!” She shook her head.

“Great everyone.
Can I have these people stay back?” Samuel asked. He pointed at the boy in the blue pants and eight other students, hesitating as he looked at Elena. Her heart was pounding in her chest as he tapped the pen against his mouth in contemplation. “And you.” Elena exhaled. It wasn’t over yet.

“Oh no, I’m not going to the advanced group,” Sebastien said clicking his fingers in mock disappointment. Elena slapped him lightly on the arm.

“Good luck,” he whispered. “I’ll wait for you outside.”

All right
, ten students, eight of them male.  This could work for or against her.

“Okay, we’re going to do the routines again, first lyrical and then straight to the other one, followed by four bars of freestyle. In your freestyle, I want to see everything you have.
One at a time.”

Elena watched the students before her with admiration, shaking her limbs to keep warm and loose. Most students were better in one style or the other, but again, some of their freestyle moves left her speechless. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do to stand out.

“Just feel the music and do your best,” she kept telling herself.

When it was her turn, she focused on the music and let it drive her. She felt passionate in her lyrical, making sure she was precise and relaxed. As the music changed to the other style, she put her all her aggression and power behind it as she had before. But when she got to the freestyle, she panicked and tried a handstand and a forward roll, followed by her one and only freeze move. She went to repeat it, having no other moves up her sleeve, but was interrupted by Samuel.

“No! No!” he shouted, waving his hands and stopping the music. Elena felt herself blushing as all eyes turned to her.

“Go back please,” Samuel said to her. “Forget the tricks. You are obviously limited there.” Elena’s blush deepened. “I want to see your style.”

Elena exhaled loudly. She was really nervous now and knew that everyone was watching her closely. Samuel changed the music completely and gave her the signal to go. Elena closed her eyes and imagined herself back in her neighborhood, competing at friendly dance battles every week with her friends. She let the music seep through her skin and let her body take over, doing what felt right with the music.

“Okay, okay, enough,” Samuel said stopping her after about a minute. Elena stood in the middle of the floor, bewildered. What did it mean?

“All right everyone, five minutes while I confer with Deshaw over here and we’ll let you know,” Samuel shouted out.

Feeling silly standing out in the middle of the studio on her own, Elena walked back to the side of the room, drinking her bottle of water steadily. She put her water down and started biting her nails, looking at Samuel and Deshaw talk animatedly. Everyone else stretched quietly to cool down except the guy in the blue pants, who approached her.

“I really like your style,” he said.

“Thanks! You were awesome out there.”

“I’m Darius.”

“Elena.”

Samuel interrupted any further conversation. “I want to repeat that if you are in this final group of ten, you should definitely try again next year as you are very close and we are impressed with you.  However, we would like to see the following people join us this year in the advanced group.
You, you and you.”
Samuel pointed to Darius and two other boys. Elena was devastated, but she knew she’d completely messed up the freestyle section. She hung her head low and sighed.

“You, what’s your name?” Samuel said as he approached Elena.

“Elena Martinez.”

“Well, we
’
re concerned that some of your tricks aren’t up to the standard we need. But we really like your style and think that you will definitely be better off in the advanced class.”

Elena furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “So… I’m in?”

“We’re going to put you on probation and see how it goes. You’re going to need to work on a lot of your advanced tricks outside of class to keep up, especially if you want to eventually compete in the championships,” Samuel said with Deshaw nodding in agreement behind him.

“Thank you! Thank you!” she said and hugged them both as they stood rigidly. “I’m already doing gymnastics as my sports elective
,
so I’m sure I’ll get better. I’ll work really hard, I promise.”

“We’ll see how you go then,” Samuel said.

“Thanks again! Bye,” she shouted back as she picked up her bag and ran out.

“I got in! I got in!” she said as threw herself into Sebastien’s embrace. “Woo
hoo
!” she yelled and did a cartwheel in the hallway. She quickly told Sebastien all the details about her conversation with Samuel.

In the meantime, Darius left the studio and saw them talking, “Congratulations, Elena!”

“I barely scraped in!” she said.

“Still counts.
I’ll see you in class next week,” he said, smiling warmly and walking on.

“Do you remember us watching him? His name is Darius,” she said to Sebastien. “He obviously got in.”

Nine

The next morning, Elena was at Sebastien’s place by eight to find out the audition results. They hadn’t been posted when she left home. As she came in, he was sitting at his computer. Elena tensed. The results were up.

She dropped her bag and came to his desk. “So?”

He turned to face her, covering the screen with his back.

“Frankie got the lead in the comedy and yours truly will be her main man.”

“Oh yeah, well I expected that, you were both perfect for the parts,” Elena said. Then, she took a deep breath, “And….”

“Let’s see here,” Sebastien stalled. “
Mmmm
, Leon got the part of Romeo, but,” he exhaled and looked up at her with those deep blue eyes. “The part of Juliet went to
…
” Sebastien
dropped his head momentarily.
Elena’s heart stopped. Please not Letitia.
Anyone but Letitia.
“Elena Martinez!”
he said jerking his head up with a smile.

“Oh my God, I got it. Yes. Yes. Yes
,
”
s
he
chanted, pulling her fist down before doing a little dance, circling her hands and hips in opposite directions. “I’m
Juli
-et-
et,
I’m
Juli
-et-et.” 

Sebastien got up and joined in “You’re
Juli
-et-
et,
you’re
Juli
-et-et. I got the le-
ead
. I got the le-
ead
.” They kept that up for a couple of moments before crumbling to the floor in laughter.

“
Aagh
, we better get to school,” Elena said as they got up off the floor, giggling
,
a
nd
grabbed their bags. “The four of us got leads. That’s awesome! This couldn’t be better.”

Frankie and Leon were waiting for them at the gate when they arrived. Elena shouted, “We did it!” and gave them both a hug. Sebastien shrugged his shoulders.

“There’s more news,” Frankie said, almost at bursting point. “Leon and I are officially a couple now!”

“What a surprise!” Elena said.

“Never would have seen that coming,” Sebastien added.

Leon smiled shyly before being dragged off by Frankie.

Later that day at lunch, Elena and Sebastien joined Veronika. “Hey
Roni
, have you heard? We all got leads in the productions?”

“People, I already knew who had the roles yesterday afternoon. How do you think it made it to the morning broadcast on time?” Veronika responded.

“And you didn’t tell us?”

“Journalistic integrity.”

“I would never have been able to keep it a secret,” Elena said.

“That’s for sure,” Sebastien chimed in. “Great article on orientation week,
Roni
. You’ve got tongues wagging everywhere!”

“I do aim to please.”

“Hey guys!” Elena said to Frankie and Leon as they ambled to the lunch table holding hands.

“So, you must be Leon
,
then?” Veronika said as he sat down.

“Yeah, hi,” he replied and offered his hand.

“I’m Veronika or
Roni
.”

How did Veronika find out already? 

“It’s my job to know what’s going on,” Veronika said in response to her look. “Plus, it’s not like Frankie kept it much of a secret.”

“What?”
Frankie
said and shrugged.

“So how are you finding Montacrue?” Veronika asked Leon.  “One week and you’ve got yourself a winning girlfriend and the role of Romeo in the school production. Not bad.”

“And a role in the musical production of
The Wizard of Oz
.
I’m playing Dorothy and he’s the Tin Man,” Frankie said and squeezed Leon’s arm.

“That’s news
,
Frankie. The lead in
The Wizard of Oz
!
Awesome!”
Elena said, giving Frankie a high-five.

“Letitia is Glenda the good witch.”

“She might struggle with that,” Elena said.

“Doubt it,” Letitia replied as she came from behind them and sat down next to Sebastien. Her two sidekicks st
ood
behind her like bodyguards.

“What are you doing?” Elena said.

Letitia squeezed both Frankie and Sebastien’s arms. “I thought I would acknowledge my co-actors.” She looked at each one with a fake smile. “And congratulate you on getting Juliet.”

“I did say I would get it,” Elena said warily. Where was this going?

“Oh, I didn’t want it anyway. Didn’t they tell you?”

Sebastien looked down.

“Tell me what?” Elena said, raising her eyebrows and pursing her lips.

“I’m the other main character in
their
play. I’m the temptress who tries to steal Sebastien from Frankie.”

“No, they didn’t.”

“Frankie, Sebastien and I are going to spending lots of time together! And with a bit of creative license, we are going to make this play hot!” She wrinkled her nose at Frankie and Sebastien.

How was it that Letitia could turn getting the role of Juliet into a disappointment?

“Ah. What a day!” Letitia said with a sigh as she stood up to go. “Oh, and by the way, I’m the understudy for Juliet, so if anything were to happen to you…” Letitia walked off, smirking and clicking her fingers to signal her sidekicks to follow her.

“Seb!
Why didn’t you say anything?” Elena said through clenched teeth.

“I didn’t want you to get upset. I wanted you to be happy that you got Juliet! Letitia’s role is only a supporting one. She’s exaggerating her part in it.”

“It still would have been better to find out from you than her!”

“Sorry.”

“
Damn!” Elena said as she threw her sandwich back on the table. She placed her chin on her hand and frowned. So, Letitia was going to be spending her time with her closest friends as part of a love triangle. Plus she’d be waiting on the sidelines for Elena to screw up to take her role as Juliet. Perfect!