Those Ocean Eyes

Chapter 11

"Are you serious? About me helping you to teach?" she demands quietly, and Cassandra turns to face her with a quirked eyebrow.

"Unless you'd prefer to go and practice your battements in the corner?" Her tone is sharp at first, but then her features noticeably soften. "Don't look so suspicious," she chastises, levelling Rachel with an amused smile, "I can be nice, you know?"

"The last time you were this 'nice' to me, you paid for me to fly home so you could screw the guy I was dating," Rachel reminds her, and Cassandra looks taken aback for a moment. Then she brushes past Rachel en route to the barre, and Rachel knows the whisper of a hand against her hip isn't accidental.

"I was pretty nice to you last night," Cassandra reminds her, glancing around to make sure that nobody's eavesdropping on their conversation, "And you know I only fooled around with Brody to get under your skin."

"So you did it to hurt me," Rachel acknowledges, and the realisation leaves her feeling raw all over again. For a fleeting second, Cassandra almost looks contrite, but then her expression hardens.

"No, I did you a favour," she shoots back. "This is college, Schwimmer, and you've only been here for a few months. You should keep your options open... experiment a little," she teases, turning come-hither eyes and a suggestive smirk in Rachel's direction. Then she bends over right in front of her, placing her palms gingerly against the floor, and Rachel has no option but to stare at her teacher's toned thighs and perfect ass, trying to fend off flashbacks of last night.

Rachel wills herself not to give Miss July the satisfaction of a response, but she can't do anything to hide the blush that's colouring her cheeks. Apparently, Cassandra is done pouring scorn on her dancing ability, and now she's waging war on her libido.

Still, two can play that game, and Rachel sinks gracefully to the floor, spreading her legs in a stretch. She knows her leotard doesn't leave much to the imagination, and she turns a defiant smirk in Cassandra's direction when she sees her teacher do a double-take.

Of course, Cassandra has to turn this into a competition, and she splits the class in half, telling Rachel that she has an hour to teach ten of her peers the routine, and then they'll duel it out on the dance floor. While Cassandra plays Drill Sergeant across the room.

Rachel throws herself into the task at hand, shooting a pointed look in her teacher's direction every time she says something supportive or complimentary to her classmates.

She knows she doesn't have to motivate them to succeed, because the string of scathing remarks they're making about the opposing team – and in particular, Miss July - makes her fidget uncomfortably, but at least they seem amenable to her taking charge. They follow her instructions with relative ease, and she can't help but feel a surge of pride as she watches their routine take shape.

When the clock hits 11am, Miss July takes centre stage, and her group assembles behind her. Cassandra's confidence is intimidating, and it gives her an air of invincibility that Rachel can't help but find alluring.

She tries to remain objective as she watches their competitors ace the routine, but her eyes keep roving back to Miss July. Cassandra, as always, is mesmerising to watch, and even though the tap dance only showcases a modicum of her talent, Rachel can see her teacher's relentless drive to succeed.

She outshines everyone around her, and performs with a passion that none of them can match, no matter how fervently they try.

Rachel's pretty much lost all hope of winning, so her heart skips a beat when Simon suddenly stops mid-way through the routine, clearly drawing a blank when it comes to performing the next set of steps. In his hastiness to try and whitewash over his mistake, he loses his footing and collides with Nicole, sending her careering to the side. The group's seamless performance is in a shambles, and everyone looks aghast.

Cassandra's face sets in a stony mask, but she waits until the routine's over before she blows a gasket.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she practically screams at Simon. "Do you know what would happen if you pulled a stunt like that during a show? Your entire fucking cast would disown you."

Simon looks like he's about to ask Cassandra if she's speaking from experience, but then he clearly thinks better of it. He turns on his heel and storms out of the room, and Rachel holds her breath, hardly daring to move.

"OK, Schwimmer, let's see what you've got." Cassandra turns to face her, still glowering, and the knot in Rachel's stomach feels like a dead weight.

She hesitates, and suddenly she's faced with the old Cassandra; the Cassandra whose mouth is curled in a perpetual sneer; the Cassandra whose eyes cut like daggers.

"I said MOVE," she commands, and Rachel grits her teeth, clapping her hands to get her group's attention. The moment of reckoning has finally arrived.

"OK, let's do this," she urges, with a shaky smile, and then she sets about leading them by example. They dance the routine flawlessly, and even Lydia, who was half a beat behind during rehearsals, manages to keep up. When they're finished, Rachel jumps up and down and squeals along with the rest of her group, laughing when they engulf her in a jubilant bear-hug.

Then she sees the look on Cassandra's face, and her smile abruptly fades.

"Come on, Miss July, we beat you fair and square!" Frankie protests, and Cassandra dips her head in acknowledgement.

"You did," she concedes, with a tight-lipped smile, and then she mimics what Rachel assumes is supposed to be an effervescent kindergarten teacher, "So why don't you all give yourselves a big pat on the back?"

"Bitch," someone mutters under their breath, but Rachel can tell from the rigid set of Cassandra's shoulders that she heard them.

"You're dismissed. All of you; get out!" Miss July hollers, abruptly turning away from them, and the rest of Rachel's classmates don't waste any time in filtering out of the room. Against her better judgement, Rachel stays behind, regarding her teacher worriedly. It doesn't take Cassandra long to realise that she's being watched, and she whirls around, staring at Rachel with ferocious intensity.

"You're just so fucking perfect, aren't you, Schwimmer?" she proclaims, but she sounds more anguished than angry.

Rachel bites her lip. "I wasn't... I wasn't trying to undermine you," she says, earnestly, and Cassandra offers her a self-deprecating smile.

"No," she agrees, "I manage to do that all by myself."

She reaches for her gym bag, grimacing with pain as she rifles through it. When she emerges with a flask and starts hastily unscrewing the cap, Rachel crosses the room, placing her hand over Cassandra's to stop her from lifting it to her lips.

"Don't," she beseeches, gently prising the flask out of her teacher's hands. She's expecting Miss July to scream abuse at her, but Cassandra's shoulders slump in defeat, and she looks too exhausted - too apathetic - to care.

Feeling like she's about to defuse a bomb, Rachel reaches out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her teacher's ear, stroking Cassandra's cheek with trembling fingertips. Cassandra looks at her sharply, but she doesn't pull away, and Rachel's heart is pounding so violently, it feels like it's going to explode.

"You're amazing, too," she tells her teacher, and it's obvious she means every word of it. Cassandra snorts, shaking her head at Rachel's sentimentality, but Rachel can tell there's a part of her that's genuinely moved by her words. It's that fleeting moment of vulnerability that spurs her on, and she closes the distance between them, pressing her lips against Cassandra's in a kiss that's a little too desperate, and a little too insistent. For one heart-stopping moment, Cassandra kisses her back, and Rachel feels the longing behind it. It's enough to make her whimper with need, but when she moves to thread a hand through her teacher's hair, Cassandra abruptly pulls away.

"Trust me, Schwimmer, I'm more baggage than you can handle," she says bitterly, and Rachel regards her in breathless confusion. Seeing the conflicted expression on her teacher's face, she reaches out to her again, but Cassandra pushes her away.

Rachel looks on in stunned silence as her teacher snatches the flask out of her hand and walks out of the room, leaving her to wonder if she just made the biggest mistake of her life.