Curtain Call

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

       "I hope you're all prepared to break a sweat today," Ms. Salazar says the moment rehearsal starts. "Because today, we will be learning choreography for Born to Hand Jive. I do have a choreographer coming in, but she's running a bit late so in the meantime, you can run lines amongst yourself."

       Jerome opens his backpack, digging through it before coming up empty. "Oh, darn it," he says. "I seem to have left my script in my Pagani Zonda HP Barchetta." He looks at me and winks. "Maybe I can take you for a spin in it."

       I just stare at Jerome, my eyebrows furrowed. "I don't know what that is."

       "If I recall, it's a very expensive car," Brandon speaks up from where he's sitting behind us. "Worth fifteen million dollars."

       "Seventeen and a half," Jerome corrects.

       I'm still as confused as ever. "I've been in your car and I'm ninety-nine percent sure you got it from a junkyard."

       "Ouch, that wounds me," Jerome says, placing his hand overtop of his chest where his heart is. "I thought we had something special."

       "I told you that pick-up line wasn't going to work, Jerome," Brandon says. Jerome just flips Brandon off in reply, and Brandon shoves Jerome's hand away. Which ends up leading to a fight of them just slapping each other's hands away. This happens way too much during rehearsals.

       Ms. Salazar soon notices and sighs heavily before saying, "Jerome and Brandon, would you quit your fighting? Seriously, you fight more than the actual siblings we have in the production."

       "That sounds like a competition," Alan says.

       "Don't you dare start a fight with any of your siblings," Ms. Salazar says, though I won't be surprised if Alan did start a fight simply because they're a competitive person and apparently thinks it's a competition now.

       It takes the choreographer another ten minutes to show up, apologizing as she hurries down the aisle of the auditorium to get to where we are all sitting. Ms. Salazar stands up and walks over to the choreography. "Everyone," she says, "this is Pilar, the choreographer. Please make her feel welcome, and don't give her a headache by starting any fights." She glares at Jerome and Brandon, but the two of them just act innocent and pretend they don't see the glare.

       Brandon, however, decides to give everyone a headache by doing something else. "I have a question," Brandon says. "What are you credentials?"

       Ms. Salazar sighs heavily, but Pilar doesn't seem to care too much. She replies to Brandon, saying, "I've been dancing since I was four, I went to Juilliard and graduated from there five years ago, and since then I've headlined in three major dance shows."

       "Ooh, burn," Jerome says to Brandon, which results in another slap fight.

       Ms. Salazar shakes her head and gestures for Pilar to take over the rehearsal. "Alright, let's get those who will be dancing in Born to Hand Jive on the stage. Even if your character is in the scene, I only want the dancers on stage."

       We all do exactly that, getting up on the stage to begin learning the choreography. This is one thing I'm excited for. I mean, I'm excited for rehearsing anything, but I really love dancing so this scene is going to be really fun.

       Once we're all on the stage, Pilar says, "Since this is mainly couples dancing, I'm going to need to pair all of you off but first, I need to see the couples. Where are Danny and Sandy?"

       Jerome immediately throws his arm around my shoulder. "That would be us two," he said. "Don't we look cute?"

       "Adorable," Pilar says.

       "Oh, and if you couldn't guess, I'm Danny and he's Sandy."

       "Yes, I kind of figured that." Pilar moves on to the other couples in the dance so she knows who not to pair off and to get an idea of who has what role.

       As soon as everyone gets paired off, Pilar leads us through a warm up while also taking note of everyone's skills. 

       The moment the warm up ends, Alan lies down on the ground. Brandon, who's Alan's partner in the dance, kicks Alan's legs. "You good?"

       "No," Alan says. "I'm dead. Super dead. I can't move on."

       Pilar looks back at Ms. Salazar for an explanation. "Don't worry about Alan," Ms. Salazar says. "They're just a dramatic person."

       "I am not," Alan says, though he's still lying on the ground from when he 'died'.

       "No, you definitely are," Brandon says before helping Alan up. "We just did the warm up. We have a lot to learn. You can die after rehearsal."

       "Sounds like a plan."

       Since we're all warmed up, Pilar starts going through some ideas she has. All in all, a lot of it isn't going to be in sync. Each couple is going to be doing their own thing to try to win the dance contest.

       So instead of teaching everyone just one dance, she says she wants to do one couple at a time, starting off with me and Jerome. Jerome says it's because we're better than everyone else, but Pilar tells him it's because Danny and Sandy are heavily showcased in the dance.

       The more choreography Jerome and I learn, the more fun I'm having. And not just because dancing is fun, but because dancing with Jerome is fun. Out of everything we've done for rehearsals, this is my favourite.

       All of the dance sequence isn't taught by the time rehearsals end. Ms. Salazar tells us to keep the dance fresh in our minds and that Pilar will be back next rehearsal to teach us.

       Alan collapses on the floor now that we're done. "I am deceased," they announce. "I won't be coming back to life."

       "Someone else will have to be cast as Frenchy, then," Brandon says. 

       "I take it back," Alan says, continuing to lie on the ground, though. "I came back to life. Only because you're Doodie and you're kind of hot."

       "Thank you," Brandon says. "You're kind of hot, too."

       "You see that?" Jerome asks. "They flirt with each other. I've just been flirting with you and you won't do it back."

       "Awe, that sucks," I say. "You'll get used to it."

       "I don't think I will," Jerome says.

____________________

nolan: *breathes*
jerome: omg i love you

but for real, jerome's rich car pick up line is my favourite so far. i love him.