Beyond the Beats

Chapter 13. Opinion

It was my first day of being on the same team with Tejas, and I didn't want to make any mistakes. Moreover, Akshay was continuously mentioning Tejas' name to test me.

As I had resolved, I tried my best to not give any reaction - though I fell into Akshay's trap a few times. Other than annoying me, my best friend did give me a few tips about how Tejas worked, his expectations from other dancers, and how he never seemed to get tired of helping his teammates.

And, what could have been better than to witness all of that with my own eyes? When I reached our dance studio, my team leader, Tejas, was already present and in talks with one of our fellows.

There were eight dancers in our team, so the more experienced ones were discussing what kind of dance style to pick. After observing everyone for a few minutes, I placed my bag in the corner and joined my team.

Rest of my team members also arrived, and once Tejas was done with the discussion, he acknowledged us and told us to relax. My shoulders instantly loosened, and I saw that I wasn't the only one who was anxious.

Tejas glided his gaze over us and nodded. "I have already gone over all of your resumes, so I will give you some dance exercises based on your current skills. Please practice them and meet me after two hours. I want to see how much you can improve."

"I will do my best!" I whispered to myself.

As soon as I whispered that, Tejas snapped his eyes at me and raised an eyebrow.

"I think 'we will do our best' sounds better since we are a team," Tejas said plainly.

I blinked rapidly. Even after Tejas moved his attention on someone else, I couldn't unfreeze myself. He heard what I had whispered to myself?

I only realised that I was gawking at him with my mouth open when my fellow teammate, Yukta, tapped my shoulder and giggled at my reaction.

I closed my mouth and felt my cheeks heat up. Yukta told me that she also had a similar incident with Tejas just before our current team was formed. I didn't really believe her, so she told me the story.

"You see when I was filling up my water bottle, Tejas arrived there to do the same. I froze up and wanted to talk to him but couldn't. Just as he was about to leave, I said to myself in a low voice that I hoped that I would end with Tejas on the same team.

"I was shocked when TJ shot me a small smile and said that he also hoped to have dedicated team mates. Can you imagine? I was stuck to my spot even after Tejas had left," Yukta ended her story and kept giggling.

Even though I felt myself staring lasers at Yukta, I was happy that she tried to lessen my embarrassment. Just like me, she was also a big fan of Tejas, and I knew that most of the dancers here wanted to be on good terms with well known dancers like him.

Since I had trouble conversing with new people instantly, I distanced myself from hyper-active Yukta. She had began rambling about her friends, and I felt my energy draining just by listening to her talk.

Within minutes, I was added into a WhatsApp group that was dedicated to only girls. And as I had expected, the group admin was none other than Yukta. I pursed my lips; I wanted to exit the group but decided to check its activities before quitting.

Tejas gave us the dance exercises and left to do some other work. After warming up, I reserved my spot and began practicing.

Even though it was just a test by Tejas to see our skills, it was also a stepping stone for me to prove myself to my idol. It was my chance to catch his eye and get to know him more on personal level.