New York Dreams • mnz

Chapter 4

"Bye Josh!" Sophia yells as she closes the car door behind me. "So are you excited for your first day?" she asks, walking towards the entrance before pausing and looking back at me. "What are you waiting for? Time's a tickin'," she scolds as she heads towards me and grabs my wrist. "What about Chloe? Shouldn't we wait for her?" I ask, trying to resist Sophia's pull. "Oh, just let the lovebirds do their thing, will you?" Sophia sighs, rolling her eyes. Lovebirds. Suddenly it hits me that Chloe now has to split her time between us girls and Josh. I was selfish to not have realized before. I give myself a mental slap before scampering behind Sophia. The cool air-conditioning hits my face the moment I step into the grand building. Though the exterior was vintage and slightly run down, the interior was modern and sleek. As we take the glass lift capsule up to the forth level, I gape at the birds' eye view of the building. "We're here, dearie," Sophia informs me with an understanding smile before stepping out of the lift. I step out after her and follow her into one of the studios. "Welcome to studio 4B! You'll be training here for a long time so you'd better like it," Sophia introduces. I'm immediately attracted by the windows that revealed the New York city scene. But before I could explore any further, Sophia drags me to a small room where a bunch of bags are placed.

Sophia sits down by the bags and I sit down facing her, my back turned to the door. She begins stretching and I follow suit. "Hey girls! Look who I met on the way up!" Chloe's cheerful voice says, interrupting our stretching. I turn around to tell her off, but the words jerk to a stop at the tip of my tongue when I see who she's accompanied by. "Hey Maddie! So glad to see you again!" Phil greets, taking a seat next to me. "Nice to see you again too, Phil," I mumble in response, ducking my head to hide my slight blush. Chloe and Sophia are already engaged in a conversation and I'm too polite to interrupt, so I just continue stretching it what seemed like awkward silence to me. After about five minutes, I'm done with my warm-ups and all ready to dance, but Sophia and Chloe are only halfway done. Plus, they had moved right to the other end of the room and being socially awkward, I wasn't really one to walk right over and barge into their little private conversation. I really don't want to talk to Phil, but I also don't want to go out into the studio all alone. Both situations are equally awkward and I didn't really want to get into either. "So Maddie, when did you get here? How come I never heard about it?" Phil casually asks as he puts on his dance shoes. "Um, I just got here yesterday. I haven't heard from you for a really long time too. In fact, I only just found out you were here too yesterday," I explain. "I just find it a little weird Chloe never mentioned it. I'm gonna go back out now. Talk to you later Maddie," Phil says with a smile before leaving the room. "Come on Maddie, lets go dance!" Chloe beckons as she and Sophia head outside. I quickly get up and join them, not wanting to be left alone in an unfamiliar place.

~

"Did you see Anabel in class earlier? Her arms were all over the place and she was so not bringing it to the stage," Chloe comments as we slowly savor our lunches. After three hours of intense dancing, we were finally released for lunch. I thought we'd be eating in the school's cafeteria, but Sophia and Chloe pulled me off to the school's Starbucks instead. "I know right! How did she even get in?" Sophia adds with a giggle. I'm getting a little bored and disgusted at the other two's gossip and my legs needed a stretch, so I decided to just get a drink. I place my order and the barista whips up my frap exceptionally quickly. I thank him as I take the frap from the counter and turn around sharply, bumping into whoever was standing behind me. "You seriously need to stop hitting on me, Maddie," an all too familiar voice laughs. I take a step back and find myself face to face with none other than Corey from the plane. "What are you doing here?" I ask, confused. "I dance here and apparently, so do you," he replies as he passes the barista the payment for his drink. "You dance here?" I repeat in surprise. Corey sure didn't look a tad bit like a dancer. "Oh hey Corey. Why did you miss class this morning?" Chloe suddenly says, walking up to us. "Same old," Corey replies with a weird expression. Something flickers quickly across Chloe's face before she nods and gives Corey a small smile, then heads to the counter.

I turn to leave, but Corey grabs my arm to stop me. "Since you apparently find me a nice target to hit on, maybe you'd like to have lunch with me?" Corey suggests with a sneaky smile. "Excuse you, I was never hitting on you. Besides, just coffee isn't lunch," I retort. "What do you expect me to do when there's only five minutes left of lunch? I'm definitely not going to be seen wolfing down a full meal, even though that's very tempting at the moment. A ballerina should never be seen doing something ungraceful," Corey replies. "Whatever," I say before walking away, only to find Corey following me. "Yes, Corey?" I ask, stopping in my tracks. "I'm very interested in you, Maddie," Corey states. He's interested in me? My heart skips a beat at his words. Maybe we had a chance. "I mean, what kind of girl goes around hitting on boys? Isn't it usually the boys who do the hitting? Weird, isn't it?" he continues. My daydream bubble bursts and my heart drops in disappointment. He didn't mean it that way. Stupid me. "Stop saying that I'm hitting on you coz I'm not, Corey-" I stop my sentence halfway through, realizing that I didn't know his last name. Corey smirks at my obvious helplessness. "Adamson," he provides, seeming to read my mind. "That wasn't how I was going to end but whatever, Corey Adamson," I mumble, embarrassed by my failed retort. "Do you have any siblings?" Corey randomly asks. I stare at him, surprised. "Just wanna know you better," he explains with a shrug. "I have a younger sister," I answer, "What about you?" "I've got a younger sister and and brother who's on the way," he replies, his voice become quiet at the last part. "What's your favorite color?" I question, trying to pull away from anything family related. "Blue, like the sky when the sun's up and shining," he says with a dreamy smile which made him look awfully cute. "Cool. Mine's purple, like... well, I don't know what it's like," I tell him even though he never asked. "Purple. That's blue and red mixed together," he thinks aloud. I raise my eyebrows at his random comment. "Random much?" I comment as we reach studio 4B. He simply smiles in reply.

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Four big chunks that took me long to write. Now I'm really tired and sleepy so I'm gonna go get some rest. Goodnight (/morning)!