Dancing with Fire (John Pearce/Justice Crew Fanfic)

Chapter 11

The routine Lenny and I did at class was executed perfectly at the workshop like we were practicing it for a long time. It was as if on cue the rest of the Justice Crew boys at the back of the room suddenly had their mouths drop on the floor when they saw our dance routine. They were seated in one row and as if they were a piano keyboard and someone was playing on it, note by note, just how their mouths have dropped one by one.

Actually John was a bit surprised when Lenny told him to sit down as he thought of another routine to show the teens at the workshop. And there was I acting like another surprised girl unknowing of what Lenny had in mind, watching from the sidelines and waited for his dance solo at the start of the routine to finish, before coming in for my dance routine. Pretending I didn’t know the steps at first, but then suddenly having fun with Lenny, looking at the row of boys overwhelmed of what was happening, mostly of me showing my dancing skills.

It was the first time they saw me tried dancing and it wasn’t awkward or anything, it was great. It was the first time I let them show the other part of me, and the thing is, I enjoyed every part of it. I’m gonna have a hard time controlling myself now, considering I have to dance in gym class. Either that or I’ll fail. Who fails gym class?

I enjoyed that people in the room didn’t judge me or anything about my passion for dancing. Some even commented that they had a suspicion from the start that maybe I was just shy to perform in front of everyone. Some said I did great and I should join them at the workshop. A part of me felt alive like everything was normal again and I was happy. I haven’t been happy for a long time, and who would have thought, dancing was the reason. Dancing was always the reason.

“Liar, liar, pants on fire! How can you hide your desire to dance like a shining sapphire?” Solo rapped.

“Um what?”

“Translation: You love dancing, why need to hide it from us?” Eman rephrased Solo’s rapped, asking me why I was hiding all this time and telling them I wasn’t interested in dancing at all.

“I didn’t want to dance.”

“Yeah you say that, but your body speaks another language.” Paulie chimed in.

“So what made you dance today then?” Samson was wondering what transformed me to join the workshop. I’m not sure if they even noticed Lenny smiling the whole time, but I doubt it because all their focus was on me hearing my story. Even John was curious because he knew I was going to join tomorrow like a regular attendee and not someone who would actually take over his role and teach a step.

“I have a very good teacher blackmailing me.” All their heads turned to John grinning at them. He was seated at the middle between Solo and Paulie; almost about to open his mouth and say how proud he was of inviting me to dance in that workshop. We were now in a semi-circle and they were noticing the smirks appearing on John and I, for different reasons. He was smirking because he thought he was that teacher, and I was smirking because it was time to tell them the punch line that it wasn’t John but Lenny.

“Actually, I was talking about Mr. L. Pearce.” I uttered with emphasis on the letter L. I turned to face Lenny seeing him smirking at everyone and winking at me.

“What?” All the boys chorused, and on cue, one by one their jaw dropped on the floor once again, surprised expression washed their curious face aside.

Shaking my head, I repeated what I said. “Mr. L. Pearce, my new gym teacher. He’s teaching dance.” I smiled and acted like bringing their jaws back to the original place.

“No way! This is a prank right?” John was stunned. Apparently, he didn’t have any idea that the role was offered to Lenny and that he accepted it. All the while, I thought he knew, but I was wrong.