Shooting Star

Chapter 6

"BEND THOSE KNEES!" Ms. Ellis hollered. "Aly-G, I don't want your core dropped OR your butt sticking out!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aly-G flinch and re-position herself.

"NO SLACKING BREE!" Ms. Ellis screamed.

Ms. Ellis was being especially hard on me because I had gotten to dance 10 minutes late because practice had run overtime, I'd had to change into my dance clothes, and then there was really bad traffic on the way from the rink to the studio.

"Don't think I'm not watching you," Ms. Ellis said, jabbing a finger into Natalie's stomach. Natalie squealed.

It was Tuesday, and we were doing the Lyrical Small Group class. Except we weren't doing lyrical, because Ms. Ellis was convinced that we'd slacked off during the summer and she was giving us the full ballet intensive instead. And when Ms. Ellis gets mad, she GETS MAD.

The bell rang, startling the entire class. "Dismissed," Ms. Ellis said grudgingly.

I jumped away from the barre and grabbed myself from the change room. Ms. Ellis had combined the solo training time with the small group technique, so that we would get more time to work on our technique. Yippee skipee.

I opened the front door and tossed my dance bag onto the driver's seat.

"Watch who's sitting here, Bree," Jake grumbled.

I jumped. "You're supposed to be at practice!"

"Got cancelled," Jake said. "I'm taking you home."

"But you're not allowed to drive," I argued lamely.

"Listen, Brat, if you want to get home, get inside. Otherwise, stay here and freeze. It's not like I care," Jake rolled his eyes.

"What's up with the snarky attitude?" I demanded, getting into the passenger seat and slamming the door.

"None of your business," Jake snapped. "Seat-belt."

I buckled it in and as soon as he'd heard the 'click', Jake gunned the gas pedal and we shot out of the parking lot, going at 100mph.

"We're gonna get ticketed," I muttered.

"Chill," Jake snapped. "We will not."

"You might wanna drop the speed slightly," I pointed at the speedometer, which was wavering near 160 and 170. "Otherwise we'll get stopped for speeding, and then they'll ask for your license, which you don't have with you because you're not 16 yet, which means we'll spend the night the station and-"

"Will you shut up?" Jake yelled, swerving through six cars on the highway.

I clamped my mouth shut and closed my eyes. I could feel the car's speed increase every half a kilometre. Not even. I opened my eyes again and Jake had the car going at 190mph. My mouth dropped open.

We got off the highway and turned down a major intersection, going slightly slower, 150. but not much. We passed a police car, and I thought, Great. Now we're in so much trouble.

Surprisingly, the police car remained where it was as we zoomed past it. Or so I thought. A few minutes later, I heard the sirens.

Shit, I thought. Now we're in for it.

Sure enough, the car they were tailing was ours. Jake didn't even bat an eyelash and continued to drive along the road.

"JAKE!" I shouted. "STOP!"

"And get ticketed?" Jake demanded. "I don't think so."

I thought about something quite horrifying. This wasn't Mom's car. I looked around the interior. It looked the same on the outside, but it wasn't the same on the inside.