Beauty and the Beat

Beauty and the Beat (18)

Moving back into my house was strange. I had only been with Ethan for a few weeks, but that was still long enough for my old home to be like a hotel to me. I couldn’t wait until that feeling wore off.

The one thing I wasn’t going to miss was sharing a bathroom with Ethan. I saw many things a girl should not see.

But now it was the day before the December dance show, but I wasn’t freaking out like everyone else was. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from this class, and Mrs. Carson seemed to think the same way as me. She was really hoping that the three couples would distract from everyone else.

We used to class period to rehearse, obviously. She sent Maxxon and me out, in costume, to another classroom. At first this was perfectly fine with me, but then she said who she was sending with us.

Ethan had a smug smirk on his face and Anna had her regular smile that I had always found annoying. Out of everyone she could have picked to come with us, Mrs. Carson chose these two. It was as if she wanted me to suffer or something.

Maxxon rubbed at his eyes as Anna plugged in the stereo. We weren’t wearing our masks because we had decided to only wear them on the night of the show, but we were sure that they fit and we were able to see out of them easily.

“I’m tired,” my partner complained, practically draping himself over me. I pushed him away, but he was too heavy so he only dropped back over me.

What the hell was his problem? It was almost the end of the school day! “Maxxon! Stop it! We have to dance!”

“Fine,” he groaned, pushing himself off of me and getting into his position. Anna and Ethan looked like judges as they sat there, watching us carefully. When they started the music, I let out a breath. I really couldn’t wait until this was all over with. But then we were just going to start prepping for the May dance show…

Only a minute into the song, and I could tell something wasn’t right. Maxxon wasn’t as good as he usually was. He obviously really was tired, but that wasn’t an excuse! The dance show was tomorrow! We had to be on top of our game!

“Sadie, you have to let Maxxon lead,” Anna called out to me, and this caused me to stop dead in my tracks. Did she really think I was going to take any directions from her? I didn’t care if she was a teacher. That didn’t make me hate her any less.

“Sadie, Miss Ryder’s right,” Ethan agreed with her, and hearing him refer to her as a teacher was strange. “You have to let Maxxon lead or else it’s going to get messy.”

I did let Maxxon lead. He was just being so obnoxious that I had to take some initiative or we weren’t going to get anywhere. But instead of saying this, I only forced a smile at my teachers and said, “Of course.”

Anna didn’t seem to notice I was being rude, but Ethan did. He smirked, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in his seat. I hated that Mrs. Carson put the two of them in charge of us so she could work with everyone else. Maxxon and I could take care of ourselves.

Starting again, Maxxon was just as slow as he had been the first time. Anna and Ethan didn’t seem to realize this. So halfway through, I carelessly stomped on his foot, hoping that this would wake him up.

“Ow!” he cried out, pushing away from me and hopping on his uninjured foot. “What the hell was that for?”

“Oops,” I shrugged, though it was obvious I didn’t really care that I had just hurt him. “Sorry.”

Anna let out a sigh. “Sadie…”

“It’s not like I did it on purpose, Anna,” I found myself snapping, and then bit down on my tongue so hard I tasted blood. “I mean… Miss Ryder.”