Born From A Boom Box (Step Up 3)

Chapter 10

"Want some?" I wave my bag of blue cotton candy in front of Moose's face.

"Heck yeah!" Moose grabs the bag away from me.

"So, Moose why did you drag us to a carnival?" Anala asks watching everyone around us playing carnival games.

"You'll see." Moose smirks putting his arm over my shoulders. He seems to be doing that a lot lately. Not that I mind! I absolutely love it.

I snatch my cotton candy back from him. We walk over to an arcade area and see a short girl playing skee ball.

She turns around and her face lights up. "Moose!" She says in a heavy accent.

"Hey, Kido! Come here." Moose takes his arm off my shoulders and hugs her. "Kido these are the Pirates. Pirates this is Kido. We danced together back at MSA." He introduces us.

I step forward. "I'm Lexi. This is my older brother, Luke." I grin.

Kido looks at me with a knowing look. "Oh, you're the girl Moose won't stop talking about." She laughs nudging Moose in the ribs. Moose has been talking about me?

"I was saying how you're such a good dancer." Moose quickly says blushing slightly.

Luke sets his hand on my shoulder. "You can flirt with my sister later. Why are we here?"

"I have a place for you to stay." Kido leads us behind the arcade to an abandoned warehouse. Old arcade games are in different areas of the room.

"We're going to practice in here?" One of the Ticks ask.

"It's not that bad. We just have to rearrange some things." I assure them.

Moose nods his head agreeing with me. "At least someone is optimistic here." Moose puts his arm around me again. I lean into his side breathing in his cologne. A short doorbell goes off from behind a door.

"What's that?" Luke asks looking at Moose confused. Moose pulls me over to a door. He presses a button and the door slides up.

Six people walk in slow motion in the warehouse. I only know one of them and that is Camille.

"Oh my god! The old MSA Crew!" Kido rushes to them.

"Kido!" A guy with short dark hair bends down to hug her.

"Guys, I thought we could use some extra dancers." Moose explains. "Pirates meet the MSA Crew."

"Hey. Let's show them what we got." Kido suggests hitting her arm on an old boom-box. Music starts to play from the boom box.

"Alright. Good idea, Kido." Moose starts. "Okay. First up we got our floor master, Monster!" A short guy starts to breakdancing and spinning on his head.

"We got Cable. The man with no bones!" A guy with a plaid shirt slides forward. Cable literally moves around on the floor like he has no bones. It's incredible.

"Fly. Fly can do the shake!" The other girl besides Camille starts to move her arms and shaking her body to the music. The Santiago twins whistle at her.

"The poppin' tapper, Hair!" Hair spins in a circle and places his hand out in front of Moose. Moose grins and takes his arm off my shoulder to grab Hair's hand. Hair drops to the ground quickly and pops back up.

"And last but not least, Smiles, ladies and gentlemen." A guy with dreads starts dancing with a bunch of energy. Kido dances with him. I see why they call him Smiles.

"Alright guys. I think this is going to work." Luke says grinning at everybody.

"Work?" Kido stops dancing. "We're going to kick some ass." She says in her accent.

"Thank you!" I pull Moose in a hug.

"For what?" He hugs me back as everyone else starts dancing together.

I pull back and point at the Pirates. "Getting the crew back together."

Moose watches everyone dancing together. "Let's dance!" He pulls me over to where Kido and the Ticks are dancing. Everyone looks so happy. Even Luke.

Flo Rida is blaring throughout the warehouse for everyone to hear. Jacob begins showing off a dance move with some of the crew behind them. I stand next to Camille and pick up the move easily. I crouch down and pop back up with my right foot forward and my arms out to my sides. I repeat the move again, but throw my right hand out in front of me. I glance at Camille and see her smiling at Cable while dancing.

"Who do they belong too?" I stop dancing and spot four little kids watching us in an old bumper car.

"I watch them at night because their parents work here." Kido explains.

"They're so cute." Camille watches them. One of the older boys about nine lays his arm around the girls shoulders. She shrugs him off quickly. "Hey, Lexi. Can I talk to you for a minute?"

I follow Camille to an empty area of the warehouse. "What's up?" I ask leaning against the wall.

"I know you like Moose."

"What? Ha! No I don't." I stutter shocked.

"Don't deny it." Camille shakes her head. "I don't mind. I just want you to know that if you want to date him. Go for it."

Did she just say that? I think I heard wrong. I thought Camille liked Moose? She told me she liked him.

"I did tell you that." Oops. I said that last part out loud. "But Moose and I are best friend's and I won't let anything destroy that. I know you really like him and he really likes you too. I wasn't supposed to tell you that, so don't tell him I said that." Camille finishes.

"He likes me?" I breathe.

Camille laughs at me. "Oh yeah. He told me when he apologized to me."

"Thank you!" I attack her forcing her in a hug. "Now, I need to know something. Why are you constantly around or flirting with Hair?"

Camille blushes and turns her head away. "He's cute and funny." She mumbles.

"I got your back." I laugh and drag her back to everyone else. We walk back in the room to see Vladd doing the robot and bending down slightly. He hung there as if he was frozen. The youngest of the four kids presses his chest and Vladd comes back to life.

"Will we win the World Jam?" The twins ask a fortune teller machine. It starts to say something then it dies. "Whoa! You ate our money!" They bang on it annoyed.

Luke shuts off the music. "Look. Tomorrow we have to start practicing for the World Jam. For tonight, go have some fun!" Luke waves us off.

"Let's go, Lexi!" Moose grabs my hand sending tingles up my arm. We run out of the warehouse heading to the closest ride. We wait in line for a ride that spins in a circle going extremely fast. It's called the Himalayan. The line is pretty short and we only wait about ten minutes before its our turn. Moose drags me to an open seat. The lap bar comes down to hold us in place.

"No puking!" A voice yells at us. We turn our heads to see Camille and Hair.

"I don't get queasy on rides." I tell them. The ride starts moving slowly gaining speed. I start sliding across the seat and end up completely pressed up against Moose. I like this ride.

Knowing Moose, this will be the first of many rides that we go on tonight. Not that I mind. Camille gave me her permission to date him which really means a lot. The Pirates are back together and the MSA Crew joined us.