The Imperfect Whistles of the Wind

seven

A raunchy hip hop song blared from Brooklyn's iPod, which was hooked up to the dance room's state of the art speakers. Ms. Wavey had spent all of last year campaining for the dance budget to be expanded so that she could buy them - and her time was proving to be well spent. Aven could literally feel the beat of the song as she danced.

The song stopped and Aven halted. Brooklyn had paused the song, and she was now staring Aven down with a blank expression on her face.

"What?" Aven said, between gulps of Dasani.

"That's all you've done so far?'' She asked skeptically. "Seriously, that's it?"

Aven pouted and crossed her arms. "Well...yeah, I mean the competition is in three weeks - is it not?"

Brooklyn ran her hands through her long brown hair. ''Have you been out of the dance world for that long, or are you just mental? Three weeks might as well be three days, Scott."

Aven streched out her hamstring from her spot on the ground. "Even if, we could put both of our parts together and that'll be half of the dance right there."

"That would be a good idea if we had enough parts to put together." When Aven looked at her cluelessly, Brooklyn rolled her eyes and kept talking. "Your part is super repetitive. We'd have to cut out a good chunk of it to keep our score from dropping."

Aven stood up and stretched her back. "Wait, are we doing this because we have to, or do you want to actually try and win this thing?"

Brooklyn leaned against Ms. Wavey's desk, which was in the very back corner of the room. She sighed deeply and stared at herself in the mirror-coverered wall. "I don't know if you rememeber this, but I don't show up just to show up. I go into comp prepared to win." She began picking at her perfectly manicured nails with a knowing look on her face. "It's in my blood. Anything else is a failure in my eyes."

"So to recap, we are trying to win, right?"

"Aven, there comes a time when your sarcasm isn't funny, and that time is all the time."

Aven laughs, despite herself. "Alright, enough talk then. Show me what you have so far."

Without hesitation, Brooklyn walked over to the middle of the room and signaled for Aven to start the song. Once the music began playing, she was completely enthralled by Brooklyn's dancing.

Brooklyn Harding was born to dance. Aven could see this in her eyes, as she moved to the beat. She slid across the floor and landed on her knees as she began grinding on the floor. Aven watched in awe until the song was over.

"Well?" Brooklyn asked, as she wiped her forehead with her monogrammed towel.

"Good, although I don't know what the judges will think about the on the floor stuff."

Brooklyn chuckled. "There's always two middle aged married men as judges, they live for the on the floor stuff."

Aven laughed in response and the girls picked up their bags and began walking out of the studio towards their lockers, as it was the end of the day.

It seemed as though whatever grudge was held from the day before was squashed as soon as Brooklyn and Aven walked into the studio. Aven decided she wouldn't use this as a chance to reinstate her and Brooke's friendship, but it'd be great to have one less thing to worry about - Brooklyn and Heather's revenge had been a big one.

When Aven turned around Brooklyn was staring back at her with an expression so deadly it made her stop in her tracks.

"Look Scott, you may think that we're all good, but contrary to prior belief - we're really not. I've decided to be civil and have mercy on you while inside the dance studio, but everywhere else?" Brooklyn let out a dark laugh. "That's fair game sweetie."