Above

4

Estelle
The president signs out with the Pledge of Allegiance.
The coffee shop quickly returned to it's usual chirpy form.
"They lied." I say, softly. "The government just lied."
"What do we do?" Annaliesee asks, looking at Nigel.
"We should make another video." Jackson speaks up, twiddling his thumbs. "I mean, that's common sense."
"Well to make a video, we'll have to be in Willowdale." I say, standing up. "So maybe we should make our way back."
"Yeah, let's just get out of here." Nigel says. "Before people realize who we are."
***
I was dressed in another bodysuit, yet this one closely resembled the training suits we had when we were at the lab back in South-side.
Jane had washed, trimmed, and twisted my hair into two braids that fell over my shoulders.
We were outside the liquor store, in what would be downtown, where no-one dare to go because of the heavy ratio of spiders inside.
"Okay Estelle, Just say whatever you want out to the public." Ned says before counting down.
"People of America, your president is lying to you." I smirk. "I am alive and well, nothing had changed since my last video." I pause. "Except the death of my boyfriend, August Jones. Neeva killed him, not me. Your sharpshooter missed me by five feet. Can you really call her a sharpshooter?" I ask, tilting my head slightly. "Oh, and Neeva, I ment to tell you this before you betrayed me. I will have your head on a platter before this war is over. Your move, America, your move." I finish.
"Cut!" Ned says, tapping the button on his camera to stop recording. "Nice, we'll get this edited and broadcasted before tomorrow."
He walks away, his camera in hand.
I walk to Leeciy's, because September and Cirus usually hang out there.
***
Annaliesee and Leeciy are sat at the kitchen table. Leeciy was looking over a paper while Annaliesee had her hands clasped hopefully. 
"Okay, remind me why you want to have a formal dance?" Leeciy says looking up at her. 
Annaliesee grins. "Well, September was going to have an Autumn formal, and he was going with his crush, and it would be tomorrow and I just want him to have something happy happen to him for once." 
Leeciy raises an eyebrow. "Where would it be?" 
She leans forward and taps the paper. "There's an abandoned barn half a mile up south." 
"Isn't it dirty?" He asks, examining the paper. 
"We cleaned it." She says. "We can buy LED fairy lights and a wireless radio with the money we found." 

Leeciy scratches his imaginary stubble. "It's a formal?" 
"Yes, we found so many formal outfits in the bunkers, and I can make some and you can help." She says. 
"I mean--"
Annaliesee puts on her puppy eyes. "Please?" 
Leeciy smiles softly. "Fine."
Annaliesee throws her arms up. "Hell yeah!" She goes blank. "I have to get ready!" She runs out of the house. 
I step out from my hiding place. "Is September here?" 
He jumps, looking at me. "Yeah, Cirus, Luca, and him are upstairs." 
"Luca?" I furrow my brows. 
He nods. "He was babysitting for me when we went to South-side." 
"Oh." I grin. "I guess he's fine then." I sit at the table opposite of Leeciy. "So a dance?" 
He nods. "Yeah, I dunno, I guess we all kinda deserve it." 
"Well yeah, but there's a slight problem." I say, biting my lip. 
He tilts his head slightly. "What is it?" 
"I was kinda born with two left feet." I say. "I'm completely awful at dancing." 
He gasps. "That can't do! C'mon, I must teach you." 
*** 
With some incessant begging, Leeciy acquired Logan's phone, which we keep charged just in case Titanios draws someone important. 
Then, we go to the school gymnasium, which is only really used for training. 
"What should we dance to?" He asks, scrolling through Logan's phone. 
I shrug. "Whatever's going to play at the dance." 
He selects a random song. "This is Cavetown. Trench, but with two h's."  
"Okay, lets dance." I say. 
"Alright." He murmurs, setting his hands on my waist. 
I wraps my arms around his neck. 
We sway, but somehow I still trip over my own feet. 
"You're right, completely awful." He laughs. 
I laugh as well. "I know, I'm sorry." 
"Maybe you're just bad at swaying, lets try something harder." 
The song picks up speed and so does Leeciy, doing some complex dance moves while pulling me around like a rag doll. 
"You have to move too." He says. 
"I don't know how!" I say. 
He grins down at me. "Just follow my lead." 
I look at his feet and try to follow his steps, which just leads to me stepping all over his feet. 
"Okay, I'm going to dip you. Don't scream." He says, adjusting one of his hand so it sits in the center of my back.
"Wait what?" I say. 
He dips me down, my hair hitting the dusty floor. He pulls me back up. "Okay, now I'm going to teach you how to dance instead of just pulling you around." 
"Okay, let's do that." I say. 
He starts rambling on about the steps, how I go left, then he goes left. 
"Okay, let's do it." I say, flicking a braid over my shoulder. 
"You sure?" He asks. 
I nod, then completely fail. 
"Okay, maybe you were born with two left feet." He says. 
I nod. "I am, I've just never really ever needed to dance." 
"well, now you do." He says. "Pretend that if you don't dance, we all die." 
"That's insane." I say, smiling. "Let's try it." 
"Okay." He says, intiating the dance. 
I don't nearly as bad, yet I still trip a few times. 
"Now we would've all been slaughtered." He jokes. "Thanks Estelle." 
"Well I'm sorry that I suck." I say, laughing. 
He smiles "You're not that bad." 
"I am that bad." I say. "Don't pity me Q-tip." I call him the name Yeeva gave him. 
"Well fine, Red, you suck!" He uses Yeeva's nickname as well.
We turn into two laughing idiots and every ounce of progress we make unravels, but oh well.