Perri and Him-the fifth book to series 'Perri and Me' about Perri Kiely

Perri Imagines Distractions- Grace's story

Grace stood at the door at danceworks. She was slim with long dark brown hair, cascading down her shoulders. She didn't know weather to knock or-

"Is anyone here?" Her best friend Ella asked.

She was much taller than Grace but not as good as dancing.

"I mean...your big brother paid a lot of quid for this workshop for your birthday. It would be a shame if you were disappointed..." Ella said, looking around to see if anyone was inside.

Grace felt a sick feeling in her stomach. She was wearing tight fitting black leggins that outlined her curves and a sky blue tube top.

"Oh look, they're closed." She sighed, pointing to a closed sign.

"Diversity are such...let downs!" Ella said, throwing her arms up in frustration.

Grace's heart sank. She had been looking forward to this for days.

"Let's just go." Ella said, grabbing Grace's hands and turning her towards the edge of the pavement.

"Well....take the train back to-" Grace started.

She didn't finish. Behind her were Ashley, Perri and Jordan who had come from the inside of Danceworks.

"So sorry..." Ashley started.

Ella crossed her arms in anger.

"We've been waiting here for over..." Ella checked her watch. "Thirty five minutes. Well, thirty eight minutes to be exact-"

"We're sorry...there's a lot of stuff going on at the moment. We didn't know we were taking classes today." Jordan sighed. "We thought the closed sign would-"

"Scare people off?" Ella said. "Not really. Not when it's Grace's birthday present and we've paid a lot of money to be here-"

"You would get your money back." Ashley said. "Even if the class didn't happen."

"Well it better happen-"

"Shut up...." Grace said, turning to look at Ella.

She turned around to face the boys when she realised she had said it at the exact same time as Perri.

"Pel..." Jordan whispered, behind gritted teeth.

"Sorry." Perri sighed. "She's just being-"

"Difficult." Grace said, who had heard the whole conversation. She looked at Pel, staring him in the eyes. Her bag was slumped over her shoulder and she clutched the it tightly. She didn't know why but she began to feel nervous and weak.

Perri smiled at her but she turned around to face Ella.

"Don't blow this..." She whispered, into her best friend's ears.

"Okay...okay." Ella said, getting defensive.

"Sorry about everything." Ashley said. "Shall we?"

He gestured towards the doors and Grace lead the way, but she felt numb all over. She felt like it was too good to be true and in a minute she would wake up in her tiny room to the sound of her little sisters bickering. But this was her day. It was real and she wasn't going to let Ella's soggy behaviour ruin it...

She walked into the studio and it was just as she had imagined it- mats piled up in the corner, gym stuff upstairs, large speakers and mirrors that would only make her feel small.

"Shall we warm up?" Jordan said. She dropped her bag and bent over to tie her laces.

She kept failing and muttered under her breath-