Where Dance Fits In

Chapter 21: Faults

Regan

Its been great having Kyle at practice. He seems to be getting all the steps perfectly and we have been getting a lot closer, and not in the gross way. We're just talking a lot. There may have been a little romance between us but I think it's gone. Kyle is kind of my best friend now, and I think he feels the same. We've even talked about it.

One day at practice, as I am helping the babies with their eight-hand for the show, I see Miss Laurie take a phone call outside. "Ok guys, go take a break." I say, and I follow Miss Laurie to the door and I press my ear up against it so I can listen. She seems to be talking to her husband, and I'm about to leave until I hear her mention Kyle. "I know he's another mouth to feed, but what's the harm? He seems to get along with the boys and me, he even likes to hang out with you." Miss Laurie says. She continues with "No I'll tell him. You don't think this is a bad idea do you? Ok, I'll see you at home, I'll ask him later." She hangs up the phone and I try to get away, but I'm too slow, and Miss Laurie opens the door in my face. "Eavesdropping are we?" I look at her win a guilty smile."I was just-" "Yeah, yeah. We'll talk about this later."

Dance feels like forever, but maybe its just because I can't get what Miss Laurie said out of my head. Why was she talking about Kyle like that? I don't want to get to much into it; I might get caught up in business that I'm not supposed to.

After three hours of perfecting dances, Miss Laurie finally gives us a talk. Then she tells us the schedule for tomorrow. "First, we'll all meet here at the studio and just go over all the dances in order. Then we'll all go over to the theater and set up everything backstage. Soon we can all start with the first dance!"

Everyone is super nervous, like most years, for the Christmas pageant. Miss Laurie dismisses us. She takes Kyle and Mark to help her carry costumes and other stuff to her car. I offer to help and make Conner carry stuff too.

"Reagan, I don't know if I can carry all this." Conner says to me. I roll my eyes and say "Oh please, I could carry triple that." "Ri-" and then something terrible happens. Conner drops all of the packages and doubles over. His legs go weak and he falls to the floor, hugging his knees to his chest. "Conner!" I yell and we all go down to meet him at the floor."

"Someone call 911!" Miss Laurie says. Kyle immediately stands up and calls the number. It's funny to think that Kyle used to want this stuff to happen to Conner. "Hi, yes we someone which has just fallen over." He begins to tell them the address and I call my mom.

My mom arrives just as the ambulence pulls up. Conner is groaning and his face is starting to get really red. The paramedics wheel him into the ambulance and we pile into two cars. When we get to the hospital, Dr. Peters, the guy we saw when Conner's problems first began, greets us and tells us that it's the same disease causing Conner's pain.

"Did he ever try to dance?" Dr. Peters asks. I look at my mom and she just looks at me with sympathy. "I may have encouraged him to dance." I say with guilt in my voice. Dr. Peters just looks at me angrily. "Why would you do that?" he yells at me. "I'm sorry!" I say back. "I didn't know!" I begin to cry. I'm beginning to think that this really is all my fault.

"It's not her fault!" Kyle chimes in. Miss Laurie seems to see the pain in everyone's voice. "Okay, Kyle, Mark, Reagan, why don't we all head down to the cafeteria and get something to eat and a place to rest." We head down to the cafeteria while mom stays in the room with Conner.

"It's my fault. It's all my fault." I say to myself. Kyle comes over to me and puts his arm around me. I snuggle into his arms. He looks down at me and cups my chin in his hand. Then he kisses me on my nose.

I'm a little weired out by this because we talked about just being friends. Maybe we're just tired. I don't really care because I am pretty upset.

Conner and mom stay at the hospital overnight and since my dad is out of town, Miss Laurie offers for me to stay at her house. It has been a pretty rough night and I'm looking forward to just winding down.