Calore Dance Academy// Red Queen AU

Chapter 48

Vote and comment your reactions, random stuff, and anything you want to tell me about Calore Dance Academy! Where is it going, man? Also, if you are eighteen, you should not only vote on my fanfiction, but you should also actually VOTE! I am, unfortunately, only sixteen. :(

Some scenes to look forward to:

--A confrontation with a family member (any guesses?)

--Drama on the Calore yacht (courtesy of Evangeline Samos)

--More contemporary lessons ;)

--Mare vs Cal epic Monopoly tournament

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Perhaps half an hour later, the car parks after a series of starts and stops and turns.

Another moment later, I have the sense that somebody's opened the door to my side, and my suspicions are confirmed when the headphones are yanked off my head along with my blindfold.

"What's up, Princess?"

A smiling Tyton Jesper greats me, though his smile isn't the kind that I like. It's sarcastic, and when it's paired with his spiked silver hair, I have half the reason to punch him in the face. He knows I don't like it when he calls me that.

But instead, I only unbuckle my seatbelt and heave myself out of the Mercedes. I give Tyton an equally contemptuous smile. "Can I ask you a question, Tyton?"

"Of course you can, Princess."

I bristle at the title yet again, but choosing to ignore it, I ask my question. "How do manage to be both TikTok famous and a Scarlet Street Fighter? Aren't there a bunch of crazy girls out on the streets stalking their favorite lame dancer's every move? Or am I wrong about that?"

Tyton scoffs, shutting the door to the Mercedes behind me. "I'm guessing that you're not a fan of TikTok."

"I tend only to be a fan of actual dancing."

"And I tend only to be a fan of what makes the most money," Tyton replies. "Oh, and yes, for the record. There are a bunch of crazy girls who stalk me on a regular basis. But I have my ways of sneaking around the city."

He deflects even better than Cal would a slam like that.

Coming around the car with the older woman who drove us, Shade grins. "Don't be mean to Tyton like that, Mare."

I sneer at my brother. "He started it, Shade."

"Did I?" Tyton asks, crossing his arms. "Princess?"

Oh, he does not like me at all.

Still, I choose to ignore him as I take in where I find myself.

Behind me, an industrial metal door with a line of black and yellow caution stripes guards the exit to the small parking ramp I find myself in; the space is enclosed, stretching two stories up and fifty feet wide. The floors and walls are cement, and the overhead lights are bright. A dozen identical black Mercedes park along both sides of the clinical space, filling in nicely between yellow lines that match the caution stripes.

Distantly, almost as though I'm in a dream and hearing the far-off sounds of reality, a track of music pounds. It comes from above me, the bass of the track bleeding through cement and into my ears. Either I'm about to see one rager of a party, or the Scarlet Street Fighters have something going on underneath a club.

"This way," the woman who drove us beckons, gesturing a gloved hand toward the elevator at the opposite end of the room. "We're going down."

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