We stand in the studio we were in for dinner, waiting. She rocks back and forth on her feet, her eyes glance around every few seconds until they land on me. I smile. She grins.
I know her. I know I do. Something about her is familiar, like a hand I can't quite reach. Her eyes flit away from me allowing me to look her over. She is wearing a blue dress that has a light pink sash, oh my. How did I not notice that? The sash is the same color as my tie. Same exact color. How could that be possible? Is it just a coincidence? She turns to me and smiles, her smile falters when she sees my face. A crease forms between her brows, "Are you ok?" She reaches for my hand. I nod as she gives my hand a squeeze, "you sure?" I nod again. She grins slightly.
She looks up to the main table bouncing slightly, that's when I start to listen, "-and the winner from group two is, Logan and Lilly!" Lilly turned around and jumped up hugging me, I wrapped my arms around her waist swirling her around. I set her down as the lady in charge continued to speak.
"Will everyone go to the theater except the winners?" Everyone starts walking out the door once again. I slip my arm around Lilly's waist causing her to stiffen then slowly relax. We slowly make our way to the front with the other winners. When I look at the other winners I notice Jess, tall, blond, with blue eyes. I grin at him, he smirks back. He glances at Lilly surprised for a second then raises an eyebrow, he waves me over. I glance at Lilly, "I'm going to talk to a friend, just a second." She nods as I let my arm drop from where it was around her waist.
"You know who that is right?" He looks concerned.
"Lilly," I laugh, "well that's her name for tonight. He shakes his head.
"You are blind aren't you." He shakes his head, "just be careful, ok?"
"She's harmless. I'll be fine." I thought for a second. "Do you know if Lydia is here?" He nods.
"I assure you, she is. I just saw her."
"Hmm, ok, see you later!" I wave and walk away. I walk up to Lilly and wrap my arm around her waist once again, positioning myself so I can't see Jess's reaction. I can't believe he thinks Lilly would or could hurt me or whatever he was implying she would do.
"Congratulations! You three couples" I hear someone to my right snort . She glares at them. "You three couples have made it to the final round. Each group will perform one more time on stage in front of everyone. The music will be a combination of slow, fast and medium. Good luck!" She leaves. We all stand there awkwardly.
"Umm, should we head backstage?" One dancer says.
"I guess." Their partner responds.
We all make our way to the backstage area. Lilly stands beside me while we wait offstage while the head lady talks. She bites her lip and flicks her fingers. I step slightly behind her and slowly raise my hands to her shoulders. Making a split second decision I wrap my arms around her, making her still. She tentatively turns around and looks up at me. She smiles slightly, I look into her gray-blue eyes.
"What?" Her voice is soft and sweet.
"Just wondering why you're so nervous." She goes slightly tense and looks down.
"I'm not." She says insistently.
"What do you call this?" I snatch her hand and hold it up letting go of her slightly. She looks down at her hand that was in the position to flick, thumb and finger touching, they suddenly go tense and flick forward. She frowns at them.
"I guess I am a little nervous. I don't know why." She sighs.
"I know why." She raises an eyebrow. "You're worried about what everyone else is going to think. If not, you're worried about messing up. All you need to remember is that they are here for you, you are not here so they can watch you, they are here to watch you. You are giving them a gift."
"Thank you." I nod. She slowly wraps her arms around my neck and hugs me. I lift my arms and hug her back, she squeezes once and lets go. I look into her eyes for a second before they snap up at what I just heard. "We will start with the pair from group three!" I let out a sigh of relief, we are group two.
"What's the plan?" She says with confidence.
"Go with the flow?" She laughs.
"I mean," she rolls her eyes, a smile on her face. "How are we going to start? Or what is our beginning pose?" I shrug.
"I don't know. We don't know if the music is going to start fast or slow." She nods in agreement.
"True." she taps her chin. "Follow me. With the pose I mean." I laugh, her head shakes. "What? I have some ideas but I need to know what type of music it's going to be before we can decide." I think, then remember an important detail.
"I don't think we'll have to pose at the beginning." she raises an eyebrow, "the group that just went started offstage."
"Oh ya! That is going to make life easier." I smirk as the music fades and the clapping starts.
"The next pair will be from group two." I can hear Lilly's breath quicken as the boss lady walks off.
"Breath."
"I am." I roll my eyes as the music starts.
"Get ready." we step over to the offstage area. "Let's do this." I run onstage and do a flip and look over to Lilly who is staring wide eyed at me. My smile brodens. I do some fast steps that match the upbeat music, I grab her hand and start to pull her onstage. "Just like last time" I whisper as we get onstage, she nods slightly.
She suddenly twirls, her skirt flows out around her. I don't want to realise her as she turns into my mind. We suddenly start a fast moving tango like dance, I hold her waist as she jumps. I lift her high and bring her back down in a fast arch; she does a turn that ends up with her foot high in the air. She makes her way over to me and we start the tango-like dance again.
She looks up at me, "Can you lift me?" I nod. "How long?"
"A bit, why." We spin around.
"Curious" I nod and focus on our steps again. Sooner than I wanted the music gets slow for a minute then comes to a slow stop. We take our final pose; she's leaning back with her arms around my neck and mine on her waist. As soon as the clapping started she stood up releasing my neck as I let my arms drop from her waist.
Lilly steps forward and curtseys, followed by me with a bow. We walk off stage to be met by Jess and his partner, he smirks.
"Have fun?" He says looking at Lilly. I'm not sure, but I think her cheeks reddened.
"Yep!" She declares, he glares at her for a second then smiles up at me.
"Remember what I said." He reminds me in a low voice. I give a slight nod. I follow Lilly to the audience where we are greeted with compliments and people asking if we knew each other, I always said no.
Suddenly some music started and Jess came onstage, he and his partner danced. It was awkward, but not awful. Towards the end they loosened up and did really well.
I think we have a shot. I know I shouldn't let it grow, but the hope that we could win...
I know I'm competitive, It's not good and I know that.
Lilly turns to me, "do you think we might win?" I raise an eyebrow. "I know it shouldn't matter but-"it's ok, I get it." I think for a second watching Lilly. "I think we have a shot." She nods.
"Let's give our pairs another round of applause. Will the couples come up to the stage?" Lilly's fingers start flicking.
I grab her and and squeeze; we make our way to the stage hand in hand. I let go and climb up the stairs onto the stage.
"Thank you all for coming!" She said as the last pair gets to the stage. "After we announce the winners we will clear out for a little bit so they can get ready for the last section of tonight." There was some cheering. "Drumroll please." I start hitting my legs rapidly; she holds her hands up and we stop. "Our third place winners are... Asher and Maddy!" They step forward and accept the little ribbons, she whispers something to them as they step back.
"Our second place winners are..." someone started a drumroll. "Logan and Lilly!" I turn to Lilly and smile, she looks so happy, I love it. We strut forward and accept our ribbons, "meet me in studio two after this." I nod slightly.
Once we get in the short line I feel her grab my hand. I interlock our fingers and squeeze, the head lady - who's name I couldn't remember - finished announcing the first place winners. They closed the curtains after she told everyone to filter to the main studio, or where we had dinner. The winners on the other hand have to go to studio two. We all slowly headed to that studio, when we entered there were two tables with sweatshirts, giftcards, bags, water bottles and other simple, but nice items. There were three signs, one on each side and one in the middle, they had a 1,2, or 3 on them.
The head lady walks in. I lean over to Lilly, "Who is that lady?" she smiles.
"That is Mrs. Valet," she whispers. "she was the head of Port de Ballet." I nod with new understanding.
"Congratulations!" Mrs. Valet exclaims. "These are the different prizes you won!" she gestures at the tables. "First place winners may take one thing from each of these sections, second, you can take one item from piles 2 and 3. Finally, you two can take one item from section 3." we all nod. Nobody makes the first move. "Get to it!"
Slowly the first place winners start to look over the stuff. Lilly grabs my hand and pulls me to the table, we look at section two first. There were blue sweatshirts, each of them had a cool logo on it-
YOU ARE READING
My Odette
Teen Fiction"Who knew?" I say in wonder. "What?" She asks. "That," I pause to add suspense. "That you of all people would have one." I smirk as her eyes widen. "A what?" Her voice shows fright and curiosity at the same time. I look at her. "That you would have...
