Dancing for the Lord The Academy

Chapter Four

By Friday, Danni had successfully managed to find all of her classes on time and to get to them with everything she needed to have. She had even managed to dig her pink ballet slippers out of the closet—impressive, since they’d been at the bottom of a box of things that she hadn’t even been sure why she had packed to begin with. She was proud of herself, and feeling more than just a little bit relieved.

Friday was wonderful, too, because she didn’t actually have any of her academic classes. That meant two blissfully free hours that she could fill any way she wanted—and if she chose to fill them with homework, well, Danni was still determined to get ahead as fast as she could. Her teachers had been impressed with the work she had handed on Wednesday and Thursday; she wanted them to be equally happy with her when Monday and Tuesday came around again.

Which was why she was sitting in the corner of one of the dance rooms, a book and several pieces of paper spread out around her. She’d nearly been late to the children’s class the day before, thanks primarily to the fact that she had been engrossed in a history assignment. On learning that Danni was trying desperately to make up the time she had missed at the beginning of the year in her academic classes, Mlle Kirby had mentioned that the room was empty prior to the class they were teaching together; if Danni wanted to study there until the students started arriving, she was more than welcome to do so.

Danni had jumped at the chance. She had her own little corner, and she was very happy there. It was quiet. No one had interrupted her for more than an hour, and she had gotten a lot done.

Thanks for this, Lord, she prayed silently, sliding a completed science assignment into her book and arching her back to stretch it. If I can just keep it up this way, I’ll get a lot more done, and I won’t have to worry so much about where I’m going to find time for it all. This studio was empty after the kids’ class, too; and Danni was already considering taking advantage of another hour in the quiet. She liked Madalyn well enough; but the other girl wasn’t really a good study partner. She tended to talk too much, and to get frustrated when she didn’t get an answer when she thought she needed one. That meant that Danni spent a lot of time pointing out to her that they were supposed to be working—and it was hard on her concentration, too.

A noise at the door made Danni look up, startled. No one was supposed to be back here yet. She still had thirty minutes before the beginning of class; Mlle Kirby wouldn’t let the students back here until ten minutes before, and that only so that they could start warming up,

She was prepared to tell whichever of the students it was that they couldn’t come back yet—even prepared to deal with a healthy dose of disappointment. Every class she’d worked with so far absolutely loved to dance, and none of them had been pressured into being there.

Instead, she was faced with two of the guys that she thought were in her English class. Josh and…what was the other guy’s name? Logan, she thought.

“See? There’s nobody in here,” Logan told his friend cheerfully. “Which means I can walk you through that dance again in peace.”

“There’s going to be a room full of kids here in twenty minutes,” Josh argued. “Which is not, I might add, enough time for me to learn the choreography. Face it, Logan, I’m going to have to go Mlle Kirby and admit that I don’t know it yet.”

“Which is just going to get you booked extra practice time and a black mark. Give it a shot my way. Wouldn’t you rather have the practice time without the black mark?” Logan cajoled.

“If it were that easy? Sure. But it’s not. I’ve tried this piece over and over, and I’m just not getting it.” Josh sighed. “Besides, I love ya, Logan, but you’re never going to be a girl.”

“No, but there’s one right over there in the corner.” Logan gestured grandly.

Danni jumped, surprised. She had been trying her best to ignore them, burying her head in her science book again and pushing ahead with her usual zeal. Couldn’t they see that she was busy?

“Danni, right?” Logan was right in front of her then, and there was no way to politely ignore him anymore. She looked up at him and nodded.

“Well, Danni, I’m Logan, and this is Josh.” He gestured to his friend with the same grand, sweeping motion he had used to indicate her earlier. “And we would be terribly, terribly indebted to you if we could borrow just a few short minutes of your time.”

“Shouldn’t you all be in class?” she demanded.

“Ah, that we should.” Logan winked. “But Mlle Kirby was called away to the phone, and we were dismissed early today. Thanks to that, we have no choice but to practice on our own—and Josh, here, is having the worst time with part of this sequence.”

“And you think I can help you with that?” She was frankly skeptical.

“I think you’re better equipped for it than I am. Look.” Quickly, Logan outlined the steps he wanted her to do—nothing so complicated, really, but difficult enough that Josh was having trouble absorbing them. Actually, it was similar to what she had danced in The Nutcracker a couple of years ago—part of the duet between Clara and her prince.

“And you can’t practice this with your partner because?”

Josh sighed; and now he was the one who was being overly dramatic as he dropped to one knee, pleading. “You don’t understand, Danni,” he told her pathetically. “If I admit to Allie that I’m having this kind of trouble, she’ll never let me live it down. She’s vindictive, you see. Before the day was over, everyone in the Academy would know. So I beg of you, please, please, won’t you help me?”

Danni sighed. They’d already used up five minutes whining at her. Fifteen minutes—what could it hurt? “All right,” she said grudgingly. “But I’m still not sure what help I’ll be.”

Fifteen minutes. It was no time at all to learn a complicated dance; but with Logan calling the steps, Danni discovered that, as always, her feet took over and her mind completely let go of all the worries of the mundane world. She just danced, and gave herself over to it.

If she had stopped to critique, she would have realized immediately that Josh wasn’t half the partner Michael was—and there was a great deal lost due to the fact that they had never danced with one another before, not to mention the simple reality that there was no music. Still, Logan kept fairly good time with the simple use of a heavy foot on the floor; and before she knew it, they were simply dancing—no, practically flying.

He lowered her to the ground, and she gasped, breathless with the exhilaration of it. Dancing with a partner…there was nothing like it. She had forgotten how much she hated to be alone out there, never touching anyone else, never going through that simple exchange of cues that told her when she was supposed to shift her weight a certain way.

“Bravo.” Applause from the door startled her, and she spun, staring, as Mlle Kirby moved toward them. “Much better, Josh. I was beginning to wonder if you were going to make it to The Nutcracker, the way things were going.”

Josh blushed a brilliant shade of red.

“Now, you’re still going to need some practice,” Mlle Kirby cautioned him. “And I do want you and Allie to take to the practice rooms for a few hours—though you do realize that you’re going to have to accept a new partner for the performance, don’t you?”

Josh frowned.

She sighed. “She didn’t tell you,” she guessed.

The frown deepened. “Tell me what?” he demanded.

“Josh…Allie’s been selected as Clara,” Mlle Kirby said quietly.

He muttered something under his breath that wasn’t entirely polite. Danni stepped away from him, disapproving.

“Well, at least you have warning now.” Mlle Kirby ignored his muttering—prudent, Danni thought, since it apparently went on a lot around here. “Now, boys, I have a class in this room shortly, so if you don’t mind….” She gestured them to do the door.

Danni turned, intending to gather her things and change from her pointe shoes to her slippers, but a gesture from Mlle Kirby stopped her.

“I want you in the pairs class that meets just before this,” she said flatly.

Danni stared at her. “But—but juniors never get to do pairs class. I mean, not junior girls.”

“There are exceptions,” Mlle Kirby insisted. “Katarina, for example.” Her knowing smile said that she already knew Danni was acquainted with the other girl. “And I am making another.”

“But—but—“

“No, dear, no buts.” Mlle Kirby smiled. “I have never seen anyone pick up a routine with a partner that quickly. If you could have seen yourself…you’re born for a pas de deux, Danni.”

Danni smiled in return, feeling a familiar warmth glide over her. “That’s what I’ve always believed,” she admitted shyly. “That—that the greatest dance of all is the pas de deux with God…and that He has someone out there that He intends for me to dance with.” Whether or not it was Michael, she had never been entirely sure. She had been content to imagine it that way when it had been just the two of them, dancing their hearts out before God back home; but more and more, particularly as she had come out to the Academy alone, she had wondered if that was the case after all. Surely, she’d thought, if God intended for them to dance together, He would have found a way for Michael to come along.

Actually, all Danni knew these days was that she didn’t know anything anymore—but she still believed that God had made her to dance. In the end, that was what mattered the most.

“Well.” Mlle Kirby smiled at her. “And there’s no sense arguing with God, now is there, dear? Now, you go ahead and get your things together for the next class—you’ll want to take those off.” Her gaze took in Danni’s pointe shoes, though her smile did turn fond. “The last thing we need is a room full of eleven-year-olds begging us for pointe shoes, hm?”

Laughing, Danni agreed. Her head was spinning as she went through the familiar motions—so much so that when she went to pull on her ballet slippers, she pulled on her familiar black ones, rather than the pink pair she had managed to unearth.

Mlle Kirby didn’t comment. She just smiled at her young pupil and allowed her to lead the class through warm-ups, pleased to note that, in spite of the fact that Danni was distracted, she never missed so much as a step.

By the time the class was over, Danni still felt as though she was floating on a dream. Partners, Lord. Partners! I’ll get to dance a pas de deux again—and not with another girl, as part of a group, but with a guy. I’ve missed it so much!

She’d only been here for a week—not enough time to really miss it, especially as much time as she had been spending dancing. Still, the void at her side that should have been filled by Michael had bothered her near-constantly; and Danni had begun to feel as though she would never manage to even work around it. She had called him every night this week, just to hear his voice; and while she knew that it was a placebo for finding a place to belong in this new world, it was wonderful nonetheless.

She practically danced up the stairs to her room that afternoon, bounding into her seat at her desk with more energy than she had felt all week. Partners! It was the only word she could think of. Oh, she was sure that things here wouldn’t be so very different from the way they had been back home. There would never be enough guys to go around, no matter what they did. She’d be lucky if she got to work with one once every other week—and that was assuming that all of the guys in the class weren’t already seriously attached to their partners. Most of the time, she’d probably be dancing with another girl.

But…partners. It was a dream come true.

“Michael, you’re not going to believe it!” She blurted out the news, her joy evident in her voice.

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

“Michael?” Danni hesitated, suddenly wondering if she had done something wrong. But Michael would be happy for her…wouldn’t he?

“Yeah. Hey, that’s great news, Danni.” But his voice didn’t sound like it was great news. It sounded as though someone had run over his puppy—and Danni actually knew what that sounded like, since she had been there when Michael’s dog was run over a couple of years ago.

“Michael—what’s wrong?” He hadn’t called her Dragonfly. That was the first thing that registered. Michael almost always called her Dragonfly, especially when he first heard from her. He didn’t let a lot of people hear it; but over the phone, when they were alone? Something was up. Probably something serious.

He laughed huskily. “Can’t fool you, can I?” he demanded. “Even over the phone, you can hear it in my voice.”

“It’s that partner thing,” she pointed out tartly.

“Partners. Right.” The laugh turned a little bit bitter, now. “You going to be able to read your new partner that well?”

“What—Michael, no!” Danni hastened to reassure him. “You’re still—you know I wouldn’t—I’m still waiting for you!”

“I can’t fault you for it,” he pointed out gently. “Not when I’m dancing with a new girl every class. Just…miss me a little, okay?”

“Every second!” she swore fervently. “I danced with another guy today, and—Michael, he’s nothing like you.”

He seemed at least momentarily placated by that. “It’s good to hear it,” he admitted. “Shouldn’t be—I ought to want you to be happy out there—but…man, Danni, I miss you.”

“I miss you, too.” She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. “But things are starting to get a little bit better. You’re happy for me about that, right?”

“Of course I am!” He sounded disgusted that she would think otherwise—not with her, but with himself, for portraying it that way in the first place. “Hearing you miserable eats at me. You know that.”

“We’ll be back together soon,” she offered quietly.

“Yeah, of course we will!” He sighed. “I’ve had kind of a rough day, Dragonfly,” he admitted tiredly.

“Want to talk about it?”

There was a long silence. Danni knew Michael well enough to know that he was wrestling with whether or not he intended to tell her anything, especially on top of the fact that he had just rained on her parade already. Finally, though, he sighed again and admitted, “Do you remember Drew Effler?”

“Yeah….” The young man in question was a year older than they were—a senior—and had, for as long as Danni could remember, had it in for her partner. He wasn’t usually obvious about it; but every once in awhile, he would set out to get a dig in on Michael in the most painful way possible. Danni had thought they had cured him of it—constant prayer and supplication being the most powerful weapons she had ever commanded—but from the sound of Michael’s voice, Drew was back in fine form.

“He, um….” Danni could practically see Michael closing his eyes, wondering whether or not he was actually going to go through with this. “He tripped me during a basketball game in gym class.”

Danni winced. Michael was an amazing, athletic dancer; but as far as throwing a ball through a hoop, he wasn’t the most coordinated in the world. He looked great—until he actually tried to shoot a basket. He wouldn’t have been happy about playing anyway; and then having Drew humiliate him on top of it….

“I twisted my knee on the way down.” Michael’s voice was low, even a little bit angry. “Stupid—I know how to fall. You taught me that. I just…he caught me by surprise, and I didn’t react until it was too late.”

“Oh, Michael….” Suddenly, Danni felt further away from home than she had since she’d left. Michael, hurt…she wanted to be there. She wanted to sit beside him on the sofa and tease him about being so clumsy, playing catch with the ice pack in between times when it was actually on his knee and making jokes about how one of them needed to take out stock in a frozen pea company—peas, because those made the best ice packs. She wanted to hold his hand, and to see for herself the color of his face, to know that he was really all right and not just feeding her a line. “How bad is it?”

“I’m okay, Dragonfly.” The calm reassurance didn’t settle her nearly as much as she would have liked. Michael would lie in a heartbeat if he thought it would worry her too much to know the truth. “Just twisted it enough to be sore for a couple of days.” She could hear the grimace in his next words. “Wish you were here with me, though. Mom’s…well, you know how Mom is.”

Yes, Danni knew Michael’s mother all too well. She didn’t try to be overprotective; but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t. In spades.

And the last thing Michael needed right then was someone hovering over him, especially since he was embarrassed about how the injury had occurred in the first place.

“You make sure you take care of yourself, okay?” she told him fiercely. “No going back out there until you’re ready.”

“I won’t.” He sighed; she pictured him resting his head back against the arm of the couch, closing his eyes to hide the fact that he was flinching when he moved. “Don’t worry too much, okay? I’ll be healed up just fine in a day or two.”

“A day or two. Right.” She didn’t believe him. Michael was always overly optimistic when it came to his own recovery time—especially when he was trying to convince one of the ladies in his life that he was all right.

“Okay, fine, I’m out of class for a week, best I can do. Does that make you feel better?” He snapped the words, regretted them in the next heartbeat. “I’m sorry, Danni.”

“Nah, don’t be sorry. If you can’t snap and snarl at me, who are you going to snap and snarl at?”

“Drew,” he said immediately. “You know—the person who really deserves it.” A hint of mirth infused his voice, though Danni had the feeling that it was forced. “And hey, guess what?”

“What?”

“He’s going to get a week out of school for it—the gym teacher knows he did it on purpose.”

Danni was silent for several seconds, and then she said, “You shouldn’t be so pleased about that, Michael. How long have we prayed to turn him into a friend?”

Michael sighed. “Honestly? I’m not.” He shifted; she could hear the faint groan that he tried to conceal from her. “I forget sometimes that you’re not like most girls. They would’ve taken the glee for what it was and left me alone after that.”

“I’ll never be most girls.” She had never wanted to be.

“Wouldn’t have you any other way.” He let the silence drag on between them for a moment, but finally, he knew that he had to let her go. “Go get some work done, Dragonfly.”

“I’ll pray for swift healing,” she promised him.

She could hear his smile. “Then I know it will come.”

“Call me if you need me?” That she couldn’t be there in person was bad enough. If Michael believed even for a minute that he couldn’t call her, it would absolutely break Danni’s heart.

“As if I’d dare do anything else.”

Danni hung up the phone; but she knew even as she did that she wasn’t going to get any work done. Michael. His injury had washed away all the pleasure she’d felt at her new class. He would have kept it from her rather than have it that way; but she couldn’t help worrying about him.

Lord, let him be telling me the truth, she prayed desperately. Let it be just a little thing—something that will have him back on his feet in a couple of days. It wouldn’t be the first time Michael had been hurt; and his knees gave him problems anyway. For that reason, Danni had always been very careful what she choreographed for him, making sure that there weren’t too many fast turns that would put undue pressure on him. For the most part, he did all right; but she’d seen him hurt any number of times, and after a major performance, it wasn’t uncommon for him to retreat to the car with an ice pack. Both of their dance bags even had cold packs tucked inside them for just such an eventuality, and she always carried an extra ice pack with her when she knew she and Michael were going to be dancing away from their usual, familiar locations.

All of those already had ice packs.

Danni paced the floor of her room for a little while, praying fervently for healing and peace for her friend. After awhile, some of the desperation faded. She slowed, letting herself take a deep breath again.

Michael will be fine. He’s dealt with stuff like this before. His knees are bad; but he’ll be okay. She wasn’t particularly comforted by her own reminder. Michael’s knees were bad anyway. That meant that he would be all too likely to force himself back up on his feet even before he felt ready, pushing himself through the motions of the dance in spite of the fact that every step hurt.

He’d be wearing wraps under his jeans most of the winter—and under his dance pants, too, if he could get away with it. Except…what if his new partner was less understanding? What if she griped about him getting reliant on them, or about the fact that a knee wrap ruined the line of his outfit? Oh, Michael wouldn’t wear them for a performance—Danni had even tried convincing him to do so on at least one occasion and failed miserably—but some girls were worried about the aesthetics even during practice.

And no one else would bully him the way she did. She always made sure that he got his leg propped up when he was hurting; and if he was having a really bad day, she made him take a break whether he thought he needed one or not. That was part of being partners—but she had noticed that some girls didn’t understand that. If Josh had been her partner, for example, she wouldn’t have hesitated to work the dance with him until he got it, not unless there was some reason she couldn’t.

Lord…let there be someone to take care of him. Don’t leave Michael on his own—or if You do, don’t let him do something stupid.

At long last, peace truly settled over her, and she stopped pacing. God had Michael in His hands. She had done all she could do. Now, she had to take care of herself.

Danni bent back over her books, determined to get a little bit more work in before she turned in for the night. She had talked to Michael for a long time again—well, that was the way it was supposed to be, especially when he needed her. She could take the time for a friend. It was just that now, she had to make that time up.

She had a goal, and she was going to stick to it, one way or the other.