Dancing for the Lord The Academy

Chapter Seven

Nicholas hadn’t been exaggerating about his shoulder, Danni realized later that evening. They’d been working on the dance for hours, one piece at a time. Mlle Kirby—obviously aware of the injury—was taking it fairly easy on him, all things considered; but by the time they’d worked through two hours, he was sweating too heavily for it to just be exertion.

“All right,” Mlle Kirby declared at last, clapping her hands together as she looked him over. “Nicholas, I want you to go ice that shoulder for awhile. Danni….” She hesitated. “Go with him,” she said slowly.

Both of them jerked around to stare at her.

“If you’re left to your own devices, you’ll go home and absolutely refuse to do anything about that shoulder until it falls off,” the older woman pointed out in a too-patient tone of voice that suggested they’d had that conversation before. “Danni, due to the fact that she’s going to want a functional partner for this performance, will make you take care of yourself.”

“But—“ Danni began.

Mlle Kirby stopped her before she could even complete the protest. “Let me guess,” she said wryly. “We haven’t done any of the individual work yet, and the longer you have to work on it, the better it will look.”

She nodded.

“I think you’ve done enough for tonight,” Mlle Kirby informed her. “In fact, I didn’t expect to get this far. You’re a fast learner.”

“It’s all muscle memory,” she muttered.

“Then your muscles acquire information faster than anyone else I’ve ever known,” her teacher retorted tartly. “Now, Danni—take your partner off and be sure he ices that shoulder for at least an hour. You know the drill?”

“Fifteen minutes on, fifteen off,” she recited by rote. “Take an hour off and do it again if the pain doesn’t decrease.”

“Very good.” Mlle Kirby looked pleased. “Now, go—and don’t give her too hard a time, Nicholas.”

“I’m not going to give her a hard time,” he grumbled as their teacher strode out of sight. He looked over at Danni. “You need to change?” he asked her.

She glanced down at her sweat-soaked leotard and grimaced. “And shower,” she admitted. “We worked pretty hard that last half hour.”

“Yeah.” He massaged his right shoulder absently, grimacing as he did so.

“You okay?” She didn’t reach out to him. He hadn’t indicated that the advance would be welcome, and if he was hurting, he might prefer to be alone for a little while.

“I will be.” Nicholas forced his expression to relax, but from the tension around his eyes, she could tell that his shoulder was still paining him. “You’re not nearly as hard on me as Kat. She would have wanted at least one more round.” His smile flashed for just a moment. “Plus, like I said, you don’t weigh nearly what she does. Makes my life easier.”

“Maybe ten pounds difference,” Danni protested.

“Or maybe a little more.” He rotated his shoulder carefully, his expression studiously blank. “Kat might have been lying about the one-twenty.”

“Oh—“

He laughed outright, giving up on his shoulder for a moment. “Why are you defending her?” he demanded. “She’s your rival, remember? You ought to be going out of your way to convince me to keep you even when she comes back.”

“It’s not like we get a whole lot of choice in the matter.”

“You don’t think so? Then you haven’t been around long enough. It’s guys’ choice around here.” Nicholas grinned faintly. “Though your determination not to tear Kat down is kind of refreshing. It might get you further than I thought.”

Danni made a face at him. “Tearing Katarina down isn’t going to get me anywhere. Besides, she’s the better dancer.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Nicholas ruffled her hair gently. “Come on. A hot shower will do a lot for my temper, and then I’ll let you bully me into actually icing my shoulder. We’d better hurry, though—it’s already six thirty, and my dorm mother stops serving dinner at seven.”

“Mine, too.” Danni grimaced. “There will be something in the kitchen, though. She’s always really careful about it.”

“Good for you. Mine is of the opinion that if we aren’t home in time, we can fend for ourselves.” He winked. “Maybe we ought to head for your place.”

“Katarina’s there,” she pointed out.

He winced. “My place it is. I’ll make it a fast shower.

He did; and before she knew it, they were headed over to his dorm. There was a light snow falling from the sky, Danni noticed, entranced. She’d never seen a white Christmas before; but it looked like they might have one this year.

It’s like a fairy tale, Lord, she prayed silently. My every dream coming true in one fell swoop. A partner I can count on…dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy…how can it possibly get any better than this? She stopped walking, staring for a moment at the star-filled sky. Thank you, Lord, she prayed. Thank you so much for everything. I didn’t deserve any of this, but you’ve arranged it for me anyway. Thanks.

Nicholas didn’t realize that she wasn’t beside him for several steps. When he did, he looked back at her, surprised. “You coming?” he demanded.

“What—oh, yeah.” She flashed him a quick smile. “Sorry.”

“Woolgathering?” he teased.

“Praying,” she replied immediately, before she had a chance to think about it.

To her eternal joy, Nicholas smiled in response to that. “You’re a Christian? That’s awesome.” He waited for her to catch up with him, grinning. “There aren’t many of those around here. You’ll have to come to church with me on Sunday.”

She grinned. “I’d like that. I’ve enjoyed the service at Mount Tabor these last few weeks, but I’m not sure it’s where I want to go all the time, either.”

“I really like Faith Heights,” he told her. “We’re a little more contemporary—and the pastor actually preaches out of a Bible that wasn’t written in Elizabethan English.”

Danni laughed. “I was never a King James Version fan,” she admitted. “I mean, it’s not bad and all, but I have so much more trouble understanding it. I just don’t think God meant for it to be that way, you know?”

“When the authors wrote it, they didn’t make it confusing,” Nicholas agreed. “It’s just that there are a lot of years separating us and them.”

“But I’m not sure I agree with this idea of a translation for every occasion, either,” she had to admit. “At some point, they’re going too far—but I’m not sure where it is.”

“Right there with you.” He rolled his eyes. “But try pointing that out to some people, you know? They just have to have six versions of the Bible, and consult them all over every little discrepancy.”

Danni giggled. “I use the New Living Translation,” she told him. “And Michael—my partner from back home—always used an NIV. We’d check with each other if a verse was confusing or something, but most of the time, that one translation was all we needed.”

“You had a partner back home?” Nicholas demanded, looking surprised. “And the two of you didn’t come together?”

“He missed the scholarship deadline this year.” Danni looked down. “Waiting for me, actually. There are always more spaces for guys than girls, but he wasn’t willing to come without me.”

“You didn’t have the same problem,” Nicholas guessed.

“No.” She sighed, the warmth and camaraderie giving way to something a little bit empty. “If I’d given up my spot, there was no telling when I’d been able to get another chance—and I think the spot has always meant more to me than it did to him.” She shrugged, shaking off the melancholy. “Besides, he’ll be here next year. He’s promised me he’d get all the materials in on time for a change.”

“Well, I wish him the best.” Nicholas smiled. “Though I may make him go hunting for a new partner. I suspect I’m going to like having you around.”

Danni positively glowed. Nicholas liked having her around. She had been afraid that she would have to wait until next year to really dance with a partner again. And Michael would definitely have been all hers—she knew that—but at the same time, she hadn’t relished the thought of waiting for him.

She didn’t think he would mind—not really. Oh, there would be that twinge of jealousy; but they had both known when she came ahead without him that it was a possibility. And dancing with Nicholas….

He was the best male dancer at the school. Everyone knew it—except, possibly, Nicholas himself. With him at her side, things that had seemed impossible were suddenly in the realm of the possible again.

The two of them chatted all through dinner—which they ate perched on the counters in the kitchen. The discussion was comfortable, Danni thought. It was like they had been partners for weeks already, She couldn’t believe that she had only met this man today, danced with him for the first time today.

“You want to come up with me, or do you want to take off?” he asked cautiously as he fished an ice pack out of the freezer.

Danni raised an eyebrow.

“I’m not…suggesting anything,” Nicholas said quickly. “Just…a distraction.” He offered a self-deprecating smile. “Ice is uncomfortable—you know that.”

Well, given that, how could she deny him? And anyway, Danni thought, hadn’t she just been thinking about how partners were supposed to look out for each other, and regretting the fact that she couldn’t be back home with Michael?

Nicholas wasn’t Michael—but he was her partner now. That meant that she was supposed to help keep an eye on him—and part of that meant sitting with him while he iced his aching shoulder.

“Sure,” she told him with a small smile. She was curious to see his room anyway; and on top of that, she was eager to spend more time getting to know him. From what he had said so far, she knew that Nicholas was a man of God. She wanted to know what else there was to know about him.

“Up the stairs, second door on the left,” he told her. “I’ll be up in a second—I have to let my house mother know you’re here.”

Since she had the same rule—no boys in her room without first notifying the house mother, and the door was supposed to stay at least cracked open unless there were more than two people in there—Danni didn’t think anything of it. She made her way up the stairs. Second floor, second door on the….

Oh. Even if she hadn’t been told that this was Nicholas’s room, Danni thought that she might have guessed. It just looked like him: dark blue comforter on the bed; shelves of books lining the walls…and yes, there was his Bible, resting at his bedside table just the way hers did. There was no dust on it, either; either he had just cleaned—which, from the look of the rest of the room, was probably not the case—or he genuinely did read his Bible regularly.

Lord, I hope that he does rest in your word regularly. I really like this man, she prayed. Her fingers lightly brushed over the top of the Bible, though she didn’t open it. Bibles were a private thing, especially if the user wrote in the margins. She had hundreds of little conversations with God penned in hers—sometimes revelations, things that had come to her attention; other times just references to what she had been going through at the time, or how the verse had helped her.

She’d read Michael’s Bible a time or two, and he had read hers. She didn’t feel even the slightest qualm about letting him read her Bible, nor did he hesitate to hand her his—because they were that close. They each knew all the other’s secrets.

What would it be like to read Nicholas’s Bible? It was evident that it was well-loved. Either it had been carried with him a lot, or he had read it frequently. Which one, Danni couldn’t be completely sure without asking him; but she suspected, from some of the comments he had made earlier, that he read it a lot.

Thankfully, Nicholas came in then. Danni wouldn’t have wanted to give in to temptation and peek—and she might have, if she had been left alone for much longer. She wouldn’t have wanted to read it; but the highlighting, the frequency of those penned comments…that would tell her something about the man she was now dancing with.

He gave her a crooked smile. “Yeah…you’re not the first to go straight there when you come in the room.” The grin changed, turned warmer. “First to understand it, though, I think.”

“Mine is in the same spot.” She smiled up at him. “So, um…you have a favorite spot to do this, or….”

“One that hurts less than the others, anyway.” Nicholas jerked several pillows off of his bed and shifted them, then eased down on them so that his shoulder was securely braced. He didn’t need to think about it; that, if nothing else, made it evident that he had done this before.

“How long have you been hurt?” Danni asked curiously.

Nicholas grimaced. “I’d really rather not talk about that just now,” he admitted tiredly. “Or anything that reminds me of the pain, actually. I just….”

“Sure.” She hesitated, then reached out and squeezed his hand like she would have Michael’s.

He turned it over trustingly, taking hers comfortably. It was only natural, really. They’d spent the better part of the day in each others’ company, and much of it touching. That comfort with one another transferred to their everyday lives; and put into a situation like this one, it could easily turn to taking comfort in one another.

“You’re a sweetheart, Danni.” Nicholas sighed. “Would you be offended if I asked you if this was the real you, or just some mask you’re putting on?”

Danni had to think about it for a minute. “No,” she said at last, her voice as steady as she could make it. “Because I’ve seen the other girls around here—and you’re right. About half of them would only pretend to be friendly and then turn around and stab you in the back later.”

“And the other half?” he asked curiously.

“The other half wouldn’t bother waiting until your back was turned.” Danni winced. “I didn’t meant to say that out loud,” she said quickly.

“You really didn’t, did you?” Nicholas laughed. “For what it’s worth, it’s a fairly accurate description—especially with all the competition for partners. It can get ugly.”

“Had any try to seduce you away from Katarina?” she wanted to know A couple of girls had tried that with Michael—to their detriment, since regardless of who he dated, his dance time had always belonged to her.

“Oh, yeah. Seduction…threats…a couple have even tried bribes.” He made a face. “Almost took a few of them up on it.”

“Why didn’t you?” Danni knew it was really none of her business; but it was clearly no secret that he didn’t like Katarina. If that was the case, why dance with her?

Nicholas sighed. “Honestly?” he asked slowly.

She nodded. Might as well get it all out in the open up front. Worst case scenario, he tells me he’s secretly in love with her, she decided.

Nicholas was silent for several moments, his thumb tracing over her hand over and over again as he worked out the best way to say the words that he needed to say. “Kat’s good,” he said slowly. “I mean, she’s hard to work with, self-centered and self-serving, and her attitude leaves a lot to be desired…but she’s good. She has this incredible work ethic, and she’ll work herself into the ground if that’s what it takes for her to get things right. And she’s not like one of those girls who won’t work with her partner if he needs her help for something. She’ll go over it again and again, until I finally get it, and never issue a word of complaint.”

“Sounds like a pretty decent partner,” Danni said slowly.

“She is if what you want is to be the best.” Nicholas threw his good arm over his eyes; surprised, Danni realized that she was holding the bad one. Well, if he wanted to let go, he was more than welcome to; she knew from experience that guys were more likely to pull away than they were to initiate contact. “She’s not if what you want is a partner that you actually like—or one that, at the end of the day, you’re proud to claim, instead of ashamed.”

She winced. “She can’t be all that bad,” she pointed out.

“I just said she’s not,” Nicholas reminded her. “And Kat…she has her good points. She’s dedicated, for one thing; and she’s fair. She’s just as hard on herself as she is on anyone else.”

“Kat,” Danni said slowly. “That alone implies that you’re pretty close to her.”

“Oh, she hates it.” Nicholas grinned. “It’s…well, it started off as a little bit of a joke, and turned into a bit of not-so-subtle revenge.”

Danni frowned.

He eased his arm away from his eyes so that he could see her expression. “Hey, you try dancing with the girl day in and day out,” he suggested. “You’d develop a few tiny little revenge habits, too.”

Privately, Danni tended to agree—but she wasn’t sure where she was going to stand on this one until he finished the story. “Explain,” she requested cautiously.

“Well….” Nicholas sighed. “Do you realize that because of her, there isn’t a single person in this school who will call me Nick?”

Danni’s eyebrows shot up.

“Katarina doesn’t like it. She says Nicholas is more formal, and sounds much more like a dancer—so she refused to ever call me by a nickname. People hear her doing it, and they just assume that if my partner doesn’t shorten it, I must not like it. So—Nicholas.”

Danni grimaced. “That would get irritating…if you prefer the other.”

“I prefer the other. I deeply prefer the other.” His expression was so comical that she had to laugh. “Anyway, I told her that if she got to call me whatever she wanted, I got to call her whatever I wanted. She put her nose up in the air and informed me that she had never answered to a nickname, and I put mine just as high and informed her that if she was going to have the whole school calling me Nicholas, I was going to have them calling her Kat by the time the semester was over.”

“How’s that working for you?” Danni asked wryly.

“Oh, it’s not. She’s made her preferences quite clear,” he admitted. “But it’s a very private revenge, you see. She refers to me as Nicholas…and everywhere I go, I call her Kat in front of at least one other person.” He shrugged, made a face as it dislodged the ice pack. “You’re a very potent distraction,” he informed Danni. “Because I actually forgot that was there.”

“How’s it feeling?” she asked quietly.

“Like little ice trolls are jamming cruel implements into my shoulder,” he confessed cheerfully. “But it’s not as bad as it could be, and the ice comes off in…what, another five minutes?”

She glanced at the clock on his bedside table and nodded.

“So, that’s ten minutes that I wasn’t sitting here counting down the seconds. I figure that makes you a success.” He flashed her that crooked smile again. “Much appreciated, by the way.”

“I’ll stay for the hour,” Danni promised. “But I’m going to have to leave after that. I have work to get done.”

“So you’re actually buying into the whole, ‘get the academic stuff out of the way now’ thing, huh?” he asked conversationally. The way he said it, Danni had no doubt that he agreed with her; he was just starting the conversational ball rolling again.

“Oh, yeah. I was taking all the right classes at my school back home and everything,” she admitted cheerfully. “Besides, getting to just dance for a whole year? Tell me that’s not a dream come true.”

“Well, it might be a little difficult if you did decide to go on to college,” he offered.

She made a face at him. “They offer college courses as an option—some agreement with an online school or something.”

“You’re serious about this.” Nicholas—Nick—grinned. “Good. I hate being alone in the studying world.” He looked up at her consideringly. “Hey—how far along are you?”

She told him; his eyebrows shot through the ceiling. “And you’ve been here for three weeks? At that rate, you’ll be done before Christmas!”

“Maybe not done,” Danni informed him primly. “After all, my rehearsal schedule is about to get pretty crazy. I won’t be going quite as fast for awhile.”

Nick made a face. “Maybe not—but you’re still pretty far ahead of the game. I’m ahead of basically everybody in my classes.”

“We could work together,” she suggested shyly. “I mean, I work better when I’ve got someone to talk to while I do it—as long as you aren’t too distracting.”

“What do you consider distracting?” he teased.

“Someone who won’t actually let me work!” Danni rolled her eyes. “My friend Madalyn is great, but she will not understand that when I say I’m going to study, I mean it.”

“It’s actually kind of a common problem around here,” Nicholas told her. “People get in this mindset that they have all the time in the world; and then the end of the year comes up, and they’re only half done with the coursework. Mlle Kirby told me once that she thinks only about half a dozen seniors each year actually get to do the no academic work thing.”

“Wow.” Danni blinked. “That’s not many at all.”

“Well, it’s probably a natural response to the freedom.” Nicholas made a face. “I hear some of them even end up getting their GEDs so they can go on and join one of the companies.”

“That doesn’t make a lot of sense—not when we have this kind of arrangement set up.” Danni sighed. “But I guess you’re right. People react differently to the kind of freedom we’re given.”

“Some are a lot better than others,” Nicholas agreed. Grimacing, he pulled the ice pack free of his shoulder and tossed it down on a towel resting at the foot of the bed—a towel, Danni realized, that had been placed there for just that purpose. “All right. Fifteen minutes. You want to work on homework?”

“For fifteen minutes?” she demanded.

He shrugged. “I figure we spend this fifteen working out what we’re going to do, and for the next fifteen, you can read to me.” His expression was so pitiful that she couldn’t help but give in.

Danni stayed for another hour longer than she had intended to stay that night; and in the end, she only went home because the words on the page in front of her were starting to blur. It had been a long day, full of excitement and change—change that, she hoped, would turn out to be for the best. She couldn’t wait to start working on the Sugar Plum Fairy’s dance in earnest. Actually, she was just looking forward to the week ahead. Thanksgiving wasn’t something to be dreaded anymore; rather, it was an entire day that she and Nicholas would be able to spend practicing.

She’d have to keep an eye on him. She had the feeling that he had pushed harder than he should have today, and that his shoulder was hurting more than necessary as a result.

Danni knew all about injuries. Sometimes, you just had to push through them and pretend that you were all right even when you really weren’t. Other times, you had to sit back and nurse them for awhile. From the way Nicholas had talked—from his familiarity with it—she had the feeling that his shoulder had been a problem for quite some time, and that the best way to handle it would be for him to keep pushing as long as he could.

That didn’t meant that he had to push so hard that he got hurt. She was determined not to have a repeat of the Katarina incident, although of course, she wouldn’t have put him in a position like that in the first place. More than that, though, she wasn’t going to be Katarina. She would take care of her partner, and make sure that nothing happened that might put him in a potentially compromising position.

Thank you, Lord, she prayed again as she hurried home. Thank you for letting me have Nicholas as a partner—and Lord, help me to be the kind of partner that he deserves.

In his room, Nicholas was praying a similar prayer. He had really enjoyed getting to know Danni that day. She had a deep faith that showed in every word she spoke, especially as she struggled not to speak ill of Katarina; a deep kindness that had been impossible to miss, as much as she had gone out of her way to take care of him; and a general belief in the ultimate goodness of people that he feared would be knocked out of her in a few years, if she stayed at the Academy.

Lord, thank you for sending her to me, he prayed silently. I think she might be the partner I need while I get my shoulder back together once and for all. She won’t push me the way Kat did, I think—but she’ll stand alongside me, at least if we get to keep each other. Lord, that’s worth more than words can describe.

I know I may not get to keep her. I may not be given a choice about going back to Kat; and the way she talks about her Michael, I think Danni is waiting for him to join her. But just…Lord, if nothing else, I think I would like to have this girl as a friend.

Danni was exhausted as she slipped into bed that night—exhausted, and yet exhilarated all the same. She had been given so much; and she was determined to appreciate it—and to dance, as she always did, for her God. Whatever else happened out there, she wanted to be sure that he got the glory that he deserved.

As she snuggled into her pillows, Danni briefly realized that she hadn’t called Michael; but before she could lift her hand and reach for the phone, the thought was gone again. She would call him…later. Maybe tomorrow….