Dancing for the Lord The Academy

Chapter Eight

Overnight, Danni’s schedule had turned from manageable to all but impossible. Suddenly, she was dancing every available moment of every day; and if she slowed down long enough to even take a breath, she was left with the uncomfortable feeling that she was wasting valuable practice time.

Two weeks. She had two weeks. That was the thought that kept pounding through her head. It might well even have kept her up at night; except that she was so exhausted by the end of the night that she fell into bed and fell asleep before her head even touched the pillow.

On Wednesday, she missed two calls from Michael. On Thursday, she tried once to call him back—at a time when she knew he would be in the middle of dance class. It was silly to be disappointed when he didn’t call her back after class, especially since even if he had, she wouldn’t have been able to answer him.

She did manage to get in touch with her parents to let them know the news—but she warned them not to say anything to Michael yet. One way or the other, she was going to be the one to tell him—and if that meant that he didn’t find out until the night of the first performance, then so be it.

It seemed like she and Nicholas were spending every moment in one another’s company, too. Suddenly, their morning practice sessions were combined every other day of the week; and their afternoon sessions were always combined.

He had been right. It was intensely difficult learning how to do the complicated series of lifts when he could only do them with her twice in a day—three times, if one of them was in the afternoon. Most of the dance had been perfected by Friday afternoon. A few of the trickier movements, however, still had Danni frustrated.

“I’m sorry, Danni.” Nicholas had his left hand braced hard against his right shoulder, as though that gesture might somehow still the pain he was in. She knew he was hurting, and that he blamed himself for her inability to master the move.

“It’s not your fault.” Her voice sounded dead, she realized in a detached sort of way. There was so little emotion in the words it would be no wonder if he didn’t believe her—and she meant it. It wasn’t his fault. “We’ll just….” She sighed. “First thing tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah.” Nicholas grimaced, but he agreed immediately. “First thing tomorrow morning. Do you want to walk through the rest of it again?”

“She wants,” an unfamiliar voice cut in, “to perform the entire dance, start to finish.” Androv strode into the practice room, his expression resolute.

“I wish I could,” Nicholas said immediately. With anyone else, he might have tried to dissemble; but this was Androv. To Androv, students did not issue excuses, or babble, or offer any words that were not part of an essential explanation. They told him what he needed to know, and then they listened while he instructed them.

“I am well aware of the continuing status of your injury, Nicholas.” Androv looked him over, shaking his head. “And all it takes is one look at you to realize that you’ve worked too hard today. What is this, the fourth time you’ve done the dance? The fifth?”

“Third,” he muttered. “But Allie cornered me earlier.”

Danni spun on him immediately. “Nick! Why didn’t you say something?” she demanded.

Her use of his preferred nickname never failed to get a smile, but on this particular afternoon, it fell a little flat. “Because you wouldn’t have let me do that last run-through, and you needed it!” he informed her.

“Ah. Here is where you’re making the mistake,” Androv said simply. “She needs that run-through. You do not.” He gestured to the floor at the side of the room. “Sit. If you are an intelligent man, you will ice that shoulder while you watch.”

Nick grumbled; but he obeyed, leaving the room just long enough to grab an ice pack from the freezer on the floor, kept well-stocked for just this reason.

“Now.” Androv pressed the play button. “Danielle?”

She came to stand alongside him, sensing instinctively what he meant to do.

Nick just gaped. He had never, never seen Androv work with a student before. He was good—they all knew that. In fact, he was one of the best. Dancers came from all over just to have a chance at dancing in one of his ballets; and rumor had it that he had once been an even better dancer than he was choreographer. It was one of the reasons the Academy was so popular, the reason why the competition to get in was so fierce.

But he didn’t work with the students. None of them had ever seen him dance. The rumors persisted no matter what was done to stamp them out; but not a single student Nicholas had ever met had actually seen Androv dance.

He was about to see it. His throat was dry, his eyes wide. He was actually going to see Androv dance!

The man bowed delicately to Danni; she curtseyed in return…and then the strains of the dance began to fill the room. There was a deliberate pause on the CD before the music began, to give them time to get into place—that was the time Androv had used.

Then the dance began.

Nick felt as though his heart was in his throat the entire time. This was what he dreamed of—the way he had always wanted to dance. Danni was perfect—an absolute vision. Never mind that she was exhausted from the constant practices and the demands she was making of herself. Never mind that she had danced most of this piece a dozen times already today, and by this point, she should have been just about tired of it. She put her entire heart and soul into her dancing.

And Androv matched her move for move, step for step, never once missing so much as a single cue.

Nick had no way of knowing it; but Androv had been watching him for quite some time, and the older man was well aware that their dancing styles were much the same. Androv might have been a touch more conservative—the injuries that had put an end to his dancing career demanded it—but overall, they could have been twins of one another, especially since that was precisely what he made the effort to be.

Every time Nick had changed a step in his original choreography, he retained it. Every time he had shifted, he kept it. The goal, this time, was not to show the young man how it was done. The goal was to teach Danni the dance once and for all, and to make her so comfortable with it that there was no fear that she would not recognize all of the steps, come the night of the first performance.

Danni felt as though she was floating on air. They went through the routine once, twice, three times. By the third time, she felt as though the steps had finally clicked. By the fifth, she had perfected the tricky lift that had been giving her trouble—and she had realized a way to shift it so that it wouldn’t give Nick so much trouble, either, though she didn’t plan to mention it with Androv in the room.

Actually…surely it wasn’t by accident that Androv’s hands had shifted at exactly that moment, calling her attention to them and making her realize that he had shifted her weight to his left side rather than his right. He knew precisely what he was doing.

Danni smiled, and accorded him a small nod of gratitude as the music came to a stop. He could have just come out and said it; but this way, he was saving Nick’s pride.

Androv also expected her to take care of Nick—and that was interesting in and of itself. It was the mentality partners should have, of course; but she knew Katarina hadn’t had it. Did he know her well enough to realize that she did?

There was no way to know.

“Much better,” Androv congratulated her warmly. “Did you feel the difference the last time?”

“Yes!” Danni beamed. “It was….” She frowned, unable to describe it. The movements had been just the slightest bit different, her body finally relaxing into them the way it was supposed to; but she had no idea how to describe it.

“Just so.” Androv smiled. “For all our great command of the English language—and let us not forget French, the language of dance on top of that—sometimes words still escape us, do they not?”

She nodded.

“Now. I would like to do it one more time—cement it in your memory, if you will. Nicholas, do you mind if I borrow your partner for just one more repetition?”

Nick waved him on without lifting his right hand. Once he had sat down, he had finally realized how exhausted he was; he wasn’t getting up until he had to.

Androv did not offer to let him run through the last repetition of the dance with her, Danni noticed. Did he sense Nick’s exhaustion and pain? Or did he simply believe that her partner had been sitting there long enough to get cold, and believe it wasn’t worth the wasted time for him to warm back up? Not to mention the fact that Nick had just replaced the ice pack on his shoulder….

Then she was swept into the dance again; and as always, she saw nothing, thought of nothing, but the steps and the man dancing alongside her. Androv wasn’t one of the men she was so comfortable with; but he was a joy to dance with nonetheless, and his style was enough like Nick’s that it was easy to make the faint adjustments in order to bring herself perfectly in tune with him.

“Beautiful,” Androv declared. “Perfect. Now, first thing in the morning, you two—but run it only once. I will come by…around eight?”

They nodded. They had been planning to start practice around seven anyway, and the first time, they always walked through the steps as a warm-up.

“Good. Now, if you still have it, Danni, you won’t need me; but if you don’t, then we will dance it again, and again, until you have found the steps again—and then you may dance your last round with your partner.” He smiled. “Now—away with you both. I believe dinner is long past.”

With a glance at her watch and a near-tangible shock, Danni realized that he was right: it was nearly eight o’clock. There wasn’t even a chance that she would be able to find something already hot in the kitchen—but at least Mrs. Baxter would have noticed her absence and made sure that there was a plate for her in the fridge. Nick’s house mother would not be half so kind.

“I’ll share, if you want to come back with me,” she offered as they gathered their dance bags.

“I appreciate the offer.” His golden eyes were warm; but she could still see the exhaustion beneath that warmth. “But honestly, Danni, I’m going to grab a power bar and some Advil and fall into bed. I need the sleep if you want me to be any use to you tomorrow.”

“Okay.” She touched his cheek gently. “Take it easy tonight, okay? I’ll see you here in the morning.”

He looked surprised. “That’s it?” he demanded.

“What?” Now it was her turn to be confused.

“You’re not going to whine about me abandoning you?”

“Nick.” There was that smile again, warming both of them in the same moment. “You’ve pushed yourself for me all week. I can’t promise that I won’t work ahead in some class or another, but I’m not going to be angry with you for needing a night off.” She grinned. “Besides, it’ll give me a chance to call Michael.”

“You still haven’t gotten in touch with him, huh?” he wanted to know.

“Nope.” Danni rolled her eyes. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think there were demons conspiring to keep us apart. Since I’m smarter than that, I’m just going to go with the theory that he’s been almost as busy as I have.”

“I feel for him, then.” Nick walked her in the direction of her house as long as the path coincided with his own; but when it came to the point where they needed to separate, he didn’t linger.

Take care of him, Lord, Danni prayed as she watched him walk away. He’s done a lot for me this week—and I know he’s pushed harder than he should have because of it. Don’t let him hurt any more than he has to. Advil probably wasn’t going to be potent enough to take all of the pain away; but Danni prayed fervently that it would make enough of a difference to at least let him sleep. Surely Nick deserved that much.

As she trudged toward her own house, however, Danni’s thoughts shifted away from her new partner and back to the one she had left behind. By the time she reached the house, simply imagining Michael’s voice had given her a renewed surge of energy; and after she bolted down the plate of food that had been left out for her and got ready for bed, she called him.

He picked up on the second ring. “Danni! I was beginning to think you had dropped off the face of the earth or something. What’s been going on!”

She leaned back against a pile of pillows, a genuine smile spreading across her face. “Michael, you’re never going to believe it. I’m dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy!”

There was a moment of utter silence. “I’m sorry, Dragonfly, the connection must have gone bad,” he informed her. “Because I could have sworn you said—“

“The Sugar Plum Fairy!” She practically crowed it, remembering only at the last minute to keep her voice down. Katarina’s room was on the third floor of the house and at the other side, but it would be just her luck if the other girl walked by just in time to hear her exulting in her new role. “The girl who was supposed to have it got hurt—and I feel so bad for her, Michael, but really, I’m so excited I can’t stand it. This is my dream role!”

“Congratulations!” There wasn’t even the faintest hint of envy or disappointment in Michael’s voice now. He cared too much about her for that.

“Michael, you’ve got to come see me,” Danni told him. “The first performance is for family and friends—tell me you’ll come.”

“If your parents don’t mind me tagging along, I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be.” When she told him the date however, she could practically hear his face falling. “Oh, man—that’s the day of our Nutcracker, too.”

“And you’re dancing in it,” she whispered.

“Yeah.” Michael groaned. “I could quit,” he offered.

“No—don’t quit, Michael. It’s okay.” Danni squeezed her eyes shut for a moment to prevent the sudden surge of tears that were threatening behind her eyelids. “Someone will videotape it—I’ll send it to you, okay?”

“Definitely,” he swore. “And hey—I’ll be thinking of you every second.”

“Oh, no you won’t,” she teased. “Who are you dancing with out there, huh?”

“That’s not the point. I’ll be wishing every moment that she was you,” he informed her.

“That’s not very fair,” Danni had to point out.

“Probably not.” Michael was perfectly cheerful about it. “And I’ve got to admit, I owe her. She’s been good about keeping an eye on me and making sure I don’t dance for too long.”

“Yeah? How’s that knee of yours holding up, anyway?” Danni wanted to know.

“It’s holding. Still wearing a brace for class most nights, but I think I’ll be good by the time the Christmas performance rolls around. Say, Dragonfly, you going to be in town for it?”

Danni grimaced. “They’re asking the primary cast not to go home for the holidays,” she admitted grimly. “We’re not dancing on Christmas, but we are two days later—and the way the weather’s looking, there’s too good a chance we’d get snowed in.”

“What, you don’t have understudies?” he teased.

“No.” And Danni’s voice took on the same flat quality Nick’s had possessed the day she’d asked that same question. “No, I don’t have an understudy. It—the girl who was supposed to dance it got hurt, and she apparently didn’t believe in understudies.”

Michael was silent for several seconds, trying to process that one. “Doesn’t…believe…in understudies,” he said slowly.

“Yeah.” Danni’s voice was grim. “She informed them, when they asked her if there was someone that she would prefer to have as her understudy, that she would ‘prefer’ not to have to worry about someone standing in the wings, eager to see her fail.”

“Well—“ Michael stopped. “I can’t blame her…but I don’t agree with her, either,” he said slowly.

“You have to know Katarina to know how it would have come out sounding, too,” she admitted. “She’s not the nicest person I’ve met since I came here.”

“Wait—is that the girl who was so determined to see you fail before? And now you’ve got her part?” Michael shook his head. “You’re getting in over your head, Dragonfly.”

“Her part and her partner,” Danni informed him. “Which is worse, because Nick is pretty much the best guy out here.”

“Oh, so it’s ‘Nick,’ now, is it?” Michael teased. Thankfully, he was still showing no signs of jealousy. Danni was relieved by that; she didn’t know what she would have done if Michael had decided to be jealous of her.

“Turns out, he pretty much hates Nicholas,” she informed him. “So it’s Nick…but the teachers insist on referring to him as Nicholas, so sometimes….” She shrugged, knowing that he would hear it in her voice even though he couldn’t see her.

“Well, I wish you the best,” he informed her.

“Why the sudden optimism?” she demanded suddenly. “I thought you were going to be grumbling about how I ought to be missing you more, or something.”

Michael laughed. “Honestly? I made it all day at school today without the brace. It’s the first time in weeks I’ve been able to do that, and I’m taking the opportunity to rejoice. Nothing is going to get me down today. And besides….” His voice turned teasing again. “The more status you get now, the better my chances when I finally get out there with you. I mean, you won’t leave me in the dirt completely, now will you?”

“Not a chance,” Danni informed him fervently. “You’re still my best friend, Michael. Always.”

“Good. You just make sure you don’t forget it, huh?” He sighed. “I would happily have stayed your partner forever, Danni—but I’m happy for you, too. You need to have these experiences out there—and it’s not like I’m dancing solo.”

“Good.” She meant it, too. “You weren’t designed for solo work. It’s a pas de deux for you.”

“And you, Dragonfly.” He smiled; she could hear it in his next words. “Sounds like you’re on the verge of falling asleep on the phone with me.”

“I am,” she admitted cheerfully. “It’s been a long few days. Remember, I’m cramming a lot of practice into two weeks.”

“You get to be a prima ballerina, and you’ll be doing that all the time,” he reminded her warmly.

“Yes, but I’m not a prima ballerina yet.” Although she was dancing the prime role, and she knew it. “Besides, I don’t want to mess this up.”

“You won’t,” Michael informed her warmly. “You can do this. For now, though, go to sleep—before I end up having to hang up on you. I always feel bad when I have to do that.”

“Once!” she protested. “You’ve done it once!”

“And once was more than enough.” He sobered. “Take care of yourself, Danni. I’ll see you soon, all right? And…I’ll be praying.”

She fell asleep with a smile on her face that night—and every night, all weekend. She was dancing the way she was meant to dance, and living out the dream. It didn’t get any better than this.