The Arts

6 - Dancing to the Beat of His Own Drum

MATT

Of all the roles Matt expected to play throughout his friendship with Robbie, "janitor" and "therapist" were never anticipated to make the list. Yet Matt was winding down his first week at The Arts doing exactly those things.

Okay, so "janitor" was more metaphorical. Ever since he joined The Flaming Wolves, he had found himself diffusing a lot of potential arguments, preemptively cleaning up messes. It was strange how, during the big fight, Tyler and Robbie each thought their self-control was the reason that the band never had any arguments, when it seemed to Matt fairly obvious that he was the one who kept things peaceful. Objectively speaking, Robbie's technical skill was off the charts, so Matt ended up looking to him for virtually every decision. It wasn't out of loyalty to Robbie as much as it was loyalty to his own future. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life, but he enjoyed playing in a band, and if he was talented enough to get into a coveted performing arts school, then it was an option he'd be stupid not to consider.

"Therapist" took on a much more literal interpretation. While Robbie and Matt had always been surface-level friends more than anything, connected solely by their partnership in The Flaming Wolves, Matt really did care about him. Coming into The Arts, they really only had each other, and while Matt was more or less unaffected by Tyler's presence, it was obvious that Robbie was deeply hurt. Matt suspected that tension between the two had likely been building up for much longer than it seemed, and the audition was just the straw that broke the camel's back.

So now, not only was he cleaning up the mess of the band by doing the bulk of the work looking for new members, but he was cleaning up the mess of Robbie. Which was fine every once in a while. That's what friends did; they supported each other and let each other vent.

But it was getting overwhelming. Matt needed to branch out and do something for himself, stat.

          That was how he found himself sitting criss-cross-applesauce on the floor with a bunch of strangers on a Friday afternoon for dance club.

          At his public school, Matt wouldn't have been caught dead in a dance club. Middle school guys were in the business of acting like being in the "wrong kind" of performing arts was a threat to your masculinity, and though Matt never personally agreed with that mentality, he certainly never considered trying to break that status quo. He was in an acceptable vein of the arts for a guy: playing in a rock band. And he liked it. Why do anything else?

          It wasn't until the band broke up that he realized how stifling and time-consuming it was. Yeah, Tyler was definitely in the wrong for screwing with their audition, but he did have one thing right: Robbie made all the decisions. Matt knew he was partly to blame for this, but on the other hand, it wasn't like Robbie ever actually asked the guys for their opinions on anything. Overall, it was a good gig, but it couldn't be Matt's only gig. High school was all about finding your true self or whatever, and in the safe creative bubble of The Arts, it was pretty much anything goes. So Matt took a chance on something he had never done before.

          After the standard round of introductions and pre-dance stretches, Kelsey Anderson, the club president, asked everyone to spread out. Matt moved to the back of the room, hoping to stay out of the way and feel more like a passive observer than an active participant. He knew he was going to be slow to learn, and didn't want anyone to actually see him royally screw up.

          "Okay, so I'm gonna do the routine for you guys all the way through first, and then we'll break everything down into sections," Kelsey said. She had her iPhone plugged into a teal speaker. Once she selected the song, she launched into a relatively simple routine, her body moving fluidly through the music as if she herself had become an integral part of the song. Matt was absolutely mesmerized. And then he was terrified. Maybe dance club was a mistake. The choreography didn't feel simple at all. He looked over at a boy with shiny brown hair and a deep tan, who seemed to be subtly mimicking Kelsey's movements, burning them into his mind. That was pro-level. Matt didn't know if he could hack it.