𝓡𝓸𝔂𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓢𝓱𝓮𝓵𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓭 (𝓡𝓸𝔂𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓢𝓮𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓼 𝓑𝓸𝓸𝓴 𝓞𝓷𝓮)

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓻𝓽𝔂-𝓝𝓲𝓷𝓮

Going back to courses on Monday without having the thought of the plan in my brain the entire time has been quite a weird experience. I was barely able to concentrate on courses last week, which probably resulted in me not even realizing there was an etiquette quiz today. 

I need to stop daydreaming if I'm going to score in the top spot. I need to actually pay attention to the material in these courses. Especially the course I'm in right now. 

Dance.

I need to get this dance thing understood. I need to learn how to do this in order to get anywhere. From my understanding, you probably would need to have a perfect score in each of the courses to be the top student in the Academy.

This means that I definitely need to know how to somewhat dance. Especially because I can't even blame it on my partner anymore. Arty isn't bad at dancing at all, and we aren't exactly the worst at being around each other anymore. The only part that's holding us back is me, and I need to fix that.

"Okay," I stare at my shoes and tug at the hems of my pink dress, "You need to be b-brutally h-h-honest with me."

He stares at me and clenches his eyebrows together, "Am I ever dishonest?"

I shake my head, "No, but y-you're usually very k-kind to me. I need you to t-tell me what you think I'm doing wrong."

He nods but tilts his head to the side, "With the dancing?"

I nod and he sighs, "Cathy darling I think it is not something you are doing, it is what you are not doing. Follow me here, you are tensing up a lot. I personally believe you are psyching yourself out."

I'm psyching myself out? Probably. Maybe I'm overthinking this entire dancing thing. Or maybe I'm just thinking about how much I can't do anything, and I actually just need to try to do things. 

It's like the cooking thing, I spent two months here not making any progress because I psyched myself out. I need to actually try.

I nod, "O-okay, can you help me then? Like, tell me how to make it b-better."

He smiles at me and nods, "Of course I can. Here, let us get into position."

I nod and hold out my hand to him. He takes it carefully, not leaving my stare. His fingers brush against mine, and warmth immediately travels up my arm. He encloses his large fingers on top of mine, and holds my hand tightly in his. He carefully puts a hand on my upper arm, and I do the same on him. His fingers are cold, his touch sending chills down my spine.

He smiles at me and nods, "Now, your body is far too tense. You need to relax darling. Let your mind and muscles be at ease," he clenches his fingers against my upper arm and rubs his hand around it.

I let my mind go blank, and my muscles loosen almost immediately. A small smile comes on my face as he stares into my eyes. His eyes soften into a pale green color. Something inside of me makes my stomach churn.

"There you go. Now that you're relaxed, this should be a little easier for you. You do not have to overthink it Cathy, I promise you are more than capable of doing this."

I just shake my head but he nods, "You are. If you think you are going to step on my feet, just look down while we're doing this. It should make it a lot easier."

Why didn't I think of that? 

I'm stupid.

I nod and look down. He takes another deep breath and whispers "Alright, when I say one you need to move backwards with your right foot."

I don't respond. I just focus my mind on the floor. If I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna give it my gully attention. 

"Okay one."