Dare To Live , Dare To Love

Chapter Eight

I woke up the next day and was immediately ready for the competition. I felt like today was going to be a good day. After I got dressed, I went downstairs to the hotel cafe. I saw Maks and Artem sitting in a booth drinking coffee.

"Morning, Boys" I say.

"Hey, Kinley" Maks says and moves over for me to sit beside him. He slid his coffee cup in my direction.

"Thanks" I say and take a drink.

"You're in a good mood" Artem says.

"I know. I woke up just...feeling good" I say.

"Hopefully some of that energy you have will help us win" Maks says.

"It will" I say and smile at him.

"Look, There's Alan and Sasha" Artem says. I turn around to see Alan and Sasha walking into the cafe. Alan was wearing his camouflage sweatpants and no shirt. Those sweatpants killed me.

"Good Morning" Sasha says.

"How's it going?" Artem asks.

"Good, We came down for some coffee" Sasha answers. "Can we join you all?".  Maks and Artem look at each other. I knew they didn't like Alan, but I thought this would be a good opportunity for them to start liking him.

"Of course you all can" I answer. Maks and Artem both shot me a glare.

"Great. We'll be right back" Sasha says. He and Alan walk away.

"Kinley!" Artem exclaims.

"Why did you do that?" Maks asks.

"Oh, Come on, Do you all really hate  him that much that you can't even have a cup of coffee with him?" I ask. They stay quiet. "If you guys talked to him I think you'd like him".

"Why do you think that?" Artem asks.

"I didn't think I'd like him at first either, but when we got paired up for English class we actually became friends and I don't think it's fair that you two are judging him before you know him" I say.

"She's right, Man" Maks says. Sasha and Alan return with their coffee. Artem slides over for Sasha to sit next to him and Alan pulled up a chair.

"Alan...Tell us about yourself" Maks says. "Makinley says your a cool guy".

"I...What do you want to know?" Alan asks.

"What do you like doing besides dancing?" Artem asks.

"I-I like to write...and play guitar" He answered.

"Guitar? That's cool" Artem says.

"Are you Russian?" Maks asks.

"Yeah. Yeah, When I was growing up, my family only spoke Russian" Alan says. Maks smiled and said something to him in Russian. Maks, Alan, Artem, and Sasha all spoke to each other that way for ten minutes and I couldn't understand a thing.

*****
It was a few minutes before Gleb and I were performing our contemporary routine. I was waiting backstage for Gleb to meet up with me when Alan came over.

"Hey, Kill it out there" He says.

"Yeah. You too" I say.

"I'll wait for you outside your dressing room before the results, okay?" He asks.

"Okay" I say. He walks away and Glen comes to meet me. He was wearing right black pants and no shirt and I was wearing a flowy black dress.

"Ready?" He asks. They all knew I got nervous before performing but once I got on stage I was perfectly fine.