Lie Until You Laugh

17- Competitions

“Good point,” Mason agrees with a nod. “Are we all ready?”

“No!” Stella shakes her head. “We need to do our hair. We have ten minutes to do our hair.”

We’re all wearing the same exact outfit- those sequin shorts that Stella showed us online a little bit ago, a long sleeved black t-shirt that cut off just an inch or two below our boobs (I could sound more proper if I say ‘breasts’ but I really don’t like that word), and black brogue shoes that are easy to dance in. It was a pretty revealing outfit, so Stella also ordered these matching black trench coats that look really mysterious.

We all straighten our hair so that it looks the same and then we tease it just a little bit so that it doesn’t look too orderly.

“Let’s move, and let’s kick ass!” Stella cheers once we’re done with our hair and the intense makeup she had us do exactly the same.

Mason and I both laugh and then we all leave the dorm room to go to the auditorium that everybody here called The Arena, which made it sound very intense. When we get there, everybody is there, dressed in their dance outfits. We look almost out of place in our thick and mysterious trench coats. There are some volunteers guiding to the auditorium area and telling us where to sit in the rows of inclined seats. Jamie’s class on the right side and Penn’s on the left.

When the time strikes six o’clock, the room is full of excited chatter, including Mason as she repeats the dance to us again, even though we’ve been practicing it all week and we have it down. We know it like the back of our hand. We amuse her anyway though, and go through the dance over and over until somebody steps onto the stage and starts speaking into a microphone.

“Okay, people, let’s calm down now,” He says. He’s older, probably around 40 or something, but he looks like he’s a friendly guy. “If you don’t know who I am, my name is Mr. Lynch and I’m one of the dance instructors here during the normal school year. We’re going to get started soon with the competition that you guys have been working so hard for in the past week. We’ll start with Penn’s class. We have all of the groups written on a piece of paper and we’ll draw them out one at a time to determine the order. Our judges will be your two instructors, Jamie and Penn, and then I will be judging along with my colleagues Miss. Gormella and Dr. Roth. If you don’t know those two people, they are also dance instructors here during the normal school year. That’s five judges in total if you can’t count.” He says that last part as a joke so people laugh.

Somebody else that I don’t recognize- probably Dr. Roth- brings out a small jar with about ten slips of paper in it and then Mr. Lynch pulls one out and unfolds it.

“The first group is Teagan, Aimee, and Wyatt,” He announces. “You guys are on in five minutes.”

For the next twenty minutes, we watch in our seats as people go up to the stage with their groups and they do their dances. One girl actually falls on her face and another group isn’t in sync at all, so that immediately eliminates two groups. I don’t know when I became so competitive- maybe Stella and Mason are seriously rubbing off on me or something.

When Mr. Lynch reappears on the stage and calls our names, my heart starts pounding in my chest with an evil mixture of nerves and excitement. When we’re walking up to the stage, I see Penn sitting in the front row with Jamie and the three older teacher people who are acting as judges.

Things have gone back to normal between us after the fiasco last weekend. I don’t mean normal as in late night fountain dives or having friendly talks with Just Penn. I mean normal as in only associating with Penn the Petrifying, like it was at the beginning when I got here. I’ve gotten over what happened last weekend, I guess, but now the only time he talks to me is to critique something or to say something about the dancing, which is exactly how I want it. I don’t like having to try and decipher which Penn I’m talking to. If it’s Just Penn or Penn the Petrifying or maybe Guilty Penn. Now, whenever I talk to him, I know that I should be scared and intimidated, because he is always Petrifying. It’s easier that way.