Just dance with me

Chapter 6

“Girls, stand with your back to your partners, boys stand ready to catch the girls. 3, 2, 1, fall” He caught the girl with ease; she was heavier than Amelia but still fairly light. They did a number of other trust exercises but he wasn’t really paying much attention, his mind was on what Amelia and that boy could have possibly been spending all this time doing. Another thing had caught his attention as well, Sarah and Rhys were strangely into what they were doing- no, they were more into each other; he couldn’t help but think there was something going on there.

“Amelia will know” He murmured.

“Sorry, what?” The Hispanic looking girl next to him spoke.

“Sorry, I was thinking aloud.” He muttered.

“Care to share?” She was trying to pry, he didn’t like that and to end the conversation he simply shook his head. “Suit yourself” She sighed, giving up.

“I’m going out to check on the pair out here, in the meantime you can chat amongst yourselves; however, I’m going to set a challenge. You must keep at least one body part touching your partner at all times, the forfeit being that anyone caught not in contact must stay behind tonight with me to do more trust exercises.” Jamie was too disinterested to touch the girl by the side of him, so she sighed putting her hand on his broad shoulder, he felt like shaking her off but knew if he did that then he would have to stay behind with the girl later. Looking over at Rhys and Sarah, he saw the two of them were very close together, their hands intertwined, in the next move, Rhys whispered something in her ear to make her blush before he kissed her cheek; Jamie was gobsmacked as he grabbed the girls elbow and pulled her over with him to where Rhys and Sarah were.

“What the hell did you just do?!” Jamie demanded to the pair, Sarah, who he’d never seen blush in all the years he’d known her was as red as a tomato, whilst Rhys sat back and wrapped the arm that wasn’t intertwined with her hand, around her shoulder, she hid in his neck and he smiled. “When did this happen?” He asked slightly calmer now.

“About two months ago, but don’t tell Amelia- I told her a week” Rhys grinned and Jamie flared up again.

“You told Amelia and not me!” He demanded, Rhys shrugged.

“Keep your pants on, just because she’s off with some other guy, and not holding your hand” It was Jamie’s turn to flush.

“Ah, that explains a lot; how long have you two been dating?” The girl he held the elbow of asked, referring to him and Amelia, he shook his head.

“We’re not” He said simply as he took another sideways glance at the closed door.

“No, but he wants to go out with her, he’s had the biggest crush on her for about 5 years” Sarah spoke up for the first time, Rhys raised an eyebrow- he had been right, he had spoken to her about his feelings. Jamie sent her a death glare. “Oh chill your beans, it’s obvious to a girl who doesn’t even know you two- of course we all know, the only one who doesn’t is Amelia, because she always seems to be oblivious about these things.” Jamie’s scowl reduced a bit as Rhys nodded.

“Well, we have an a treat for you guys and girls now as we have Amelia Smith and Mathew Benton dancing together for you, please be aware that this will be the first time they have performed this together in over a year… They’ll be performing a viennese waltz to the song ‘Angel’” The DDO walked back in with the other officer who had led the trust exercise and Jamie watched the door intently as Amelia and the Mathew kid walked in together.

They moved to the front and Amelia’s nerves were obvious, she hated doing anything in front of crowds of people, so performing unrehearsed in front of all her friends must have been killing her.

She pulled her IPod from her pocket and found something on it before handing it to the DDO to plug in before the officer turned off the main lights leaving just the spotlights on them, she looked nervous as hell at the front and in truth, she felt like she was going to vomit as she felt Matt grab her hand and stand in the centre waiting for the music.

The music began and she switched onto autopilot not thinking as her feet carried her forward; as she danced, she felt as if she were back in the dance academy summer school, dancing for their class. She remembered her instructor constantly yelling at her to smile and so she pulled her face into as natural a smile as she could muster as she felt Matt spinning her into his arms. She spun out again and concentrated on her finishing off her arm movements- the other cadets wouldn’t notice, but the professional dancers scattered about the room would.

Sarah’s mouth, like all the others in the room was wide as he watched Amelia dancing with the marine cadet; in all the years she’d known Amelia, she’d known she danced, but not like this- what she was watching was a different level of skill, her friend was so graceful as she moved across the hall, her feet not making a sound as she tiptoed across the space, spinning and skipping and twirling her dance as if she was on one of the dance shows on the television.

“Wow” She looked to her left to see Rhys his face full of astonishment as he watched their friend on stage; both had the thought at the same time and shot their heads to look at Rhys whose eyes was as wide as his mouth as he watched Amelia dance more beautifully than anyone he had ever seen. He felt something stir within his stomach as he watched it, however, a strange feeling, something that he’d never felt before- it made him want to throw up at the sight of the marine whose face was inches from her own as they finished the dance; he smiled down at her and she smiled up as they shared an embrace.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, joy filling them both that they actually managed to get through the routine after a year without a rehearsal. The room filled with clapping and cheering as they both jokingly bowed, she took her IPod from the district officer before skipping back to her old seat, but Jamie was sitting beside another girl who quickly moved to sit back beside Matt. Everyone turned to congratulate her but Jamie and Sarah were having a conversation off to the side, she felt a strange feeling bubbling up in her stomach at the sight of Jamie but ignored it- ‘it’s probably just nerves’ she thought as she felt herself being lifted off of her feet as Rhys pulled her into an enormous bear hug, distracting her thoughts from Jamie and Sarah and back to what she had just done.

“That was amazing!” Rhys laughed spinning her around in the air, she laughed before putting her down on the floor. Suddenly, a different but equally strong pair of arms were wrapped around her, lifting her up into a massive hug, the relief at the fact that he wasn’t acting so awkwardly around her bubbled up inside of her as she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. “You were so incredible! Why did you never tell me you could dance like that, it was mind-blowing!” He smiled into her neck as she hugged him, a different but equally strange feeling stirring up inside of him- this one however, was familiar to him, it was utter admiration at Amelia. She never would cease to amaze him.

He placed her back onto the floor as someone at the front of the room cleared there throat.

“Well, wasn’t that splendid; hopefully, we may be able to convince the pair of them to perform a few more dances for our guests if they work on it.” Amelia looked over at Matt who grinned, he definitely wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to dance with her, his partner for the competition couldn’t dance for toffee, and she was awkward to lift, Amelia on the other had was perfect, she was the right size and shape for dancing and she was so talented, not to mention unbelievably stunning.

“Look at the time, right; off back to the courses you were on last time please!” There were muffled ‘yes sir’s’ around the room before everyone moved to leave.

“Amelia” Jamie called through the crowd as she left, she turned on her heel and stepped right into his hard chest- it was firmer than she remembered- had he been working out? She looked up, but not before her gaze washed over his body- yes, he looked a lot more toned than she remembered; his face was stronger as well, more chiselled. He grabbed her hand, pulling her through the crowd so he could talk to her properly. “I just want to say that I’m sorry about earlier- I don’t know what happened-“ She interrupted him, putting a finger over his mouth.

“It’s fine, honestly. But please hold that thought, I want to talk to you later, okay?” He nodded and she smiled, giving him a quick hug, before walking off to find where Rhys was so they could go back to their class. Jamie couldn’t stop smiling as he walked to his coms course.

(A/N- video of dance at the side of Amelia and Matt's viennesse waltz)