The Extraordinaries

Chapter Ten: Keaton

There's a hush over the room, like everyone's been drugged into not speaking. Kier turns to me, smiling softly, and I feel a rush in my heart, a sudden feeling that lasts only a moment when I look at him. And then there's this sort of whiplash feeling as I realize for the second time that everyone is looking at me.

I wince, forcing myself to look at everyone. The other dancers are all at the front, Natalee's eyes wide like she's afraid of me. Behind them are all their parents, even a few grandparents, faces soft as they stare at me. The looks on their faces are almost all the same. Freaky. It's like in movies when people get all emotional and start crying over nothing. I've never seen it in real life, though.

"What's going on?" I whisper to Kier, but he just shakes his head, grinning widely.

The first person to approach me is Marie. The crowd parts around her to let her reach the front, where she grabs me by the hand. Her skin is oddly warm. "Keaton," she says, and nothing more. She stares at me, her eyes sharp and piercing. And yet, she doesn't seem upset with me. There's a feeling coming from her that I can't name.

"I'm sorry," is the first thing out of my mouth. I don't know what else to say. I've let down the entire company. I've failed everybody. We're not going to sell tickets anymore, not to anybody but our parents, and how lame is that? All because of me. All because I was stressed out and didn't do my best.

"No wonder you wanted to rehearse at home," Marie says, and I blush. She taught me the dance, but I practiced the song all on my own. Only now do I understand what a mistake that was. It doesn't matter that I was exhausted by the time we got to the end of our regular-length practice, I was exhausted from all the twirling and spinning. I should have sucked it up and stayed after like Marie wanted.

I try not to cry. There's a sucking feeling in the backs of my eyes, making them sore. "I'm sorry," I say again, my voice weak.

Marie creases her forehead. "What do you mean, dear?" she asks.

"I'm sorry," I say, and now I let the tears trickle out. I hear gasps from the crowd. I don't know why I'm crying either. There must be something wrong with me.

But when I look up, I'm not the only one. Quinn is crying. Desmond is crying. Caitlin is crying. So many people are crying.

Are they hurt? I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand.

My head is spinning.

When I look back at Marie, she's crying too, dabbing at her tears with a confused look on her face, like she doesn't know what they are. "I don't know what you're sorry for, Keaton," she says. "You were amazing." She says the word amazing as if it's a stranger to her, like she's never seen anything amazing before in her life.

An old woman steps forward, coming to join us. She has a cane with her, but I'm not sure why, because her posture is straight, eyes bright like she's still twenty-five. "My dear," she says, wiping at her slick face with a tissue, "I've never seen anything like that before. You're a beautiful dancer, but it was the song that really changed me."

Changed me?

"Really," she continues. "I haven't felt this way since... well, ever." She laughs, shaking her head, looking nearly as dizzy as I feel. "I feel as if you know me, and I know you. I feel like I knew you in a past life."

"I'm sorry," I say again. "I don't understand. What are you trying to say?"

"She's saying you're more than just talented," Marie says, rubbing her eyes. The skin around them is already growing red. Marie has a sensitivity to salt that makes her skin puff up. I've never seen her cry before, but I wonder if crying affects her. My stomach dives. "You made... you made us all feel something different. Something sort of crazy."