The Perfect Partner

1

"Hi Ms. Hughes!" Miss, so she's not married.

"Hi sweetie, how was your week?" 

"It was good." Miss Hughes smiled at her, turning her eyes to me slightly as if to make sure I wasn't trying anything.

"Did you practice your dance?" Stella have a sheepish grin and shook her head. "What! Why not?"

"I forgot!" Miss Hughes giggled, which was quite possibly the most beautiful noise I'd ever heard, and gave my niece a quick hug.

"I'll let you off just this once, but the only way to get good at it is to practice!"

"Yes ma'am, how's Jaylee?" Jaylee? Who's Jaylee?

"She's good, thanks for asking. Are you going to introduce me to your friend?" She motioned towards me and Stella smiled.

"Oh, sure, this is my Uncle Chris." Miss Hughes let out a breath, her body relaxing to the posture it had been when I first arrived.

"It's nice to meet you Chris, I'm sorry I was a little cold, but it's my job to protect these girls and when a man I've never seen before comes in I get a little protective." I chuckled, shaking my head.

"No, it's fine. I'm glad to know my niece is in good hands. Her mom had an emergency so she asked me to bring her just in case you were wondering." She smiled that gorgeous smile of hers and nodded.

"Oh, as long as I know who you are you don't have to explain yourself. You are more than welcome to sit in the waiting area over there and watch, or you can leave and come back to pick her up when class is over, whichever you'd prefer." I contemplated for a moment, scratching my neck when I realized I had no idea what to do. "Carly usually stays and watches."

"Thank you, I was really confused as to what I should do." Another perfect laugh erupted from her throat, and I found myself smiling at the fact that I'd made her laugh.

"No problem, if you'll excuse me, I have a class to teach." She waved goodbye and walked towards her students. "Hello girlies!"

"Hello Miss Hughes!" They all replied enthusiastically.

"How has your week been?" She received lots of replies to which she nodded, occasionally commenting on one that stood out. "Well that's great, what I want you all to do is line up at the barre to do our tendu combination, and when we finish I'm gonna go down the line so each of you can tell me the best part of your week, okay?"

"Okay!"

"Great, now do you remember the combo or do I need to do it with you?" The girls all answered differently, but it sounded like several of them needed help. "Okay, how about I do a quick run through? What position do we start in?"

"First!"

"That's correct, everybody get into first position please. Very good, nice turn out everyone. What do we do now, Lilly?"

"Ummmm, tendu?" Everyone laughed while the little girl smirked.

"Yes, which direction do we go first?"

"Oh, to the front."

"That's correct! Good job. Stella, how many tendus do we do to the front?" You got this Stels!

"Four?"

"Correct!" That's my niece! "We go tendu one, two, three, four. What next?"

"Side!"

"Very good. Next comes side two, three, four. Finally?" 

"Back!"

"Excellent! We go back two, three, four. We are doing these en croix which means after we go to the back, instead of finishing we'll go to the side again in a side two, three, four. After we finish the tendus we bring our foot back to first to do Demi plié, another Demi plié, and finally a grande plié to finish. Do you got that?" I sure as hell didn't, but I guess that's why I wasn't in the class. "If you don't that's okay, I'll be up here doing it with you. Remember, if you mess up just keep going it's okay, everybody messes up sometimes, the difference is a performer keeps going after she messes up. Got it? Oh, don't forget that after we do it on this side we'll turn and do it on the other side. Let's do this!"