"Are you even going to eat that?" Jack asked Ivy as they sat at their table in the cafeteria for lunch with their friends.
Ivy looked down at the school's mashed potatoes. "No, they look like they are already starting to stick to the plate."
Jack grabbed his fork and tried to lift the potatoes off the plate, getting the plate to come up with it. "What are they feeding us?"
"Guys," Jerry ran into the cafeteria joining his friends at the table with a wide smile on his face. "I got us the opportunity of a lifetime. We're gonna be rich!"
"For the last time," Milton sighed, exhausted with his friend, "your mom's car has a leak. There's no oil under your house."
"No, I signed us up for The Battle of the Dance Crews competition at the mall," Jerry held up the poster for the competition. "Check it."
"Whoa," Kim's eyes grew as she read the reward. "First prize wins $1,000."
"It's not just about the money," Jerry argued. "I've always loved dancing. You know, when I was a baby, my mom hung a disco ball over my crib."
"Did it ever fall on your head?" Jack asked, chuckling to himself.
Jerry looked around confused. "Did what ever fall on my head?"
"Jerry, that sounds great," Eddie spoke up, "but we're not a dance crew."
"I have the skills and I'll teach you the moves," Jerry explained his plan. "And if we work hard, we can win this together. Now what do you say?"
Everyone except for Ivy agreed to do it, causing them to look at the girl who went very quiet during the conversation.
"Ivy, are you in?" Jerry asked, never knowing how the girl will answer.
"We'll see," Ivy shrugged, earning grins from her friends.
"Okay. Jerry, you got yourself a crew," Jack high-fived Jerry.
"Wasabi?" Jerry asked, getting everyone at the table to nod.
"Wasabi."
***
"Is this just me or are these falafel balls greasier than usual?" Jack asked Ivy and Jerry as they picked at their food. He picked up a piece of his food and squeezed it, getting a bunch of grease to leave the falafel ball.
"No, that looks about right," Jerry shrugged, sitting across from Jack and Ivy.
"That's worse than my mashed potatoes from earlier," Ivy cringed, handing Jack a napkin.
"Hey, check it out," Jerry pointed toward a guy that walked into the restaurant. "That's Dan Brennan. He's the best dancer at our school. They call him smooth."
"Weird," Ivy shook her head.
"Because he's got great dance moves?" Jack asked.
Jerry nodded. "And his skin's crazy soft. Yo, we're talking velvet."
"Again, weird," Ivy responded as Smooth walked up to their table.
"Hey, Jerry," he greeted before turning to Ivy with a smirk. "Ivy."
Smooth then turned to Jack and his face dropped not knowing who he was.
"Jack," he introduced himself, getting Smooth to shrug him off.
"I heard you karate clowns signed up for the dance contest," Smooth turned his attention back to Jerry. "You know my crew, The Step Brotherz win every year."
"Yeah, I know," Jerry scoffed. "Just 'cause you win every year doesn't mean other people shouldn't try."
Smooth gave a single laugh. "Yeah, it kind of does. See, I suggest you leave the dancing to us and stay in your little karate club."
"Well that's just sad that you think a person should only do one sport," Ivy crossed her arms. "When I was still doing sports full time, I did everything: volleyball, tennis, dance, karate, archery, swim and dive, I even did chess."
"That explains a lot about you," Smooth said, turning to walk away but Jack stopped.
"You know, we're not just a karate club. We also offer free counseling to people with bad nicknames. You should come by and us, Smooth."
Ivy laughed as Jack and Jerry did a fist bump, not realizing Smooth was coming back to argue more.
"You guys are just gonna embarrass yourselves. You might have some moves. But can you move..." he did a few turns before dropping into the slips and flipping to stand up again. "Like Smooth."
The kids watched as Smooth left the building and Jerry stood up, scoffing.
"Yo, I can move like Smooth. Just a split. I can do a split. Check it," Jerry tried to copy Smooth's move. As he moved into the split a ripping noise echoed through the restaurant.
"Smooth," Ivy nodded as Jack started to laugh.
"I think your pants just ripped."
Jerry looked back at his friends with pain. "That wasn't my pants."
***
"All right," Jerry nodded looking at Eddie, Milton and Jack. "Now, let's run the whole thing from the top. Hey, where did Kim go?"
"She wanted to change into her dance gear," Ivy explained on her bench, flipping the page in her book.
"Okay, let's do this!" Kim cheered, leaving the locker dressed clothes that looked like they were from the 80's.
"Oh, my god, Kim. Photos, right now," Ivy pulled out her phone as Kim ran over the girl and struck a pose, waiting for a second before changing it up.
After a few photos, Kim turned to the guys who were all looking at her weirdly. "What? This is how dancers dress."
"Maybe in the 80's in Poland," Milton said, getting Kim to huff out of frustration and turn to Ivy.
Ivy shrugged. "I never dress like that a day in my life, and I had to wear some pretty weird costumes."
"Come on, guys," Jerry tried to get them back on track. "We've got a lot of work to do. You ready?"
The guys nodded and answered verbally.
"I can't hear you," Jerry tried to hype them up.
"Really?" Milton asked, not realizing what he was trying to do. "'Cause that was pretty loud. I think you might have some hearing loss!"
"All right. Here we go. Whoo!" Jerry stood off to the side as Kim, Eddie, Jack and Milton got into their places. "Hit it, Ivy!"
Ivy pressed play on the boom box and immediately regretted it as everyone started to do random dance moves that weren't at all what they were taught to do.
"Turn it off, Ivy," Jerry instructed after complaining in Spanish. Ivy did as she was told, causing everyone to stop and look around confused. "I taught you this." He showed off the move they supposed to do before changing it to the one they were doing. "You guys are doing this. come on, guys. Don't you have any dancing experience at all?"
"Well, I have my own victory dance I do every time I win a match," Jack smiled before busting out his victory dance which just consisted of him just walking like a chicken.
Jerry stopped him before it would go on too long. "If that's your victory dance, I'm gonna start rooting against you."
"It's been a while since I've danced onstage," Kim spoke up. "But I think I'm just as good now as I was then."
"Kim, you and I were in the same dance class," Ivy told the girl, remembering the girl's dancing capabilities, "the teacher yelled at you because you could do a single turn in your third year."
Kim eyes widened as she remembered something. "That's why I quit."
"Milton," Jerry turned to his friend with a pleading look, "please tell me there's a dancer hiding in there somewhere."
"Oh, believe me, I have busted many a move," Milton smirked.
"Yeah, you're not a dancer," Jerry muttered before turning to Eddie. "Eddie, please give me some good news here."
Eddie nodded. "Well, I did go to Mrs. King's Dance Academy. But I never really went for the dancing."
"Okay, this isn't working," Jerry complained. "Come on, guys, this is important to me. The only person here with good moves is Ivy, and two doesn't make a crew. You gotta start trying."
"Whoa, we're trying," Jack argued.
"Maybe we should just take a break," Eddie suggested.
"Fine," Jerry nodded as they started to walk out the dojo. "But before you go, think about this. When you dance, you...you gotta totally feel it. When I dance, I'm not thinking about anything. My head is absolutely empty."
"Right, like right before an algebra test," Kim commented, getting Jerry to roll his eyes feeling defeated.
Ivy stayed behind as the group ran out of the dojo, leaving Jerry to yell after them. "Hey, you guys better be ready to work when you get back."
"Jerry, you've got trying to teach them to dance all wrong," Ivy stood up from her bench.
"What do you mean?" Jerry asked.
"All this forcing and judging them it's going to help anyone," Ivy explained. "Dance can be great for many people, but it can also be very toxic. At my old dance studio, I loved dance for many years. I was happy and they pushed me to be the best that I could be. But as I got older the more they judged and yelled and made going to dance my less favorite part of my day. I went from loving dance to having panic attacks over it and I was in the fifth grade when I quit. Dance should be something everyone can enjoy but the way your teaching them is only going to push them away."
Jerry nodded. "Okay, I'll see what I can do."
"Good," Ivy smiled, feeling like she did a good thing. "I'm gonna go get some food. And then I'll get them back in the dojo to start rehearsing."
***
"Trust me," Ivy said as they entered the dojo after grabbing something to eat. "Dance can be great, hopefully you'll see soon."
"Hopefully," Jack said looking around at the empty dojo.
"Jerry!" Ivy called out. "We're back!"
No response.
"Jerry?" Jack called out, still getting nothing in return.
"Guys," Kim's eyes were trained on the building across from theirs. "He's over at Falafel Phil's."
"All by himself?" Ivy asked, only seeing the back of his head.
"Let's go," Jack said, leading them over to the restaurant where Jerry had just stood up after talking to Smooth. "Jerry, what are you doing here? We were waiting for you back at the dojo."
"Little change of plans," Smooth shrugged. "Jerry's a part of my crew now. He wants to dance with the best."
"What?" Jack and Ivy said in unison.
"Jerry, tell me you didn't," Ivy begged, feeling her heart sink.
"Yeah, I did," Jerry said, looking angerly at his friends. "Hey, Smooth's a great dancer. And he's my only real shot to be a part of a winning crew."
"So, you would rather win than be with your friends?" Kim questioned.
"Look, it's not about winning, okay? This guy also makes his own cocoa butter."
***
The next day there was no sign from Jerry. The group thought that he must've thought he was too good for them to answer their texts, which really made Ivy fume.
However they didn't expect him to be sitting all alone in Falafel Phil's when they walked in to get some food.
"Well," Eddie was the first one to break the silence, "if it isn't Eggs Benedict."
"What?" Ivy looked at the boy confused.
"You mean Benedict Arnold?" Milton corrected.
Eddie thought for a second before shaking his head. "No, I don't think I do."
"Shouldn't you be practicing with your new Smooth dance friends?" Jack asked with his arms crossed.
"They're not my friends," Jerry scoffed. "Smooth just used me to steal my move."
"They told the Jerry?" Kim raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah," Jerry nodded. "And it's not called the Jerry anymore. Now it's called the Smooth. He just named it after himself. Ah, zero imagination."
"Jerry," Jack spoke up. "You got us so excited about this dance thing. You said we were gonna do it together and then you bailed on us."
After a brief silence, the group had nothing left to say to Jerry so they began their walk up to the cashier to order.
"Look," Jerry stopped them, "I'm gonna be great at karate or a great school person."
"Student," Milton corrected.
"Whatever," Jerry shrugged him off before continuing. "Dancing is the one thing I'm really good at. And I just wanted everyone to see that. But you are my friends, and I shouldn't have yelled at you guys for doing your best and I definitely shouldn't have walked out on you. So, I'm sorry."
Jerry turned to leave but Jack stopped him.
"Jerry wait. If you still wanna be in the contest, we'll be your crew."
"Really?" After seeing the nods from his friends a bright smile appeared on his face. "Yes, the kid is back in the game. You guys are awesome!"
"Not at dancing," Milton laughed at himself. "We still stink."
"Yeah, would you excuse me, please? I'm on a date!" Joan, the mall cop, ran passed the kids carrying an inflatable man and hit Jack in the face with his face.
"God, I wish I was recording that," Ivy laughed.
***
The group stood inside the dojo glaring at Smooth's team as they did their dance. They were all dressed in gi's except for Ivy, who decided to sit this one out to cheer on her friends.
As Smooth's team hit the final pose, cheers erupted from the crowd as the host got back on stage. "Wow, how about that? Come on, people, give it up for the Step Brotherz."
"Maybe some other people can do the dancing next time, Dan," Ivy heckled Smooth, causing some laughter and for Smooth to glare at her.
"Did you see that last move?" the host continued, trying to ignore Ivy. "That was crazy. How do you come up with something like that?"
"By stealing it," Jerry yelled, getting his team to yell with him.
"Now," the host didn't miss a beat, "let's give it up for the last of the competition, The Wasabi Warriors."
"Whoo!" Ivy cheered as they got on stage. "I know them!"
Ivy watched as Jerry talked to Smooth for a bit, before Jack dragged him into place for the beginning of the routine.
The dance itself was more of a karate routine than anything, but it was definitely fun to watch. Jack got to do a karate solo and Jerry got to show off the newest move he had been working on. As the dance ended, cheers grew from the crowd as the kids celebrated on stage.
"Wow, that was awesome," the host walked back on stage with the trophy and an envelope. "I have the judges' results. The winner of the trophy and the $1,000 prize is...The Step Brotherz!"
"Overrated!" Ivy yelled before joining her friends on stage.
"I thought you guys were awesome," Jerry told his friends, getting smiles in return. "I was proud to have you as my crew."
"This year, the judges are also awarding a trophy for best individual dancer," the host announced carrying another trophy onto the stage. "And the winner is..." Smooth walked up to her, ready to take the trophy. "Jerry Martinez!"
Ivy burst out laughing at Smooth's reaction as Jerry grabbed the trophy.
"What?" Smooth looked at the girl like she was crazy. "Jerry? He's not that great. I can do what he did. Watch this."
Smooth tried to do Jerry's new move but ended up landing on the judges' table, getting Ivy to start another round of laughter.
"Not very smooth, Smooth. Whoo!" Jerry said. "Yeah, that's right I'm taking my 'whoo' back."
Smooth walked away tripping over chairs as Jerry took the mic from the host. "I'd like to thank my mom, my dad, Rudy, my crew, couldn't have done it without you guys. Oh, and one last thing I'd like to say is, five, six, seven, eight and..."
Music started to play causing the group to start a victory dance.
What a great way to end a competition.