I bit my lip nervously at the large array of children crowding my studio's lobby. They were all dressed in dancing attire and chatting excitedly. They weren't very old, they ranged from eight to fourteen. They separated into cliques. The older boys stood off to the side trying to act casual about being at a dance class, the older girls stood across the room giggling and watching the guys. The younger girls were fixing each other's tutus and the little guys looked miserable. I stood up on a chair since I was so short.
"Hey everyone!" I shouted waving a hand. Everyone turned to me, Clapton looked up from the shoe of a little girl he which he was tying for her. "So, we're gonna get going in a few minutes. There isn't many of you, so were just gonna split up into two groups, boys and girls. Then we'll combine at the end, got it?" No one spoke. "When Mr. Clapton or me say 'got it' I want you to respond with 'got it!'. Got it?"
"GOT IT!" Everyone shouted.
"Awesome," I said smiling. I looked down at my clipboard. "Ok, girls, follow me, boys you're with Clapton." I jumped down from the chair and showed the girls the back studio.
We went over names of the girls and some of the rules. We'd gone over camp rules already but these were my personal studio rules.
"Mind your space," I said. I demonstrated by holding out my arms. "Your neighbor should be an arm's distance away." All the girls tried and adjusted. That was when Mr. Frail came in. I jogged over to him and greeted him. I explained to him our system and told him Clapton was in the other room. He simply nodded and left.
"Miss Hillary, who is that?" A girl named Suzy asked.
"Uh, he came to watch me teach you guys to dance," I said. "Now, I've found an amazing band you guys are gonna love. They're called The Fine Frenzy, and we are going to dance our feet off!" The girls cheered as I prepared the song. The song was called Almost Lover. "Ok, here are the first moves, ready?"
The moves were simple, it started with a plié and then a hop to the left and a grand gesture with the right arm then a short turn and a double prance to the right landing on the left knee. After that they got up and spun once. First verse of the song and they got it faster than I would've imagined. I clapped my hands smiling at them. "Great job! Next set!"
The little kids get tired faster, they're younger and can't handle the stress and intense body strain it is to be a dancer so we had scheduled that they left slightly earlier than the older kids. That's how we managed to get the boys and girls to do partner dances. Woo! There's a first for everything right? I'm right, aren't I? Jesus, I hope so.
"Alright, we've already assigned your partners, so McKenzie please step away from Georgia," I said to the two girls holding hands. They frowned and stepped apart.
"Ok, stand next to your partner when I read off your names, got it?" Clapton shouted.
"Got it!" everyone agreed. The two supervisors who were seated in the corner on the couch scribbled away and I felt my palms grow sweaty. Clapton began to read off names boys and girls paired together. In all there was about seven couples, and it was ironic how we had one girl leftover who Clapton promised he would dance with. The girl, who was maybe nine or ten went red and nodded. He assured her it was going to be fine and that he didn't bite.
The partners, being in the age group where they still thought cooties existed stood two feet apart from one another. I grabbed a spray bottle filled with water.
"Ok, guys, do you know what this is?" I asked holding up the water. Clapton cocked an eyebrow at me. Don't doubt my methods.
"No, Miss Hillary," the kids said in unison.
"This is cootie-repellent," I said. "One spray and your cooties will dissolve for up to twenty four hours. It works, let me show you." I grabbed Clapton and pulled him the front of the room. "Arms up, please, Mr. Clapton." He squeezed his eyes shut dramatically and raised his arms. I sprayed his chest. "There, now if you don't mind?" He took the bottle from me and sprayed my face, and I smacked his hand away as everyone laughed.
"There, now Miss Hillary is de-cootied too," Clapton said as I wiped the water off my face. "And we can do this." Before I had time to react I was flying through the air and spinning over his shoulders as he lifted me. I landed next to him and the kids were watching us with wide eyes, as were Mr. Frail and the woman from Berkeley, Ms. Hemp.
"Ok, your turn," I said and went about spraying the kids in the chest and tummy. I sprayed Thomas in the face because, let's face it, that kid was a pain in the ass. Once all the kids were sprayed Clapton began to prepare the song we had picked out.
"Ok, so what we've planned is a song that's pretty dramatic and little different, but the choreography is pretty neat," I said.
The whole demonstrating and watching took a whole hour, the song is kind of long and fast paced so it was a little challenging for these guys. And it's with girls and guys so that's a whole new field they haven't tried yet. Like I said, there's a first for everything. Oh, you want to know what the song was? Ok, Heavy in Your Arms by Florence and the Machine, one of my favorite bands. This dance has lots of lifts, dragging, spinning, and leaps. Let me tell you, it took Clapton a whole week to get it, and he helped choreograph...
By the time the kids had gotten the entire first part, time was up and they were exhausted and worn out. We high fived them as they left and shouted encouraging words. The last to leave were Ms. Hemp and Mr. Frail. Both looked stone faced and unhappy. Ms. Hemp shook my hand.
"Lovely job," she said looking from me to Clapton. "I am looking forward to see these dances wrapped up." She clicked her heels on her way out of the room. Mr. Frail didn't make any movement to shake either of our hands and he zeroed in on me.
"You are very organized and talented," he said. "How long have you and your family been running this establishment?"
"Uh, since I was fifteen, so about four or five years," I said clasping my hands together to keep from trembling. "I've been helping my parents teach classes since then, and I've also been choreographing since I was thirteen."
"What about you, Mr. Michaels, how long have you been dancing?" Mr. Frail asked Clapton. Clapton's face went pale.
"Um, since I was maybe fourteen," he said. "Never anything like Hillary has done, with the billions of hours set in every week, but I did join a couple of dance troops. I picked up a few hip-hop moves and stuff." Mr. Frail frowned and clicked his pen impatiently.
"Have a nice day, I'll see you both tomorrow," he said and pushed past us into the lobby, past the kids chattering away and practicing some of the steps, and out the front door. I couldn't breathe. There was a huge weight on my chest, and my throat was closing up. I bit my lip my breathing coming out in short pants.
"Don't freak, Hills," Clapton said touching my back. "Everything is going to work out, I promise."
"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep," I whispered as I watched Thomas and his partner Zoey try the first move. They weren't bad, they're posture needed fixing.
"I know," he said back. "But, I can promise that we're going to have a great time after everyone leaves." I looked at him curiously. "Spoilers, Hillary, darling, spoilers."
"I fucking hate you," I muttered and pushed past him to help Thomas with his posture.
Later after we were both changed into not so sweaty street clothes and all the kids had left Clapton guided me downstairs and to the car.
"Keys." Clapton said. I tossed him my keys and we climbed into my car.
"It had better not be a bar," I muttered and he grinned as he pulled into the road.
"Not to worry, Hillary Gale, this isn't an illegal place to be," he said. We sat in silence listening only to my phone which was jacked to the car and my Pandora was blasting through the radio. He pulled into a parking lot and when I looked up at the building I frowned.
"Why the hell are we going to the supermarket?" I asked him. He laughed and got out of the car. I followed anxiously.
"Get a cart," he said two steps ahead of me. I obeyed and grabbed a cart. I rammed into his butt playfully as he strolled the isles. Finally he settled on an isle. The dessert isle. All of your sugary needs in this one convenient place . He grabbed a bunch of white cake mix and threw it into the cart and some food dye, along with icing and rainbow sprinkles. On our way to check out he grabbed a package of Oreos and glanced at me. "They're for the road."
"Are you going to tell you why we need all of this?" I asked as he headed for the freezer isles.
"Nope," he replied setting eggs in the cart, and then a half gallon of milk. I sighed and hoped he wasn't planning on baking a cake in my car. That would be pretty sucky.
A/N
HOLY CHEESE MY SINCEREST APOLOGIES!!! Jesus Christ, I'm really really really really really really really really really really really sorry! I was like, oh, no one's really even paying any attention to this, no one really cares! I GUESS I WAS WRONG AND THAT IS AWESOME!! I started the chapter and I was struggling with writer's block on how I was going to execute the camp and stuff so I kind of shoved the whole thing aside and focused on school, and work, and other stories, and reading, and blah blah blah-excuses. I was supposed to update over the weekend but, I procrastinated doing my homework and I had work both Saturday and Sunday so I was up pretty late studying for my bio test which I had today. Then today while writing this I was like OH THEY CAN DANCE TO THIS!!! Then I'd watch some choreography on YouTube and I'd be all like, NO ONLY THE ELDER DANCE CAN DANCE TO THIS BEAUTIFUL NUMBER and so I settled with some easiness.... I was thinking about entering this in the Watty Awards. Thoughts on that? Please let me know! Also opinions on this entire thing are wanted/NEEDED seeing as some of you are interested in seeing me continue this. I will happily oblige.
Any song suggestions leave in the comments.
What do you think Clapton has in mind? I honestly just thought of it a minute ago....
If you suggestion Justin Bieber, One Direction, Miley Cyrus, or anyone who is known by more than half the country I will not be including them in this... Rule numero uno. So...yeah....
Vote
Comment
Follow
-theoddaud