Dedicated to nikpik15 for the cover at the top, thank you so much💗
As I update I realize it is practically seven thirty and I have school in about an hour lol.
I'm sorry. I have school. There's volleyball tryouts and soccer tryouts. I kind of regret not joining basketball. My chemistry teacher speaks more about his life then actual Chemistry and even though I'm only in grade 11 I went to a university fair the other day in Toronto and I feel more stressed about my future than I ever have been.
Also in case you haven't noticed there have been ads in my stories. It was an opportunity I got from Wattpad to get a chance to be paid so every time one of you guys click an add I get paid doing something I love.
Also, Starboy by The Weeknd has been stuck in my head and Shawn Mendes is killing me since he was in my home city on Saturday for an intimate concert.
Also, this is kind of only a filler, my apologies again : (
Chapter Thirty Six: "Stressed."
"NATIONALS, LADIES AND gentlemen," Mrs. Yousiff said. You would think she would say that with a huge smile on her face but her expression was as serious as she could be. "We've already got group numbers and small numbers down. We need them clean and to precision. Nationals is in February and even though it is only December we have many things to cover."
From the corner of my eye I could see Matilda straighten her posture.
"Solos. I've narrowed it down to a male and a female. I expect the highest level of dancing and energy from both of these dancers as they prepare."
I took a deep breath, my fingers actually shaking as everyone in the room tensely waited for Mrs. Yousiff to say the names. I glanced at Eduardo and he gave me a shaky smile, messily putting his scraggly hair in a ponytail.
"The male soloist will be Isaac Crow."
Everyone in the room clapped for him as I could see the smile appear on his face. Eduardo and I were talking about it in technique class the other day. We knew he would get it. Despite Isaac's previous advances towards me and how he kind of weirded me out, he was an insanely amazing dancer.
"We said it." Eduardo whispered to me.
Ravi leaned back on his hands on the other side of me. "Should've seen it coming to be honest."
"As for the female soloist...Sydney Acosta."
I swear my heart stopped for a second as I sighed with a type of relief and happiness. Eduardo gave me a well deserved fist bump as most people in the room clapped.
I think we can all tell who did not clap.
"What?" Matilda asked, looking livid.
Mrs. Yousiff ignored her, staring down at me. "Sydney this will give you a chance to reclaim your national title for the third year in a row. Don't let the arts academy down."
"But that's not fair!"
"Ms. Dandan-"
"She just got to this school. How could you give the National solo to her? She needs to earn her place."
"Ms. Dandan, would you like to continue this conversation in my office instead?" Mrs. Yousiff asked Matilda with a stern expression that looked to make everyone in the room still.
Oh shit.
Matilda quieted down, rolling her eyes when Mrs. Yousiff moved her eyes away from her. "Sydney has earned her place in this school. She knows that. Now everyone, I know you had a break last Saturday from dance but weekend practices and classes will continue. You know this. We may be part of a school but Hamilton Academy of the Arts is also home to a studio. You come to this school to dance and train for long hours to improve."
Her eyes darted towards Matilda who was looking up at her, trying to hold her gaze. "You may think that you have learned all there needs to know students but trust me in the art of dance you never stop learning. Continue."
She pursued her lips but her eyes found mine as she nodded for me to follow her. I got up and followed Mrs. Yousiff to the side of the room near the open door. "I've been getting a lot of calls about you."
"What-uh sorry-really?" I asked, my lips parted.
"I send out videos of my dancers to many dance companies specifically ballet and a lot of them want you to audition Ms. Acosta."
"Wow." I almost whispered, watching five kids probably not older than the age of four walked down the hallway of the school being led by a teacher. A couple of them waved to me and I waved back as they disappeared in the direction of another studio.
I found it funny because Lucas said I was so awkward with meeting other people but when it came to me having dance in common with another person no matter how old or young they were I couldn't help but engage in a conversation about it with them.
Mrs. Yousiff took off her glasses. "Sydney, I know that adjusting from your old studio to here has been hard but our academy is very happy to have a talented dancer among our others. I've watched Eduardo dance for a while since he attended the classes here when he was a child. His strong suit was not ballet but because of you he now knows how to do proper dégagés on the barre."
I glanced over at my friend where he was stretching with Ravi, Hailey and Madison and thought about how we worked for days over that. "Yeah."
"You are doing great here. Keep it up." She walked towards her office and I took a deep breath as the door closed.
Then I heard a voice behind me. "I don't get it."
"What?" I asked quietly, turning around to face Matilda.
"You've only been at this school for four months and you already took the Regional solo and the National solo?"
I felt like there was a lot more she was accusing me of but I didn't bother saying anything.
"Just leave Sydney alone." Eduardo said from a short distance.
"I don't get it," she practically hissed, her face red and blue eyes looking bright as she stared up at me with a look of hate. "What is it about you that attracts so many people in this industry?"
"Talent?" Eduardo suggested.
"Hard work?" I heard Ravi say.
"Passion?" Hailey spoke up.
"That I don't complain about another dancer? How about that?" I blurted out without thinking.
"Excuse me?" Matilda sneered, stepping closer to me. Her face was on the verge of turning red and I could tell she was boiling with anger. She needed to calm the fuck down.
"I don't know why we're having this argument."
"Because everything seems to get handed to you."
"It's not." I tried telling her but I knew one thing I said went in her ear then out the other. Being on this team with Matilda for almost four months let me know she listened to herself and no one else. That's not how a group should work. Sometimes I didn't understand how she was co captain.
"Guys, we're a team. An elite team. We should be working together not letting jealously tearing it apart because someone didn't get something they wanted. Mrs. Yousiff chose Sydney for a reason and we can't let a choice affect one or many of us on stage." Isaac said cautiously.
Matilda didn't look at him. She kept her eyes on me. "It's a good thing dancing involves acting then."
She turned away, walking towards the other side of the room just as our choreographer Daisy came in making me release a breath I didn't even know I had been holding in.
"The jealously is strong with that one." Ravi muttered beside me.
"Tell me about it." I said, getting into position.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What?" I asked Jane, failing to hold in my laughter.
"She's not joking." Devin told me. "I kept hearing her describe it to me for a month."
"Not joking about what?" Lucas asked as he approached us in the middle of the hallway, eyes darting between all of us.
He focused on me, giving me a smile. "Hey."
"Hi." I smiled back.
"You two have this little innocent thing going on don't you?" Jane asked, raising an eyebrow.
"What?" Lucas and I asked at the same time.
"You're both all nervous with your little hey's and little hi's."
Lucas rolled his eyes, leaning against Jane's locker beside me. "Anyway, what were you telling her?"
"Just about that time last year when we had art switch week and you had to dance. And when you had to-"
Lucas covered Jane's mouth with his hand when Devin, Jane and I started laughing once again. He rolled his eyes before saying, "Shut up."
"Did we embarrass you?" Devin asked with no pity.
Jane leaned her head back against the locker beside me. "I can't wait for this year to be over."
"Really?"
"Yeah," She sighed. "I'm so tired of it. I wanna push time forward."
"Physics says you can't do that."
"No one asked you brainiac." She shot at him. "But speaking of time, are you still not doing anything for your birthday again?"
Lucas rubbed a hand on his cheek. "Why? If you want an excuse to drink alcohol or something go to Joey's party."
"Birthday?" I asked in confusion.
"You idiot," Jane swatted Lucas on the arm. "You didn't tell your girlfriend that your birthday is coming up?"
"Birthday?" I asked again, looking up at Lucas. I think about all the times Lucas and I have spoken about anything and everything and surprisingly a birthday never came to my mind.
"Yeah on the 21st. It's not that big of a deal."
"You're turning seventeen. It's kind of a big deal." Jane said.
"Not everyone wants to have a huge blow out party where you invite the whole school, practically the whole town and have a giant chocolate cake where you come out of. Which I could've made."
"I didn't want you to go through the whole struggle of making me a cake. Is it my fault I wanted one of my best friends to enjoy a party?"
"Whatever, I don't want a party. I don't really want anything." Lucas turned on his heel and started walking quickly down the hallway.
I caught up to him. "Hey, hey, hey, there's nothing wrong with not wanting a party."
Lucas sighed. "It's kind of expected."
"Why? Because Joey throws one? Doesn't mean you have to. What do you want to do for your birthday?" I asked him.
"Honestly?" He asked and I nodded. "I want to paint. I want to read. I want to spend time with people whose company I actually enjoy. I want to spend time with you."
I smiled at that last sentence but as soon as it appeared, it slipped off my face. "Lucas I-"
"Yeah I know. It might not happen. Plus I'm pretty sure Joey might as well kick everyone out of the house to throw another one of his insane parties so...."
I put my hands on the tie of his uniform, fixing it for him before twisting it around my hand to pull him down to my height. He looked at me suspiciously before pressing a light kiss to my lips. "By the way congrats again for getting the national solo."
"Thank you." I grinned, my hand untangling itself from his tie but he kept his head leveled with mine.
"I don't think I've ever seen someone so happy on FaceTime." He laughed.
"It was a good day. You know, until..."
"Matilda," He sighed, leaning back to grab my hand so we could walk down the hallway. "She's really jealous of you."
Because I could reply to that Lucas pulled me down the hallway where I thought we would go down to the cafeteria but he opened the doors connecting to a platform for the stairs. Pulling me under the staircase, he leaned against the wall where on the opposite side of a door where I could see the snow falling from the sky and sticking to the ground.
"And we're here because?"
"Because everyone is either in class, or their departments or outside eating. And I would take you to the art room I'm usually in but a teacher is using it today."
Lucas took the tie off of his uniform while he spoke, tucking it into his pants pocket and it's like he could breathe a little. I watch him chew on his gum, take off his beanie and shove his fingers through his ungelled hair.
"Are you stressed?" His eyes had shifted uneasily behind his glasses.
"I've been assigned a...project you can say."
"A project." I repeated.
"Yeah, it's for this auction. All proceeds go to charity. My mum brought it up for me. They're hosting one in a couple of weeks or so."
"Your parents are like philanthropists?"
Lucas nodded. "Considering they both make tons of money individually in a year more than anyone could make in a lifetime they give away as much as they can."
"That's understandable but what's the problem?"
"Sometimes I can't believe that when I was fourteen someone thought one of my meaningless paintings was worth thousands of dollars. Not five dollars, thousands. It was insane and I'm always feeling an immense amount of pressure."
I could tell the pressure was clear visually. He looked tense and fidgety, showing a sign I knew of Lucas when he couldn't focus properly because he was thinking of so many things. "What do you have to paint?"
"Anything as long as it's worth a lot of money to help fund the charity. You put a bunch of rich people in a room with money to spend and they'll buy a piece of shit for a million dollars if it helps their image." I couldn't help but laugh at that and Lucas managed to crack a grin at his own joke. "But I want to paint something that's worth something."
"Do you have any idea what you're going to paint?"
Lucas' hand reached up towards my face hesitantly. I felt the coolness of his ring against my skin and his thumb brush over where the beauty mark was on my face. "Um...I was thinking of painting you."
I was pretty sure he just said he wanted to paint me but I couldn't really focus seeing his thumb was now tracing my bottom lip. "Me?" I managed to speak out.
He smiled sheepishly, his dimples digging into his cheek. "Yeah, plus it'll give me an excuse to see you during the break when you don't have dance."
"But you'll still be able to see me during the break."
"What?"
"Your mom's Christmas party? Remember? She invited my mom and me on the twenty fourth."
"She did?" Lucas looked so confused right then and there. I nodded, laughing at how adorable he was. He glanced down at the ground and I heard him mumble to himself, "I really am living up to my spirit animal."
"You are." I said, covering his hand with my own on my face.
Lucas grinned, leaning forward to kiss me when loud voices interrupted us with the sound of a door opening aggressively.
"Lydia-" I heard Joey try to speak but she cut him off.
"You think I didn't see your eyes on her?" I heard her yell at him and Lucas tensed, poking his head out to see what was going on. He sighed, leaning back but having a slight view of what was happening. I kept my eyes on Lucas when he dropped his hand from my face, only to intertwine our fingers together.
"I wasn't looking at her like that."
"You said the exact same thing last year when I caught your eyes on Jenny and the second we broke up, you went to her."
"I didn't do anything with Jenny." Joey said, his voice filled with annoyance.
"That's not what she says."
"You believe her over me? Weren't you just talking shit about Jenny to me that other day? I don't know why she's brought up into our conversation now."
"Because every time you look at someone like that, you break up with me."
"Don't make it seem like I'm the one at fault here babe."
"Are you trying to put the blame on me?"
"Am I the one that decides to have a fight over every little thing just when we're okay? You want to end this Lydia and this time I don't think I'm going to stop you."
"I never said I wanted to end this!" she loudly shrieks and there's a part of me that thinks she might actually be on the verge of tears because her voice suddenly became thick.
"I know you want to! There's a reason why everyone in this school knows we're on and off. You want drama. You want me to take you back every time you have this type of episode."
"Yes and it's not just my fault. It's yours as well. Stop putting the blame on me Joseph."
There was a moment and I looked at Lucas who was watching the scene with wary eyes.
"You know what?" I heard Joey say. "You're right. I've hurt you so many times and I don't bother apologizing and when I do, it's meaningless. So now I really am sorry that we took this sad excuse of a relationship too far so we're done. We're done."
"No we're not."
"We are. For good this time because everyone knows that you and I could do so much better than each other."
"Joey you know that I love-"
"You don't. Stop trying to convince yourself that you love me because you don't. If you really did, you wouldn't have given yourself to that Youtuber guy who was dating your best friend at the time, would you now?"
It takes me a moment to realize that he's talking about Octavia's ex-boyfriend. There's this huge pause and I have a feeling that they're probably glaring at one another before Lydia speaks. "We're done?"
"Yeah."
"Fine." The sound of a door being pushed open with a loud 'humph' is clear before it closes. I hear a huge sigh and the sound of something connecting with a wall. "Fuck." Joey hissed, making his way upstairs. Lucas moved past the staircase as his brother had disappeared upstairs.
'Wow.' I see Lucas mouth before standing in front of me, leaning his head back against the wall. "I should go talk to him after he calms down."
"Are their break ups always like this?"
Lucas shook his head. "Usually it's not even at school. Most of the time, it's at a party or in the living room. And usually it's them getting into a fight, not talking for a week and ending up back together. If they get back together after that I'll even be surprised. He's never said something like that before."
"Why was he with her for so long?" I asked curiously.
"I have no idea," Lucas sighed, reaching forward to trace his thumb against my bottom lip again. He glanced down at the watch on his wrist. "There's a minute until the bell rings."
"What does that have to do with-" He stepped forward and kissed me. Like really kissed me. That type of kiss you see in those romance movies where the two characters get really into it but usually they're at a house or at a really romantic place, not usually school.
And he deepened it hesitantly and I allowed him, my hand reaching up to grasp a hold of the back of his neck. I could feel my pulse quicken when his tongue brushed against mine. And the way he kisses me makes me think he's possibly thought about kissing me like this before or for a while now.
With my mind spinning, our lips move together and I focused on all that is Lucas. From the smell of his cologne, the taste of Juicy Fruit from the gum he had been chewing on for God knows how long and how one of his hands is cupping my face and the other is making its way up and down my arm where I was certain goose bumps were appearing on my skin from the heat of the moment.
The school bell interrupted us and I'm the one who pulls back, "Lucas." I pant out, trying to catch my breath when I hear the sound of students moving up and down the staircase but no one could spot us unless they walked along side it.
Lucas leaned his head back, opening his eyes and blinking a couple of times, his face flushed. "I'll ever get tired of doing that." He exhaled those words out.
"We should get going." I told him.
"Give me a second." He bit his bottom lip, closing his eyes. I laughed, leaning forward to press a gentle kiss to his cheek when he stilled. "Wait, where's my gum?"
I blew a bubble and popped it, grinning at him before making my way towards the classroom. When I got to class, I took my seat beside Sarah and she handed me my backpack. "Were you caught up with lover boy?"
"Kind of." I said, accepting my backpack and taking out my binder and textbook. "Did I miss anything?"
"Kim and Zen aren't talking for some weird reason again. Mary Anne and Eduardo seem okay. You remember the drama between Ken, Mikayla, Wendell, Spencer-"
"You mean the biggest drama in the school right now? The one everyone has been paying attention to? The one that Kim told me about at her cousin's wedding?"
"Yeah," Sarah examined her French tip nails. "So you heard that Ken was cheating on Spencer with this other girl and Mikayla who he made out with at that party weeks ago?"
I nodded, kind of eager to hear what happened.
"And you know how Mikayla was dating Wendell?"
I nodded again, waiting for the bomb that was about to drop. High school drama was always interesting when you weren't involved in it but watching it happen like a good movie or TV show was insane.
"Wendell and Spencer are dating now."
The pencil that was in my hand dropped to the ground. "What?"
"Sydney," Mrs. Olivera said from the front. "Is there something you would like to share with the class?"
My eyes widened and suddenly I felt embarrassed as everyone's eyes turned towards me. "Um...no, sorry." I said quietly, practically shrinking into my seat and grabbing that pencil that had fallen to the floor.
Mrs. Olivera stood up from her chair ready to hand out the papers for our unit tests today. Sarah laughed beside me and I rolled my eyes, nudging her.
I glanced behind me to look at Lucas who was already watching me, his feet stretched out under his desk and his fingers twisting the pencil in his hands. Just then my phone buzzed in my pocket and I saw a text message from him.
Turtle:
You owe me a piece of gum.
I looked up at him, shoving my phone back in my pocket. 'No', I mouthed with a little bit of attitude.
Lucas raised an eyebrow in question of my antics and I looked forward, feeling a buzz in my pocket again.
Turtle:
You're lucky you're cute Canada girl.
I quickly put my phone in my pocket again just when Mrs. Olivera set the test on my desk. A smile found its way to my face that I struggled to push off my expression with no luck.
And because Lucas had once told me I was hard to describe and that it was a good thing, I glanced back at him and mouthed 'I know', catching him off guard.
His pencil almost fell out of his hand and onto the ground but he managed to stable himself just as Mrs. Olivera put the test on his desk. I could hear him chuckle from a distance and that smile that was on my face didn't fade while I took that test.