SUPER RICH KIDS

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

DEVIN STRUTS INTO THE A-List practice room, his bare feet brushing the glossy wooden floor and Bloch jazz shoes in hand. He sets his shoes in the corner and looks around at the empty room, satisfied. He's always at least ten minutes early to practice and loves being the first one in the room.

His eyes catch his reflection in the mirror and he moves forward with casual grace, scanning himself over. Glossy black hair pulled back from his delicately featured face in a sleek high bun atop his head; grey eyes enhanced with waterproof mascara on his lashes; lithe, lean body suited in a black tank leotard and purple Capezio dance shorts. He looks flawless and, after a fantastic day, he feels even better.

Devin moves over the barre on the wall opposite and begins methodically warming up. He loves to dance, moving to the music, hitting every turn and jump, the attention and applause, and letting the background sound fill his ears. The silence, on the other hand, could be soothing and kind, relaxing, as he lets whatever tension he holds leak out of him.

It hasn't even been five minutes since he began and his peace is intruded upon.

"Dev?" Juliette asks, strolling in slowly, her feet not quite silent. Devin lifts his head and upper body, pulling away from where one of his long legs was propped on the barre and setting both feet on the floor.

"Hey, Jules," the raven smiles. Juliette grins in return, her teeth white and perfect between full ruby lips, and leans in for a hug, smelling potently of Tiffany &Co perfume and coconut body butter. "New sports bra?" Devin asks when he pulls away. His eyes flick down to his best friend's impressive bosom but are focused solely on the turquoise sports bra. Juliette nods. The action makes her dark curls bounce around her tan shoulders.

"Yeah, I got it from Victoria's Secret, like, last weekend. Isn't it cute?" Juliette smirks. She struck a pose, looking altogether like a model in the middle of a photoshoot with her tall, toned body. "Jealous?"

"If I had breasts, maybe. You know I don't get jealous though, Jules. People are envious of us, not the other way around," Devin says coolly, one groomed eyebrow arched. Juliette cackles, tossing her head back and pads over to the middle of the floor to begin stretching.

Within the next ten minutes, all members of A-List filed in from Parker Black, the new team co-captain who Devin and Jules greet with pursed lips and a frosty glare, to Cheyenne Singer, a super tall and super flexible contemporary dancer.

"Okay," Parker says loudly, clapping his hands together as he takes his place at the front of the room next to Devin and Juliette. "We're going to go over the choreo that Devin, Juliette, and I showed you yesterday." Without another word, he turns and moves towards where the sound system is set up to cue up the music. Let's hope you can keep up goes unsaid but it's silently meaningful- for most of them. Juliette notices Devin rolling his eyes in the mirror and shakes her head in agreement.

The moment the music cues up, every dancer hits their position. Dua Lipa's Levitating starts up and the girls immediately go into piqué turns. Parker, Alicia, and Daisy all roll to the floor, kicking their legs up behind them before rolling again. Behind them, Devin, Jules, and Delaney are doing fouettés and the guys are doing footwork and turns. Their dance is mellow with a lot of turns and leaps. It's contemporary and jazz with a hint of ballet scissors and spins before it hits the chorus and the boys explode in a series of handsprings and flips across the floor.

As soon as the music fades out at the end of the routine, Parker pulls away from their ending positions to frown at them critically.

"Your acro is sloppy, Delaney," Parker informs Delaney, who clearly wants to throttle him. "Keep your body tighter when you pull your legs over your head. And Eric, can you join the girls when they fouetté? Alexis, take his place. Christina, you're leaping a split second behind and then rushing to make up for it. Fix that. And Cassie, were you improvising when you were breakdancing at the chorus?"

Cassie cocks an eyebrow and nods, smirking. "Yeah. It was cool, wasn't it?"

"You need to have consistency," Parker snaps coldly, ignoring the question. "Or else the group will get confused -"

"This is our second time doing this. We don't have consistency yet." Daisy sharply cuts in. "What the fuck is he smoking?"

"We need to develop it early. Do you have a set routine?" Parker presses, his voice cutting. He's using the sort of tone someone would use on an uncooperative child who had pulled the same petulant stunt yet again.

Devin recognizes what it is. A put-down meaning to display Cassie as a fucking kid and he scowls at this, his cool satisfaction lost. He's not liking this situation at all.

"Yes, do you have a stick up your ass?" Cassie mocks, squaring her shoulders to tower over the ballerino.

Parker's eyes blaze with suppressed fury, losing his composure in the way only fighting with Cassie could make him do. "Excuse me? I can't understand what you're saying - I don't speak idiot, sorry."

A loud throat-clearing interrupts their spat and both of them spin around to see Devin and Juliette, standing in the middle of the room looking distinctly unimpressed. "Is this what we're doing with our time?" He asks coldly. "Putting on a theatrical act when we're supposed to be practicing our routine?"

The rest of the A-List don't turn away uncomfortably but meets their gazes with subtle shrugs and nods. Olivia gives Cassie a look which indicates that, however amusing this is, they all know they should get back to the matter at hand.

"It's been five minutes," Avery says in lieu of full reprimand. "Come on, let's just continue." He looks at Olivia, who doesn't meet his eyes, and instead reaches out to Cassie, clasping her shoulder. The silver-haired girl is still scowling but keeps her mouth shut and settles for trying to throw fire at Parker with her eyes.

The slim brunette ignores her, does a few deep breathing exercises (in...two-three-four, out...two-three-four), and then refocuses. "Right."

The main instructor, Miss Valerie claps her hands twice, the sound sharp and echoing in the practice room. "Bien. Now, focus. Go back to the routine. And Cassie, use that solo you have prepared."

Parker smirks at her and Cassie's scowl deepens. Olivia's fingers grip a bit tighter and the brown-haired girl keeps her mouth shut.

"Parker, wipe that smirk off of your face. This is your team, not an army. Speak to and with them, don't fly off the rails. Stop acting like you're above them because you're not." Juliette says sharply. This shit just started and he's already annoyed.

That's enough for Cassie's scowl to melt into a satisfied sneer at seeing Parker get put in his place. Parker glares daggers at her, but nods and gets into position.

Devin can see the steam coming out of his best friend's ears and pulls her out of the room. "I'm going to take Jules outside for a minute. She's a bit worked up about this." So is he, but he doesn't feel like saying that out loud. As they walk out, he can feel a sharp stare on him. He turns around to see Parker looking his way. He raises an eyebrow, questioning the other's motives.

"Can I help you, Parker?"

"Nope." This evil ass bitch is going to get it. "Not at all."

Juliette is pacing back and forth. Devin leans against the wall watching her. He's trying to formulate a plan to kick Parker out and take the reins back. As previously mentioned, he and Jules started this team and they are not letting this cocky bitch Parker fuck it up.

"He thinks that because he's from a prominent family that he can worm his way in here and ruin what we've built. It's not happening, Devin." Jules is still pacing as she talks.

Devin grips her shoulders and stops her from moving. "You're right. He's going to learn that I have a hell of a lot of influence around here. Parker Black is not going to know what the fuck hit him. Karma is a big bitch and his name is Devin Michael motherfucking Harrison."

They sport twin smirks and head back in.