Arcane ~ ONGOING

~Chapter Twenty-Five~

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(A/N: Guys... thus chapter. It has so many thing and it is so long. I'm so sorry but the ending man, don't miss that. I am so ready for you to read this as well as the next chapter where her brother will learn the truth. Also, disclaimer: She did not have that talk with Octavian. Ik, it socks but well 😭😭)

"And up," Miss Alex instructed as my feet left the ground and I did a handstand on Esai's shoulders. In a moment or two I felt Esai's form wobble taking us both down. We both let out a string of profanities as we landed on the safety mats below.

"Guys," James started walking towards us as Ellie stopped the music, "I thought you had this part of the lift down. What happened?"

"Uh yeah we said, we did, sorry 'bout that" I muttered laying down flat on my back on the mat. We were preparing for the state championship and previously this dance was for Esai and Nova but Nova ended up spraining her ankle. Miss Alex thought it would be best for me to start with some duets, trios and solos so she asked me to do it with Esai and now I keep making mistakes on the lift.

"It was my fault," Esai mumbled laying down on the mat as well, "I was the one who wobbled because of which we fell." My head turned to look at him with furrowed eyebrows as James sighed. It has been two hours since we practiced. We learnt the routine yesterday.

"Okay then, take a two minutes break you two. We run one final rehearsal once and then we will see what to do with the lift," James muttered.

"You didn't have to take all the blame," I muttered as he turned to look at me. He was lying on his back as well, opposite to how I was laying but his head was near mine.

"I had to or everybody would think it was you since you're the new kid. I mean, I won't deny you're clumsy but I am good at heart," he said, cheekily but his face remained stoic much like Octavian, but Octavian was quite intimidating and scary which I didn't feel with Esai. I grabbed the closest thing to hand, which happened to be Lucas' used tank top which he threw on the side just moments ago and I threw it at Esai, chuckling, "Shut up," I muttered.

He groaned as the smell hit him

and he removed the cloth from his face, fixing me with a hard glare, making my smile falter. I let my cheerful expression fall and sat up. I wasn't scared of him but I wasn't dumb either. He could hurt me quite bad if he wanted to and I didn't want to give him a reason for that. I hated that I was so paranoid, I couldn't enjoy a single moment with being scared for my life. But I was also grateful.

I had seen the world for what it is and I was sure that I had gone through the worst. After all, how cruel could humankind possibly get?

I flinched lightly as a hand landed on my shoulder. I looked back to see Esai with furrowed eyebrows but blank eyes and face. He quickly retracted his hand before sitting beside me, our back against a wall as we watched Sandy, Ellie and Tessa practice for their trio. The mood had quickly dropped from joyful to a gloomy one.

"Do you think we should extend today's time till we get the whole routine down?" He asked, not taking his off the girls' rehearsals.

"We already have most of it down so I don't think it should be too long," I muttered, looking at the dancers as well. I knew he had questions and concerns but he was holding himself back and I appreciated it more than anything right now.

"I'll go talk to Miss Alex then," He muttered standing up and I nodded. He returned after a few moments. "She extended our time by an hour so we can start practicing for the group routine with everyone for now and do our dance in the last two hours."