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18: The Unwelcomed Guests

**Rosie POV**

I was dreading this rehearsal all week. I tried everything to just calm down about it and try not over react however I could not get the bad feeling of dread out of my stomach. I was nervous, well more than just nervous. I was terrified and most importantly, embarrassed.

James knew I had a crush on him. I was almost certain. I pretty much told him at the Halloween party and since then I had been trying to avoid him in class. I almost never was near him. Almost.

But unfortunately partnering class involves me to dance with James. We always dance with each other. It was just normal for us to dance together. Ms. Marina made it feel normal. But now I regret ever secretly begging Ms. Marina to let me dance with James because now all I wanted to do was get as far away from him as possible while he tried to make me talk.

"Rosie, Mom and Dad are home!" Aubrey called from the kitchen. I was in the middle of pinning up my hair for rehearsal. I looked at my clock and saw it read 4:15. I had fifteen minutes until rehearsal started and yet I was still here at home.

I quickly pinned the rest of my hair into the back of my head and ran into my closet and put on a black leo. Then quickly grabbing my ballet bag I ran down stairs to meet my parents. They both had the fakest tans on and dad had a cheap Hawaii shirt buttoned one button off on his shoulders.

"Mom...dad. How was the trip?" I asked as I walked into the kitchen, searching for my keys.

"Oh it was great hunny. We have so much to tell you and we brought you both gifts from the island. Wait Rosie where are you going?" Mom asked as I started to head for the door.

"I have a big rehearsal and I can't miss it." I replied quickly. For some reason, even though I didn't really want to face James, I would rather go to rehearsal then spend time with my parents that I had not seen for two weeks... Something was off with me today.

I quickly waved to my parents and raced to my car. I thankfully got to the studio with five minutes to spare and was putting on my shoes when Ms. Marina walked in.

"Rosie! Good you're here. This is going to be a private rehearsal since it's on the grand dance. So come to the small studio okay?" She asked nicely. I nodded and grabbed my bag and followed her out of the big studio.

When we reached the smaller studio, James was already there, waiting for us.

"Alright James, Rosie. Why don't we start at the beginning and work from there." Ms. Marina began. I nodded and so did James and we did the best we could. In my mind I thought of myself just being professional and not putting drama from my normal life involved into dance rehearsal.

It worked of course because at one point I forgot that James and I were in an awkward situation. Instead we danced and I loved it to say the truth. Ms. Marina must have seen a difference because she smiled more and kept complimenting me on what I was doing.

"Okay you two, take a break. I have to go check on the ballet four girls." Ms. Marina said quickly. She left the room before we had even moved.

"Ballet four girls? I thought Ms. Alice taught... oh wait." I murmured .

"Oh. Well yeah, she is gone." He replied simply. I sighed and walked over to my bag and grabbed my water bottle.

"So you seemed to be a little more cheerful today. What has changed?" He asked. I turned around and saw him walking toward me, water bottle in hand. I turned slightly pink but covered it up by drinking another gulp of my water.

"Oh well I've decided to stop the stupid drama between us really. We don't really need more drama in our lives. Don't we have enough as it is?" I asked, showing a small smile. I was relieved to see James actually smile and laugh.

"No truer words have been spoken by you Rosie!" I chuckled and walked back to my bag and put my water bottle away.

"So if we're good, then can I ask you one question?" He asked, his voice turning serious. I turned back to him, a feeling of dread starting to fill in my stomach. I shrugged and nodded at him to ask.

"How long.. did you have a crush on me?" I turned away from him pretending to check something on my phone but I faked a chuckle to relieve tension.

"Oh it was very short. It was really silly actually. It happened and ended all in the same week. Just another example of stupid girl's emotions." I replied with a forced laugh at the end.

"Oh alright." He replied. Just then there were sounds of footsteps and then the door opened and a group of people walked in. Only three people in the crowd that I actually knew. In the corner of my eye I saw James straighten up like he always did when he became stressed and uncomfortable.

We were surrounded by a bunch of girls that looked around the age of 18 or 19. The only person that was not a girl was Chris who stood in the center looking pretty pleased with himself. On one side stood Sara that made me turn slightly pink for she was staring daggers at me for no real reason. Walking through the group of girls was Ms. Marina again but this time she had a straighter posture like her son that showed her discomfort.

"Ah James, Rosie. These are the replacements for the parts in the nutcracker. May I introduce Kat, Jenna, and Ellen."

The girls eyes all seemed to scan me as if I was a piece of meat and then turned their gazes at James. The girl standing closest to Chris showed a small smile at the sight of James.

"Well hello there." She said in a charismatic voice. "I'm sure we will all get along splendidly, right girls?" She asked, turning to the girls behind her. The two other girls smiled behind her and nodded, even though one of them seemed less pleased with the whole fake sweetness thing.

Ms. Marina laughed.

"Oh wonderful. Well know, James, Rosie, why don't you go over what we did earlier with your replacements while I speak to Kat, Jenna and Ellen about their parts." She ordered. I nodded slowly and turned to James.

He looked just as pleased as I did. This was going to be interesting.