Limitless: The Second Edition

Hannah

The next day of rehearsal comes way too slowly. When there's something exciting happening, and that something only happens every other day, the time in between seems to pass slower than a sloth moving at its slowest speed. And when that in-between time is dotted with boring classes, it's even worse, especially when the person you want to hang out with rarely crosses paths with you outside of rehearsal.

Today is Courtney's first official rehearsal with us, and she's excited to see all of us. Last time, after she got done visiting with Oliver and I, we introduced her to our other friends. They warmed up to her rather quickly. That's not surprising. Courtney is not the kind of person to have any difficulty whatsoever making friends.

Today we're working on choreography. Oliver is very nervous. He doesn't want everyone to see his dance moves, which he thinks are terrible. I personally think they're great for someone on crutches. I also wish he'd quit talking down on himself. There's so much talent within him. Yet he seems to be the only one who doesn't see it.

Courtney is our dance teacher for the day. She started the rehearsal by telling us about her experience as a choreographer with the Chain Breaker team, and we were all excited to have an actual Broadway choreographer as our dance coach. As for me, I'm just happy to have my best friend back. She leads us through warm ups before turning on "Winner", the biggest dance number.

"Wait," Oliver objects. "Just so you know, my dance moves are terrible. Just a warning for everyone."

Courtney shakes her head. I know she's going to reiterate to him what I've told him what feels like hundreds of thousands of times. "I don't have many rules, Oliver, but one of the few rules I do have is no putting yourself down. I'm sure your moves are fine. Remember, Derek would be proud of whatever you can do."

The mention of Derek seems to revive Oliver's confidence. "I'll give it a shot," he says after thinking for a moment.

"There you go," I reply. "You've got this. Just imagine Derek watching you and cheering you on."

Oliver grins at me and then turns back to Courtney. "Let's do this."

She spends the next five minutes directing him through his solo choreography. My heart swells with pride as I watch him. Despite the fact that his right leg doesn't work, he's giving it his all, doing everything he can to make it count.

"He's pretty good," Sadie whispers to me. "I don't see why he thinks he's not."

"I agree," I reply. "He's amazing. He tries really hard, and that's what matters. He's really good at it, and he just doesn't realize it. Besides, the choreography is designed so that Enso doesn't have to use his legs to dance. He really only needs to use his arms."

"But because he's using arm crutches instead of the ones that go under your arms, he might have a hard time doing it."

We've been keeping our voices down so we don't seem like we're talking behind Oliver's back, but Ms. Dawson seems to have heard us. She quietly walks back to the stagecraft room and returns with the crutches Oliver will be using in the show. She gently taps Oliver's shoulder and offers him the alternative to make his job easier. He doesn't say anything, just nods and slips the crutches under his arms. As we watch, we can see that the change definitely did the trick for him.

When Oliver finishes doing the choreography on his own for the first time, we all applaud. Oliver blushes a little.

"That wasn't so bad," Oliver remarks.

"See?" Courtney answers. "You're really good at dancing. You just have to make yourself believe it. Now, let's go over the choreography the rest of you are going to be doing."

We spend the rest of the rehearsal going over the dance, which is easy for me, because I already have it memorized. I feel like I'm flying as my feet move. If I could wave a magic wand and make Oliver dance with me, I would. After we're done, , Oliver switches out his stage crutches for his usual ones, but I stop Oliver before he can leave the stage. "I want to dance," I tell him.

"Well, you're the best dancer I've ever seen, so in my book, that gives you the right to bust out dancing whenever you feel like it."

I shake my head. "No. I don't want to dance alone." I pull out my phone and turn on "Winner". "Let's dance."

I hold my hands out. Then he does something I've never seen him do before. He props his crutches against the lectern and grips onto my shoulders. "Let's dance," he repeats. We move slowly, but we're dancing. I catch Courtney watching us and videoing us on her phone. But I don't care who's watching us. The smile on Oliver's face is all I need right now. He's dancing for real, no crutches. When the song ends, Oliver hugs me tightly. That's when I realize we're halfway across the stage, a good three yards from where he left his crutches.

"Look how far we've danced," I whisper to him. "On your own, with me."

He smiles. "That felt amazing. But I need to get my crutches back. I can't hold on much longer."

We backtrack until we arrive at the lectern. Oliver grabs his crutches again. We head down from the stage, where Courtney calls me over.

"I talked to your mother after she called me last night," she says. "I want to take you out to dinner tonight. Just us two. We have a lot of catching up to do."

I nod. "Let me say goodbye to Oliver first."

"I saw you two dancing up there," she replies. "You're good for him, Hannah."

After saying goodbye to Oliver, I go back to Courtney.

"Thanks for the dance," Oliver calls to me.

"Anytime," I call back. Then Courtney and I exit the auditorium, but I keep looking back over my shoulder at Oliver, unable to forget the feeling of our brief dance of freedom.