Until I Found Her

6: Dance, Learn, Repeat

(Edited: August 18th, 2023)

BECCA

I entered my dance studio a little late than usual because I had to pick up my fabulous bike from the repair shop. Mechanics were gods, believe me.

My dance classes were usually scheduled on Tuesday and Thursday. Evening/morning your wish. I preferred going in the mornings- before school. If any Tuesday or Thursdays mornings were missed, they were scheduled on Wednesday and Friday evenings. But as my SATs exams were near, I had to change my time table. For the past month and for the upcoming two months I would be going only on Tuesdays evenings.

Oh and also I work here.

On Sunday mornings, I taught the kids dance, belonging to the age group- five to nine years.

After dad died, it had been hard for my mom to handle the financial crisis on her own. I was not that mature at that time but as two years passed, I started noticing the truth behind her lies. So I started looking for part time jobs to help mom. Lisa was the one who offered me the job. I obviously didn't deny because I was enough capable of teaching the young kids and I couldn't get a better part time job than this.

I loved dancing. But the credit goes to my parents. When I was five, both my parents thought to make their daughter engage in dancing. And without my consent, they enrolled my name in a dance studio. Ha. But as I grew older, I found myself actually liking it. Loving it.

Thirteen years back, when Lisa was younger like around twenty three, she used to be the only dance teacher in this studio. And as a result, she taught me dancing. But as time past, the number of teachers here, started increasing. This dance studio started getting popular, and students who had finished their courses from here, were found to be a participant of the World Dance Champion.

It had been less than a year that Lisa had stopped teaching. She was officially the manager of this studio now.

Lisa Pent was too good in her field. Like toooo good. She had won the title of the World Dance Champion three times along with hundreds of other dance competitions. I was lucky enough to be one of her students.

But... Being scolded by Lisa was not on anyone's checklist. For her making mistake in dance wasn't a big deal, but forgetting the steps was. 'Forget' or 'not being punctual' were not very good terms to Lisa. And that was the reason, I was trying not to make any sort of contact with her before I change into my dance clothes.

Shaking off the fear, I made my way to the changing room. I entered the changing room, seeing few similar faces who greeted me with a smile. After greeting them back, I quickly changed my leotard.

I texted mom and Drew, that I have reached, because Drew and I didn't usually talk much the days I had dance classes, because by the time I returned home, I would be tired as hell. And if I didn't text mom, she would keep calling the entire two and half hours I would be here. After texting, I put my phone in my locker and headed back to the room to warm up, only to see few new faces.

Ignoring the curiosity, I started doing the usual warm ups, doing each only for four to five times to not waste time. As I was about to stand up someone smacked me on my head not so lightly but not to harshly either.

Got any seats empty in heaven? Hell would work too. I didn't even need to hear the voice to recognize who it was.

"Don't skip any stretchings. You came late, you will start late. And no shortcuts." Lisa said strictly while pointing at me with her index finger.

I didn't know what else to do or say, so I just grinned sheepishly and started doing the warms up all over again, this time taking time.

Lisa was around in her late thirties now, but she still was absolute beautiful. Her blonde hair added more elegance to her face.

Now a fact to boast about- I used to call her Lisa while others called her either ma'am or Ms. Pent because I had been calling her so since childhood. Back story was, on my first day here when she was introducing herself to everyone, nevertheless calling her ma'am, I called her Lisa. She found it funny and hadn't ever said me once to change it.

I won't lie and say that I never took advantage of it. When I was around nine, I used to brag and tease other children of my age, saying them she prefers me more because she allowed me to call her by her real name. Few of them used to start crying after hearing it. Not my fault.

As Lisa was here I thought to ask her about the new faces. The admission season here, was from July to December. And it was February. "What are these new people doing here?" I asked lifting my chin towards the new faces who were done with their warms-ups. Pheww, need to hurry up.

"Few people from different schools enrolled there names for a week, specifically for prom." Lisa rolled her eyes and emphasized at the word specifically. That... Nope. Lisa didn't like it at all.

But I wanted to tear up. I had forever wanted to show off my dance skills in prom. F.O.R.E.V.E.R.
Stupid fuckface principal.

"I think you are done. Get up and do few lunges and then go and join others." Lisa instructed. Nodding, I stood up to do the lunges. After I was done with them, I chugged down an entire bottle of water before hitting the floor.

Let's roll baby!!

(#^.^#)

It was around 9:45 when I was done with my practice. It was time to finally go home. Yay!

More than half of the people had already left. 'You come late, you start late' Hmmm. The new faces were giggling and gossiping about prom and were asking each other when to go shopping for the dresses. My fi gets itched to wrap themselves around their necks but instead, I ignored them and cursed my luck.

After changing back to my usual clothes I waved off to the ones who were still hanging around there and went outside. I made my way to the bicycle parking rack when I felt my phone vibrated. Unlocking it, I saw a message from our school prefect that read 'Tomorrow morning assembly; hence come fast.' Screw my life.

I quickly ran to Yolo and unparked it. I sat on the saddle and started pushing the pedals as fast I could because I needed to go home asap. I had to shower, ear dinner, complete few assignments and most importantly I needed to sleep.

~1175 words

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As per February 6th, 2024: This chapter might be edited again, later.)