Rêveries

Chapter 68.

Charles flew to Mexico to race, then he flew to the US to race. I was busy at home, preparing a whole new choreography for one of the biggest events Elliòtt and I would be at. It's a dance competition in Monaco, making it one of the more prestigious ones. It's not related to any of the other competitions, meaning we're not winning points or anything if we win it, but we do win quite a lot of money.

It takes up a whole weekend, it's being broadcasted on local TV, and it has a theme every year. There's like a fundraiser gala the day before the competition where people bet their money on dancers, and the money they bet go to a charity of the winning dancer's choice. So if you do well, you get to give money to charity and you get money right in your pocket. Elliòtt is very excited and is trying to make sure we're going to win.

They announce the theme only three weeks from the competition, making it a bit more of a challenge to put the choreography together and perfect it in such a short time. But Elliòtt has been insisting we perfect the most basic things just to make it easier when we know the theme.

The theme they set for this year was musical. We had to get a song from a musical and make a choreography to it, while also making it somewhat of a show to really catch the eye of the judges. Make it entertaining for people who don't really know anything about dance. We had three weeks where we danced all day almost every single day. We went to the gym for our strength sessions, we ran together, which was the worst part of all this. I can't stand the guy and suddenly I have to spend even more time with him.

The song I pushed to get, and the song we ended up picking, was Voulez-vous from the Mamma Mia movie. He thought it wouldn't work, but I went out of my way to show him that it would. As soon as I got home at night, I'd sit down and I'd plan out the outfits we could wear, how to recreate the scene to make it interesting, and then how to get the actual cha cha in there. In the end, he had no choice but to agree that it could be good.

So we started by learning the choreography to the dance that they're doing in a circle, some simple spins and some clapping and such, and then we went on to continue with the actual choreo, where we also added some parts of the scene from the movie to really commit to the theme.

As soon as I had the time, I was running in and out of Ms. Dupont's store like crazy. First it was the gala dress, and I had to ask her about it, talk material, are rhinestones good? Maybe I should go with blue? Or black? And then it was the dress that Sophie's wearing in the movie, which Ms. Dupont only needed my measurements for, and then she told me she would get it done. I trust her to do it, because she truly is amazing with all these dresses.

Charles came home, but I told him he wasn't allowed at the competition. I don't want him to run into Elliòtt and I don't want to be more stressed, and I also don't want to bring more attention to me from reporters and photographers than I already will be.

"Tu as travaillé si dur, je veux te regarder," You've worked so hard, I want to watch you, he argued as I tried to ignore his third attempt of making me allow him to go.

"Tu as une télé," You have a TV, I point out

"Est-ce qu'Evie y va?" Is Evie going? he asks. I continue pretending to fold some clean laundry on my bed without answering, because of course she's going. I need her there because I'll go insane if I have to be there alone with Elliòtt for a whole weekend. But Evie knows about dance, she knows what I have to do, where I have to be, what I need from her throughout the day. Charles will always bring extra attention, which I don't need. "Elle est... d'accord," She is... okay, Charles sighed, sounding offended.

"Charles... s'il vous plaît," Please, I sigh as I turn to him. He raises his eyebrows as he walks into my room. "Si tu vas au gala, les gens penseront que je t'utilise pour parier. Si vous allez à la compétition, vous attirerez plus d'attention," If you go to the gala, people will think I'm using you for betting. If you go to the competition, you will attract more attention.