Unpredictable (A Dance Story)

Chapter 2

*Wednesday of that week*

I looked carefully at my reflection in the mirror. I had been in a rush to get ready and was making sure it didn't show. In true ballerina style, I had slicked back my long brown hair into a bun and stuck a bow in it. I always did this when I slept in late. My phone lit up and played a bubbly noise, capturing my attention.

"Don't forget to bring your dance stuff - going right to the studio after school."

I sighed. Two girls on my competition team had been assigned a duet, but one of them couldn't make it to the competition and the other refused to dance with a different partner. Miss Sarah had frantically asked Abbie and I if we would dance it instead, so we were spending extra time at the studio learning the duet.

"Thanks for reminding me" I texted back, silencing my phone and slipping it into my pocket before grabbing my bag and heading up the stairs.

"Hey, Ells," my grandmother called, using the nickname she'd made up for me long ago.

My grandparents had moved in with us years ago. My house was pretty big, so my grandparents took the 2 rooms and little bathroom upstairs. My parents had the master bedroom and master bathroom on the same level as my grandparents. I, however, got the best deal when it came to rooms. I got the entire basement, remodeled into a bedroom, bathroom, and dance room. I loved my dance room. It was as big as one of the rooms at my studio with a dance floor, mirror on the wall, and barre mounted on the mirror.

"Morning, Mimi," I said, stifling a yawn. 'Mimi' was something I'd always called my grandmother, just as I called my grandfather 'Papa'.

Mimi pushed a plate over the counter and I stopped it with my hand, gasping.

"Sweet rolls!"

Mimi made the best homemade sweet rolls; they were delicious doughy, cinnamon-y rolls that she put peanut butter on. For some reason, the peanut butter mixed into the glaze just worked. They were my favorite!

"Thank you so much Mimi!" I squealed, picking one apart with my fingers. It was still warm from the oven.

"Anything for my Ells," Mimi said with a smile.

I finished up my first one and took two more for the ride to school. I seemed to never have time for breakfast in the morning, yet I refused to go without it. Everybody on the bus was used to me bringing food with me, and they frequently begged for me to share, so when I could, I brought extra. Sure enough, when I stepped onto the bus, Holden made room for me to sit with him and waited expectantly. I chuckled to myself and plopped down in the seat next to him.

"Okay, Ford, what have you got for me today?" He asked, eyeing my plate.

Holden always called me by my last name, but I didn't mind. I peeled back the napkin covering my paper plate and Holden immediately snatched up a sweet roll.

"I love you, I hope you know that," he gasped, inhaling the sweet roll.

"Yeah, I'm probably the coolest person you know," I replied.

Ten minutes later, the bus pulled up in front of the middle school. I watched the little kids get off and gave an exaggerated sigh of relief. Holden smirked. Holden and I always joked about how annoying the middle schoolers were, even though we were only Sophomores and had recently been in the middle school students' place.

When we finally got off the bus, I waited with Holden in the cafeteria for Abbie. The three of us had been best friends ever since we were little. In fact, in dance class, Abbie and I took turns partnering with Holden.

"Hi Ella, Abbie," said a voice. I turned around and came face-to-face with Logan.

I was surprised that he would take time to come and talk to Abbie and I. After catching us taking pictures at the park, he had said that he should talk to me more, but I didn't think he'd make good on the offer!

"Hey, Logan," I said, trying not to sound shy. Abbie just waved, looking tired.

"Oh, hi, Logan! Thanks for the greeting," Holden said sarcastically.

Logan grinned. "Sorry, Holden."

Holden just shook his head dramatically.

"So, how's dance?" Logan asked.

Abbie and I looked at each other knowingly. "We have a last-minute duet to learn before our competition in two weeks," I said.

Logan tilted his head. "Why didn't you just learn it when you started your other dances?"

"The girls who were supposed to be doing it couldn't," Abbie sighed.

"Yeah," I chimed in, "Now I have a solo, two duets, and a group dance."

"Two duets?" Logan echoed.

"I have a contemporary duet with Holden," I answered, nodding at Holden, who gave a sheepish grin. Just then, the bell rang and everyone started scrambling to get out of the cafeteria. We had ten minutes to be in home base with all of our stuff. Abbie and Holden knew they had to hurry to get to their respective home bases and ducked out, leaving me and Logan by ourselves. Great.

"Where's your home base?" Logan asked me.

"The English department," I replied, showing no emotion.

"I'll walk you there," Logan decided. I didn't protest.

"Holden dances?" Logan asked, after a second.

I nodded. "See, you're not weird. Holden doesn't just love to watch dancing, he loves actually dancing."

Logan sighed. "That's pretty cool, I guess."

"You guess?"

Logan gave a little smile. "Do you spend a lot of time with him?"

"Yep. I told you, we're duet partners!"

"Do you...like him?"

Logan's question caught me off guard and I gave a snort of laughter. "No. We're best friends. Plus, I'm pretty sure he has a hopeless crush on Abbie!"

Just like my hopeless crush on you, I thought to myself.

Logan's cheeks burned red for a second and he took a breath. "Well, I've already embarrassed myself enough so I guess I'll just make a day of it."

I cocked my head and waited for him to say something else.

"I was wondering if, maybe, you wanted to come and see a movie with me?"

I almost squealed, my eyes going wide with delight.

"Really?"

He nodded, looking scared.

"Yes!" I exclaimed, "When?"

I'm pretty sure that, at that moment, I had a mini-heart-attack. He looked as shocked at me saying yes as I felt after he asked.

"Saturday?"

I groaned. "I'm going on vacation next week and I'll be dancing all day Saturday until I leave."

I stopped at my locker and began to put in the combination.

"When do you get back?" Logan asked.

"Next Friday."

"How about that Saturday?"

I beamed. "Sounds like a plan."

Logan smiled and said, "Great, see you then!"

As soon as he was out of earshot, I squealed and pulled out my phone.

"OMG ABBIE GUESS WHAT!"

Abbie was going to freak!

***

Hi! Hope everyone likes it so far :) It will get a lot more exciting soon, I promise. One more chapter about dance and we'll find out what happened to Ella in the prologue.

I'd really appreciate it if you voted and commented on my story. I especially like constructive criticism! I know I have a long way to go with writing but help me figure out what I need to fix right away to make my writing better. Alright, well, thanks!!!!

The picture on the right is Abbie.

~HalleBallet