Dance This way: An Avi Kaplan fan fiction

What's Happening!

From the day I was born, I knew I wanted to dance. It was what I loved and live for. When I was seven, I dressed as Dorothy Dandridge for Halloween. None of the other kids knew who she was, but I absolutely loved it. At the age of 14, I was this dorky little nerd who still had dance moves. I got into a dance battle with the cheerleaders of my school because I didn't want to join their squad. Now, I'm 24, and just a few months shy of graduating from Martha Lee's college for performing arts.
It was an average morning. I was running down the hall trying to avoid being late for the third time that semester. One more strike, and I get knocked down by one of madam Collére's lectures and I wouldn't want to give her the satisfaction. I bobbed past a few classmates and dodged a few people in the hall. With only two minutes to spare, I made it to destination. I looked to the front of he class and saw that Madam Colleré wasn't there yet. I took my spot in between my two best friends Alex and Lena who were already stretching.

"Cutting it a little close today, aren't we?" Alex asked teasing me.

"Shut up. I'm here aren't I" I said I little out of breath.

"Here and barely alive" Alex said. "What happened" he asked.

"I got a little caught up" I said.

"So, you over slept again" he asked.

"I tried to wake you this morning" Lena said lightly nagging me.

"Sorry mom" I said sticking my tongue out. I put my braids in a bun and couldn't help but  notice half the class was huddled around Layla Jackson's tablet. "Where's dragon lady" I asked. Both of them shrugged. I can't imagine anything that would make her late. Last year it snowed so bad she didn't cancel class until 15 minutes before its scheduled time. I brought my attention back to Layla's crowd "What is happening" I asked Alex.

"Your guess is as good as mine" he replied.

"SHHHHH guys!" Layla ordered. "They're about to announce the winners!" I looked over at Layla who was a little shorter than the rest of us, but still managed to own the dance floor when she danced her waltz. She sat on the floor with the others and at that moment, Collére finally rushed in. Without a word, she pulled a remote from a desk that pushed to the side and pulled up what ever they were looking at on the projector screen. I leaned over to Lena who's specialty was ballet.

"Even Colleré is a tizzy. She's never late and now she's actually using the projector screen" I commented."Something isn't adding up". I finished. Lena pushed her long chestnut brown hair back to fashion a bun that matched my own. Lena could easily get any guy she wanted. She had long beautiful legs that made her look so graceful when she danced. She always thought she was a little too tall so she didn't really wear heels that often.

"What is going on" I asked at kind of a whisper trying to avoid Layla's wrath.

"Last month, Some of the music students submitted a video" she began. "The winners get a 2 week mentoring session with a professional singing group" she explained.

"Which group does the mentoring" I asked, but Lena was interrupted before she could give me an answer.

"Hey Erica" I looked up and saw Jack. I didn't say anything and rolled my eyes.

"Jeeze, I don't know why you feel the need to ignore me all the time" he complained and pretended that his feelings were hurt.

"Hey Jack" I said dryly. I continued to stay silent. Jack began to nudge my arm.

" you're such a nuisance" I told him.

"Oh, I love it when you talk dirty" he moaned and ran his fingers through his dark hair. Jack was at least 6 feet tall and kind of gangly. He a had a pale-ish complexion. He can be kind of clumsy sometimes which is why I can't understand why he's so good at dancing the Rumba. Jack thought for sure he was God's gift to women and was not subtle about his confidence. I was ripped away from my thoughts when I heard the room begin to cheer. I looked up and saw Layla do a cartwheel. People were jumping up and down and cheering like we had just won the lottery.

"So I guess we won" I asked shrugging my shoulders. I had no idea that was the beginning of what was going to happen.