King of Hearts (House of Cards Series 2) [Student/teacher]

Nine of Clubs

A/N: I have decided to do a dual POV, a little bit of Maddison, a little bit of West. I wasn't gonig to originally, but there is a lot of time at the beginning of the story where Mad and West aren't strictly 'together' yet.

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"I can't thank you enough for helping me look through these." Mrs. Moodie gushed and she sat down across the booth from Maddison.

Maddison smiled at her old highschool teacher. "No problem Mrs. Moodie. I'm honoured you think I can help." she admitted, a glow of pride making her sit up a little taller. Not that it helped, she was still far shorter than the older woman.

The two dancers peered over the written out choreography, Maddison able to picture the correlating moves inside her mind because she had danced all the styles before. She scrubbed her hand over her face, a little amazed at the complicated timing needed to make the choreography on the page turn into a full battle dance. "You're driving these kids too hard. I still remember what we did for our Gala, and it was amateur night compared to this." Maddison looked up at her old mentor and waved the paper at her.

Mrs. Moodie gave Maddison a warm smile, pride in her eyes. "I could have given this to you and you would have danced it perfectly. It was the rest of your year that wouldn't have been able to handle it." she complimented. Maddison looked down, feeling a please flush creep over her cheeks at the compliment. It was true, Mad had to admit it to herself if no one else. Even four years ago Maddison would have been able to dance these steps, given the chance to have dance partners that could support her. Because as she looked down at the page again, she knew that for the scene to be as stellar as she imagined in her head, everyone would have to bring their A game or someone would end up hurt. "The amazing thing Maddison, is that I'm not the one who came up with this." Mrs. Moodie confessed.

Mad looked up at her teacher, shock plain as day in her eyes. "You hired a professional to help out this year?" she asked, misinterpreting.

Mrs. Moodie shook her head negative. "No. I have this student in my class. She started later than everyone else, and her story is a sad one. But that girl has an amazing creative potential, and I've given her free reign. This is what she's come up with." the dance teacher looked at the page, as if seeing how the end results would look. "She's not the best dancer in my class, but she is a very close second place. And I think you would be amazed to see her dance, she reminds me a lot of you back then."

Maddison nodded her head and smiled. "You know I might just have to take you up on that offer. I can swing by your class and check it out, maybe even work with some of them if you'd like." She offered. Mrs. Moodie nodded with a little distracted look in her eyes.

"If I can talk the school into it, I will snap your offer up. God knows I could use the help. And you could use the money..." Mrs. Moodie trailed off. This time Maddison's nod was glum. Her old dance teacher was one of the few people to have ever learned how hard off Maddison's family had it. Maddison's mother was a smart woman, but had made the mistake of never finishing her highschool education. She had decided that there was no point because she was going to be a stay at home mother and be the caretaker of her family. Maddison's father was, sadly, a nobody in a large corporation. He was a good man, her father, but Maddison knew that he lacked the confidence to be ambitious, and thus never put himself forward to grab the opportunities for advancement.

"I don't mind helping out for free either, but I know I can't take any time off my dance troupe so..." Maddison shrugged, not wanting pity money. She had enough pride left to make it uncomfortable for her to take anyone's charity with equanimity.

"How is that going anyways?" Mrs. Moodie inquired. Maddison smiled, glad to switch topics to something she could enthuse about.

"It's brilliant." she admitted with a satisfied gush. It had hurt, at first, to dance on her foot after stepping on that d*** nail, but by the end of the first week back dancing, Mad had gotten used to the sensation and could ignore it. As her foot healed, she didn't even worry about it and gave herself over to the character. Beauty and the Beast had been her favourite Disney movie as a child, and now she was putting on the story version herself. Yes the version she was dancing in had no singing clocks or candles, and definitely no dancing dishwear, but it was still a wonderful story and she wanted to do her character proud.