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

Ten of Clubs

Maddison leaned against the wall and felt her knees buckle. She ended up curled over her own knees at the bottom of the wall, trying not to scream or cry. Just focusing on taking in one long, deep breath and letting it back out again. It wasn't supposed to have gone like this......

January had been surprisingly fun for Maddison. It was tough, having to wake up to go to the troupe for the morning, then getting to the school on time to help Mrs. Moddie with the Gala prep. But those kids were worth the effort. Though having students like West and Alice was showing Maddison that kids may not be the right term. It was still so weird to think that her lover and boyfriend was in highschool. And it was even weirder to think of West as a dancer. He was just so.... lone wolf. She saw how all the other students always looked to see him enter the room or leave it. The guys from the drama class all took their cues from him, and even the social queen, Lexi, feared to cross his tolerance. He just radiated this air od bada**, not ballet.

And then West would dance with Alice and Maddison would have to remind herself that murdering a seventeen year old girl wasn't socially acceptable. It didn't help that West was playing Oberon and in this version of the story, uses kisses and sexual suggestion to get Puck to do his bidding. It made her teeth clench in frustraction. Of course, having seen the bruises on Alice's body from when they practice the fight scene, Mad knew that it wasn't all romance and flirting. She'd been there too often after school, working with everyone to think this was easy on anyone. Even the very talented Lexi was having trouble keeping up with the demands of the Gala show this year. Some of that was how complicated Alice had created the choreography, some of that was a growing air of 'running out of time' that filled everyone.

Maddison had tried to talk to West about possibly taking his dancing more seriously. Not that he wasn't, watching that man train with his classmates was like watching MMA fighters get set for the ring. His intense focus, his precise, ridigly controlled moves, all of it screamed violence and grace. Made the Oberon character feel more biker than buffoon. He had that thing, that unnamable something that Maddison had seen the scouters look for in others. The same something that had made then ask Maddison to go to Julliard. But trying to convince a 19 year old male that dancing was a future for him was a little hard. Mostly because she had no clue how to actually say it to West. So she didn't, not until she could think of the right words.

Instead of talking to West about it, Maddison was finding herself more and more frustrated by the constraints of their secret. She wanted to jump on him after a good day with the troupe, and celebrate. But that was impossible if she didn't want to face some seriously nigh repercussions. And then her house of cards had come tumbling down.

It was opening night of her debut. She'd set up with all the stage crew that West was allowed backstage. Siobhan was sitting with West and Romeo, ready to play referee if Maddison's father decided to go all FBI interogation on West. The only thing marring her night, was that somehow it had gotten out that her boyfriend was in the audience. Eventually that information would make it to Rafe's ears and then she knew the easy, powerful dynamic between her and him on stage might change. It was not something she was looking forward to. Still, it is better to be honest, Maddison knew that, so she was determined to meet the inevitable with her shoulders back and a snarky grin on her face.

That confidence had taken Maddison out onto the stage with just enough edge and attitude to give her performance a new level of awesome. She could feel it, as her muscles burned and quivered. All the drive and passion she was putting into her dance, the audience soaked up and gave back with thunderous applause and verbal cheers whenever there was an especially impressive bit of choreography. And yet already she could feel a difference in the way Rafe danced with her. He must have already heard about the rumour, but hadn't spoken to her yet. But it gave their dancing a more desperate feel, which suited the storyline of the ballett perfectly. A small part of Maddison's mind was busy obsessing over how jarring it felt to have Rafe next to her, dancing with her. There was a taller, darker man that she kept thinking belonged up here instead. Which was strange because she had never actually danced like this with West, other than a few steps to show choreography.