when you least expect it | sean lew

[ six ]

***

Kailani entered the dance studio, trying to ignore the sound of her pounding heart.

"Hey, you okay?" Bailey asked, touching her arm lightly.

She jumped. "Yeah, I'm good. Just a little nervous."

Bailey smiled. "It's your first practice with us. That's normal. Don't worry about it though, I promise you it's going to be fine. We're all family here. No judgment, just love and respect."

Kailani takes a deep breath as Kaycee appears next to Bailey. "Just scared I won't really fit in with you guys."

"Will and Janelle don't let just anyone into their dance company." Kaycee says, giving her a reassuring smile. "They built something great and they ensure that anyone who is on it will represent that. If you're here, they clearly saw that you have what it takes."

Kailani smiles. "Thanks, Kaycee."

She giggles and puts her arm around her, giving her an encouraging squeeze. "Like Bailey said, no judgment, just love."

Kailani nods and leaves the two to set her dance bag down in the back when she caught sight of Julian and Chloe talking and laughing with one another.

She smiled.

Well, looks like they really hit it off..

She drinking from her water bottle and walking towards the girls when someone bumped into her, spilling water all over her sweater.

"Fuck.." she muttered.

"Holy shit, I'm so sorry!" the person said. He was a brown haired boy wearing a white bandana around his forehead.

She rolled her eyes and took off her now wet sweater. "It's fine, you're just lucky I'm wearing this underneath."

"I just wasn't looking where I was going, my bad." he says. "You're Kailani though, aren't you?"

Kailani nods. "Yeah, and you?"

"Josh Beauchamp." he smiles. "Nice to finally meet you."

"Finally?" she repeats, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, Jules was really excited to have you here. Talked about it for weeks."

She laughs. "Well, I didn't hear much about you but it's nice to meet you too." she says.

Someone calls his name from the side. "Sorry again about your sweater. Hope you have a great first class though." he winks before walking off.

Kailani sighs.

What is it with LA boys and their winking?

****

When practice finished, Kailani was out of breath and exhausted. It was probably the hardest class she had taken so far in her entire life. She laid down the ground, breathing heavily when she noticed Julian sit next to her.

"You good, cuz?" he laughed.

She rolled her eyes and tried to hit him, which ended up being a weak slap against his chest due to her lack of energy. "Shut up." she replied, trying to catch her breath.

"Don't worry, the first practices are always pretty difficult because you're not used to it." he says. "But it pushes you to be a better, more advanced dancer so it's good. Once you get through enough practices, it will eventually seem like nothing to you."

She nods, too exhausted to reply.

He gets up and goes to talk to the boys while Kailani continued to try to steady her breathing.