Dancing with the Player | Book #1

First day of Dance Class

I woke up at 9am and brushed my teeth, took a shower, curled my hair, and decided not to wear any makeup for today. I had dance class at 11am and I was beyond excited. I was a bit nervous at how dance class will go but I couldn't wait to just dance my heart out. I changed into a grey hoodie with a purple tank top under it and black tights.

I headed to the kitchen to make myself some pancakes since I was craving it. In the meantime I decided to call my mom and see how she's doing. I missed her a lot even though I just saw her yesterday. I'm used to seeing my mom a lot and I know that now I'll have to get used to not seeing her and communicate with her through phone.

"Hello, who is this?" She asked.

"Mom even though you're 40 years old doesn't mean you can't check called ID," I laughed.

"Oh, hi sweetie, I never knew it was you. How are you doing at Juilliard?" She wondered.

"Great. I got to walk around a bit but I didn't get to meet anyone. I also texted Emma and she told me she loves her culinary school," I answered.

"I'm glad to hear that! I wonder how you two will survive without seeing each other," my mom joked.

"I do miss Emma a lot but I'll see her soon. She surprised me saying that she moved to New York," I told  her.

I finished eating all of my pancakes and checked the time to see it was 10:40am. My eyes widened at the time and I told my mom bye. I quickly grabbed my bag, put on my shoes, and dashed out of the house, not wanting to be late for my first day.

Once I stepped outside I immediately felt cold. Outside was freezing but the sun shone bright. The autumn season was coming soon and I missed the warmth summer always brought. I continued to walk past apartments until I walked arrived at Juilliard. I checked the time on my phone which read 10:55am. I hurried inside and ran up two flights up stairs.

I slowly opened the dance room door and my eyes wandered around the room. Six glass windows brought light into the room and onto the pale yellow floor. On one wall there was a huge mirror and near the door there was a ballet bar. There was about twenty people in the room, ten girls and ten guys. The girls were tall and looked like they belonged on a magazine cover or on a runway. The guys were also at a tall height, most of them looked like models.

"Everybody settle down!"

A women that looked as if she was 30 years old shouted over the students who were talking and laughing. Everyone's eyes stared at the young woman and turned their bodies towards her. She was dressed very professionally in a blue blouse, black trousers with black heels, and her blonde hair in a tight bun.

She smiled,"Hello students, I'm your dance instructor also known as your dance teacher. My name is Ms. Saunders."

"Hi Ms. Saunders," everyone greeted.

"Now, first let's get started with stretching your muscles then I'll teach you guys a contemporary dance piece!" She clapped her hands in excitement.

Everyone placed themselves in a spot around the room and began to stretch their muscles. I went to the centre of the room and stretched my neck down to my feet. I rolled back my shoulders, stretched my arms high up then went down to the touch my toes for a few seconds. I straightened my body back up and looked up to see the most handsome guy I've ever laid eyes on.

His dark brown hair was perfectly messy while his dark brown eyes stared into mine. He was wearing grey shorts and a white v neck top that shown off his six pack. Overall he was very good looking and I think he too knew that himself. Both of us continued to stare at one other, blurring out our surrounding. I decided to speak up first seeing as he clearly wasn't going to.

"Uh, hi, can I help you?" I questioned him, wondering why he came up to me.

"I'm James," he introduced himself completely ignoring my question.

I mentally gasped, a light bulb goes off in my head as his name rolls off his tongue. This right here was James Maxwell, also known as the player of my high school. James hooked up with, let's just say, majority of the girls in high school. The one thing I hated about him other than being a player was that he was a complete jerk. He was a jerk because if you're pretty he would hook up with you then throw you away the next day. I hated him and he hated me but our parents were good friends.

The only reason why mine and his parents were good friends because we had the common interest in dance. Although James was a player, I hated to admit it but he was an amazing dancer. He specialized in contemporary, hip pop, and modern whereas I specialized in contemporary, modern, jazz, and ballet. We both took dance throughout high school. I didn't know he wanted to do it professionally since his dad wanted him to go to university for football.

"James Maxwell," I remembered.

He smirked,"I remember you too."

"Sure you do," I snorted, knowing he was bluffing.

"I do. Must I say Stella you look very beautiful," he grinned and I felt my cheeks get hot.

I. Fucking. Blushed. I wasn't one to blush at compliments but the fact that it had to be coming from James, out of all people, freaked me out. I wanted to slap myself for having the nerve to blush from a simple compliment. But I guess he was right about remembering me. I mean come on, how could he remember little ole me from fucking all those girls in high school?

He let out a deep chuckle,"I never knew you could blush but since your here, I just wanted to say your ass looks good in those tights."

Just like that the blush my face is instantly gone and I harshly glared at him. Same old James, he hasn't changed one bit. He's still a jerk and always will be.

"You're disgusting, I hate you," I spat in anger.

He closes the gap between us and my breath hitched. He leaned down close to my ear and opened his mouth, allowing his warm breath to go on my ear causing a shiver to go down my spine. Well that's new.

"I hate you too, princess," he whispered then pulled back with a smirk on his face. My eyes narrowed at him. Oh how badly I wanted to wipe that sexy smirk off his face. Sexy, really?

Ms. Saunders entered back into the room, her heels loudly clicking against the floor with a wide smile upon her face. I could already tell Ms. Saunders would be a burst of sunshine type of teacher but I liked her positive attitude since I was expecting a more rude, strict dance teacher.

"So our contemporary piece will be in pairs of boy and girl. Before hand I got the chance to observe each of your dance styles and it helped me with who you'll be together with," she exclaimed.

All I pray for is to get anyone but James. I just hope God gives me some luck over here because I didn't want to dance with the player.

Ms. Saunders continued,"So I will call out you and your pair. First is Mark and Allie, Stephan and Carrie, Patrick and Stephanie. Continuing on is George and Elana, William and Beatrice, Amy and Max, Sarah and Liam, James and Stella.."

I froze as I heard her say our names.

No, no, no and again no.

I was dancing with the player.