Dance Academy: Second Chance

by Sherryl Clark

  ‘Oh, yeah.’ I focus on the TV screen. Lena, the host, has just asked Sammy a question and he’s staring at the camera, not saying a word. Suddenly he comes to and says, ‘Actually Lena, Slade and I can’t stand each other.’

  Slade is the other medal winner and the show hosts immediately look interested. ‘Really? Intriguing.’

  ‘He has a signature headband,’ Sammy says. ‘And he tried to sabotage my performance, so –’

  Sammy comes in behind us and Ben leaps up. ‘The guest of honour.’ And puts Sammy in the middle of the couch.

  ‘Can’t we watch something else?’ Sammy says. ‘There’s got to be some celebs in rehab needing our attention.’

  But we’re all glued to the screen. And it gets worse. Sammy re-enacts how he had to dance without the music, and we kill ourselves laughing. The show hosts are entranced. I hate to think what Miss Raine will say, though.

  Then Tara comes in and sits next to me. ‘Grace just left for London,’ she murmurs.

  ‘Why?’ Not that I really care, although I’m surprised at how sudden it is.

  ‘I don’t think she’s coming back.’ I can see Tara is upset so I give her a hug and we keep watching poor old Sammy, who’s now dancing around the TV studio while Slade looks absolutely horrified. At last even Sammy, sitting among his friends here, laughs at himself.

  CHAPTER 10

  We’re all in the studio waiting for Zach. Today’s the day he announces who’s got the roles in the end-of-year production. I’m so nervous – I really want to be Tinkerbell. I gave that audition everything. Strangely, Abigail strolls in late, looking distracted as she texts something on her phone.

  I grab Christian’s hand, totally unable to be cool about this.

  ‘Zach, put us out of our misery,’ I plead.

  He smiles at me but that doesn’t mean it’s a good sign, so I cross my fingers, too, as he consults his list.

  ‘In the end-of-year production of Peter Pan,’ he says, ‘the title role of Peter goes to …’

  Everyone holds their breath. Ben even has his eyes closed.

  ‘… Christian Reed,’ Zach finishes.

  I cheer and Christian looks pleased.

  ‘Tinkerbell will be performed by none other than Katrina Karamakov,’ Zach says.

  I can’t believe it. Me!

  Zach keeps going. ‘John Darling will be realised by the inimitable Sir Benjamin Tickle.’

  Ben smiles, but he doesn’t look over the moon. He raises his hand. ‘Are you sure I shouldn’t be Peter?’ and everyone groans.

  ‘And last but not least, Wendy Darling will be performed by …’ Zach does this big pause ‘… Abigail Armstrong.’

  Abigail glares at Zach. Why is she upset? She should be celebrating!

  We all decide we’ll do exactly that and head for the café. I sit at a table with Christian and Sammy, who’s on his phone, but I keep jiggling with happiness.

  ‘Why don’t you take me to the Winter Festival to celebrate?’ I suggest to Christian. I lean in for a kiss and get one that’s pretty hasty by anyone’s standards.

  ‘Or we could watch a DVD,’ Christian says.

  I sigh. ‘Fifth night in a row. Peter and Tink are stuck in a rut.’

  As Tara walks over to join us, Sammy mutters into his phone, ‘The bird is in the nest.’

  Tara sits down and immediately says, ‘If you could live anywhere in the world for a year, where would it be?’

  But before we can answer, Ben arrives with a whole pile of gear – a microphone and speaker thing. ‘Tara Webster,’ he says loudly. ‘You’ve been avoiding me the whole time so this one goes out to you …’

  Big band music starts. ‘Oh, no. Please, no,’ Tara says, her face turning bright red.

  And Ben sings to her. ‘Well, you’re all wound up, you got so much to say, you’ve got a bee in your bonnet, come and kick it away.’

  Ben does all these Frank Sinatra moves, even jumping on a chair. It’s hilarious!

  ‘You wanna push me and shove me, but you know you love me,’ he sings. ‘So babe, let’s call it a day, you know I’m sorry, just speak and I’ll obey – check out my chorey, ’cause I am here to stay!’

  He lies across her lap and finishes, ‘You may kiss me noooowwwwww!’

  We clap madly and Sammy yells, ‘Pash him!’

  Ben grins at Tara, waiting for the kiss, and she leaps up instead, all flustered. ‘Can we go somewhere and talk?’

  Ben’s smile fades. ‘No kiss? But I was a sensation.’

  She hesitates. ‘Look, thank you for the song and I forgive you. The Nationals – using me as a challenge – in the past.’ And she walks away.

  Ben picks up the chair and sits down and we get ready to be sympathetic, but he’s undeterred. ‘I’ll move on to Phase Two: Stay tantalisingly close but withhold my affections.’

  ‘Yeah, girls go crazy for that,’ Sammy says but he doesn’t sound convinced.

  Ben is still trying Phase Two later, I think, when we find him in the house flapping his T-shirt at Tara.

  Christian acts like nothing’s happening. ‘Doing a horror marathon if you guys are keen?’

  What is wrong with him? We were going to do the marathon together. ‘You can share the corny picnic I thoughtfully prepared as well.’

  Ben looks at Tara. ‘No, thanks. I prefer Russian cinema.’

  Tara leaps up and heads for us, leaving Ben standing. ‘I’m in.’

  So we have to share the picnic with half the world and then I get to watch yet another movie where some girl gets all chopped into pieces. Great.

  The high point is when Abigail rushes into the room and stands in front of the TV. ‘Lieberman,’ she says. ‘How much do you know about fish things?’

  Everyone groans and throws popcorn at Abigail, and we push Sammy off the couch to go and deal with it. The movie drones on until I think it’s me who’s going to scream. I’d rather join Abigail and Sammy and talk about fish and aquariums. Abigail must really like that guy who’s into them.

  The next day, Abigail and Sammy are both missing for the first Peter Pan rehearsals. Tara is so happy when Zach says she can play Wendy for the day.

  ‘Fine, Tara. You’ll need to teach Abigail the chorey later.’

  She turns to me, bubbling over with excitement. ‘I get to dance Wendy. I identify with Wendy.’

  ‘I can see that,’ I say.

  ‘Where is Abigail?’ Zach asks.

  Suddenly I remember she’s at the aquarium and I’d promised to cover for her. ‘Oh, yeah, vomiting. Projectile style. Diarrhoea everywhere.’

  Zach makes a face. ‘Thanks for that. All right. Today’s rehearsal is going to focus on character motivations, rather than getting the steps right.’

  That’s cool – we all nod.

  ‘So Ben, Tara – talk through your brother – sister dynamic.’

  Ben walks over to Tara. ‘Fancy seeing you here.’ She doesn’t look quite so keen now.

  ‘Christian and Kat,’ Zach says, ‘come and block Peter and Tink’s first pas de deux with me.’

  This is fun! I get to dress up in the green Tink wings and be all cheeky. Even Christian is smiling at my dancing.

  ‘Nice and playful, Kat,’ Zach says. ‘Great work, guys.’

  I grin at Christian. I just love dancing this role, especially with him. When Zach adds Tara to our dance and she’s with Christian, Ben scowls from the side.

  I buzz around nearby and then run between Tara and Christian – my job here is to try to split them apart, but somehow I just don’t feel confident about this bit.

  ‘Come on, Kat,’ Zach calls to me. ‘Peter’s got a new girl on the scene and he’s taking you for granted. How does that make you feel?’

  ‘Hungry?’ Zach gives me a stern look. ‘Sorry,’ I say. ‘It’s my default emotion.’

  ‘Jealous,’ Zach says. ‘So show me what jealousy looks like.’

  I keep dancing between them and fake a laugh. ‘I’m not a very jealous p
erson.’

  ‘Tink is. Find a way to tap into that.’

  I’d better do what he says. I dance around Tara and pull her hair. Is this what he means?

  Then we get to watch Tara and Ben perform a brother – sister sequence. Ben licks his finger and sticks it in Tara’s ear. She squeals, ‘Gross, Ben!’

  Ben shrugs. ‘Little brothers. They’re annoying.’ He dances away and we laugh.

  Then Ben lifts her up in the air for the final pose. The music finishes but he keeps her in the air, twirling around, and Tara starts kicking. ‘Put me down!’ So he rolls her down and stops just before the floor.

  Zach smiles, not realising Ben and Tara are really fighting. ‘Great job, guys. Very authentic. Okay, that’s lunch.’ He comes over to us with a laptop. ‘You three need to work through your motivations in the pas de trois.’ I take the laptop from him and he adds, ‘Jealousy, Tink. It’s in there somewhere.’

  Hmmm, really? I’m not so sure.

  We head outside to the park to get away from the studio for a while and Christian tosses me his phone. ‘Go through my phone if you want. Pretty standard jealous behaviour.’

  I pretend to scroll through his messages and do a big fake gasp. ‘Who’s this girl sending you brilliant, witty texts?’ I pause. ‘Wait, it’s me!’

  Tara says, ‘All right, I’ll break jealousy down for you. Your blood runs cold, your stomach tightens and then it’s like laser beams are shooting out your eyes.’

  I listen carefully and nod, picking up a fashion magazine of beautiful models. ‘Right. You guys run the Peter – Wendy part. I’ll try to envy these girls who haven’t eaten for days.’

  I press play, starting the music on the laptop, and keep flicking through the magazine while Christian and Tara begin to dance. I glance up from the magazine, and suddenly see my boyfriend dancing amazingly with his ex-girlfriend. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all, but me being me, I need to make a joke out of it. ‘Something’s happening. Cold blood. Tight stomach.’ I zero in on Christian’s arms as they encircle Tara’s waist. ‘Keep going. This is useful.’

  Christian and Tara laugh but as they keep dancing I realise my stomach really is churning and I’m not laughing anymore.

  When we go back to rehearsal, we meet Ben in the corridor. He’s in a floral bra and pink tutu, executing a series of posé turns down the corridor, his nose in the air. Two first years laugh at him.

  ‘I’m the best ballerina in the whole world,’ Ben says in a falsetto voice. As he steps into arabesque, he accidently bumps into a student. ‘Out of my way, peasant. Don’t you know who I am? I’m Tara Webster.’

  I can’t believe my ears. This is not how to get her attention. He’s never going to win Tara like this, but as she storms towards him, he looks happy.

  ‘That … personal piece of clothing is mine. Give it back!’ she yells.

  Ben places both hands over the bra cups. ‘It’s very supportive.’ All Tara can do is grab him and push him outside to yell at him. I don’t envy the poor guy so when I see him talking to Christian by the vending machine a bit later on, I stop. I’m not really eavesdropping …

  ‘Okay,’ Christian says, ‘So you like Tara, obviously?’

  Ben nods. ‘Yeah. She’s mental. She thinks life should be like the movies.’

  ‘Yeah. She does,’ Christian says, and I don’t like how he sounds when he talks about her.

  ‘And she thinks that I don’t get her,’ Ben says. ‘But I do.’

  Christian sighs. ‘Then put the Benster away. Tara’s special. Do something that’s special for her.’

  What? And since when does Christian do that for me? I walk up to them. ‘Hot tip, Ben. Christian’s idea of “special” is the quadrilogy of Humanoid Massacre. You might want to aim higher.’

  Christian’s surprised but I don’t wait around, just keep walking. And back in rehearsal, I don’t have any trouble dancing the jealous Tink at all. I push hard between Christian and Tara, pull Tara’s hair and glare at him.

  ‘Brilliant, Kat,’ Zach says when we finish. ‘I can feel the jealousy oozing through your pores.’

  I am so excited by how I’ve danced, and even Christian looks impressed. ‘That was frightening,’ he says.

  ‘Exactly what I was aiming for.’ I grin, pretending to be the same old me, but I hope this jealousy thing doesn’t last. It’s eating up my insides.

  As we all towel down and drink from our water bottles, feeling really tired, everyone’s phones beep with text messages. I read mine. ‘Bondi Beach. All invited. Bring jumper. Intriguing.’

  Tara grimaces. ‘And from Ben. Pass.’

  Before I can respond, Zach sits down in front of us on a chair. ‘Big day. Let’s quickly debrief on your characters and then you can go have a weekend.’ He focuses on Christian. ‘Thoughts on Peter?’

  Christian gives it a go. ‘Doesn’t want to grow up?’

  Zach’s not impressed. ‘Insightful. Can you expand on that?’

  Christian thinks about it. ‘He wants everything. He wants Tink because she’s awesome and she’s always there when he needs her.’ I’m listening hard to this, keeping my head down. ‘But … deep down … Peter loves Wendy.’

  Zach’s happy with that but I just stare from Christian to Tara. Tara finds her stolen bra neatly folded in her bag.

  ‘And why’s that?’ Zach says.

  ‘She challenges him to be better than he is. But he’s scared of it so he gives her up. Which kind of makes him a sell-out.’

  Something cold reaches in and grabs my heart. It sounds to me like Christian is talking about him and Tara, and I can hardly breathe.

  It’s just as well Ben said bring jumpers – it’s freezing down at Bondi. Tara has come along but she’s frowning. And there is Ben, ice-skating on a huge rink right next to the beach, with fairy lights and everything! Ben waves up at us. I can’t wait to have a try.

  ‘Do we have to go?’ Tara complains. ‘All it’s doing is feeding his ego.’

  She can stay up here – the rest of us head down and start pulling on rented ice skates.

  Tara has walked down, too, but she hangs back and Ben, wearing a furry Russian hat, goes up to her. ‘Pra-sti me-nya. It’s Russian for I’m sorry. I do listen to you. But if you don’t want me to stay …’

  ‘Now you’re just being manipulative,’ Tara says, but she’s smiling.

  He looks around and laughs. ‘Actually, I really do want to stay.’

  Tara takes his hand. ‘Then stay.’ And off they skate, together. Thank goodness. As they glide across the ice, Ben grabs her and dips her backwards. She screams.

  ‘Do you trust me? Do you trust me now?’ Ben says.

  Then I realise Christian is watching Ben and Tara together and I can see his jaw clench, how it hurts him to see her with someone else. I’m not even sure he knows it himself, but I can see it. ‘He got her a whole ice-rink,’ I say, joking as usual.

  ‘Trying too hard,’ Christian says.

  I try to smile at him but my bottom lip quivers. ‘So this is the scene where the easygoing girl tells the boy she loves that it’s over … because he’s still in love with someone else.’

  He looks at me for a moment but then he has to look away again, and I know what that means. ‘And this is the part where you fight for me and tell me I’m wrong.’

  Finally, he is facing me. ‘That jealousy thing has really messed –’

  I shake my head. ‘It woke me up. Made me see things the way they are.’

  ‘I’m not still … I don’t want to be with …’

  But he can’t finish the sentence and I wouldn’t believe it anyway. I kiss him on the cheek and skate away before I start crying.

  He lets me go, like I knew he would, and a few minutes later, he’s changed back into his shoes and gone.

  I’m going to put on a brave face if it kills me, so I skate towards Sammy and Abigail. And off we go, them pulling me along between them. On the way, we pass Ben and Tara, who’ve f
allen over, and are now kissing. Things are changing all over around here. For everyone.

  CHAPTER 11

  I can’t imagine how Tara and Sammy must be feeling with the Prix de Fonteyn so close – less than a day. The news that Grace is back, representing Great Britain, was a shock. But I’ve planned something special for them. When I go to wake Sammy before dawn, he’s already up, sitting on his bed, waving his arms around.

  I open his door. ‘Why are you awake?’

  Sammy frowns. ‘I was the candidate who never should have been put through to the Internationals, so of course I chose something technically demanding. I didn’t want to get laughed off stage.’

  I ignore his worry and pull a pair of tracksuit pants out of his drawer for him. ‘Pants.’

  Sammy wriggles into them but he can’t stop muttering. ‘But my contemporary solo means absolutely nothing. That’s why I’m not connecting to it.’

  ‘You’re going to need a cardigan as well,’ I say, and pass him his ratty old favourite.

  Finally, he realises something funny is going on. ‘Where are we going? It’s 5 a.m.,’ he says.

  ‘Sshh,’ I say, glancing at Christian asleep. ‘Not him. Only us.’

  And here we are, Tara, Sammy and I, on top of the Centrepoint Tower, right in the middle of Sydney. It’s cold, but a brilliant view at this time of the morning. Neither of them can see it. All they can talk about is the competition.

  ‘There’s a greater philosophical point at work here,’ Sammy says. ‘Why have I chosen this solo, ergo why do I dance at all?’

  Tara is totally focused on the prize. ‘To win the Prix de Fonteyn.’

  This is more serious than I thought. These two are off the planet! ‘No, petal. You dance to fly.’ I turn to Sammy for the right answer. ‘And you dance because …’

  ‘See? Not to rebel against my dad anymore. That’s debunked now he’s so unhelpfully approving.’

  That’s it, I’ve had enough. ‘Okay, as of tomorrow, you’re representing the entire country. And I am one very proud leg of this friendship tripod. So stop talking and soak it up.’ I turn them around and finally they do as I say and watch the dawn break over the city.