No One's Watching

by Sandy Green

  We got to our Ballet II class early that afternoon. I stood at the barre, brushing off cracker crumbs clinging to my leotard from the saltines Candace brought back. I nodded at Blake as he came into the studio, smiling at all the girls. He didn’t fool me with his impartial friendliness for everyone. I was nothing special to him. He told Danilo, in a nice way, to move up so he could stand in front of me.

  “Okay, man.” Danilo shoved his dance bag farther along the wall.

  Blake slid his dance bag under the barre and swung around to face me. “We’re all on for tonight, right?”

  Smiling sweetly, I raised my eyebrows. “Of course.” I had completely forgotten about the extra Irish dance rehearsal. “Seven-thirty?”

  I willed myself not to melt as Blake flashed a dazzling smile. Mme. Petrova tapped her way into the room.

  Blake’s gaze followed her. “She’s one of the best teachers I’ve ever had.”

  “What a nice thing to say.”

  Blake narrowed his eyes, obviously confused at my cool attitude. He must be used to girls falling all over him whenever he appears. Mme. Petrova eased into the chair in front of the mirrors.

  “First position, class. Pliés.”

  It was a great class. Sure, I was still sore from two days ago. When Mme. Petrova gave us small jumps with beats, my feet did double beats. When she told us to do single turns, I did doubles. When we did doubles, I did triples. I was going to show I didn’t belong in this class, and I was serious about improving my technique.

  At the end of class, Mme. Petrova came over to me. “Dahling, you work so hard.”

  I blushed. I was getting noticed. My hope skyrocketed. Maybe Mme. Petrova would have a word with Mrs. Ricardo. Should I ask her?

  “I’m happy you’re doing so well.” She patted my shoulder. “But the other students, who are not as advanced, watch you. And you confuse them when you do extra beats and turns. Please, for this class, just do what I tell the class to do.”

  Ugh. Amy stomped out the door. Her scent lingered. All the ugliness of the day returned. Was I better than the rest of the Ballet II class, or was Mme. Petrova being nice when she said I should follow along with the rest of the class because I wasn’t any better? The reason Candace and I were given when we dropped to her class was due to a scheduling conflict.

  “No problem.” I gave her a practiced-in-the-mirror smile.

  She patted me and hobbled off. I mopped my face with my towel and jammed it in my bag. Everything would work out. I’d make it work out.

  Candace chatted with Danilo, who was shuffling his feet in place. Maybe he had a thing for Shelly since he did everything she wanted him to do, like getting her bag at the hot tub.

  I needed a shower.

  “See you later.” Blake grabbed his bag.

  Jupiter, with his red hair flopped over his ears, waited for him by the door. He must’ve come from rehearsal because the new girl, who was his partner for the Don Quixote pas de deux, hung around his elbow. They moved down the hall and stopped.

  Danilo hurried away as Candace met up with me. She nodded at Danilo’s back. “He sure is a nervous guy.”

  “Maybe he likes you.” I pinched her arm.

  She giggled and nodded toward Blake and Jupiter. “What’s up with them?”

  Blake slapped Jupiter on his back. Jupiter held out a plastic bag of cereal or oatmeal for Blake to examine. The new girl shook out her hair.

  We edged closer as the new girl passed us. She couldn’t take her eyes off the boys.

  Her curved apostrophe-shaped legs gave her a gorgeous line when she stood on one leg in arabesque. Unfortunately, she had a banana-shaped nose, which ruined her profile. “What’s the new girl’s name?”

  Candace frowned. “Olivia?”

  “She’s dancing the Sugar Plum fairy. Besides, Olivia was here last year.”

  “Tiff—Tiffany.” Candace snapped her fingers.

  “Right.”

  Tiffany’s long dark hair and slim back disappeared into the elevator.

  “Man, I can’t believe you did it.” Blake peered in the bag.

  Candace and I crept along the wall.

  Jupiter stuffed the bag in a pocket of his athletic bag. “Yeah, I had to get in and out of the kitchen before the next shift came to fix dinner.”

  “How’d you know where to look?”

  Jupiter shrugged. “I didn’t. I just kept opening plastic containers until I found it.”

  “That’s insane. You’re lucky you didn’t get caught. They’d throw you out of here for sure. The kitchen’s off limits. Are you sure it’ll work?”

  “Yes. Then she’ll be so grateful.” Jupiter elbowed Blake.

  Blake shook his head. “Dude, you’re brilliant. Crazy, but brilliant.”

  Jupiter noticed me over Blake’s shoulder. “Yo. You want to see something that will save you from the wrath of Shelly?”

  I flinched. What did Jupiter find in the kitchen that could keep Shelly from hating me? A magical toaster?

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Sure.” I moved closer. “Can’t wait to hear. I’m forever in trouble with her.”

  “Yeah. Why?” Blake frowned. “She’s so nice, but she’s always mad at you.”

  She’s nice to you, Blake, ’cause you’re a guy. What are you? Stupid? No, you’re nice. And if I stayed in Labanotation class, I could’ve learned from Amy why she hated me and then I could tell you. I shook my head.

  “She’s mad at everyone, if you haven’t noticed.” Candace moved away from Jupiter.

  Actually, she’s mad at everyone I’m friends with. Except Blake.

  Jupiter showed me a bag of kernels he took out of his athletic bag.

  “What’s that?” I leaned forward to examine it.

  “Raw rice.”

  “Are you on some kind of new diet?” Candace screwed up her face.

  He laughed and then became serious. “I’m going to use it to dry out Shelly’s cell phone that Kit dropped in the hot tub.”

  “I didn’t do it on purpose.” I glanced at Blake, hoping he believed me.

  “How will you do it?” Candace seemed impressed. “Are you sure it’ll work?”

  “No fear. It’s worked before. My dad dropped his cell phone in a glass of soda. Get this, right afterwards, he dunked it in fresh water to wash it off, took the battery and SIM card out and kept everything in a bowl of rice for a day. The rice absorbs all the water.” Jupiter tapped his temple twice with his finger.

  Absorbs ALL the water? My mouth dried up like I’d stuffed raw rice in it for a couple of hours. “I thought you were kidding when you told Shelly you could fix it. Does it work?”

  “Of course. My dad read about it in a scientific journal, and we tried it.”

  “Cool.” I laughed like an asthmatic horse. “Great. You have to tell me immediately if you fix it. In fact, tell me before you tell Shelly so I can give it back to her.”

  “Not sure about that.” Jupiter wiggled his eyebrows at Blake.

  “He’s counting on Shelly to be grateful.” Blake tried not to smile. “He wants to give it to her.”

  I stared at Jupiter and blinked. “You’re not serious.”

  He frowned. “Yeah. Why?”

  My eyes roamed the floor. Come on, Candace. Now would be a good time to bail me out. I glanced at her.

  “Shelly likes someone.” Candace was a mind reader. “In the computer camp.”

  “She does?” Jupiter and I asked together.

  I nodded. “I mean. She sure does. Whoa. Like big time. Always had a thing for those quiet types.”

  “Sorry, Jupiter.” Candace reached for his arm. “Not that you’re not cute and everything.” She pulled back her hand and brightened from pink to crimson in two seconds.

  “You think I’m cute?” He leered at her.

  I glanced at Blake who had opened the bag and was examining a few kernels.

  Candace backed away.

  “It was our time we spent in th
e hot tub, wasn’t it?” He drew closer to her.

  “What went on in the hot tub?” Blake sounded like Mom would have. Eww.

  “Nothing.” I pulled my shoulders up. “We talked. I dropped Shelly’s cell phone in the water. I mean, it slipped into the water. She screamed, and we all left.”

  “Sounds like a blast.” Blake handed the bag back to Jupiter.

  I toyed with the idea of knocking into Blake and spilling the rice on the floor, but it sounded like there was plenty more in the kitchen.

  Candace practically bent over backward away from Jupiter. She grabbed my arm. “Gotta go. Good luck with the phone.”

  “Later.” I nodded at Blake, and Candace and I fled toward the elevator.

  All the other dancers had left. We were lucky to be alone in the elevator.

  “That was close.” Candace ran her hand over her forehead.

  “You mean Shelly’s cell getting fixed?”

  Candace leaned against the railing. “I mean Jupiter. He’s cute and all but a little too sure of himself.”

  Was he an awful kisser too? Maybe Nicki had that answer. I scrunched my face.

  “Was class too much for you? How do you feel? You’re not skipping supper, are you?”

  “I’m fine.” I chewed my thumbnail.

  “What are you going to do about Jupiter’s invention to dry out Shelly’s cell phone?”

  “Hope it doesn’t work?” I needed to do more than hope. Sneak inside his room and steal it? Not something I wanted to do. I fiddled with the strap of my dance bag, twisting it so much it cut into my neck.

  If my life depended on remembering what I did when we got back to our room and what I had for dinner a few minutes ago, I’d be dead. I didn’t even know how long I was curled up on my bed afterward. I must’ve slathered something else with ketchup because there was another red blot on my shirt.

  Candace flipped through a magazine bobbing her head to the music coming out of her CD player. “Are you meeting cute Blake and those little girls tonight?”

  I plucked at the fringe on my pillow. “Yes.” Blake. Even if he were nice to everyone, I wanted him to be especially nice to me. And not so nice to Shelly. I pictured Blake and me walking hand-in-hand somewhere. Anywhere.

  Candace sat forward as she picked up her alarm clock. “Were you supposed to meet them at seven-thirty?”

  “Um-hum.”

  “Wasn’t Blake upset with you when you missed rehearsal last night?”

  I sighed. “He sure was.” He wasn’t nice at all to me. It stung when he yelled at me this morning.

  She flipped her legs so she perched on the edge of her bed, her hair tousled around her shoulders. “You might want to leave now. It’s a quarter to eight.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Blake’s face ballooned in front of me like a cartoon wolf, with red eyes and dripping fangs. “Oh, no.” I threw myself off my bed and grabbed a pair of bumpy, white poodle socks from my drawer and my dance bag. I reached for the doorknob and hesitated.

  “What’s the matter? Get going.”

  I swung around, panic bursting in my throat, and grabbed my flute and songbook before croaking, “Later.” I flew down the hall.

  Of course, the elevator moved in slow motion, stopping on every floor and cluttering up the space with guys from the computer camp. I had on my stretchy, black shorts, but my ketchup splotched T-shirt wasn’t fit for rehearsal. I dug in my bag and found a yellow camp T-shirt they gave us when we had checked in this year. As the elevator descended, I pulled the new shirt over my head and down the side of my body like a cocoon. I yanked my arms out of the armholes of the messy shirt. As I wiggled around, everybody’s eyes shifted toward me. Had they never seen a girl change in an elevator before?

  I popped my arms through the new T-shirt and whipped the old one off my head through the neck hole.

  One kid whispered to a friend as they left on the main floor, “Next year, I want to go to her camp.”

  Sorry, buddy. Like he could sign up and come without auditioning. If dance were easy, they’d call it computer science.

  The elevator settled on the basement floor in time for me to stuff the old T-shirt into my bag. Voilà. I was ready for rehearsal. I grabbed my flute case and dance bag and jumped out of the elevator.

  I followed the Irish music to the studio where Blake, Lindy and Megan were stretching on the floor.

  “Sorry, I’m late.” I held up my flute case. “I forgot this and had to run back to my room.”

  Megan’s stern face melted as she got up to meet me.

  “No problem.” Lindy stretched on the floor. “We were just warming up.”

  “You brought your flute? How come?” Megan took the case from me.

  “I—” Actually, I wasn’t totally sure why. I figured saying I wanted to get my flute would buy me time as to why I was late.

  “I know.” Lindy raised a finger. “You wanted to play an Irish song for us.”

  I nodded.

  “To make up for not coming yesterday?” Lindy’s blue-eyed stare pierced me.

  I melted to the floor. I figured my flute would register as an excuse and then they’d forget about it. “If you don’t mind. And don’t think it’ll take up too much time.”

  The girls scooted close to me.

  “It’ll be fine.” Megan eyed Blake for approval.

  “Kit played Danny Boy the other day.” Blake nodded.

  “I love that song.” Lindy hugged herself.

  Blake sat next to me. “Haunting.”

  Not sure if Blake and I were on the same page, but I went with it. “I thought I’d play something a little more cheerful.” And something I’d done recently. I found the page for When Irish Eyes Are Smiling and opened my flute case.

  Lindy took the book. “I’ll hold it for you.”

  I twisted the flute together and blew across the mouthpiece to warm it up. I played a quick scale and settled into the song.

  When I’d finished, everyone clapped, and I relaxed. Even sourpuss Megan seemed to like my playing.

  After my flute performance lifted ten pounds of guilt off my chest, I swabbed the flute with the caterpillar on a stick. My nickname for the furry, moppy, cleaning thing.

  In the hall, the clapping of one person grew louder. Shelly appeared in the doorway. She wore tiny, white shorts and a bright pink cami. “You and your flute. You can’t separate yourself from it. Maybe you should join band instead of trying to dance.” She laughed.

  Thankfully, no else did.

  Lindy frowned and blinked.

  I struggled with the laces on my ghillies. “What did you guys do last night at rehearsal?”

  Shelly folded her arms across her chest. “You mean while you were lounging in the hot tub with three guys?”

  Lindy moved closer to Megan, who was helping me with my shoes.

  “Do you want to keep going from where we finished yesterday?” Blake asked.

  “Sure. Everybody at the barre.” Megan marched in front of Shelly. “If you’re going to stay and watch, you’ll have to be quiet.”

  Shelly’s big eyes grew wider. She leaned against the wall and slid down, sitting with her legs folded.

  I wanted to hug Megan. I’d never had the courage to talk back to Shelly and here was this twelve year old who did. Way, way cool. Megan was my new hero.

  “You don’t have to stand at the barre.” Megan waved Lindy over. “I need you to help correct them.”

  Shelly giggled, and Megan shot her a shut-up glance. Shelly cupped her hand over her mouth, her thin eyebrows raised in surprise. Or shock. But she stayed. What did I ever do to Shelly to make her hate me so much she followed me to an extra rehearsal to torture me?

  Megan started the music Mr. Sean had given Blake for us to use during practice. She and Lindy corrected every movement of our legs and feet. Would I ever get this? I had to — I didn’t want to look like a fool in front of Shelly.

  My face prickled with sweat. How many sh
owers would I have to take today?

  “Are you concentrating?” Megan clapped her hands.

  Shelly coughed.

  “You have to concentrate. The steps only get faster and more complicated. Let’s move to the center.”

  We followed her back and forth across the floor, jumping, sliding, and gliding. Which was worse, Megan or Shelly watching me struggle through the complicated steps? Megan doubted I could master them. Shelly wanted me to fail.

  “Keep your back and arms still. Like Mr. Sean says, your arms appear to do nothing, but they help your back support all of your legwork.”

  Shelly mouth-mocked Megan. What was with her? What was she doing here anyway?

  Megan ended practice after sizing up Blake and me standing side-by-side. Her face was impossible to read. “Okay. Mr. Sean wants me to report to him. You two did okay today.”

  I exhaled. All of us sat in a circle and took off our shoes.

  “How’d you like practice?” Blake asked Shelly.

  I rolled my eyes, stuffing the ghillies back in my dance bag.

  Shelly rose and walked over to us. “Very interesting.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe next time you can join us. It’s a lot of fun.”

  Had Blake invited her to practice with us?

  She brushed the two strands of hair from either side of her face. “Ha. No, thanks.”

  Shelly sat on one leg by Blake, resting her forearm on her bent knee. “I have something to ask you.”

  I gathered my dance stuff. I wasn’t going to give Shelly the satisfaction of having to listen to her private conversation with Blake.

  Megan stared at Shelly while twisting a silver ring so hard I was afraid she’d unscrew her finger. I bent over her. The ring had two clasped hands holding a crowned heart. “Irish?”

  “It’s called a claddagh ring.” She frowned and held her hand out for me to examine, shifting her eyes to Shelly.

  “It’s beautiful.” I studied her hand in the light before she withdrew it to her lap.

  I forced myself to concentrate on Megan and Lindy. “Come on. I’ll walk you guys to the elevator.”

  Lindy bolted to her feet and slung her dance bag on her shoulder. “Let’s go.”