Dancing for the Lord: The Academy (15 page)

“Maybe not done,” Danni informed him primly.  “After all, my rehearsal schedule is about to get pretty crazy.  I won’t be going quite as fast for awhile.”

Nick made a face.  “Maybe not—but you’re still pretty far ahead of the game.  I’m ahead of basically everybody in my classes.”

“We could work together,” she suggested shyly.  “I mean, I work better when I’ve got someone to talk to while I do it—as long as you aren’t too distracting.”

“What do you consider distracting?” he teased. 

“Someone who won’t actually let me work!”  Danni rolled her eyes.  “My friend Madalyn is great, but she will not understand that when I say I’m going to study, I mean it.”

“It’s actually kind of a common problem around here,” Nicholas told her.  “People get in this mindset that they have all the time in the world; and then the end of the year
comes up, and they’re only half done with the coursework.  Mlle Kirby told me once that she thinks only about half a dozen seniors each year actually get to do the no academic work thing.”

“Wow.”  Danni blinked.  “That’s not many at all.”

“Well, it’s probably a natural response to the freedom.”  Nicholas made a face.  “I hear some of them even end up getting their GEDs so they can go on and join one of the companies.” 

“That doesn’t make a lot of sense—not when we have this kind of arrangement set up.”  Danni sighed.  “But I guess you’re right.  People react differently to the kind of freedom we’re given.”

“Some are a lot better than others,” Nicholas agreed.  Grimacing, he pulled the ice pack free of his shoulder and tossed it down on a towel resting at the foot of the bed—a towel, Danni realized, that had been placed there for just that purpose.  “All right.  Fifteen minutes.  You want to work on homework?”

“For fifteen minutes?” she demanded.

He shrugged.  “I figure we spend this fifteen working out what we’re going to do, and for the next fifteen, you can read to me.”  His expression was so pitiful that she couldn’t help but give in. 

Danni stayed for another hour longer than she had intended to stay that night; and in the end, she only went home because the words on the page in front of her were starting to blur.  It had been a long day, full of excitement and change—change that, she hoped, would turn out to be for the best.  She couldn’t wait to start working on the Sugar Plum Fairy’s dance in earnest.  Actually, she was just looking forward to the week
ahead.  Thanksgiving wasn’t something to be dreaded anymore; rather, it was an entire day that she and Nicholas would be able to spend practicing.

She’d have to keep an eye on him.  She had the feeling that he had pushed harder than he should have today, and that his shoulder was hurting more than necessary as a result.

Danni knew all about injuries.  Sometimes, you just had to push through them and pretend that you were all right even when you really weren’t.  Other times, you had to sit back and nurse them for awhile.  From the way Nicholas had talked—from his familiarity with it—she had the feeling that his shoulder had been a problem for quite some time, and that the best way to handle it would be for him to keep pushing as long as he could.

That didn’t meant that he had to push so hard that he got hurt.  She was determined not to have a repeat of the Katarina incident, although of course, she wouldn’t have put him in a position like that in the first place.  More than that, though, she wasn’t going to be Katarina.  She would take care of her partner, and make sure that nothing happened that might put him in a potentially compromising position. 

Thank you, Lord,
she prayed again as she hurried home. 
Thank you for letting me have Nicholas as a partner—and Lord, help me to be the kind of partner that he deserves.

In his room, Nicholas was praying a similar prayer.  He had really enjoyed getting to know Danni that day.  She had a deep faith that showed in every word she spoke, especially as she struggled not to speak ill of Katarina; a deep kindness that had been impossible to miss, as much as she had gone out of her way to take care of him; and a
general belief in the ultimate goodness of
people
that he feared would be knocked out of her in a few years, if she stayed at the Academy. 

Lord, thank you for sending her to me,
he prayed silently. 
I think she might be the partner I need while I get my shoulder back together once and for all.  She won’t push me the way Kat did, I think—but she’ll stand alongside me, at least if we get to keep each other. Lord, that’s worth more than words can describe.

I know I may not get to keep her.  I may not be given a choice about going back to Kat; and the way she talks about her Michael, I think Danni is waiting for him to join her.  But just…Lord, if nothing else, I think I would like to have this girl as a friend.

Danni was exhausted as she slipped into bed that night—exhausted, and yet exhilarated all the same.  She had been given so much; and she was determined to appreciate it—and to dance, as she always did, for her God.  Whatever else happened out there, she wanted to be sure that he got the glory that he deserved.

As she snuggled into her pillows, Danni briefly realized that she hadn’t called Michael; but before she could lift her hand and reach for the phone, the thought was gone again.  She would call him…later.  Maybe tomorrow….

Overnight, Danni’s schedule had turned from manageable to all but impossible.  Suddenly, she was dancing every available moment of every day; and if she slowed down long enough to even take a breath, she was left with the uncomfortable feeling that she was wasting valuable practice time.

Two weeks.  She had two weeks.  That was the thought that kept pounding through her head.  It might well even have kept her up at night; except that she was so exhausted by the end of the night that she fell into bed and fell asleep before her head even touched the pillow. 

On Wednesday, she missed two calls from Michael.  On Thursday, she tried once to call him back—at a time when she knew he would be in the middle of dance class.  It was silly to be disappointed when he didn’t call her back after class, especially since even if he had, she wouldn’t have been able to answer him. 

She did manage to get in touch with her parents to let them know the news—but she warned them not to say anything to Michael yet.  One way or the other, she was going to be the one to tell him—and if that meant that he didn’t find out until the night of the first performance, then so be it. 

It seemed like she and Nicholas were spending every moment in one another’s company, too.  Suddenly, their morning practice sessions were combined every other day of the week; and their afternoon sessions were always combined.

He had been right.  It was intensely difficult learning how to do the complicated series of lifts when he could only do them with her twice in a day—three times, if one of
them was in the afternoon.  Most of the dance had been perfected by Friday afternoon.  A few of the trickier movements, however, still had Danni frustrated. 

“I’m sorry, Danni.”  Nicholas had his left hand braced hard against his right shoulder, as though that gesture might somehow still the pain he was in.  She
knew
he was hurting, and that he blamed himself for her inability to master the move.

“It’s not your fault.”  Her voice sounded dead, she realized in a detached sort of way.  There was so little emotion in the words it would be no wonder if he didn’t believe her—and she meant it.  It wasn’t his fault.  “We’ll just….”  She sighed.  “First thing tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah.” Nicholas grimaced, but he agreed immediately.  “First thing tomorrow morning.  Do you want to walk through the rest of it again?”

“She wants,” an unfamiliar voice cut in, “to perform the entire dance, start to finish.”  Androv strode into the practice room, his expression resolute. 

“I wish I could,” Nicholas said immediately.  With anyone else, he might have tried to dissemble; but this was Androv.  To Androv, students did not issue excuses, or babble, or offer any words that were not part of an essential explanation.  They told him what he needed to know, and then they listened while he instructed them. 

“I am well aware of the continuing status of your injury, Nicholas.”  Androv looked him over, shaking his head.  “And all it takes is one look at you to realize that you’ve worked too hard today.  What is this, the fourth time you’ve done the dance?  The fifth?”

“Third,” he muttered.  “But Allie cornered me earlier.”

Danni spun on him immediately.  “Nick!  Why didn’t you say something?” she demanded.

Her use of his preferred nickname never failed to get a smile, but on this particular afternoon, it fell a little flat.  “Because you wouldn’t have let me do that last run-through, and you needed it!” he informed her. 

“Ah.  Here is where you’re making the mistake,” Androv said simply.  “
She
needs that run-through.  You do not.” He gestured to the floor at the side of the room.  “Sit.  If you are an intelligent man, you will ice that shoulder while you watch.”

Nick grumbled; but he obeyed, leaving the room just long enough to grab an ice pack from the freezer on the floor, kept well-stocked for just this reason. 

“Now.”  Androv pressed the play button.  “Danielle?”

She came to stand alongside him, sensing instinctively what he meant to do.

Nick just gaped.  He had never,
never
seen Androv work with a student before. He was good—they all knew that.  In fact, he was one of the best.  Dancers came from all over just to have a chance at dancing in one of his ballets; and rumor had it that he had once been an even better dancer than he was choreographer.  It was one of the reasons the Academy was so popular, the reason why the competition to get in was so fierce.

But he didn’t work with the students.  None of them had ever seen him dance.  The rumors persisted no matter what was done to stamp them out; but not a single student Nicholas had ever met had actually seen Androv dance.

He was about to see it.  His throat was dry, his eyes wide.  He was actually going to see Androv dance!

The man bowed delicately to Danni; she curtseyed in return…and then the strains of the dance began to fill the room.  There was a deliberate pause on the CD
before the music began, to give them time to get into place—that was the time Androv had used.

Then the dance began.

Nick felt as though his heart was in his throat the entire time.  This was what he dreamed of—the way he had always wanted to dance.  Danni was perfect—an absolute vision.  Never mind that she was exhausted from the constant practices and the demands she was making of herself.  Never mind that she had danced most of this piece a dozen times already today, and by this point, she should have been just about tired of it.  She put her entire heart and soul into her dancing.

And Androv matched her move for move, step for step, never once missing so much as a single cue. 

Nick had no way of knowing it; but Androv had been watching him for quite some time, and the older man was well aware that their dancing styles were much the same.  Androv might have been a touch more conservative—the injuries that had put an end to his dancing career demanded it—but overall, they could have been twins of one another, especially since that was precisely what he made the effort to be.

Every time Nick had changed a step in his original choreography, he retained it.  Every time he had shifted, he kept it.  The goal, this time, was not to show the young man how it was done.  The goal was to teach Danni the dance once and for all, and to make her so comfortable with it that there was no fear that she would not recognize all of the steps, come the night of the first performance. 

Danni felt as though she was floating on air.  They went through the routine once, twice, three times.  By the third time, she felt as though the steps had finally clicked.  By
the fifth, she had perfected the tricky lift that had been giving her trouble—and she had realized a way to shift it so that it wouldn’t give
Nick
so much trouble, either, though she didn’t plan to mention it with Androv in the room.

Actually…surely it wasn’t by accident that Androv’s hands had shifted at exactly that moment, calling her attention to them and making her realize that he had shifted her weight to his left side rather than his right.  He knew precisely what he was doing.

Danni smiled, and accorded him a small nod of gratitude as the music came to a stop.  He could have just come out and said it; but this way, he was saving Nick’s pride. 

Androv also expected her to take care of Nick—and that was interesting in and of itself.  It was the mentality partners should have, of course; but she knew Katarina hadn’t had it.  Did he know her well enough to realize that she did?

There was no way to know. 

“Much better,” Androv congratulated her warmly.  “Did you feel the difference the last time?”

“Yes!”  Danni beamed.  “It was….”  She frowned, unable to describe it.  The movements had been just the slightest bit different, her body finally relaxing into them the way it was supposed to; but she had no idea how to describe it.

“Just so.”  Androv smiled.  “For all our great command of the English language—and let us not forget French, the language of dance on top of that—sometimes words still escape us, do they not?”