Lucky Break #6 (2 page)

Tara snorted in derision. “Your body might be balanced,” she said. “But I'm not so sure about your brain. Can't you see that you're in the way?” She pushed past him and stalked down the hallway ahead of everyone else.

“Tara! Don't leave us!” he called after her in mock despair. “We need you!”

Chloe giggled. “Don't tease her, Marmalade,” she protested. “You know she doesn't like it.”

In geography, Marmalade was in too much of a silly mood to pay attention. Apart from dance lessons, he found most of the work difficult, even when he was trying hard, and when he got excited about his dancing, he found it impossible to concentrate. His geography teacher wasn't impressed by his behavior, and he was reprimanded in English as well. Everyone was supposed to be writing poetry about their favorite things, but Marmalade's goofy efforts had almost the whole class giggling.

“
Dance is lovely
,” he read out loud when it was his turn. “
Dance is fun. Especially when Tara does it and falls on her bum.
”

But Tara wasn't laughing, and neither was their teacher. “That isn't poetry,” Mrs. Hale told Marmalade. “It's just a silly rhyme, and it doesn't even scan properly. You're not trying.”

“I
am
,” he protested, rolling his eyes wildly and making the class laugh even harder.

His teacher wasn't impressed. “I want six
sensible
lines about dance by tomorrow afternoon, or you'll end up in more trouble,” she told him. “You're not usually
this
silly, Marmalade. What's gotten into you today?”

“Rising Stars points,” he told her. “I got two more this time. I'm ahead of the other dancers in my group and I just
know
I'm going to dance at the Rising Stars Concert at the end of the semester.”

“Well, that's very good news for you,” the teacher agreed. “And I'm not surprised you're excited. But
do
try not to disrupt classes. It's not fair to the other students, however much they enjoy your clowning around. And with your grades, you can't afford to waste class time either.”

“That was lucky,” Danny told him after class. “I thought you were really going to get into trouble.”

Marmalade smiled at his friend. “I'm an
artist
!” he said, launching himself into a tremendous jump and turning in midair. He landed neatly beside Danny with a huge grin on his face. “English and geography grades won't make the slightest difference when I'm making pop videos,” he said. “I don't care how much the teachers grumble.
Nothing
is going to stop me now. No matter what happens, I'm going to be dancing in the Rising Stars Concert. I just know it!”

In biology, they were studying how an eye worked and Mrs. Pinto, the science teacher, wanted to show the class some slides. “Marmalade, will you pull the blinds down, please?” she asked.

He leaped up, knocking over his stool with a clatter and sliding into the workbench in front of the window.

Some people started giggling, but Mrs. Pinto looked upset. “You can't afford to fool around in my class,” she told him, “or you'll get an even worse grade next time. Now pick up that stool and sit down.”

It was no use. When Marmalade was in this sort of mood, he found it impossible to behave. Everything seemed funny to him.

His whispered comments during the slide show were too quiet for Mrs. Pinto to hear, but they made it difficult for his friends not to laugh out loud. Lolly, who loved biology, and was trying hard to concentrate, got very frustrated.

“Be quiet,” she hissed. She leaned over and poked Marmalade in the back, but if she'd hoped this would make him behave, she was sadly mistaken. Instead, he wildly overreacted.

“Ooh!” he yelped, jerking upright and looking so affronted that the people closest to him burst out laughing.

By now, Mrs. Pinto was really angry and sent him outside for the rest of the period. “If you can't behave, you're not welcome in my class,” she told Marmalade. “You can sit outside until we're finished, and you'll have to make up the work later.”

“I don't care,” Marmalade told Danny afterward. “Mrs. Pinto has no feelings!” His imitation of Mrs. Pinto yelling at him had Danny in fits of laughter.

The next class was general dance. For the first couple of years at Rockley Park, all the students were required to study dance as part of their education. It was an excellent way to keep in shape, and helped to develop poise and balance. For the dedicated dance students, there were extra classes as a special group, when they studied modern dance, jazz, and Marmalade's favorite, freestyle, which suited his imagination and energy so well. But today, the lesson was for the whole class, and less demanding of Marmalade's talents. He always enjoyed dancing, so he was happy to cruise along in this class, but his favorite time of all was when the dance teacher, Mr. Penardos, gave him some one-on-one instruction in the special dance group. That was when he worked his hardest and learned the most.

Everyone was full of energy after the midterm break, so when they had completed their warming-up stretches, Mr. Penardos put on some bouncy music and got everyone to jog in place for a few minutes.

“Keep it going!” he urged. “Follow me. Arms up two . . . three . . . and down two . . . three . . . Step forward, ver' nice, Pop, and back two . . . three . . .”

As they worked their way through a simple routine, Marmalade didn't bother to concentrate much. He could do the movements almost without thinking. While they were having a brief rest, he nudged the boy next to him, Martin, who was another talented dancer.

“I bet I can imitate people while I'm dancing,” Marmalade said. “I've been watching them. Everyone does the movements slightly differently.”

“Go on, then,” Martin encouraged him. “Do Tara. She should be easy enough.”

Marmalade stood up and glared out into space. Then he began to jog stiffly. He looked exactly like Tara when she was concentrating hard doing something that she didn't really like.

Martin laughed. “Do some more people,” he said, but Marmalade had to stop because Mr. Penardos was ready for the next routine.

As the class went on, there was more and more giggling from Marmalade's end of the room. He was entertaining his friends by imitating them and he had copied them all perfectly. There was Chloe, with her energetic and enthusiastic movements, which sometimes went very wrong. There was Ed Henderson, a guitarist putting up with dance because he had to, but obviously not enjoying it one bit, and serious and professional Pop and Lolly.

“Thank you, Marmalade,” said Mr. Penardos. “That's very clever, but you are disrupting my class.

“Okay, everyone.” Mr. Penardos stopped the music and spoke to the whole class. “Now don' forget to warm down those muscles. This is as important as the warm-up at the beginning of class. We don' want any injuries, do we? Marmalade, can you stay behind for a moment, please?”

“Now you're in for it!” warned Martin.

But Mr. Penardos didn't want to reprimand Marmalade. “I realize you're bored in this class,” he told Marmalade when the others had gone. “But you should treat it as an opportunity to keep your fitness up. Don' make the mistake of thinking you're too good to do simple exercises. They keep you supple and help you to avoid injury.”

Marmalade nodded, but Mr. Penardos hadn't finished. “A new dancer is joining us tomorrow,” he added. “We wouldn't usually start someone so near the end of the school year, but his parents have recently moved to this country from Hong Kong, and they were anxious to get him into school right away. We auditioned him over the midterm break, and were very impressed. He has a strong classical background to his dancing, which you migh' find interesting.”

Marmalade kept his expression neutral. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of a new student arriving who might be better than him.

“Don' worry!” Mr. Penardos said with a laugh, as if he'd read Marmalade's mind. “He won't steal your glory. You can teach him plenty abou' freestyle dancing. He needs to learn all abou' modern styles, but he'll make an excellent addition to our class, so I hope you'll make an effort to get along with him.”

“Okay,” said Marmalade, sounding more enthusiastic. Rockley Park taught some classical ballet, but the emphasis was very much on modern dance. It sounded to Marmalade as if he would still be top dog, and he might be able to pick up some tips from the new boy as well.

“He's not confident like you,” Mr. Penardos went on. “He's quite shy, and is sure to need some help settling in, so I wondered if you'd like to look out for him for a while?”

Marmalade's eyes lit up. That sounded like fun! He would enjoy being in charge and showing the new boy around. “Of course I will,” he agreed, his mind running ahead. He would soon put a new student at ease and share all his knowledge about the most laid-back teachers—and those he would have to watch out for. And a new student would be a new audience for all his jokes and antics! “What's his name?” Marmalade asked Mr. Penardos.

“Jack Cheung,” said his teacher. “He is a very talented dancer with real promise. But it's not going to be easy for him, joining us almos' at the end of the school year, and having jus' come from abroad. Everything will be new for him. Will you take him under your wing . . . without leading him astray?” he added.

Marmalade grinned. “Yeah!” he agreed. “It'll be great to have another real dancer. We're such a small group.”

“Good.” Mr. Penardos smiled. “Maybe having a bit of responsibility for someone else will help you settle down. I know some of the other teachers think you can be too exuberant.”

After showering, Marmalade went to his room. Danny was there already and so were his other two roommates, guitarists Ben and Ed.

“Did Mr. Penardos yell at you for fooling around?” asked Danny.

Marmalade grinned. “No, I got away with it,” he told him. “And he gave me some interesting news.”

“What's that?” asked Ben.

“A new student is coming,” Marmalade announced. “Another dancer. Mr. Penardos has asked me to look out for him until he gets settled in.”

“He's missed almost the whole year!” Ed exclaimed. “It seems like a weird time to change schools.”

“He's just come from Hong Kong,” Marmalade told his friends. “His parents want him to get settled as soon as possible.”

“If it were me,” said Ed, “I'd have tried to wrangle a few weeks' extra vacation and start school next year!”

“Maybe he did try, but his parents wouldn't let him,” said Marmalade, wanting to stick up for his new charge.

“I wonder which bedroom Mr. South will put him in?” said Ben. “Ravi has a spare bed in his room, and so does Charlie, now that Robbie's left.”

“Ravi's room, I hope,” Danny said. “Charlie might not be nice to a new kid.”

“Don't worry,” Marmalade said. “Wherever he is, he'll be fine with
me
looking out for him!”

The next morning, Mr. South called Ravi and Marmalade into his office after breakfast.

“This is Jack Cheung,” the resident adviser said, introducing a slightly built boy who looked very nervous. “I'm putting Jack in your room, Ravi. So, could you show him around the house and help him settle in?” Then he turned to Marmalade. “Mr. Penardos has told me that you'll take care of Jack during the school day,” he added.

“Yeah,” said Marmalade. “No problem.”

“Good,” said Mr. South. “It's tough joining a school halfway through a semester, but I know you'll all make Jack feel welcome and help him out.”

The boys had to hurry to assembly, and then afterward there was no time for Jack to meet Marmalade's friends as they headed to their first class.

“I'll introduce you to everyone later,” Marmalade told Jack, feeling very important. “Come on, we'd better get going. We don't want to be late for dance.”

It didn't take long to get changed into the loose pants and T-shirts needed for the class. Mr. Penardos was waiting for them in the studio. The class was small. Only five students in Marmalade's year were taking dance as their major subject, but every one of them was utterly dedicated.

“Welcome to our group, Jack,” Mr. Penardos said. “Meet Martin, Ellie, Megan, and Alice. I think Marmalade and Martin will be glad to have another boy!”

Jack smiled shyly. Marmalade showed him where to leave his towel before taking him over to the full-length mirror at the far end of the room.

“I suppose you're used to warming up before classes, aren't you?” Marmalade asked as everyone began their stretching exercises.

Jack watched as Marmalade carefully lifted one arm above his head and used his other hand to push the arm back over his shoulder. “Yes,” he agreed. “I know similar exercises, but these aren't exactly the same as the ones I use. Do you mind if I copy you? I think I'll get them right soon.”

Marmalade grinned. “That's fine,” he said. “And if you're not sure about anything, just ask.”

“I have a question,” said Jack right away.

“Go ahead,” said Marmalade, ready to explain the finer points of the stretch he was doing.

“I hope you don't mind,” Jack said, then hesitated. “Why are you called Marmalade?”

Marmalade burst out laughing. “It's because of my hair,” he explained, tossing back his long, curly red hair. My real name is Marmaduke, but it's such a terrible name that even the teachers call me Marmalade.”