Lucky Break #6 (4 page)

Marmalade leaned over and gently nudged Chloe's arm. She looked at him reluctantly. “What do you want?” she asked.

“I'm sorry about the other day,” he told her. “I didn't mean to upset you. I should have remembered how I used to hate my hair.”

“You did?” Chloe asked, looking at his wild, bright red hair. “I can't imagine that. It's so much a part of you.”

“Well, it was either get used to the way it is or be miserable,” he admitted. “And I decided a couple of years ago that I didn't want to be miserable, so I let it grow and become even wilder. I really like it now.”

“I
hate
mine at the moment,” Chloe told him, tugging the beanie even lower. “I told the hairdresser I wanted it short, but I'm practically
bald
.” She lowered her voice. “And now my ears stick out. It's horrible.”

“Well, your hair
will
grow,” Marmalade assured her sympathetically. “And hats are quite cool at the moment. I'm really sorry I teased you. Friends?”

Chloe nodded. “Friends,” she agreed.

“Thank goodness!” Marmalade put his hand on his heart and rolled his eyes.

Chloe laughed. “I'm glad we're friends again,” she said. “It hasn't been the same without you clowning around at mealtimes.”

“Yes,” agreed Lolly. “We've missed you, Marmalade.”

Marmalade grinned. Now that Chloe had forgiven him, it seemed that the rest of the girls were willing to be friends again, too. “Well, I've been busy,” he told them. “But I'm here now, and I can tell you that I've been learning some cool new jumps. I can even do a
saut de basque
!”

“What is that?” asked Pop.

“It's French for a really tricky jump,” Marmalade told her airily. “Even some really good ballet dancers can't do a
saut de basque
!”

“Who has been teaching you ballet steps?” Chloe giggled.

It was on the tip of Marmalade's tongue to tell them about Jack being a ballet dancer, but then he caught sight of him coming into the dining hall and remembered that Jack hadn't wanted anyone to know about that.

“I just did it instinctively!” he said grandly. “And then I looked up the name in the library.”

“You fibber.” Pop laughed. “Someone must have been teaching you some ballet terms. I can't believe you've been reading about them!”

“Got to go,” Marmalade told the girls. Jack was coming over and Marmalade didn't want them guessing that he was the ballet expert. “Come on, Jack,” he said rather pompously, not giving him a chance to put his tray on the table. “Let's go and sit over there with the other dancers.”

As they moved away, the girls burst out laughing. Jack looked at Marmalade with a worried face. “What were they laughing at?” he asked.

“Don't worry, not you,” Marmalade reassured him. “Or me,” he added uncertainly. “Probably just some silly girl stuff.”

At the next general dance class, Mr. Penardos had a surprise for everyone.

“Some of you will need to sing and dance at the same time when you perform,” he told them. “And you will have to get used to wearing a special microphone like this.” He held up a small headset, and Marmalade exchanged excited glances with Chloe, who was standing next to him. “How many of you anticipate that you will sing at the same time as dancing onstage in the future?”

Pop put up her hand, and Chloe and Marmalade did the same. Several others in the class did as well.

“Right,” said Mr. Penardos. “Gather around, everyone. You'll all get a chance to try this, but for now we'll mike up Marmalade and see how he does. With a radio microphone like this, you have to wear a power pack, as well as the headset.”

Mr. Penardos helped Marmalade adjust the tiny microphone so that it sat comfortably. It felt strange to Marmalade, at first, to be wearing the slim headset in his long, curly hair. The small power pack was less of a nuisance, and fit perfectly on the waistband of his pants.

“Now,” said Mr. Penardos, when Marmalade was all set. “The sound is transmitted to a pickup, which amplifies it through a small speaker like the one I have here. Onstage, of course, the sound is fed into the mixing desk and the sound engineer makes sure it comes out at the right level.”

“How does it feel?” Chloe asked Marmalade, her eyes shining with excitement.

“Great!” said Marmalade. “It makes me feel very professional.”

“Okay!” said Mr. Penardos, clapping his hands. “We'll go through the routine now. Marmalade, you can sing along. I will turn our music down a bit so we can hear you. See how you manage with singing and dancing at the same time. I know that a lot of artists lipsynch while they dance, but if you can manage both it's so much better.”

They began, and Marmalade's voice came out of the little speaker. Of course, Marmalade and his friends had often sung along for fun when they danced, but this was different. The pressure was on, because Marmalade knew everyone was listening to his voice. He had to concentrate hard on his breathing, because his dancing threatened to make his singing sound breathless.

When he finished his routine, everyone clapped. “Well done,” said Mr. Penardos. “You did ver' well. And practice will make you even better. Singing and dancing together is difficult, bu' it is an important skill for any performer to master.”

“He looked very serious while he was dancing,” said Pop. “I've never
seen
Marmalade look so serious before!”

“That's what concentration does,” Mr. Penardos said with a smile. “Bu' you're right, Pop. Marmalade was singing and dancing a happy song with a serious face. Expression is something else that you have to get right. And you need to be able to express the emotion of the song not just through your voice and facial expression, but also your whole body.”

“It's an awful lot to get right at the same time,” said Chloe.

“Of course it is,” Mr. Penardos agreed. “And it's important not to overdo it, bu' people do hold their bodies in different ways when they feel different emotions. Let's see how each of you would move if you were feeling sad. Then you can try all the different emotions you can think of.”

When Marmalade started to express happiness, he went into a pirouette as he so often did when he was excited. But this time he wasn't concentrating, and he fell over. Everyone laughed.

“You've forgotten about spotting during your pirouette,” Mr. Penardos told Marmalade as he got up, grinning ruefully. “You of all people should be able to do that. Don't forget that your head should be the last part of you to turn and the first to arrive, and keep those eyes focused on a spot at eye level or you'll fall again. Jack, can you pirouette?”

“Yes,” said Jack quietly.

“Go ahead,” Mr. Penardos said. “Do a few and show Marmalade how it's done.”

Marmalade had to stand by and watch while Jack executed a series of perfectly balanced turns. Jack's ballet training had given him great poise. He made the pirouettes look effortless.

Chloe was very impressed. “That's fantastic,” she enthused when Jack had finished. “And they look really
serious
somehow. When Marmalade does them, they're just a laugh.”

“It's all about the
emotion
,” Marmalade told her quickly.

Mr. Penardos laughed. “Yes, it is,” he agreed, “and Marmalade is very good at being funny when he dances. But don't do any more careless moves,‘ he added to Marmalade. ‘I've seen you fooling around in the hallway. You don' want to get an injury, do you?”

Marmalade shook his head, hating to be reprimanded in front of Jack.

“Okay,” said Mr. Penardos. “There's just time to shower before your next lesson. Off you go.” He picked up the discarded headset and turned away.

Danny caught up with Marmalade at the showers. “He was right about you dancing around between classes,” he told Marmalade. “Don't risk your Rising Stars place, okay? It's not worth it.”

“It would be terrible to get injured,” agreed Jack seriously.

But Marmalade was in no mood to listen to either of them. To begin with, he hadn't liked being upstaged by Jack. He didn't usually mind falling, and normally made a joke of it, but with Jack on hand to show how a pirouette
should
be done, Marmalade felt as if he'd been made to look silly. He also resented Danny warning him about the Rising Stars Concert.

“I know
exactly
what I'm doing,” he told them both. “I
need
to practice all the time. And you use your drumsticks all over the place,” he added to Danny. “I've seen you! On the walls, on your knees, on tables ... but no one tells you not to use them without your drum set!”

Danny opened his mouth and then closed it again without speaking. Marmalade could tell that he wasn't convinced by the comparison of dancer and drummer. After all, no one could argue that Danny's drumming on the walls was dangerous. But Marmalade wasn't about to stop leaping and twirling all day long. It was just the way he was. He'd been born with springs in his feet and he didn't want to just walk seriously from place to place. Why
should
he stop? Dancing was his whole life. He couldn't bear to keep it strictly to dance studios and performances. Anywhere would work for him. And nothing anyone said would make him change his mind!

Whatever Marmalade felt about dancing, he knew clowning around during class had to stop for a while. Mrs. Pinto and the other teachers were insisting that he concentrate on catching up with his academic work, and he couldn't ignore them any longer. It wasn't easy being serious, and it would have been much more fun to continue being the class joker, but Marmalade knew that if he didn't make more of an effort, he would end up having to go and see the principal. Mrs. Sharkey could be seriously scary, and Marmalade didn't want to risk being yelled at by her!

So he tried harder in class, and also started to work seriously on his dance assignment for Mr. Penardos. He had chosen a great piece of jazz for his dance, and had decided to portray each instrument as it was highlighted in the piece. Already he knew that one of his favorite parts was going to be the piano. As the music played, he was going to portray himself running down the keyboard and picking out individual notes. There was a lot to think about while he planned his steps, and Marmalade was also helping Jack out with his dance, giving him the benefit of all his knowledge, although Jack was asking him fewer and fewer questions as he got used to the school and became more proficient at modern dance.

Marmalade was making so much effort that he felt as if he might burst, so between classes he had to let off steam. He began to behave even more outrageously than before. Remembering what he'd read about B-BOYS using cardboard to cut down friction on unsuitable surfaces, Marmalade got an old cardboard box from the kitchen and during breaks could be found almost anywhere, perfecting his spins on his shoulders, back, and even his head!

Several other people tried, but no one could beat Marmalade at his new hobby. And he didn't neglect his jumps either. He wanted to incorporate break dancing and ballet into his freestyle dance, so he was constantly startling the other students by leaping and bounding all over the place. He wanted his routine to be really original, and he planned on including some difficult jumps that would take a lot of practice to get right. Maybe, if his routine was good enough, he really would be dancing on television soon!

One day, Chloe met him rushing down the hallway on the way to a very late lunch after spending too long practicing backflips on the front lawn. “I'll come and talk to you while you eat,” she told him. “Everyone else has finished and gone outside to enjoy the sun.”

“I was watching Jack dance this morning,” Chloe told him as he joined her at a table with a large salad and a glass of milk. “He was practicing in the small dance studio and I watched through the window. He's very good, isn't he?”

“He's all right, I guess.” Marmalade wasn't sure he liked Jack being praised. He was too used to being top dog himself. “Jack needs to get more power in his movements,” he told Chloe. “I keep telling him to try weight training, but he won't. How can I help him if he won't do what I say?”

Chloe laughed. “I think he's been very patient, listening to you so much,” she told him. “How's your dance coming along?”

“Awesome! It's a lot of fun,” said Marmalade. “But I want it to be really original, so Mr. Penardos can see how much effort I'm putting into it.”

“Well, I think you've got some competition from Jack,” said Chloe. “His dance is different from anything I've seen at Rockley Park. It's so graceful, like a mixture of ballet and modern dance.”

Marmalade shook his head. “It's not good being
too
much like ballet,” he told her, feeling more and more annoyed that she was so impressed with Jack's dance.

“Why not?” she asked.

Marmalade scrambled for an answer. “Because . . . because he might get teased,” he said.

“Don't be silly!” Chloe laughed. “His dancing was amazing. It doesn't matter what the style is, no one here will laugh at a good performance.” She looked at his grumpy face. “You're not jealous, are you?” she asked.

“Of course not!” said Marmalade. “What gave you that idea?”

“Don't worry,” Chloe said. “He hasn't been here long enough to be chosen for the Rising Stars Concert
this
time. Anyway, I've got to go. See you later.”