When Lightning Strikes (Lightning Series Book 1) (12 page)

Julie shrugged and kept herself in the position the woman fixed her in. She bent over and was surprised to find that the bend was easier and smoother than before. The rest of the first hour Muriel spent correcting her posture slightly, and Julie was impressed. Each slight posture change was something that only a skilled instructor would catch, and they really did make a difference.

When the bell rang, Muriel clapped her hands again. “All right, for the second half, I want to see the last solo performance you did, Julie. I don’t care what it was. I need to see you with more motion.”

Julie smiled to herself. She knew Muriel would be impressed. She probably never saw anything like it before.

“I want the music. Wait—” She dug around in the bag on the bleacher. “I think I have it on my MP3 in my bag if you have a stereo to hook it into.”

“Kara?” Muriel said. The taller girl nodded and bounded off to a doorway on the other side of the gym. A moment later she came out swinging a small stereo.

Julie wasn’t sure how to proceed as she found the song. “This isn’t the right lighting, but I think you’ll get the gist.”

Her body vibrated with excitement. The warm up had woken her muscles from the few days she hadn’t danced. They felt like they were yawning, waking up from a sleep.

“Ready?” asked Kara.

Julie nodded.

She let the first few notes float through her. She easily found the inner part of her that made her feel as though she floated as she danced. It snapped into place quickly. It was so easy to find it now. The desire to let out her energy in the dance almost burst through her, but she held it back a moment longer until the right note hit.

Julie glided and jumped through the set without a single mistake, landing perfectly in the last position as though she had never missed a day of practice. She held still, her body arched back as the last few notes fell. Then she relaxed and looked at Muriel for the first time throughout the dance. She realized she danced the whole thing with her eyes closed, relying on the size of the gym to save her from running into anything.

Kara clapped excitedly, jumping. “Oh, Julie, that was wonderful. That makes me look like a clumsy idiot.”

Muriel’s face was unreadable. Julie started to fidget with her hands as she held them together behind her back waiting for her instructor’s feedback.

Since when did this woman’s opinion mean anything? But it mattered now. Muriel was an expert. Even with the stretches Julie could tell that.

“I see your parents were wrong.”

Julie’s heart thudded in her chest. Was Muriel going to refuse to teach her after all?

The older woman cracked a crooked smile. “You are by far the best dancer I have ever seen. But,” she held a finger in the air to quiet Julie before she spoke, “I can see by your stretches and some of your moves that you need polishing. Your dance instructors didn’t focus on the fine details. I can give you that. Plus, I think that you need to learn choreography. That was an impressive arrangement, but it could be better.”

Julie squealed and made a little jump. She couldn’t help it.

Muriel tilted her head to the side, examining Julie closely while she jumped in the air. Her soft words carried over to Julie, even though she didn’t think Muriel meant for her to hear them. “Strange. It’s almost as if…It doesn’t matter. If it’s there, it’s there. Can’t rush it.”

She wasn’t sure why, but this woman saying she was the best she had ever seen was almost like getting into the Academy.

The Academy. Her happiness faded as soon as she thought about her dream school. She grew hot and flushed. But she caught her breath as she saw a shaft of light making the dust in the air dance around her. Who knew how beautiful dust could sparkle in a beam of sunlight? Kara threw herself off the bleachers and caught her in a big hug, kind of like Mandy used to.

What was she thinking about a minute ago? It didn’t matter. Muriel seemed like she would be a great teacher.

Another bell rang, and Muriel dismissed them quickly so they could change. She promised Julie that she would be there every day so she could work on her dancing, but when she wasn’t there, she expected the girls to work together on practicing certain moves.

Kara grimaced. It seemed that at this high school, the teachers believed in self–learning at times and trusted the few students they taught to behave. Julie understood. It would be easy to figure out who did what here. There was no crowd to hide in.

“Come on, Julie. Let’s hurry.” Kara pulled her to the changing rooms again. Julie was getting used to Kara pulling her around now. “If we hurry, we can convince your mom to drop us at this cool coffeehouse downtown. Well, I guess it is the only coffeehouse. I have always wanted to go study there after school, but I didn’t want to go alone.”

“What about the boys?”

Kara shook her head vehemently. “Oh no, we can’t start that. They are already bad enough. I like them, but they get on my nerves after a while. Besides, if we invite them, they will want to fight over who gets us coffee.”

Julie laughed.

The second day was almost as bad as the first. By the second week, everyone was used to her. Maran, Tilik, and Arron followed the girls around a lot. It was like they had a personal entourage waiting to help with any little thing.

As the days grew warmer, the whole school routine fell into place quickly. Her mom dropped her off every morning, and she met up with Kara and the three boys for their shared classes and lunch. Lunch was always interesting since they all got to talk longer. She noticed that the others spaced out as much as Kara.

She learned their names as they established a routine for helping her carry her bag. She barely needed to go to her locker, but she always did out of habit anyway. If she even hinted she needed something, one of them would run off to get it like she had asked them. Muriel also turned out to be the best dance instructor she’d ever had, even if she said odd things at times.

It was weird that she wasn’t angry about all of this in the end. She couldn’t remember the last time she was upset about anything, let alone moving to the island suddenly. Yet, for some reason there was a nagging sensation in the back of her mind, like she was forgetting something.

♦

Chapter 10: Birthday Surprise

≺≻

I
t was Julie’s birthday. Well hers and Jamie’s. But she couldn’t be excited about it. She barely saw her brother anymore and wondered if he would find some excuse not to be at their birthday dinner tonight. He was more a stranger to her every day.

She felt the weirdness between herself and her family even more today, since Kara was her only friend. Usually she and her brother invited all their friends over and had one big party together. Her life was barren of the family and friends she took for granted in Atlanta.

Julie picked up the mail from the box to take in for her mom, who rarely left the house anymore. After the first few weeks here, she stayed inside. It felt like she chose a new hobby every week. This week it was perfecting birthday cakes in honor of their birthday coming up. Julie was getting sick of eating cooking experiments. Would she be able to choke down whatever the final masterpiece was tonight?

One of the envelopes dropped onto the stone path leading up to the house. Julie bent to pick it up, noticing that it looked a little mangled, and the yellow forwarding information was smeared.

The letterhead read: The Academy. It was addressed to her.

Julie dropped it again, as if it had bitten her, but then sat the grass next to the path and tore it open. The letter started:

I’m pleased to let you know you are invited to try outs for our upcoming school year dance program. The audition dates are the first weeks in June. Please reply by May 15th to set up your day. Days and times are given out on a first come, first serve basis. Contact via…

Julie stood up and raced into the house waving the paper around. “Mom! Mom, look! Looook!”

“What is it, honey?” Andromeda raced out from the kitchen. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

“No, look.” Julie gave her the letter and bounced up and down on her feet with excitement as she read it, the lines on her face relaxing from worried to a frown. Her eyes were watering when she finally finished and met Julie’s gaze.

“Oh, honey, I’m so proud.” She leaned over and gave Julie a big hug.

“Can we surprise Dad with this? He is going to be so excited for me!”

Her mother hesitated. “Sure, but we should wait until he gets home. He will want to read the letter too.”

Andromeda turned away and headed back into the kitchen where she was working on the birthday dinner. Her shoulders were hunched, and she looked like she was going to cry again. Julie wondered for a moment at her, but her eyes went back to the letter and stayed glued there.

“I’m going to go call Mandy and Darcy right now. They will be so excited when they hear this!”

“Um,” her mom said sharply from the kitchen. “Why don’t you come help me with dinner and the final touches on the cake before you do that? Also, I think you should let Dad know before anyone else. We can talk about it all while we cook.”

“Ok, sure. I guess Dad should know first.”

“Here. Why don’t we hang this on the fridge since that is where we put all the important stuff? Your dad should be home any minute, and we can let him know then and discuss what this means.” She continued to stir the bowl of icing franticly.

“Okay.” Julie pinned it to the fridge. “Hey, I’m going to run upstairs and change quick. I’ll be right back.”

“Come right back. I do need your help, and I want to talk all about this.”

She ran upstairs and changed into one of the few t–shirts and jeans combos she packed from the one bag that made it from Atlanta. As she pulled her hair back into a ponytail, a small red notebook on her dresser caught her eye. A while ago her mom had gotten it as a diary for her, but she’d never started it. On a whim, she picked it up and decided to write a quick note. If any day needed to be recorded, it should be today since it was her birthday and she was invited to audition to her dream school. It was perfect.

She flipped to the second page and wrote a heading: On the Way to the Academy. She took two minutes to jot down finding the letter that was forwarded several times and what it said. She smiled as she put the book under her pillow, planning on writing out more later. She would take the diary with her next year, since she was positive she would go. One day she would have a record of when all her dreams started.

Skipping back downstairs, Julie heard her father’s voice in the kitchen and ran to him. She slammed into his back, giving him a big hug. Jamie wasn’t there yet. Big surprise.

“Did she tell you?”

“Yes.” Lir turned and hugged her back. “I’m so proud of you, Julie.”

“Isn’t it great! Should we start planning now? You know I’m going to make it. I mean, should I live in New York on my own? Mom can come too. She doesn’t seem happy here.”

Her mom dropped a baking pan on the floor. The sound clattered through the kitchen.

“Julie, let’s sit down in the living room and talk about this while your mom finishes up dinner.” Her dad put his hand on her back and gently pushed her into the adjoining living room. Julie plopped down on the couch, beaming at him.

“Julie, I’m very proud of you,” he began.

“I know—isn’t it great? It’s what I’ve been working for since I was old enough to know what dancing is.”

“Honey, please don’t interrupt me right now, this is hard enough as it is.” His face didn’t echo her happy smile. In fact, if anything he was frowning at her. Her smile faded.

“What’s up?”

“You can’t live in New York this year. I think it will be better if you postpone the audition until next year, and we will figure out a plan then. You are too young to live there on your own, and Mom and I can’t go with you.”

“What?” Julie’s heart raced. “What are you talking about?”

“You can’t go.” He leaned forward to hold her hand. “I’m sorry, but there is no other way right now.”

“What?” Her face grew hot, and tears slid down her cheeks. She hated when she cried in anger. It made her look weak when she needed to look strong.

“I’m going! And you can’t stop me! I will figure out a way to do this. This is my dream. How can you not help me with this? Don’t you want me to be happy?” Her vision blurred as more tears spilled out.

Another pan clattered in the kitchen. Lir held onto her hand tightly. Julie blinked rapidly, looking into his eyes, noticing for the first time how the yellow flecks in the gray background seemed to swirl toward his pupils. They looked like rays of light. It was beautiful.

Julie shook her head. Her face was cold, and she touched her fingertips to her cheeks. “Why is my face wet?”

“Oh,” her dad replied, letting go of her hand and sitting back on the couch, “don’t you remember? You were cutting up onions, and they made you tear up”

Her eyebrows knitted together. “I forgot, isn’t that weird? I seem to forget a lot lately.”

Her mother came over to sit next to her and gave her a hug.

“Mom, have you been crying?”

“No…yes”,” she said quickly. “I’m afraid I may have burnt your cake a little, and I wanted it perfect.”

She was so sensitive about everything lately. She cried all the time. Julie hugged her. “Oh, Mom, I don’t care. I’m sure it will be fine. You already do so much for me.”

Andromeda made a strangled sound. She got up and went back to the kitchen sink, scrubbing a dish vigorously. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed her dad slip a piece of paper off the fridge and into his pocket.

Jamie was standing on the stairs. Had he been there awhile? “Hey, Jamie, long time no see. So you made it home to have dinner with us all tonight? I was afraid you might have forgotten it was our birthday.”

He flinched, as though her words had slapped him. She felt guilty for a moment but stopped herself. He was the one choosing to stay away from her. Her brother used to be her best friend.

“Jamie?” she repeated, since he didn’t respond.