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Susie glared out the window of her car in mute fury, watching the leaves of the trees whip past as her mother drove her to the dance studio.
“Susie,” she said, “You’re not giving me the silent treatment, are you?”
“I don’t want to be a stupid dancer, mom,” she spat, tugging at her form fitting work out tank that hugged all the wrong curves, “They’re dumb and obsessed with boys.”
“Now, now,” her mother chided, “They can’t all be like that. In fact, there’s a boy in your class, a friend of yours.” Susie rolled her eyes. She didn’t have friends. “What was his name? Kevin?”
Susie snorted. “I’m sure he’s obsessed with boys, too.” Her mother didn’t say anything to that, just sighed and continued driving.
When they pulled up to the dance studio, an ordinary red brick building, Susie gave it a hard glare, stomping her way (as much as she could stomp in ballet slippers) after her mother up to the front doors. Susie put her hand on the doorknob, but her mother grabbed her arm.
“Susie,” she said, giving her a stern look, “I want you to try. The therapist said this will help with your aggression.”
“He said ‘might.’”
“Don’t interrupt me!” her mother continued, “I want you to keep an open mind and try to make some friends.” She opened the door and stepped inside, ushering Susie in. “Seriously, don’t waste these groupons.”
Susie groaned. “Fine! I’ll try.” That seemed to satisfy her mother, who smiled and turned to speak to the receptionist. Susie ignored them as their chat turned from dancing to the newest season of “The Bachelor” and looked around the small lobby. Posters promoting dance competitions were plastered over all the white walls apart from one that had a large window that looked on into the next room. She peered inside, seeing a spacious gymnasium with hardwood floors, mirrored walls, and a barre running along the perimeter of the room.
On the ground in the middle of the studio, a lone boy sat, dressed in black and grey, stretching his legs out in front of him. He must have been the boy her mom mentioned. He glanced to the side and she could see that a fuchsia headband held his long, black bangs out of his eyes. Susie shook her head at him. He must be boy crazy like the rest of the girls that danced here.
He stood and walked to the barre and began to bend his knees up and down, stretching one arm out as he went with languid motions over his head, arching his back and straightening again. She watched him do this for a few minutes, finding the slow movements strangely hypnotic, before he turned around, facing away from her.
“Susie, honey,” her mother said, pulling her away from the dancer’s influence, “Come over here and sign some paperwork, okay?”
Susie sighed and took the clip board from her mother’s hands, sitting down on a chair and signing her name without reading the form. She went through it, writing down things like contact information and occasionally asking her mother for help, when the office door behind the receptionist desk opened and someone walked out.
“Susie, dear!” the person said, and she looked up from the paperwork to see Toriel Dreemurr, her old elementary school teacher. “It’s so nice that you can join our team. I know you’ll just love it here.” She smiled brightly at Susie, who returned the smile, unable to contradict her favorite teacher, the one who kept her out of trouble when things at home got rough.
“Yeah,” she said, “Maybe I will. Since when do you teach dance?” Susie felt her mother stiffen beside her and surmised that she was cringing internally at her daughter’s gruffness.
“Oh, it’s normally just during the summer, but Mr. Mettaton also teaches here during the school year,” Toriel said, “Why don’t you go on into the studio and begin your stretches. Class will start in about twenty minutes. Since it’s the end of the season, there won’t be as many people in your age group here today, but my little assistant can show you they basics while I work with the kids.” Susie internally breathed a sigh of relief. Less people dancing meant less people to make a fool of herself in front of.
She stood and took off her jacket, handing it to her mom, and walked through the door into the studio. The boy dancing had moved on from his pliés and danced in the center of the room, extending his arms and legs out from his body, standing on his tip toes. He looked up at her entrance and stopped dancing, letting his arms fall and his feet became flat on the floor.
“Hey, Susie,” he said, giving her a nod.
Susie cocked her head to the side slightly. “Do we know each other?” She was sure she had never seen this boy before.
“It’s Kris.”
“Oh,” she said obtusely.
Kris Dreemurr. Toriel’s son. She could’ve given him any number of responses, ranging from how lovely his dancing was to how muscular she didn’t expect him to be to how gay his pink headband made him look. She leaned toward the latter response and said, “You look different with your hair out of your face.”
He shrugged. As they approached each other, Susie noticed how big and red his eyes were, eyes that his bangs usually hid. They were quite striking, actually, like rubies. Not that she cared or anything.
“So, you dance, huh?” she said, kicking the ground with her toe.
Kris nodded. “Yeah. For most of my life.”
They said nothing more to each other, and Susie wondered why all their conversations had awkward pauses in the middle of them; one of the reasons she wasn’t friends with the kid.
“Well,” she said, finally breaking the silence, “Your mom told me to stretch, so…I’d better do that.” She walked to the middle of the room and sat on the ground.
“Want me to stretch with you?”
Susie could distinctly remember watching him stretch earlier and thought it would be overkill for him but decided she would look less like an idiot if they did it together.
“Sure,” she said.
Kris sat next to her and stuck his legs in front of him, grabbing the tops of his shoes. Susie tried to imitate him as they moved through the stretches together, but found she was not nearly as flexible as he was. Though she would never admit it to another living soul, it made her jealous.
Overtime, the room began filling with young girls, dressed in little kid work out gear, and they began stretching as well. They weren’t as flexible as Kris, but they were leagues ahead of Susie. She silently bristled but caught herself; she didn’t even want to be here, so why feel jealous of them?
Toriel came into the room, wearing the kind of workout clothes Susie’s mother liked to buy but never use, you know the mom kind of clothes, ugly but not like it’s trying too hard to be. She walked over to Susie and Kris.
“Okay, Susie, it looks like it’s just you today,” Toriel said, “So, Kris, you go through the first lesson with her. I wouldn’t want you to hang out with the kiddoes.” She chuckled, giving Susie a wink, “That would be a little embarrassing.”
“Thanks,” Susie said shortly, but gave Toriel a small smile to show her gratitude, remembering why the wonderful goat was her favorite teacher.
“Of course, dear,” she said, and left to work with the kids on the other side of the room.
“Okay,” Kris said, standing up, “First, I’ll show you how to place your feet.” He led her to the barre and they stood facing each other. “Put your heels together and try to make your toes point as much to the side as possible.” He demonstrated, with only a slight angle to his own feet. Susie tried to imitate, but only managed a wide V shape. She furrowed her brow, trying to force her feet to point out more, but Kris moved on to posture, apparently unconcerned if her feet were perfectly straight.
As he went through the lesson, Susie gained a newfound respect for dancers. Even standing in place was hard, much less the arm movements, or leg movements, or anything! Susie could not dance. If her inability to do the simplest things annoyed Kris, he didn’t show it, maintaining a completely neutral expression the entire time. Well, almost the entire time.
Toward the end of the lesson, Kris gave her a small smile. “Want to try something fun?” he asked. Susie regarded him with a raised eyebrow. What did Kris find ‘fun’?
She shrugged. “Sure, why the heck not?”
Kris’s smile widened, and, for some reason, Susie began to blush. This stupid kid cared about stupid dancing so much that it made her so mad her face turned red. Yeah, that was the reason.
“Let’s do a pirouette.” He demonstrated once for her, putting his feet and arms into position and quickly spinning around a few times. Then he demonstrated again more slowly, walking her through the process. “So, you put you left foot out in front of you and your right foot behind you; stick your right arm straight out and you left arm to the side. And then, you want to kick off with your right foot and touch your toe to your knee, and bring your arms into a circle in front of you.” He spun much more slowly this time so Susie could clearly see his movements, and she wondered how he kept his balance. “Now you try.”
He helped Susie get into position and stood back, giving her the directions again. She kicked off with her right foot as he had done and tried to spin but quickly lost her balance and had to put her foot back down.
“You make it look easy,” she said, giving him a scowl. He shrugged.
“You want me to help you spin?”
Help her spin? As in, hold her in place while she did it? No thanks, dude! She said this to herself in her head, but found herself saying something else out loud.
“Sure, whatever.” Kris stepped to the side of her and Susie got into position again.
“Try to keep you back as straight as possible,” he said, putting his hands on her waist, and Susie really wished that she had done some crunches before coming to class and maybe said no to the doughnut for breakfast. Not that it mattered or anything.
It was just Kris after all. Just some weird kid that she knew from school. So it turned out he was buff. Whatever. And he had gorgeous eyes. Yawn. And he was Toriel’s son. Susie looked over at the goat teaching the young kids and then glanced back at the human beside her. Okay, maybe not quite Toriel’s son, but he did have a mysterious past. Yes, Kris was mysterious, and troubled, and maybe a little bit of a bad boy, you know, like the kind that Susie liked.
What? No! Susie did not like Kris! Like, at all. She didn’t even give a crap that he had his very strong and sturdy hands on her waist right now. Not at all! In fact, Susie was so sure that she didn’t like him that she was going to beat him up as soon as the lesson was over. Tell that to her therapist, Mom.
“Susie?” Kris said, pulling her out of her thoughts, “You ready?”
“Uh, yeah,” She said, blushing again, “Sorry.”
She kicked off the floor and attempted another pirouette, keeping her back as straight as she could. Kris held onto her, spinning her with his hands before she lost her balance again, but she did stay up a bit longer than before.
“That was good,” he said with a small smile, “Maybe someday you’ll be as good as me.”
Susie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, whatever.”
By the time Kris finished his lesson with her, the younger girls had all left. Susie’s mother still had not arrived to pick her up, so she spent her time watching Kris dance as he told her the name of various steps until her mother arrived.
“Sorry you had to teach me to dance,” Susie said, pushing through the door to the lobby.
“No, it’s alright. I enjoyed it,” Kris said, giving her another small smile as he followed her into the room, “You did really well.”
Susie blushed again, unsure of how to accept his compliment. “Shut up, nerd,” she said, punching him hard on the shoulder and opened the doors to the parking lot, hearing her mom apologize to the stupid kid for her. She smiled to herself. Maybe dance class wouldn't be so bad.