I Was Born To Dance
Summary: Avery is a teenage girl who has nowhere to go, she has nowhere to go and meets Moose. Once they get to the park, Moose and Avery get caught in a dance battle with Kid Darkness and are saved by Luke. Avery and Moose become new crew members to the Pirates and Avery has a place to live and a family, but could Luke become more than just a sibling to her? Luke/OC
Disclaimer: I do not own Step Up, just Avery and her characteristics.
Chapter One:
So get this, my parents give me thirty thousand dollars into an account under my name, a laptop, an iPad, black beats headphones, a iPhone, a fold up mix table in a black suitcase, and new Nike high tops with Gryffindor symbol that's all red, gold, and white, just for bribery to leave their house and their lives. Oh sure, send an eighteen year old out on her own in the middle of New York. What the fuck?
So here I am, walking around with a duffel bag full of my clothes and belongings, and my mix table luggage. Luckily there was some space in there so I put laptop in there. It's around the size of a regular suitcase but has two turntables on both sides.
Anyway, I'm just walking around listening to different genre's of music on my phone using my new beats I got. My silver NY hat was on my head, lifted up a bit, and my red hood over the hat. I make it to a park where University students are being led around to the campgrounds. I see a commotion going on nearby and decide to take a closer look.
Oh forgive me, I forgot to introduce myself. Hi my name is Avery O'Connell. Yeah, I know, the same last name for Rick form the Mummy. I am eighteen years old, I have raven black hair, and slight tan skin, but I'm also Puerto Rican. I am 5'6 with a nice curvy body, but I'm not too skinny. I love music, mixing music, and especially dancing. Ooh dancing, it's like another language only I'm fluent in it. I also speak other languages like Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, and Japanese.
Back to reality- I see a group of people all dressed in black in the middle of a crowd break dancing. There's a skinny curly haired kid there who looks pretty interested. I get pushed all of a sudden and bump into him.
"Oh my god, I am so sorry." I quickly tell him.
"It's fine. I'm Robert Alexander III, but you can call me moose."
"I'm Avery, but call me Glitch."
"Nice to meet you, Glitch." Moose said.
"You as well, Moose." We went back to watching the guy in black dancing like crazy, he was pretty good.
"You like dancing?" Moose asked.
"Are you kidding me? It's like one of the six languages I know fluently."
"Impressive-" Before he could say anything else, we were pushed into the middle and we dropped our bags, and suitcase in my note.
"I bet my money on this kid and the hottie." Some guy yelled out. Excuse me? The guy who was dancing before looked to us and started to dance right before us.
When he finished dancing, I took my headphones off and shoved it into my bag. Threatening anyone who dares touch it.
I walked to the middle and started to sway. I did a couple salsa moves and moved closer to the guy before. I put my hands to his chest then trailed them up his neck. I could hear his breath catching in his throat. Smirking, I pulled away and blew him a kiss. Then I started to twist and slide, then break dance. This got the crowd riled up. I ended with a back flip and a split.
"C'mon Moose, show me what you got." I said clapping him on. He stepped up to the center then did something with his arm, then he really began to dance.
He motioned me over to him then the picnic table nearby. We jumped up on top of it and did dance moves together like we were thinking the same thing. Then the black clothed guy who I felt up jumped onto the table and danced. He did a cartwheel off the table and it was our turn.
We danced, flipped, slided, and glided around then bubbles appeared. Moose and I popped them smiling like crazy and laughing. Moose jumped up but landed near a gas tank, making it blow and the balloons fly away.
I grabbed my duffle, suitcase, and Moose's backpack. I gave Moose his bag and asked him to take my suitcase. Cops came and tried to get us, but a guy who I saw had a camera came and told us to follow him.
"Come on, they're after you! GO!" He started running and we took off after him.
This was what I craved, some action and running from the cops. We slowed to a stop and saw our path blocked by a hot dog stand.
"What are you doing?" Moose asked the guy.
"Jump first, questions later." The guy said before taking off. He grabbed the bar on the stand and flew straight through the small window without touching anything. Now that was some serious parkour shit.
"Wow." Moose and I said faintly. I tugged Moose's sleeve a little and I started to run again. I jump on a small crate by the stand, then the edge of the stand, then the stone wall jumping over a couple people. I landed safely, Moose showing up behind me and we ran after the guy who saved our asses.
We followed him up to a tall gate in an alley. I took deep breaths and bent over, hands on my knees.
"Oh, Dios mío , no puedo sentir mis pulmones más. Creo que voy a vomitar. Necesito aire. (Oh my God, I can't feel my lungs anymore. I think I'm going to puke. I need air.)" I said breathless.
"Where are you going?" Moose asked the guy who was currently playing with his camera. "No scratch that, how did you just do that back there? I mean, you're like, freakin' flying man."
"I'm Luke." He said shaking hands with me then Moose.
"No, it's like this, you gotta blow it up." Moose said holding up his fist. Luke did his own handshake, which was pretty cool by the way, making Moose speechless.
"How's that?" Luke said before walking away.
"I'm Robert Alexander III. Just since you asked, but you can call me Moose."
"I'm Avery, but call me Glitch."
"I haven't seen you around." Luke said moving things around the alley.
"I just got here, I'm starting NYU. I'm an engineer." Moose said.
"Cool, what about you?" Luke said looking at me.
"I don't go to NYU. I just got bribed with cool stuff and tons of money from my parents to leave the house and their lives. Doesn't bother me." I told him.
"Oh yeah, here's your suitcase. What's in there?" Moose said giving me my precious baby. I opened it and turned it to their direction, showing them my turn table. "Whoa, this is amazing."
"That is pretty cool." I blushed at Luke's smile. "But seriously, you have no idea what you did back there, do you?" He said while I closed my suitcase. "You're BFAB." Is that even a word?
"BFAB?" Moose and I said at the same time.
"Born From A Boombox." Luke told us. "Some people learn to dance, others are born to. And you're in New York City. The dancer center of the world." He turned and grabbed a flyer from the wall. "Check this," He said handing it to me, Moose peering over my shoulder to read it.
The flyer said World Jam in big bold letters. This looked pretty serious. "It's the biggest battle ever. There's never been this kind of prize money. And those guys in the park. They're gearing up for this. You guys are good enough. You should be in this." Luke explained.
I looked at the paper in excitement. This was my opportunity to show people I'm not just some rich girl with nice stuff. Luke pulled back an old cloth to reveal the coolest car I have ever seen. "That's your car? Oh, that's so sick!" Moose exclaimed. Luke opened the door for Moose and the trunk for my stuff.
"Get in. What you saw at the park today is just the beginning." Luke said. "You can put your stuff in the back, Glitch." I nodded and gave him a small smile.
I walked around and put my duffel bag in the back but took my headphones out. I put my suitcase in after that and closed the trunk. I got in back and Moose took shotgun.
Luke got in and started the car. We drove until it was dark. Moose pointed things out like he was a kid in a huge toy store. Everything was so beautiful during nighttime in Times Square.
Soon, Luke pulled into an alley on the other side of the city. He got out and opened the door for Moose. I got out and he held out his hand for me. I took it and felt tingles flow through my skin, I blushed at his smile he sent to me. I grabbed my stuff from the trunk and we followed Luke into the building.
"What the heck is this place?" Moose asked.
"Come on." Luke led us in. "Welcome to my house. House of Pirates." He pulled a sliding door open to show an old fashioned elevator.
"Nice place." Moose said. "It's a little small to live in." I nudged him in the hip, making him grunt a little.
Luke pulled a lever down and the elevator started moving, making Moose jump a little in surprise.
"My parents converted this place years ago. We all live and train upstairs and run a club downstairs to make end meet. Kind of like a secret hide-out. Alright, this is it." Luke said, stopping the elevator. "We call this the Vault."
Luke opened some doors to reveal the most amazing place I have ever seen. It was huge. There were stairs in the middle leading to a tory, a pit on the left of the room and on the right side of the stairs, a table. There was loud music playing and people were dancing everywhere. "Around here, dance is your identity. We live together, work together, battle together, but unlike other crews, we all have different styles."
He was right, each group of people were dancing in different ways it was incredible. I could definitely get used to this.
"I found all of these guys out in the city. Crazy talents, but no place to go." There was a guy in an area completely covered in pillows doing tons of flips. "We became a kind of pseudo-family here. Where we can be ourselves and rules don't apply."
"This place is off the chain." Moose said.
"So much better than Disney World." I told them with a smile and laugh. Luke smiled to me and pointed at someone.
"Thing one and thing two over there? That's the Santiago Twins." They walked to us and one of them pointed at Moose and I.
"You. You two. We saw you dancing at the park. You were-"
"Amazing."
"You were great."
"You are from another planet."
"You two are just amazing."
"Pare , pare , pare. Me gusta que los chicos ya, pero su hablar al mismo tiempo, es difícil entender para los demás . (Stop, stop, stop. I like you guys already, but your talking at the same time it's hard for others to understand.)" I told them, both of them stopped talking and looked to me. And then they started to talk again at the same time, until Luke noticed my look.
"Guys come on, no questions. I gotta show them around." He said to the twins. They stopped and walked away.
"Ah, Luke." A guy with what sounded like an African accent walked to the three of us.
"Jacob!" Luke said and slapped hands with Jacob. "Meet Moose and Glitch."
"Please to meet you, Moose." He shook hands with Moose. "And hello to you, Glitch. Might I say you like very well on this fine day." He said kissing my knuckle like a gentlemen.
"Sweety, gentleman manners were so out like in the 1900's. Try again next time with a new pair of shoes and a leather jacket." I said tapping his cheek. Luke, Moose, and Jacob laughed at my statement.
"This guys right here," Luke put a hand on Jacob's shoulder and looked to Moose and I. "He's the captain of the ship."
"More like first mate." Jacob said grinning. "I heard you did some impressive work in the park today." Moose and I looked at each other then back to Jacob.
"How does everybody know that?" I asked.
"News travels fast when you beat someone like Kid Darkness." Jacob explained. Then he turned to Luke. "I need to borrow you for one second. We've got some things…"
"Can we wait? I gotta show them around." Out of nowhere, three guys walk to us with excited looks on their faces.
"We'll take them!" One said.
"Yeah, we'll show 'em around!" The second one said.
"I don't know about that guys." Luke said sounding hesitant, but he had a small smile on his face.
"Come on please!" All three started to talk at once until the middle one silenced them.
"Hey, hey, wait. What would Jesus do?" This got a laugh out of all of us.
"Alright, but don't hurt them. And while you're at it, find a place for Glitch. She needs a place to stay. Glitch, Moose, these are the Ticks." Luke said before walking off with Jacob.
"Well what are you waiting for? Let's go on our tour." The one who said WWJD told us.
"Let us take that for you." The other two Ticks said taking my duffle bag and suitcase. I smiled in thanks and hopped on the WWJD Tick's back.
"Let's go!" I exclaimed. We laughed and the tour began.
Soon after the tour and after I got a bed in a quadrupel bunk with the Ticks, who now became like brothers to me, we walked to the dining area where everyone was already gathered and watching a video of us beating Kid Darkness.
"No, you don't understand. Nobody has ever smoked Kid Darkness AND got it on tape!" One of the Pirate members said to Moose and I. They showed us the video on their fun of our routine, everyone crowded around us to watch the video. They cheered when they saw Moose jump off the table into the balloons.
"You think the Samurai's just gonna let you go like that? They'll find you, and they'll battle you again." Another person said and walking over to us. Okay, now I'm scared.
"The Sama-who?" He asked.
"The House of Samurai." One of the Ticks said.
"The most cut throat house in the city." Thing One/Santiago Twin # 1, told us.
"What do you mean they're gonna find us?" Moose said with a worried voice.
"They've got technology now, you know like the bears with GPS inside?"
"Watch out, they're behind you!" A Tick said.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and screamed bloody murder. I turned to see Luke laughing his ass off at my scared look, along with the other Pirates. I glared at him and started to smack his arms as he blocked some hits.
"Freakin' dick-head. Scared the living shit out of me."
"I'm sorry, are you okay?" Luke asked me still laughing.
"Give me a minute to restart both my hearts." I said putting a hand to my chest. Luke and some of the Pirates looked to me confused. "Haven't any of you seen Doctor Who?" Only a few Pirates raised their hands. "Good to know there are fellow whovians in the house."
"Okay, okay, calm down. Don't let them freak you out. You're with us now." Luke said, putting an arm around my shoulder. I blushed and the Pirates noticed this, wiggling their eyebrows or smiling cheekily. I glared at them.
"And nobody messes with us." Jacob spoke up. "Not even the Samurai." He added.
"Not unless you wanna get roasted!" A Tick said, causing everyone to cheer, but I noticed Moose looked worried and scared.
"Unless they want to get a big patada in their traste!" The twins laughed but everyone else didn't and looked confused.
"What?" The Ticks asked. The twins and I looked at them exasperated.
"Okay, you don't get it, but I know what I'm saying." Santiago Twin #2 said, making me and Luke, who still had his arm around me, laugh.
"They said 'unless they want to get a big kick in the ass'. Seriously, you guys need to learn this stuff, pendejos." I said throwing my hands in the air.
"You speak their language?" A Tick asked.
"Yeah, and French, Italian, German, Portuguese, and Japanese. Wait, i you want to be even more mind blown, I need the twins to follow me, I'll be right back."
The twins looked confused, but did as I said. We walked to my bunk where I had my stuff. I grabbed my laptop, my iPad, my suitcase, some of my flash drives and CDs, and my phone which I left to charge.
I passed the twins my iPad, laptop, and bag of CDs and flash drives. I took my suitcase and phone. I motioned them to follow me and we went back to the dining area.
Once we got back, we put all my stuff down and I set everything up. I opened my suitcase to reveal my turntables and mix knobs. I turned my laptop and iPad on and plugged them into my turntable. I hooked up a flash drive into my laptop and played one of my mixes in the drive. The mix was a mix of hip hop, salsa music, and pop.
Once it was playing and on full volume, everyone started to whoop and cheer then we began to dance. I took one of the Ticks hands and we started to salsa. He spun me around and dip me, I was all smiles and giggles.
"Hey Moose, Glitch, come on. I'll show you guys around the club downstairs." Luke said waving us over.
The crew all started to complain about staying and having fun. I laughed and shut down my system. I put my stuff together and some stuff in my suitcase if it fit. The crew reluctantly followed Luke, Moose, and I down to the club that Luke mentioned.
The club was insanely awesome. So many people dancing different styles in their own way not caring who's watching. It was amazing. There was a dude on the dance floor doing some crazy acrobatics. It was sick!
"It's crazy, right?!" Luke hollered loud enough for me to hear. "Hang out, take a look around. I'll be back in a second." Then he went off on his own.
"Do what you want, I'm going to go dance." I told Moose. I took my hood down and passed Moose my hat. I fixed the cuffs and collar of my leather jacket. But I made sure to hide my arms, for reasons no one can empathize.
I saw that Luke was filming a girl who was dancing. She was really pretty, probably a girl Luke has a crush on. I felt a twinge of jealousy in my gut, but I tried to move it aside. I strutted seductively to the middle of the dance floor, a few guys whistling and calling to me.
I started to sway my hips to the beat, then I twirled and started to dance myself senseless. Then I moved to break dancing, sliding, flipping, twirling, twisting, and anything along the lines. I stopped spinning and began to sway again.
A few feet across from me, I saw Luke filming me on his camera. I strutted over to him and winked, closing the screen to his camera before dancing again. As I continued to dance, Luke filmed my every move.
I stopped dancing, breathing heavily but smiling widely. Luke stopped filming and walked to me. I was staring up at him, gazing into his eyes. He had the most amazing brown eyes I've ever seen.
"Enjoying the show?" I asked him.
"Where'd you learn to dance like that? You were amazing." He asked. I just shrugged.
"I used to have some friends I would meet at a park. One of them would bring a boombox and play some beats. We would dance at our own style and it pretty much went from there. Dancing is like a language I know fluently. But it's also an instinct. Dancing is my life, and I would be nowhere without it." I said to him with a dazed tone in my voice. I noticed him smiling widely to me. Blushing, I look down finding my Gryffindor shoes interesting.
I felt fingers under my chin and met the gaze of Luke. There was a glimmer in his eyes that made my heart melt.
We broke our gaze by screaming. The crowd backed away. I saw Moose running from guys who were trying to get to him.
Using the cleared floor to their advantage, they started to dance, performing for the crowd. This stopped their screaming and started cheers.
The rest of us Pirates surrounded Moose to defend him. I stayed close to Luke, who took my hand and entwined our fingers.
Kid Darkness walked to Moose, Luke, and I and chested up.
"I just want a few rounds with the kid and the tango chick. We got some unfinished business, me and you two." Darkness said pointing to Moose and I. Oh how I want to punch the asshole.
"You wanna get to them, you have to go through us." Luke said darkly, chesting up on Darkness.
"Come on, Luke. Be a good sport." A tall, bald, gringo stepped forward as Kid Darkness stepped aside.
"What are you doing here, Julien?" Luke asked in a harsh, and hating tone. He didn't seem to like this guy very much.
"Nice to see you too." Julien said. Then he turned to me and smirked. "And hello beautiful eye." I glared at him and held onto Luke's hand as if it were my anchor and would keep me safe.
"I mean it. Get your boys and get off our property." My anchor demanded.
"Your property?" Julien asked. "It's not gonna be your property for much longer. And don't worry. When I buy this place, I'll take good care of it."
"When we win the World Jam, you and your trust fund won't be able to touch us." Luke countered without blinking an eye. The crowd 'oohed' at Lukes statement.
"That's cute. Your boy and new girlfriend can't even finish their battles."
"Oh, yo te mostraré cómo terminó batallas , Gringo ! Una vez que he terminado con usted , se le pedía clemencia y besando mis zapatos! (Oh I'll show you how I finish battles, Gringo! Once I'm done with you, you'll be begging for mercy and kissing my shoes!)" I yelled out angry in Spanish. I tried to lunge at him, but Luke wrapped his arms around my waist and held me back.
"Cut it out with that Japanese shit." Is this Julien guy really that stupid?
"Enough man," Santiago #1 called out. "They will finish at the World Jam and so will we."
"I don't even know what he just said." Julien said laughing.
"Yo man," Carlos said stepping up. "Stop being disrespectful to my crew." He said smacking Julien.
This move brought out a huge fight. I was being pushed back and forth until Luke grabbed me.
"Hey, get off!" I looked over to see the girl who Luke was filming before was in trouble. I tugged Luke's arm and pointed to the girl once Luke turned to me. We pushed through until we got to her.
"Back off, Gringos!" I yelled out, pushing people aside. Some guy grabbed me and turned to me. Before he could register what happened, I punched him straight in the nose, hearing a satisfying crunch.
"Come on, I'll get you out of here." Luke said and pulled us out of the fighting crowd. He got us into a photo booth and closed the curtain. It was small but it was good enough to hide us from the situation. "You guys okay?" He asked us, taking my left hand without hesitation.
"Yeah thanks." The girl said.
"I'm okay. But my right fist says otherwise." I said holding my right fist which had split knuckles and slight bruising showing.
"I'm Luke. This is Avery."
"But please, call me Glitch." I spoke up. Luke smiled at my nickname.
"Natalie." She introduced.
"What's with the bags?" I asked her noticing the bags she had.
"Oh," Natalie said glancing down at her bag with a slight frown. "Supposed to be meeting a friend here, but she's a no-show." She explained.
"What are you going to do?" I asked her.
"Don't know. Haven't figured that out yet." Natalie answered.
"You could stay here." Luke suggested. I heard some yelling outside and stepped closer to Luke, afraid of getting hurt really bad. Luke noticed this and wrapped an arm around my shoulder.
"What, in the club?" She asked.
"No, I mean upstairs," Luke said. "In the living room." Natalie looked a little stunned. I know how she feels right now. Saved by a stranger and offered a place to stay.
"You don't even know me." She said.
"Yeah we do," I spoke up softly. "Your name's Natalie and you need a place to stay." Luke nodded in agreement. A few minutes later, Natalie nodded.
"Okay. Sure, thank you." She said.
"Come on." I looked around and saw the fight had settled down a bit but people were still arguing.
"Moose probably went to his dorm." I said.
We all walked back to the Vault and Luke went to show Natalie where she would be staying. I said goodnight and smiled to Luke.
For a quick run, I went to the dining area and got my stuff. I went back to the bunk and found an unused desk that was empty. I set my stuff on the desk and played some slow music. I pulled my sketchbook out of my bag and some pencils and oil pastels.
Sitting at the desk, I began to draw what I imagine would be me dancing at the club downstairs just about twenty minutes ago. I began to use the pastels and did the colors of the club light I saw, blending them together making the drawing look as if it were 3D.
I think I fell asleep at one point, because the next thing I know, one of the Ticks began to shake my shoulder. My head was laying beside my sketchbook which was open and I had a blue oil pastel in my right hand and different colored stains on my left hands fingers.
"Come on, baby girl. It's time to get you into bed. You had a rough first night."
"M'kay." I mumbled, my eyes drooping and I'm stumbling to my bed, with the Ticks help. I slipped my high tops off and took off my jacket, making sure my long sleeved shirt covered my arms up good.
One of the Ticks moved my bag off the bed and pushed the blankets aside. I sat in bed and slowly laid down. The Ticks covered my body with the blanket and all three of them gave me a kiss on the top of my head.
"Goodnight Glitch." They each said.
"Goodnight guys." I mumbled back. Soon, I was once again consumed darkness and dreamed of dancing with a certain brown eyed camera man who saved me twice from trouble.