"I can't help but notice you staring at me."

I can't believe I let this happen.

This is my fault. I should have done something.

I let her leave. Why did I let her leave?

Now, my child, this is the story of how I fell in love with your mother, and let her get away…

…for good.

After Dance Central my mom told me that I was transferred from my original school—which was P.S. 181—to Sherwood Academy of the Arts. She said I had a scholarship there—a dance scholarship, I might add.

"I know you love to dance," she said that day. "This is a great opportunity to be able to get a career in dance. I know this is not your kind of dance, but I know you will enjoy it. In fact, your father and I both graduated from performing arts schools—both with a degree in dance! Perhaps this school will expand your range."

So, without question, I went to the school the next day. I got my schedule and went to my first class.

That was when I saw her again—Miss Aubrey, or Aubrey Masters.

Aubrey Masters was the most popular girl in Sherwood Academy of the Arts. That was what I didn't know when we competed in Dance Central.

She was the teaching assistant of my dance class. I mean, my first dance class, which was ballet.

[Okay, I know you think that ballet is very girly but it's really hard! Have you ever seen a hip hop dancer dance on his tiptoes? Of course you haven't. It's really fu—I mean—it's really freaking hard.]

"Hello, newbies," she said as she paced back and forth slowly. "To those who do not know me, I am Aubrey Masters. Mister Johnson is not here today so I shall be his temporary replacement. No, I am not an employee. I am simply just a student that excels in ballet that Mister Johnston chose me to be the teacher for today."

She walked in front of me and skimmed my features. She made a face that looked as if she realized who I was.

"State your name," she said then stepped forward so our bodies were touching and our faces only centimetres apart.

[Back in Dance Central I was a head shorter than Aubrey. Before the start of Sherwood, however, I grew so much that I was about an inch taller than her. That was actually a relief!]

"Glitch Yoo," I said then made a smirk. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Aubrey."

She gasped then quickly smiled. "It is a pleasure to meet you too, Glitch."

Before I knew it, she grabbed my hand and spun us around. I managed to grab her waist and gently eased her body down to make a dip.

The class applauded and Aubrey pulled herself away from me.

"Great job, Glitch," she said then looked at the rest of the class. "As for the rest of you, you will be partnered up."

She partnered up the twenty other kids in the class and left me to be her dance partner. I was surprised. She hardly ever talked to me in Dance Central but, on my first day of school, she chose me to be her partner!

The class divided in pairs so that left Aubrey and me in the front of the classroom-slash-studio.

We learned a few things, mainly a few en Pointe steps and hell-lot of lifts.

{Author's Note: My ballet is a little rusty and I hardly know the terms. I'm using the terms I learned from the anime Princess Tutu.}

By the time class was over it was already lunch break. The class was pretty long—four hours long, to be specific—but hey, at least I got to spend a lot of time with Aubrey. After class, however, Aubrey made me stay a little after class.

"Glitch," she said before she closed the door. "You're Glitch from Dance Central, aren't you?"

I nodded. "And you're Miss Aubrey."

She shook her head. "Clearly you already knew that. What are you doing here?"

"I was enrolled here after Dance Central," I told her. "My mom told me to expand my range in dance since pop-it-lock-it—or as Rasa and Lima called it, B-Boy—is the only dance I'm good at."

"Did you know I was here?" she asked.

I quickly shook my head. "No, I didn't. I only found out you were studying here when I saw you for class!"

She sighed what sounded like a sigh of relief. "I thought Rasa and Lima sent you to get me to investigate on Tan or something."

"If Rasa and Lima wanted you to check out what Tan is doing I think they'd send Angel instead of me," I replied.

"I doubt they would be that obvious," she said as she crossed her arms and sat on the desk. "That would be suspicious and my schoolmates will probably think he's my Mexican boyfriend—which he is absolutely not!"

I sighed in relief. So she isn't dating Angel, I thought to myself.

"You're single?" I said and my sentence ended up as a question instead of a statement.

She sighed and nodded. "I should have so many boys in love with me right now. Sadly, the only boys I know who are in love with me are either stupid or is Angel."

I forgot to mention one very important detail: I had a crush on Aubrey. During Dance Central I couldn't help but stare at her and smile whenever she talked, smiled, or whatever she did. I even remember checking out her ass after that nasty time travel situation with Tan.

[You didn't hear that from me.]

"I'm sure that there's someone who likes you that is neither stupid nor is Angel," I said as I walked to her desk. "He'll turn up someday."

She looked at me and smiled—which caused me to smile. "Thanks, Glitch. I might give you extra points for that."

I felt the blush rush through my blood vessels and make its way to my cheeks so my young skin was bright red.

"Well, I gotta go for lunch," I told her. "Will I see you after class?"

"Of course!" she said with her smile still there. "In fact, let's eat after school together. Let's get to know each other outside Dance Central."

I nodded and headed for the door. Before I could exit she called out my name.

"Glitch? There's one more thing you should know about."

"What is it?" I asked.

Her face grew serious. "Call me 'Miss Masters', not 'Miss Aubrey'."

When I found a table for lunch I noticed people sit at my table. They were from my ballet class.

"We saw you dance with Miss Masters," one of them said. "You guys were amazing!"

"You were crazy good," said another. "It looked choreographed. Did you guys rehearse beforehand?"

I shook my head. "Trust me, it was neither rehearsed nor planned."

"That was amazing for an impromptu performance!" the first one said.

"Yeah…" I said and saw Miss Aubrey sat at a table in the corner of the cafeteria.

She was by herself, excluding the boys with flowers and gifts who were surrounding her table.

"Aubrey, marry me!" one boy said.

"I hope you like lilies," another boy said. "They reminded me of you."

"Do you like chocolates?" asked about five of the boys there.

She responded with a fake smile and politely said: "Thank you for the lilies, but lilies aren't my favourite flowers. As for the chocolates, are they milk, dark, or white?"

Somehow she managed to refuse to take their gifts. She was nice enough not to blame them for their actions. In fact, she even told them to keep guessing!

I, on the other hand, wanted to know what she liked. From what she said, she didn't like lilies.

I got out a piece of paper that I didn't know I had in my pocket and drew flowers—a patch of cherry blossoms—with a pen I didn't realize was attached to my shirt pocket the whole time.

"You draw so well," one of my ballet classmates said to me. "Asians are so talented."

When I was done I approached Aubrey and gave her the drawing.

"Glitch?" she asked then looked at me. "Are you trying to ask me out?"

I shrugged. "If I am, will you say 'yes'?"

She looked at me with a confused look in her eyes. "I'll only say 'yes' if you think cherry blossoms are my favorite flower."

I nodded. "I really think cherry blossoms are your favorite flower. I can't explain why I think that but I just do."

She smiled. "See you at the school entrance at six thirty."

A smile formed on my face. "I will see you there."

When I got back to my table everyone was looking at me. They all seemed to be in shock. There were even people from other tables who were staring at me.

"Nobody has ever gotten a 'yes' from Aubrey Masters," said a guy that looked like an upperclassman.

"How did he manage to ask her out?" a girl asked. "She's untouchable!"

I felt proud of myself from that moment on.

After lunch I had Algebra II and Biology—each about an hour long. Even though they were just, well, Algebra and Biology, they were so advanced that I had to reread the chapter three times to understand it!

My class after the two non-dance subjects was Contemporary.

Contemporary was hard. It wasn't as hard as ballet but it was almost as hard. That dance required more fluidity. [Yes, child, that's a word.] I was quite flexible for a dancer of my genre but this dance made me twist and stretch my body to lengths and I swear that my muscles were torn up.

[I probably should have dropped that class. It feels like I did drop it but now it feels as if I didn't.]

My last two classes were ballroom. The first class was standard. I was partnered with a random girl who I never bothered to talk to. I can't even remember her name. Did it start with an 'S'?

The second ballroom class (and last class overall) was Latin. There was no partnering yet. We first learned the proper footwork for each type of Latin dance. If I could be honest with you, the footwork was impossible! The songs were too fast for my liking and the pattern made no sense to me. One-two-cha-cha-cha!

Finally, school was over and I met up with Aubrey who arrived much earlier than I did.

"You said you'd be here at six thirty," she said with her arms on her waist. "It's six thirty-two."

"I'm sorry if I take too long to take a bath and bother looking nice on our first date!"

I looked at her carefully and couldn't help but blush. She was wearing this beautiful white dress that I liked and she was wearing heels—something I despised until she started wearing them.

"So," she started. "Where do we go?"

I hadn't really thought of what to do for the date. In fact, the entire time during school I didn't even plan the date! That was when I remembered seeing a Nando's on the way to school.

"There's a Nando's on the way to my place," I said with a smile. "Let's go there."

She nodded. "I heard their Peri Peri chicken is amazing."

"Nando's it is, then."

Just as I walked out of the school gates someone grabbed my wrist. I turned around and Saw Aubrey's hand wrapped tightly around it.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked.

"We're going to Nando's, remember?" I said.

She shook her head. "Uh-uh. There is no way I am walking to Nando's."

"How do we get there?" I asked. "I don't have a car."

"How did you get here, then?" she asked. "I doubt you could walk from there. This school is far in the city and isn't anywhere close to a single house!"

"My dad dropped me off," I said. "He's at work now so he can't pick me up."

She let go of my wrist and got her cellphone from her bag.

"Sebastian?" she asked on the phone. "Uh, yeah. Can you get my chauffeur at the school, like, right now? I know it's late. Just get me the car! Geez, thank you very much."

And with that, she hung up.

"You're gonna ride a car to Nando's?" I asked.

"No," she replied. "We're gonna ride a car to Nando's."

At that time I thought to myself: God, this girl is a diva! Diva or not, Aubrey was pretty hot.

Five minutes later there was a limo that stopped in front of the school.

"Open the door," Aubrey said. When I gave her a weird look she sighed in frustration and said: "It's a gentleman's job to open the door for his lady."

Without question (mostly because I didn't want her to think I was rude and let her leave because I wouldn't open the door) I opened the door. She got inside the limo and I followed suit, closing the door behind me.

"We're going to Nando's," Aubrey told her chauffeur.

Finally, the limo got to Nando's. There, we picked a booth not too far from the door but far enough to have a private conversation.

We talked about our lives outside of Dance Central. It turned out Aubrey was a rich girl who was trained in different dances, but most especially in ballet! She even said that when she found out about Dance Central, she thought it involved a lot of different dances like ballroom and ballet. It was only on the day itself that she found out it was different kinds of hip hop!

I told her everything about me—the fact that my parents were both amazing dancers, the fact that I am Korean (she even made me sing a K-Pop song by this girl group called Girls' Gen or something), the fact that I'm middle class, and the fact that my parents support my dance career.

After dinner we rode the limo to my house's compound. When we were about three streets away of where my house was, my phone rang. When I checked who the unwanted caller was, it was my mom.

"Hello?" I asked.

"WHERE ARE YOU? IT IS ALREADY NINE IN THE EVENING AND YOU ARE STILL NOT HOME!"

[Of course your grandmother had to yell. She was Asian! Asians tend to yell when something doesn't go their way. Even your grandfather used to yell, but he only yelled when necessary. I yell, too, but like your grandpa, I only did it when necessary.]

{Author's Note Again: I'm Asian and I yell all the time. No racism here, okay?}

"Chill, mom," I said through the phone. "I'm with a friend and we're on our way home."

"You have a friend already?" she asked. "It's only your first day! May I know who he is?"

Her question made me nervous. Of course she thought my friend was a guy. Guys don't exactly make friends with girls. How was I supposed to tell her I was with a girl that I had a crush on?

Just as I was about to say something, Aubrey got my phone from me.

"Hi, Mrs. Yoo!" she said. "I'm Aubrey, your son's 'friend'." Her fingers made air quotation marks at the word 'friend'.

[I couldn't hear what my mom was saying. All I remember was Aubrey saying a bunch of 'yes's' and 'no's'.]

Pretty soon Aubrey gave me back my phone.

"Congratulations, Glitch," she told me. "You now have a mommy-approved, senior high school girlfriend."

I was shocked. "What?!"

"Your mom found out I was the 'girl from Dance Central that my son has a crush on'. Now she thinks I'm your girlfriend."

[Curse my mother. Please, child, say something mean about granny.]

After that I went blank. All I remember was kissing her right then and there.