Okay, chapter two :) They'll be rehearsing the dance for Once A Year Day in this chapter. It takes place act one scene six (90% sure. it's been a while). They're at the company picnic, and the song is about Sid being happy that Babe is finally accepting his advances. Um, for those of you who don't know a chaser is a dance step. It's pronounced saw-shay. And, they have study hall Tuesdays and Thursdays. About 15 minutes are taken out of each of the four hour and a half classes and are combined into one study hall between their first and second classes.
I believe that's all the information needed for this chapter. Enjoy :)
I don't own Degrassi. Obviously. I don't own The Pajama Game. Obviously.
"Are you excited, Clare?" Jenna's voice rang through the bathroom stall.
I smiled to myself. "I guess," I answered. Today we'd be learning most of the dance for Once A Year Day. It was the supposed to be the biggest dance number in the show. The bathroom was packed with at least 25 girls, changing into sweats for rehearsal.
Honestly, I was a little bit nervous. Of course, I was worried about picking up on the choreography okay, but today would also be the first day I'd see Eli for long amounts of time, since the break up.
I took a deep breath, and stepped out of the stall. "Jenna, Alli, hurry up!" I called over, growing a bit anxious.
"Working on it," huffed out Alli.
I made small talk with Katie, until Marisol dragged her out of the bathroom, talking rather loudly about still needing to get a script. It was kind of irritating, actually. Katie and I weren't close, but she was good friends with Darcy last year.
Now that people were clearing out of the bathroom, and into rehearsal, there was a sink open. I leaned over and inspected my reflection. I'd spent a little extra time on my make-up this morning. Most of it ended up smudging underneath my lash line by now. I knew that it was silly of me to think that Eli would notice any of this, or even care, really. But, as a girl it was my job to be as irrational as possible.
I wondered if Eli would talk to me at all. He was definitely trying to make peace for the show. I just didn't know how far he would take it. I'd at least get a hello, right? Would I get a hug? He used to always hug me when we were together. But the one thing that I did know was that he wouldn't mean anything that he ended up doing. Everything was simply to make things less awkward.
I sighed while swiping my pointer fingers under my eyes. It didn't help much. I still had raccoon eyes, and Eli still didn't want me.
Before I could get too anxious, Alli and Jenna each stepped out of their stalls. "Hey, how bad is my liner running?" I asked, as I turned around to face them.
"Not at all?" Jenna said with a teasing giggle.
I rolled my eyes at her, then pushed through the bathroom door to head into rehearsal, with the two of them a couple steps behind.
About 30 of the 40 people were in there when we arrived. Plus Ms. Oh and Ms. Dawes. I was pretty sure Oh would be choreographing and take care of vocals. Ms. Dawes would definitely be directing.
I saw Eli across the room. Oh gosh. I quickly ducked my head down and walked swiftly to the other side of the room. As I pulled off my shoes, I peeked up to steal a quick glance at Eli. He was talking to Fiona. He looked the same. Same hair. Same eyes. Same smirk. He began to shift his torso ever so slightly and like a reflex my head shot back down to my shoes. I worked on my breathing. I glanced up again. He wasn't looking over.
I put my shoes next to Jenna's and sat down on the floor to stretch with her. My back was to Eli and Fiona across the room. Alli joined us shortly after.
Eli was walking over. I could sense it. Due to the fact that I was freakishly aware of his presence, I could feel him coming towards us, despite my back being to him.
"Hey Clare," he drew out. He was leaning back to stretch out his spine, so the words were a bit slurred. Gosh, it's like he tries to act as aloof as possible.
As he greeted me, I folded my legs in, and spun around to face him. "Hi Eli," I said quietly, without looking at him. The ground in front of me was suddenly very interesting.
There was a second of silence, so I glanced up briefly. He opened his arms a bit for a hug. Kill me now. I didn't even bother hiding how displeased I was as I stood up and stepped briefly into his arms.
It wasn't a long hug. I had expected that much. Back when we were dating… our hugs were a little excessive. He was always so warm; his smell: horribly comforting. I was unable to let these familiarities register very much during the incredibly short hug.
After he pulled away, I just kind of stood there, awkwardly, biting down on my lip. I really didn't feel like forcing conversation. I kind of felt like punching him, actually.
I suppose he picked up on my inner hostility because he gave a tiny half smirk then turned around and walked away.
I tried to figure out the reasoning behind my sudden hatred towards him. I suppose knowing just how insincere he was, was getting to me. I wasn't going to play along like everything was okay. Because it wasn't. He needed to realize that. I certainly wasn't going to pretend that it was to make his life easier. I could put up with the awkwardness. He needed to grow up and do the same.
I turned back to Alli and Jenna and sunk down to the ground. I let out a sigh. "Idiot," I muttered, just loud enough for them to hear.
They looked at me and giggled. Soon enough, I was able to push my anger away enough to join in, and laugh along.
"Clare, have you gotten your script yet?" Ms. Dawes' voice sounded from across the room, pulling me out of conversation with my friends.
"Um, no, not yet," I responded. She held up a small book that read The Pajama Game on the cover. I stood up and walked over, extremely self-conscious, since I felt Eli glance over. I took the book after uttering a small, "Thank you," and headed back to my spot, just staring at my feet.
"Alright everyone, gather around, I have a few things to talk to you about before we get started," Ms. Dawes called out to everyone. Alli, Jenna, and I stood up and walked over to the half circle of people surrounding the two teachers. Eli was on the side opposite us.
"Okay, well if you haven't already received a rehearsal schedule, they're at the door. We're going to try and stick to it as much as possible. But weekly rehearsals will be on the chorus door, and daily ones will be posted on the theatre door, along with a list of people called for the day, just in case changes are made. Our stage manager will send out texts and post on facebook, for rehearsal schedules during study hall on Tuesdays and Fridays. So if you don't already have her number, get it before you leave today."
The three of us were sitting towards the back of the group, so we were able to flip through the script while listening to the speech. It was while Ms. Oh was going on about her expectations for today's dancing, that we ended up seeing Mae and Prez's scene after the picnic. Oh dear. Jenna pointed to Mae's You're a snappy dresser, too, line, and silently laughed at me. I sighed, rolled my eyes at her, and closed the script. That was enough for now. I'd probably read the show a couple of times before bed tonight, to familiarize myself.
"Alright, well just do your best for today, and make sure you practice once you get home," Ms. Oh finished up.
We all got up and spread out a bit. Ms. Oh then started calling out people in group one. Jenna was in group one, but Alli and I weren't. Neither was Eli. I was glad that Alli was with me, so I wouldn't have to be by myself for the moment.
Group two was all the girls who weren't in group one. All the males were in group three. "Okay, so Eli, I need you to stand right near Clare, since she'll be your love interest at this point in the play." Someone kill me right now. I glued my eyes to the ground as Eli moved up next to me. I refused to look at him, even though he was giving off such friendly vibes towards me. They're not real, I told myself. You're not going to play along with him.
Even worse, I couldn't talk to Alli because she was on the opposite end of the group two circle. And Jenna was a few rows behind in group one, leaving me to stand awkwardly, not knowing where to look; it felt like Eli was everywhere.
I was up front next to Fiona. It was quite nerve-wrecking, actually. Fiona was one of the best dancers in the show.
After Ms. Oh explained how we would get to these positions in the dance, she went on to the choreography itself.
"Now, not all of you will start this dance from the beginning, but all of you will learn it right now, since you'll all do it at the end," Ms. Oh began.
She showed us the first couple of steps; it was simple enough. It was actually the dance we learned at call backs. There were some kicks that I was having issues with, but so was everyone else, so I didn't sweat it too much.
I was very careful not to look at Eli as I did the dance.
She sent us out to go get water, about an hour into it, and when we filed back in, she said we would then break into a polka. My heart stopped as she assigned dance partners. Oh no. I'd surely be Eli's. Fantastic. And, of course, I was one of the last people to be assigned a partner, so my anxiety continually grew. It was me, Imogen, Eli, and Tris who were left.
"Now Eli… you'll be partnered with Imogen."
Oh. That was good. I was relieved. Or… I expected to feel relieved. But that wasn't really what I was feeling. I just… couldn't put my finger on what my reaction was.
"And Clare, you'll be partnered with Tris." I smiled, and nodded. I'd talked to Tris a couple of times. He was nice enough.
"Wait, wouldn't Clare be paired with Eli?" asked Becky. I froze, making my expression as blank as I could. Becky was new. She didn't know about Eli and I. Really, she was just curious.
"What, dear?" asked Ms. Oh.
"Well, they're love interests, and they're closer together. So it'll be easier for Clare to run over to Eli, rather than cross past him, and go around Imogen, in order to get to Tris."
Ms. Oh looked over at Ms. Dawes, with a knowing smile. "Well... in the long run, for this dance, it makes more sense." My cheeks were on fire.
With that, the conversation was over, and all the girls walked over to their partners. I placed my left hand on Tris's shoulder, and my right hand in his left, just as instructed.
"Now, you're going to chaser, then flip, chaser, then flip, chaser then flip, for 16 counts around in a circle. You should end up in the position you were in before," Ms. Oh instructed.
We all started to polka. Rather… we all attempted to do something that might be able to fall into the category of a polka. It was extremely messy. Really, it was a simple step, however none of us could get a 180 degree flip in every time. We spent the last forty minutes of rehearsal trying to make it look semi decent.
I couldn't help but glance over at Eli as I went around. He was laughing with Imogen. I knew that it was ridiculous for me to get upset at this, but... I just felt like he was winning. The fact that he was just so happy while I was over here, pining over him like an idiot.
"Alright guys, that's enough for today," Ms. Oh sighed, clearly dissatisfied with how rehearsal ended up. I couldn't blame her. We did okay with the beginning, but only when she did it with us. It was very apparent that we wouldn't remember much at next rehearsal. "We'll probably go over the dance during study hall tomorrow, so keep an ear out for word on that."
Ms. Dawes finished up with reminding us to go over the dances at home, and look through our scripts, for those of us who had them. As she went on, all I could think about was how badly I wanted to move from the dance formation. I was way too close to Eli for my liking. Naturally, my eyes were glued to the floor, because of this.
I walked with Jenna and Alli over to our shoes. My eyes were still on the floor, terrified of making eye contact with Eli. I slowly pulled on my shoes. I did a quick sweep of the room, and saw Eli head towards the door with Drew. I immediately shot up, upon seeing them walk out, and I gave Alli and Jenna a quick goodbye before speeding out the door a little bit behind them.
As soon as I stepped out the door, I paused. I realized just how idiotic I was for following them out like that. I guess I just did it without thinking. I, literally, could not figure out what had compelled me to believe it was a good idea.
I tried to control my breathing as I walked slowly towards the side door, trying not to seem like a stalker. Eli turned the corner to head out the parking lot. When he saw me, he stopped talking to Drew for a second. "Bye Clare," he called over.
"Bye," I said in return. My voice was quiet, and I couldn't even look at him for the entire word. I stood there and let out a sigh before turning down the adjacent hall to go get picked up.
Sorry I don't use any comma's in my author's notes. I probably should go back and fix that, but I think I'll just let you decipher that, for this chapter. Also, thank s for the alerts and reviews for this story guys! Makes me extremely happy! :)