The Ultimate Test
A/N: Thanks for the reviews! On with Chapter 2!
Chapter 2: I Can Hear the Music
Toronto's Chinatown was made up of many restaurants that served a variety of different Asian cuisine. The air was filled with a mixture of delicious aromas wafting out from the eateries on each street. Locals and tourists were walking up and down the streets, trying to decide where to grab a bite to eat and as they walked, and some swore that they could see a bakery on every street corner.
Eldon, Michelle, Riley, and James were among the people walking down the streets of Chinatown. They were chatting amicably with each other until they came to a halt outside of Eldon and Michelle's favourite eatery in the neighbourhood, a cozy little establishment that offered dim sum all day. Eldon opened the front door and gestured for Michelle to go first. Michelle entered the restaurant, with Riley and James right behind her.
"This place is nice," commented Riley as she admired the tranquility of the restaurant.
"Trust us, the food is even better," said Eldon from the back. He stepped forward and said to a waitress behind the podium, "Table for four please."
The hostess smiled and gestured for them to follow her. As they followed her, Riley and James looked around the restaurant. Couples and families seated at tables draped in red tablecloths, and being served mini dishes of food by passing waiters and waitresses. Lights above the tables and on the walls gave the entire restaurant a soft, warm glow.
The hostess stopped at a booth that was just a few feet away from the doors to the kitchen, but it also had a good view of the rest of the restaurant. Eldon allowed Michelle to slide into the booth first, before he took a seat next to her. Riley and James slid into the booth and sat so they faced Eldon and Michelle. The hostess placed a dinner card on their table and turned to usher a waitress over to bring them some tea.
The four dancers watched as the hostess left to return to her post behind the podium and a waitress hurried over to them with a hot pot of tea and four little cups. She placed the teapot in the middle of the table and a cup in front of each dancer. She told them to enjoy their meal and left.
"Tea anyone?" Michelle asked the group. The other three dancers nodded.
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving," said Riley as Michelle poured tea into her cup.
"Tell me about it," said James as he was served next. "I'm so hungry I could eat the whole restaurant."
Michelle laughed and turned to fill Eldon's cup. "Well, I hope Riley, Eldon, and I are off the menu."
James chuckled and said, "You know what I mean."
Just then, a waiter approached their table with about a dozen mini dishes of deep fried food. A third of them had four taro dumplings on each, another third of the plates each had four shrimp balls, and the last third had four shrimp dumplings on each plate.
Michelle smiled and turned to Riley and James. "Anything look good to you?"
Riley and James' eyes widened in disbelief; they could not believe the kind of food that was present in front of them at the moment. They could understand why Michelle and Eldon loved the restaurant so much.
The couple must have been speechless for some time because Eldon laughed at their facial expressions and said, "Guys, not to rush you or anything, but the waiter does have other tables to serve."
James snapped out of it and said, "Oh, sorry. Um, since Riley and I have never been to a place like this, we'll let you and Michelle call the shots."
Riley nodded in agreement. "Yeah, pick whatever you want. We trust your expertise."
Michelle smiled and said, "Alright, but if anything dish comes by that looks good to you and you want to try it, don't hesitate to speak up."
"Tell you what, I'll grab one of everything for you to try," said Eldon. He turned to the waiter and said, "One of each please."
The waiter nodded and placed one plate of each dish onto the table. He then pulled a pen out of his pocket, crossed off three squares in the medium dish section on the dinner card, and left to serve another table.
"Alright, before we dig in, I would like to propose a toast," said Michelle as she raised her cup of tea.
Eldon, Riley, and James all smiled and imitated Michelle's action with their own tea cups.
"Here's to a successful winter showcase," said Michelle, "and lifelong friendships."
There was a clink of china as the four dancers toasted to Michelle's proclamation.
Dinner was quite enjoyable for the four A-Troupe dancers as they got to satisfy the appetites that they worked up during dance practise earlier while, at the same time, reminisce about their past memories at the Next Step. It was a relaxing time for them as they were able to take a break from the dance world and just be regular teenagers.
As they passed around dishes of fried food, Michelle told the story of the wardrobe malfunction that she had during a solo at a previous competition. While James called for some steamed dishes to be brought to their table, Riley recalled the time she and James were caught making out in the costume department of the studio by Emily and could not face her sister for a week. Eldon's tale of him crashing into a rack of costumes as he attempted to break his record of consecutive pirouettes resulted in James nearly choking on a beef dumpling. Michelle and Riley sighed predictably after James finished narrating the story of how Daniel and Giselle became a couple after a slow dance at a showcase after party the year before.
During dessert, the conversation shifted to the upcoming winter showcase.
"So," said Riley as she reached for her bowl of mango pudding with cream, "have you and Eldon started putting together your solos yet?
"I haven't decided what to do yet for my solo," said Michelle. "I spent a lot of today's practise just dancing while trying to come up with some sort of story that I want to convey with my solo, but I have dancer's block."
"Don't worry, I'm sure something will come to you when you least expect it," said Riley reassuringly. She turned to Eldon. "What about you Eldon?"
"I decided to play to my strengths and do something contemporary," answered Eldon.
Riley nodded. "I figured judging by the type of choreography you were brainstorming earlier today."
"Have you chosen a song to dance to yet?" asked James.
Eldon paused for a moment before he replied, "I was thinking I could dance to a song by Bruno Mars or something."
Michelle smiled at him. "That's a wonderful idea! A lot of his songs can be used in a contemporary number."
Riley nodded in agreement. "Michelle's right. Plus, a lot of his songs revolve around love. Now that's a theme you can relate to."
"Exactly," said Eldon. He turned to Michelle and smiled lovingly at her. "In fact, I will dedicate my solo to the most beautiful, talented, inspiring dancer whom I could not help but kiss when she finally nailed a dozen consecutive pirouettes today during practise."
Michelle raised an eyebrow at him. "Was I talking to Miss Kate in her office when you did this?"
Eldon chuckled. "You know I'm talking about you right?"
Michelle nodded with a smile. "I know, and that's very sweet of you. I can't wait to see what you come up with."
Just then, a shrill ringing sound was heard.
Michelle, Riley, and James watched as Eldon pulled out his cell phone from his pants pocket to answer what was an incoming phone call.
"Hello?" said Eldon. There was a slight pause before he said, "Oh, hey." Another brief paused followed before he said, "No, just eating dinner with some dancers from the A-Troupe." There was another short period of silence, followed by, "No, you're not interrupting. What's up?"
Riley and James raised their eyebrows at Michelle, wondering who Eldon was talking to, but Michelle simply shrugged and shook her head at them.
"Sure, we can do that," said Eldon. There was another pause before he smiled and said, "No, it's no trouble at all. After all, things come up and you have to work around them." Pause. "Sure, I'll be there in fifteen minutes."
"Is something wrong, Eldon?" asked Michelle, a look of concern evident on her face.
Eldon shoved his cell phone back into his pants pocket and said, "Oh, yeah, everything's fine." He rummaged another pocket for his wallet and added, "I'm just going to have to miss dessert tonight."
"Where are you off to?" asked Michelle curiously.
"I'm meeting up with a friend to work on a project," said Eldon as he pulled out his wallet. "We planned to meet up a little later, but something came up, so we're going to start earlier instead as to not lose an extra hour." He slid out of the booth and grabbed his jacket. "I'm really sorry that I have to leave early."
"It's alright," said Riley with a smile. "We understand."
Eldon smiled back, tossed a twenty dollar bill onto the table, and said, "This should cover mine and Michelle's half of the bill. " He leaned over and kissed Michelle on the cheek. "I'll call you later."
"Okay," replied Michelle. "Be safe out there."
"I will," said Eldon. With one final look at his girlfriend and friends, he turned and briskly walked towards the front of the restaurant.
"Is it just me or did it seem like Eldon was in a hurry?" Michelle asked Riley.
"Well, his plans for tonight had to be moved up due to some unexpected situation that came up, so of course he seemed like he was in a hurry," explained Riley.
"Yeah, well, he seems busier than usual and I'm worried that he's working too hard," said Michelle as she refilled her cup with tea. "Whatever he's working on, that is."
"Maybe you should talk to him about it," Riley suggested. "Let him know of your concern. Maybe there's something you can do to help him."
Michelle nodded slowly. "I suppose. I mean, I'll do anything I can to help him."
Riley smiled, picked up a nearby dish, and offered it to Michelle. "Custard bun?"
After enjoying a quick dessert and paying the bill, Michelle left the restaurant with Riley and James. By then, night had fallen and the street lamps lit up the streets of Chinatown. People were still out and about, but not as many as when they first arrived at the restaurant for dinner. The three dancers walked down the street they were on, laughing about a joke that James had told.
When they reached the intersection of two major streets, Michelle gave Riley and James each a hug goodbye and wished them a safe return home. After agreeing to meet up again the next morning at the Next Step studio for dance practise, Riley and James walked down the second street to catch their bus home. Michelle, whose neighbourhood was further away from Riley's and James's, continued down the street she was on to another bus stop further up ahead.
As Michelle arrived and took a seat at a bench provided to wait for her bus, she played Riley's advice in her head again. She was not sure what Eldon was occupied with, but she was willing to do anything to help him out if he needed assistance. She pulled out her phone, hit speed dial number one, and the speaker phone button. She placed her phone on the bench next to her and proceeded to lace up one of her shoes that was slowly coming undone.
After a few rings, someone picked up.
"Hello?"
"Hey, it's me," said Michelle, smiling at the sound of Eldon's voice.
"Michelle, hey!"
Eldon's air of surprise was not missed by Michelle. "I just finished dinner with Riley and James, and was just calling to see how things are going with that project of yours. Working hard or hardly working?"
"The latter, I assure you."
Michelle smiled as she heard him chuckle on the phone. "Would you like me to stop by? I wouldn't mind lending you a helping hand."
"Oh, that's nice of you, Michelle, but I can manage."
Michelle frowned at Eldon's short, brief response. If she did not know any better, she thought he did not want her to come see him. The only question was why. "Are you sure? I don't have a problem coming over."
"I'm sure, I mean, between my friend and I, we'll be able to get the project done in no time at all."
Michelle raised an eyebrow after hearing Eldon's reply. Although he replied more confidently this time, the words he used, 'friend' and 'project', were very ambiguous terms. She did not know why Eldon would not mention the name of the person he was working with on the project that she was given very little detail about. Of course, she knew better than to badger him about both things as they were none of her business.
"Listen, I have to get back to the project. Will you be at the studio tomorrow?"
"Yeah, first thing in the morning," said Michelle. "Perhaps we could start working on our – ". The rest of Michelle's sentence was interrupted by the faint sound of violins and voices emitting from her cell phone. Voices as in more than one, and none of them sounded like Eldon's. In fact, a majority of them sounded like those of females.
"Are you still there, Michelle?"
Michelle realized how silent she was being as she listened to the noises coming from her phone and answered, "Yeah, I'm still here. Um – Eldon – is that classical music in the background?"
There was a moment of silence, followed by, "Um, yeah, it is. I have to go. I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?"
Before Michelle could answer him, a click was heard; Eldon had hung up on her.
Michelle picked up her phone and frowned at it in disbelief as if it had sprouted a pair of legs. Not only did it seem like Eldon was hiding something from her, but it also seemed like he was lying to her to cover up his whereabouts. Whoever his 'friend' was and whatever the 'project' was, Michelle did not think they were both worth lying to her. To add to her suspicions, she had heard female voices in the background during her call with Eldon. Last time she checked, Eldon did not mention anything about other people being part of the so-called 'project', and the fact that these people were girls certainly did nothing but fuel the jealousy within Michelle.
As a dancer and a girlfriend, Michelle knew better than anyone that it was important to trust her partner, both on the dance floor and in her personal life. Although she trusted Eldon more than anyone else in her life, she could not help but narrow her eyes the moment she heard the female voices in the background. As much as she wanted to believe that Eldon did have to work on a project with a friend, the evidence before her seemed to say otherwise.
The sound of a horn honking snapped Michelle out of her thoughts. She looked up and noticed that her bus had already pulled up to the curb and the bus driver was staring at her through the open door with a confused look on his face. After pulling her bus ticket out of her jeans pocket, Michelle slipped it into the appropriate slot at the front of the bus and proceeded to the back of the bus to grab a seat.
As the bus pulled away from the curb, Michelle stared out the window and yawned. Although she was determined to find out what Eldon was really up to, she decided it would be best to put it off until the next day when she was better rested and could think rationally about the situation.
Chapter 2 Up! Questions? Comments? Should I continue?
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~TeenQueen661