Chapter Three
Catch Me
Winnie walked into the classroom that was there for the singers. It was Friday and they were finally done with having everyone sing a song in the auditorium. There was one other opera singer in the class but, she was no where near as good as Winnie. There was a total of 25 students. 2 opera, 8 rappers, 5 country, 6 kids were the more chorus type (they sang hymns best and such), and then 3 kids that sang pop/jazz, and 1 rock singer. A pretty blended class.
Ms. Mann clapped her hands and everyone moved to the seats that had their names on them.
"First thing that I would like to talk about is rules. I expect you to respect me, and the others." she eyed them. They nodded. "Second, you must show how good you are at all times. You have been selected to go to this school for a reason. If you choose not to participate or show your true potential, there are consequences."
Winnie chewed the inside of her lip, thinking. What can they do? Kick us out? She laughed to herself.
"There is a big performance that we as a class put on at the end of school. Those that stay here will participate."
The room suddenly buzzed with excitement and anxiety. Those that stay? Is someone leaving?
"This school is a competition. You were not aware of this when you signed up to come here. No one in this room is your friend from now on. The competition has been known to get ugly. Why wouldn't it? The reward is beyond. The singer that come out on top will not only get a $500,000 contract wit the recording company of their choice, but is guaranteed immediate success. Every talk show, magazine, and award show will want you."
"How do we win?" an eager student asked Ms. Mann.
"By simply being your best. But other people in the past have found other ways to win. I do not recommend cheating or backstabbing, but those will not get you disqualified."
Winnie's eyes bugged out. What had she signed up for? She was not a competitor. She like peace and no contention.
Ruth was the the girl's locker room, putting her hair into a ponytail. The door opened and Devon walked in.
"Dude! Get out, this is the ladies room." she said, watching him through the mirror.
"Relax. I'd think that after what happened to me at the beginning of the week in the boys locker room, seeing you putting your hair up is hardly an offense."
"It could be in my offense that you see me like this. I have a lawyer." Ruth countered.
"I'm sure you do. You seem like a rich girl." he said looking in the showers for something.
"I am not a rich girl!"
Devon pulled the curtain back at one, meeting her eye in the mirror. He raised an eyebrow at her. Ruth rolled her eyes.
"What are you even doing here?"
"Looking for- ah-ha! I found it." he walked out of the shower and branched his hand forward. In his hands was a key on a key ring.
"A key? For what? Getting into the girl's rooms?" Ruth sneered.
"No silly, the girl's rooms aren't locked at night. Believe me," he winked.
"So what is it for?" Ruth sighed.
"A secret." he left the room.
The contemporary dance teacher was a petite blonde. She was very soft-spoken, but she could dance. She showed them a 15 second piece from "My Heart Will Go On," to show them her best; and you could have heard a pin drop.
"I don't want to see what you can do. I want to actually put you in groups of two and I would like you to make up a dance yourself. If you are really dedicated, that's what you'll do. You will not go onto YouTube and watch a dance and then memorize it. Do you understand?" Ms. Tara asked.
Everyone nodded. Ruth played with the neckline of her shirt that was a couple sizes too big for her.
"I now will put you into groups of two and assign you a song." she stared pairing people up.
"Ruth and... Dan. You're song is Halo by Beyonce."
Ruth walked over to the boy with jet black hair with long strides. "Hi, I'm Ruth."
Dan was a shy kid, he just looked at Ruth and nodded. Ruth bit her lip.
Ms. Tara finished pairing people up before noticing that there was an odd number of students. "Devon..." she said. "I'm sorry to ask you this, but could-"
"Don't worry ma'am, I'm fine with making up a dance on my own." he said, giving her a charming smile.
Ms. Tara blushed. "Oh, no need to call me ma'am. But if you're okay with that..."
He nodded.
"Okay then, I would like you to do the song Innocence by Avril Lavigne." Ms. Tara said.
Devon nodded, "Will try my best," he winked. Ruth rolled her eyes when a couple of the girls in the class practically swooned.
"Looks like you'll have to deal with dopey Dan," Devon caught up with Ruth in the main hallway. The main hallway had exactly 100 lockers, 50 on each side, all larger than what Ruth was used to back home. Ruth twiddled the lock on hers.
"Shut up Devon. He's not dopey. Just apparently, very shy."
"Call me if you need practice with a real dancer that knows what he's doing." he handed her a card. Ruth looked at it:
Devon Michaels
817-405-2878
"Really?" Ruth asked, throwing it behind her shoulder.
Devon shrugged, and then walked off with some of his buddies.
"Hey Ruth," Lenny walked up to her and grabbed her hand. "Where are you headed to?"
"Gym," Ruth groaned.
"Well, I am excited for our date tonight," he said kissing her cheek. Ruth blushed.
"Same here, 8, right?" Ruth asked.
Lenny nodded, and then walked into the Band room, blowing her a kiss.
"Will everyone please report to the auditorium?" an announcement came over the intercom.
Once Lenny arrived there, their Advanced Arts teachers were there. They separated them into four sections of the auditorium according to their talent.
Lenny looked up and over at Ruth. She was sweating from gym, they apparently hadn't given her time to shower yet. A boy with white blonde hair came over and put his arm around her, whispering something into her ear. Ruth looked at him disgusted and threw his arm off of her shoulder, elbowing him in the ribs. The kid looked pained and while biting his lip, he stood up and walked away. Lenny smirked.
"Okay, well, thank you all so much for making it here on time-" Ms. Adams was cut off short. That same kid that was watching Ruth at the beginning of the week rushed in. His brown hair was rustled and no longer perfectly gelled to the side. His white shirt had been buttoned wrong and his tie was half-hazardly slapped around his neck in an unflattering knot. He had small "bruises" on his neck.
"Thank you for joining us Mr. Michaels." Ms. Adams said. "Please take your seat up there with the dancers." Devon nodded, and panted up to the only available seat; Next to Ruth. Lenny scowled.
"Okay and-" Ms. Adams was interrupted again. A girl from the singers came in. Her appearance matched Devon's in a way. Lenny figured what they had been doing.
"Ms. Applegate, please go take your seat." Ms. Adams was annoyed now.
"As I was saying. We have a new form of technology for you to have. It's a bit like this 'Facebook' that I hear about a lot. It will automatically update updates about those students that have left us. You also get a profile that you are free to update as much as you want. You all have already been programmed into this device and everyone in the school has been added into it, so that you get their updates. If, for any reason, you get kicked out... We will take this away and you will be automatically taken out of everyones device. This," she held up a rectangular black iPhone looking-thing, "Is a Berrie."
The Spanish teacher started to hand them out up and down the rows.
"Your Berrie can be used for so much. So please. Please, use it wisely." she gave some kids a warning look, Devon included.
"I wonder if I can upload pictures into the Insider." Devon asked himself, talking about the Facebook-type of thing that had all of the kids and teachers programmed into it. "I know of some nice shirtless ones I could put up." he said, watching Ruth out of the corner of his eye.
Ruth took the bait. "Shut up, will you? You are so conceited and incredibly annoying."
"I was just talking to myself. You didn't need to listen." he said smoothly.
Ruth just rolled her eyes and stood up. She walked over to the MI section to sit next to Lenny.
"Gaw, that kid is getting in my nerves." she muttered.
"I'm sorry," Lenny said sympathetically. "But hey, I better go get ready for our date. I'll be at your door in an hour."
Ruth looked at her watch. It was already 7'o clock. She nodded and then stood up and walked out of the auditorium. She fiddled around with her Berrie on the way to the Dancers common room.
Insider was not password protected or anything, which was a little freaky. All of the students were updating, saying things like, "Well, here goes nothin'!" and "Excited to have technology, finally!"
Ruth walked into the girls bathroom next to the Dancers bedroom. She set her Berrie into her pants and then undressed.
After her shower she got dressed in a white sundress and slipped on black flats. She let her wavy hair dry naturally and put on some natural makeup. She quietly sang to herself and sprayed her Japanese Cherry Blossom perfume on her wrist and neck.
Once she was done, she gathered her dirty clothes and walked out. Devon was at the door.
"What is it with you and ladies' rooms?" she asked, walking, Devon caught up with her.
"I'm actually waiting on my date to get out of the shower."
"You know that you can get expelled for hanging out in the girls dormitory," Ruth said. "Not that I'd care or anything."
"Nah, they love me too much." Devon smirked.
"Who is your date?" Ruth inquired. "The same girl that ran into the auditorium after you came in, obviously thinking that those five minutes you had with her were the best of her life?"
"Oh her? No, hon, that was the best that she's ever had. And I last longer than five minutes." he winked and then walked back to wait by the bathroom.
Ruth shuddered and walked back to the girls' room to put her dirty clothes in the hamper that led to the laundry room.
She grabbed her Berrie and walked out. She saw Lenny and hooked her arm into his, surprising him.
"Your early," she said.
"I was excited," he said gripping her arm tighter into his.
They walked out of the school and to the flower garden. Behind the garden was a lake with a red blanket laid out on the grass. A picnic basket and wine glasses were on the blanket.
"Oh my goodness Lenny! This looks amazing!" the sun was setting and looked beautiful next to the lake. They sat down and Lenny unpacked the basket.
Ruth dished herself up some potato salad and took a helping of pork chops and fruit salad. Lenny poured the sparkling grape juice into the wine glasses.
"This is so cool, thank you so much for taking me out Lenny," Ruth smiled. Lenny shrugged.
"Well, I really like you Ruth."
After they were dome with their meal and laughed about some of the immature people at the school, Lenny scooped some Jell-O onto her plate for dessert.
Ruth liked Lenny, he was someone that she could laugh with and be herself. She didn't have to try hard to please him, because he liked her for her.
Once they were finished eating, Ruth scooted over and laid her head on his shoulder, watching the fireflies fly about. The sun had set and the moon was shining.
Lenny turned his head to her and she lifted hers. He leaned in and kissed her lips. Ruth pushed herself into him and he set his hand on her jawline. She lifted her hands into his hair, twirling it in between her fingers. They pulled away and set their forehead against the other, smiling at each other.
Lenny pulled her onto him so that her legs were on either side of his thigh. They continued to kiss, fireflies dancing around them acting like the fireworks they felt.
The next morning, Ruth woke up in her bed. Lenny had walked her to her room that night after they cleaned up the picnic.
She grinned all day. She grinned while brushing her teeth, grinned while walking down the stairs. She said hi to everyone she passed, even the evil French teacher that only had one eye. She was in such a giddy mood that when she sat down to eat breakfast, she ignored Devon's snide comment about the pancakes she was eating.
Once Lenny walked into the dining room, she stood up and walked over to greet him. Lenny smiled and ran up to her. They embraced each other and Lenny gave her kiss. They walked, hand in hand, to the MI table to eat.
Sian was sitting down and greeted the two. She looked down, a bit embarrassed when Ruth started to talk to her. It was evident that not many people talk to her, much less a popular Dancer.
After breakfast, Lenny walked Ruth to her first class of the day. Ruth sat down in her seat, people buzzing around her.
"Omygoshies! Ruth! Your dating Lenny! Why don't you change your relationship status on Insider!" a bubbly and very loud Actor that spoke as if there were exclamation marks at the end of every one of her sentences, said.
"Um, yeah. I guess I'll do that." Ruth said pulling out her Berrie. The Berrie's were huge hits here, Ruth guessed that since they confiscated their phones and iPods at the beginning of the year, this was like the crack the kids had been waiting for. She went to her profile and changed her relationship status to: "In a relationship with Lenny Crane." she gave the Actor a tight smile, and then her Berrie binged.
"Oo! I just got the notification!" suddenly, all the Berrie's binged in everyones pocket. The kids all got them out and gasped and gossiped some more, saying that the rumours were in fact true!
Ruth's Berrie suddenly binged. It was a message from Lenny.
"I'll change mine too ;)" it said. Everyone else's phone binged a few seconds later.
"Landon Crane is in a relationship with Ruth Fisher."
"You know that you two are the first official relationship here! Right!" the Actor yelled out.
"I guess so," Ruth said getting her homework out from the night before
So sorry for the wait on this one. This chapter has been finished for awhile, but I haven't had time to put it up. Hopefully you enjoyed, please review, send me a message, whatever you want! -Gert