Wow, sorry for the wait. I've literally written, erased, an rewritten this chapter around three times. So I hope you enjoy this freaking chapter that caused me so much pain.
BRRRRRRNNNNNN! BRRRRRRNNNNNNN! BRRRRRRNNNNNNNN!
Red lights flashed and colored the entire room in sync with an obnoxiously loud warning buzzer that could be heard throughout the whole tower.
"Sorry, Cyborg," Robin said, running to the computer and turning on the monitor, just as the wall-sized middle window turned into a screen showing the map of the city with a blinking red dot hovering over one specific area. "Pizza will have to wait. We've got trouble."
"What's going on?" Avery asked, standing up and trying to project her voice over the alarm.
"Bank robbery, the thieves unknown to us, and they've got hostages," Robin answered swiftly. He then turned around and looked at Avery with the most serious expression she'd seen on him yet. He was in leader mode, she realized. "Avery, we need you to stay here." She nodded wordlessly, completely understanding why. He then addressed the rest of his team and gave the same sound off Raven had given earlier that day. "Titans, GO!"
All too fast they were gone, though as Avery watched the heroes fly or run out the door time slowed down just a little. She could see the determination etched into their faces as they ran past her, each of them ready for anything thrown at them, completely in battle mode. It was almost inspiring.
When they were all gone, and the doors slid closed behind them, the alarm sounded a few more times and then stopped along with the red light. And suddenly Avery was surrounded by heavy silence. The Tower seemed a million times bigger now that she was alone.
Sighing, she slid back down into the chair and finished taking off her new tap shoes. She took off her socks too, and stuffed them in the bag of dance wear. The cold marble floor felt nice on her bare feet. She sighed again. How long the Titans would be gone for was a complete mystery. Using the time she had productively seemed like a good idea.
She went to the computer Robin had occupied just a moment ago, and turned it back on. The monitor buzzed to life. The map of Jump City was still projected onto the large window monitor screen. Avery exited out of the map and opened up an internet browser. The one discipline of dance she knew she was familiar with was tap. If she researched dance some more, maybe she could figure out what other types of dance she knew, and in turn find out more about herself.
She made it simple, and just typed in the word dance. The first link listed was the Dance Wikipedia page, then some local dance studios, Dance Magazine's website, dance wear sites, images for dance, and a dance show on Fox. She clicked on the last link, and it brought her to a page on FOX's website for a TV show called So You Think You Can Dance.
Watch full episodes. Meet the top 20. National Dance Day. Audience tickets. So You Think You Can Dance Experience. Informational messages along with links and pictures flashed on a banner at the top of the page. Below it, more links to other pages were listed side by side.
She scrolled down the page until she saw a list of episodes. She clicked on the most recent one, and a video box popped up. She clicked play, and set the video to full screen. Plopping back on the couch, she watched the episode patiently, listening to the dancers' stories about how far they've come and the judges' opinions. Finally, the pretty blonde host with the exotic accent showed on screen, introducing a soloist. The camera turned and zoomed into a stage, lit up with blue and white lights. A spotlight shone over a tall muscular man with dark chocolate skin, dressed up in a simple half unbuttoned white shirt and loose kaki shorts, and no shoes. The audience cheered loudly, and they didn't quiet down until soft music bellowed over them.
Avery didn't know the song, and frankly she didn't pay any attention to it anyway. She was completely hypnotized by the dancer's movements. Lyrical, the style was called. She remembered it immediately. I use to think it was like a mixture of jaz and ballet, but then learned it was all about emotion, expressing the meaning of the lyrics of the song, hence the name lyrical.
The dancer leaped half his height into the air, turned what seemed like ten pirouettes in a row, and practically laughed in gravity's face as he threw himself into the air and landed rolling on the floor and picking himself back up without a scratch, bruise, or any sort of pain visible. He was invincible.
Could I do that? Avery wondered. There was just enough room between the yellow circular table and the sink-in wall to try. She rewound the video, and scrutinized his moves intently. Rewinding the video again, she attempted the moves, mimicking him as close as she could. They came to her more easily than she expected, for the first few. But then when she tried a high side kick, an agonizing pull in her leg prevented her from kicking as high as the dancer in the video could.
She flashed back to this morning, when she woke up.
"Are you not doing the stretching now?"
"Yeah, but, I need… like, a larger extent. I don't know why, I just don't feel fully stretched, you know?"
Fully stretched…
Avery plopped onto the ground, spreading her legs out into a straddle, and reached for her ankle, feeling the stretch and pull in her hamstring. This is it! This is what I needed. This morning, I felt so stiff, and what I needed was to stretch. It all makes sense. And it feels so familiar, so good. As a dancer, I need to keep my flexibility, and after not stretching for who knows how long, my body became stiff and I lost some of my flexibility. Well now I'm going to gain it back…
Avery focused on stretching her legs, loosening up her hamstring and Achilles tendon. She slid into her right split, but to her dismay, she couldn't fall all the way into it.
How long has it been since I last did my split?
She collapsed out of it, stretched both her hamstrings and her pelvis in deep lunges, then slid back into her split. No use… No matter. I'll stretch every day until I get my full flexibility back.
Why getting her flexibility back was so important was unknown and unthought-of to her. It might have been, in her subconscious, the first step to regaining her memory. First she regains her flexibility, then she regains her dancing, and eventually she regains her memory. It was the only thing she could remember, making it the only the she had to work with. So she'd take what she had, and work with it.
A half hour later, Avery had attempted the routine again and again until she lost count. It was so much different than tapping. The fully in-control, and sometimes not so in-control, movements, jumps, and turns, took every ounce of energy out of her. Every time she finished the routine, she wanted to collapse on the ground, but instead she just rewound the video and did it again.
Dancing bare foot was so much different than wearing shoes. She could actually point her foot, a feat she didn't even think of wearing her tap shoes. She didn't know just how much she missed the feeling of pointing her foot into a beautiful arch. Of course, she would have never known had she never found that dance store.
Thank whoever's in charge up there I found that dance store…
"Did you see the looks on their faces?" Speedy laughed in the backseat of the T-car.
"Yes, Speedy, we saw them. We were all there," Raven said from the passenger seat, rolling her violet eyes.
"Especially that one guy, when he flew back into that other guy!" He ignored her, cracking up even more. "Oh man, I will not ever un-see that!"
"Is this how you guys feel when I laugh at something you don't think is all that funny?" Beast Boy asked, leaning slightly away from the overly amused archer in the middle of him and Robin.
"Yes," Cyborg, Raven, and Robin all replied simultaneously. Speedy continued to babble on about the robbery and Beast Boy continued to wish he had opted for flying back to the tower with Starfire and Bumblebee.
"I wonder how Avery is," Robin said, changing the subject.
"I'm sure she's fine," Cyborg answered. They were pulling up to the Tower now, and Cyborg slowed the T-car as they entered the garage.
As soon as the Titans entered the common room, they stood at the doorway frozen. Music was blaring, the monitor was playing a video of a dancer from the last season of So You Think You Can Dance, and there was Avery, doing the dance with him.
Every turn, every jump, every little movement was sharp, precise, and then slow and soft. Beast Boy whistled, impressed.
That whistle jolted Avery out of her concentration, and she stumbled out of her turn, crashing to the floor. The audience winced in unison, before running up to her to see if she was okay.
Avery blushed with embarrassment, laughing nervously, "Eh, hehe, hey guys."
She accepted Cyborg's hand and she stood up, rubbing her bruised hip.
"What was THAT?" Cyborg asked, astonished.
"Um, I fell…?" She responded confusedly.
"No, what was all that turning, and jumping and whoosh, kyaaa, fssshhhh!" Cyborg impersonated her, waving his arms around in big arcs.
"That certainly wasn't tap dancing," Bumblebee noted, putting her hands on her hips and smirking.
"No," Avery shook her head, smiling to herself, "that was…" She couldn't find the words to finish it.
"Amazing?" Beast Boy offered. "Mind blowing? Totally insanely cool?"
"It was just dancing," she countered with a on-shouldered shrug.
"Just dancing?" Bee reiterated in disbelief. "Girl, why didn't you tell us you could move like that?"
"Move like what? I could barely get my full extension in that side tilt and my pirouettes were obviously wobbly and not centered if I fell out of it. Plus, I still haven't figured out that attitude leap turn-"
"Atti what now?" asked Raven.
"Avery, chill out," Beast Boy soothed, placing his hand on her shoulder.
She brushed his hand off and stepped back, making sure she addressed all of them so her message was clear. "I am chill! And it was not 'totally insanely cool.' I would know, I was the one dancing. I finally remember something, and it's a skill that I obviously need to build on. The only thing I can do is keep practicing and keep learning. As long as I do that, eventually something will click. I'm going to stretch and dance every day if that's what it takes."