"Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D's dance elective programme. I know only one pair out of you selected this as their elective, the rest of you were forced into it as you were not quick enough to sign up to the electives of your choice. Your partners in this room are useless as we will be assigning you new ones for the purpose of this class. Please stand in your pairings and we will make the necessary changes."
Tilly and Carl stood together and watched as the instructor walked among them and swapped the men and women around so that they were in mixed gender pairs. The instructor got to them and giving them a curious look they moved on and left Tilly and Carl as they were which they were thankful for.
"In this class you won't just be learning to dance. You will be learning how to observe your surrounding area through dance. Any questions?" Their instructor told them.
"Do you have a name?" Tilly asked, causing a twitter of laughter from the rest of the class.
"My name is Anthony Swift." He announced proudly like they were supposed to know who he was.
Tilly knew, only because she had heard Ward and Romanov complaining about him and his techniques.
"I would like you to all to line up. Girls on the left, boys on the right." Anthony said.
When no one moved, not even Tilly, his demeanour changed.
"When I tell you to move, you move." He hissed at them.
As a class they moved quickly into their lines, except Tilly who strolled into the space left for her opposite Carl.
"Men, take your left hand and hold it out. Women take the proffered hand." Anthony instructed, demonstrating what he wanted them to do.
The class copied his movements.
"Shoot me." Tilly muttered to Carl.
"Hey, you chose this." He reminded her.
"Yeah I know. I'm sorry. Do you think we could rebel?"
"We could, but he's that oblivious I don't think it would do much good." Carl pointed out as some of the pairs had let their hands drop.
"I want you men to pull your ladies in, keeping structure to your arms. The lady is a picture that needs framing. You are her frame."
Carl pulled Tilly in towards his body. As he did she rolled her eyes. Anthony walked up and down the line correcting their stances.
Carl saw Tilly tense as he walked up behind her and corrected Carl's hold on her. Anthony brushed his hand up against Tilly's bum and Carl tightened his grip on her to stop her doing something stupid.
"Step apart and repeat." Anthony told them.
The next half hour was spent repeating the same movements over and over again.
Anthony continued to walk up and down the pairs correcting their stances. Fortunately for Tilly Carl picked up the movements and stance fairly quickly. She assumed it was from his kickboxing training.
"I swear to God I will hit him!" Tilly muttered as she caught Anthony leering at her in a highly inappropriate way.
"You could always tell Toby. I saw him walk you back last night." Carl suggested.
"And what's that going to achieve other than trouble for us. I have a better plan." Tilly said to him as Anthony started clapping his hands together.
"Right, now we will move onto the first steps. Please follow me."
Carl stuttered for a few paces as he repeatedly led Tilly on the first few steps they had been taught.
"Carl. He's coming over."
Just as Anthony arrived at Carl and Tilly, Carl managed to get his feet around the steps and led Tilly using perfect footwork.
He looked at them disappointed before moving on.
"That was close" Tilly said to him as they practised the steps again.
"Too close. I see it's my responsibility during this class to prevent you from getting mauled." Carl said to her with a grin.
Tilly didn't say anything, she just nodded and gave him a thankful smile.
"What do you want to do for dinner? I'm not fancying the dining hall food." She asked him changing the topic.
"You want to order in? Are you trying to get us into trouble?"
"It'll be fine. What do you fancy? Indian, Pizza, Chinese?"
"Chinese sounds good"
"Ok. We can order it in when we get out of here."
"How do we smuggle it in without the kitchen staff finding out?"
"Same way I did last night." Tilly told him with a smile.
"Alright guys. That's all we have time for today. I want you to practise for next week." Anthony told them.
"Practise what exactly? You haven't taught us anything?" Carl muttered to Tilly as they left the Arena and headed back to their rooms.
"So Chinese study date? My room?" Tilly asked when they got to their floor.
"Sure, let me change out of this first." Carl told her, indicating his Phys Acc suit.
Ten minutes later Carl knocked on Tilly's door. She had changed too and was wearing a simple white t-shirt and a pair of jeans.
"I think we need to order dinner first." She said.
"Know anywhere?"
"Yeah. There's a Chinese not too far away." Tilly told him.
They place their order online and Tilly added 'call when you arrive at the gate' to the special instructions box.
Tilly and Carl practised their 'dance' moves and Tilly taught him the right way to use Russian genders when her phone rang.
"Wait here. I'll go get it." She said to him, picking up her purse and heading for the door.
"I want to see how you do this." Carl said, following her.
When Carl followed Tilly outside and to the gate he realised that it really wasn't that difficult. He and Tilly simply walked into the Atrium carrying the food.
Only they walked straight into Principal Dockerty.
"Food still not improved?" he asked them.
"I had a mouldy sandwich for lunch." Tilly told him.
"Damn them. You two better get back to your rooms before someone sees you."
Tilly grabbed a very confused Carl by the wrist and pulled him towards the stairs.
"Why aren't we in trouble?"
"I told him I would order in because the food is that bad." Tilly told him.
"When?!"
"When Oleg dragged me to his office. He asked me what other rules I intended on breaking, so I told him." Tilly admitted.
"And he simply let you order in?"
"We can't brag about it, but yes."
"I think I won the lotto getting you as a partner." Carl said taking the box off Tilly so she could let them into her room.
"Clearly." Tilly told him closing the door and passing him a pair of chopsticks.