The back stage area was alive with the bright, colorful eddy of twirling skirts and the chatter of animated young voices; the air charged with excitement and filled with the heady perfumed scents of hairspray and powder. The large group of teens, trying to prepare for their upcoming performance, kept bumping into each other as they hurried about. Their excited voices reverted again and again to the same topic of conversation: the newest member of the Corny Collin's dance council.

"She sure knows how to shake things up," Brad said while moving to sit on the edge of Tammy's dressing table, his slacks clad legs crossed at the ankles. Tammy looked up at him with irritation and tugged her comb out from under his rear-end. "She had some great moves at the hop," he continued, unmoved by her objections.

"You thought it was good?" Brenda asked, looking at him curiously, absently wrapping a piece of her dark hair around her index finger. She was the only one not fixing her self up. She had only been called in to come clear off her table and make it ready for her replacement.

"I think she's kookie," Noreen inserted from two seats down.

"And sweet," Doreen added, to which her sister nodded in agreement.

"Well, Corny sure seemed to like her," someone else said.

Link listened to the conversation taking place around him carefully, though he maintained his look of nonchalance by pretending to focus on the perfect twist for his signature curl. He wanted to appear above all their scurrying and worrying, but inside he was hanging on every word. He felt heavily invested in it all for some reason. He had played a part in getting her on the show after all… or he liked to think that he did.

Really, he knew it was all her. The way she moved, the way she smiled - she lit the place up. How could Corny not have noticed her? Link liked to think he knew talent when he saw it; he had been on the Corny Collins show for nearly three years, seen dancers come and go, and from the moment he saw her dancing at rehearsal he knew it should be her. She was gifted… not to mention the fact that she had been pretty damn brave in the face of the formidable Von Tussle double attack. That was a feat he knew from personal experience not many had ever accomplished.

Of course he wasn't an idiot; he'd seen Mrs. Von Tussle tear apart new recruits before. He had also spent enough time with both Von Tussle ladies to know how they felt about anyone who didn't fit what they felt was the proper mold. Velma wasn't about to let a plump little darlin' like that on her show, which to him seemed a darn shame; but he knew there was no changing her mind.

They had been cruel to her, cruel to all of the girls, and it had bothered him. He didn't care if it was business as usual; he had never been a fan of cruelty and had never really understood the reasoning behind it. Just because he was cool, hip, and incredibly good looking, didn't mean that he could treat people like… well like they weren't people. He figured the same should be true for everyone else.

He remembered though, that her smile had remained bright, her steps hadn't faltered. She hadn't let them intimidate her. He liked that. Then, later when he'd seen her dancing in detention he had to say something. He had to let her know his true thoughts.

His mind briefly returned to that particular encounter and he chewed his lip for a moment as he recounted the details then he pushed the thoughts quickly away.

And when she'd stepped out in the middle of that gym floor and started doing her thing… Well, she could definitely dance, and she was so… In any case, she was on the show; and he had played a small part in it.

He tapped his comb against the palm of his hand excitedly, not realizing he was doing so.

He felt as if he'd staged some sort of coup! It was a bit of a rush.

"I can't believe all of you!"

At the sound of her voice that expansive feeling inside his chest quickly deflated.

"You should be outraged. That big blob of… of Jell-o is going to make us all look completely ridiculous."

"Amber, you're just jealous because Link was flirting with her from the stage," Shelly tossed out off-handedly, her gaze focused on her carefully manicured nails; beside her Lou Anne giggled.

At mention of this issue Link perked up a bit nervously, ready to defend himself and do damage control if it came to that, but Amber was quicker on the draw.

"He was not! Puh-lease, it was a performance, Shelly! He was hamming it up for the kids at the dance; that's what he's supposed to do." Her voice sounded certain; but as she spoke she 'accidentally' bumped his chair from behind, slamming his chest hard into the edge of his dressing table, practically knocking the wind out of him and forcing out a soft grunt of pain.

"Well," Fender said, taking no notice of Link's discomfort; he reached out to swipe a can of hairspray from the momentarily incapacitated crooner, flipping it over once in his palm. "The girl is definitely stacked; and man, she knows how to move it."

A few of the girls gasped in shock at this somewhat vulgar comment and a few of the guys chuckled, but Amber whirled on the young man. "Those aren't breasts. It's just a lot of fat shoved into a bra!"

"Amber!" Link said, standing up suddenly. She just turned her angry glare on him. He wasn't unused to the hard stare and he let it glide off his shoulders like usual. He looked over her shoulder, seeing that Becky's face had gone pale, and turned around sharply to find Tracy standing behind them. For a moment, he thought the floor had gone out from beneath him. Please tell me she didn't hear what Amber just said, he thought. Then she looked around at everyone and smiled brightly. Link found himself smiling back at her; as if smiling widely was the most natural thing in the world for him. He was glad she seemed unaffected by the exchange of moments before, and hoped it meant she hadn't heard.

"So, where do I put my stuff?" she asked excitedly and he noticed she was holding a small bag and a can of Ultra Clutch. He also noticed she had changed her hair.

Amber snorted and rolled her eyes, but Brenda stood up from where she'd been leaning and moved out of the way. "Right here, Tracy; this will be your spot," she said rather flatly. She looked back at her former dressing table a little forlornly, her hand resting lightly on her stomach.

Tracy stepped toward the other girl, and Amber stepped closer to Link, wrapping her skinny arm around his middle. He looked down at that arm for a second, then around the room for Amber's mother; who seemed to have radar for such things and a great desire to keep them nonexistent.

"Thanks Brenda," Tracy was saying, her voice kind. "I hope you have fun where ever you're going. I'm gonna miss you being on the show." Brenda just looked at her, not sure what to say. Tracy set her things on the offered table and then looked past Brenda, smiling at Link.

Her big brown eyes were alight with excitement and Link couldn't help but feel an answering touch of excitement jump in his chest. She was like a ball of sunshine. When she spoke, her voice was sweet and at least as enthusiastic as the look on her face. "You really sang the heck out of that song at the hop, Link!" she said.

"Well, you really danced the heck out of it," he returned. "Congratulations for getting on the show." He leaned forward to offer her a congratulatory handshake, and felt the urge to give her a wink as well, but Amber's grip around his waist tightened to a degree that made breathing difficult; and both gestures fell away before they were fully initiated.

"C'mon Link, baby," Amber said turning to press herself against him fully, blocking his view of the new girl. She leaned up and kissed him slowly, deliberately, before pulling away to flash a false smile in Tracy's direction. "We better get started with rehearsal."

Link looked at Amber a bit stunned. She so rarely kissed him in public, especially not like that; and the way she was pressing against him had him a little rattled. She pulled him by the hand, his momentary state of distraction making it easy for her to drag him along with her to the dance floor. Link turned back for a moment and watched as Tracy waved hello to the rest of the council, all of whom greeted her with a bit more flair now that Amber wasn't in their midst.

Corny was sorting through albums near by while Velma hovered over him, looking irate and as they neared the dance floor, Link could hear Mrs. Von Tussle ranting. Her voice was hushed but every once in awhile a word or two reached his ears and he didn't like what he heard. He felt relief when Corny waved her away and moved toward his podium.

Rehearsal was incredibly strained. Amber couldn't seem to deal with things gracefully, and Link thought her constant vicious observations were giving him a twitch; which just did not go with his image. Tracy, however, danced through the whole thing with style and charm; and her enthusiasm seemed to help balance out some of the bad vibes.

Because this was Tracy's first time on the show, Corny wanted to give her a dramatic introduction. Instead of doing the opening dance with the rest of them, she would wait until Roll Call where she'd have a grand entrance at the end, leading into her very own introduction of the Payton Place. Once the show had begun, and they were swinging around to "Nicest Kids in Town", Link found that he was really looking forward to the moment she would get to present her self and show all of Baltimore what she could do.

As he danced into place behind Doreen, he found himself eagerly anticipating her arrival behind him. When he heard her little squeak of eagerness, he chanced a look back and winked at her. The smile on her face could only be described as ecstatic and he felt a laugh bubble up in his chest; but quickly repressed it.

He did his intro, the abbreviated version, without any grudge at having lost the glory spot for the moment. He danced off to his mark and listened as Tracy made her entrance. He tried to focus on his own dancing; thankful he had been doing the same opening dance for three years and could probably do it in his sleep, because he couldn't help but watch her do her thing.

Whatever happened from this day on, he knew one thing for certain. Having Tracy around was going to make things far more interesting.