Choreography
Chapter 2
Trina brushed her hair, a blank expression on her face as she looked at herself in her vanity mirror. After Andre had dropped her off at home, she hadn't been been able to concentrate on anything. His words constantly echoed in her head, frustrating her with their ambiguity. How the hell was she supposed to interpret 'I'm noticing you right now?'
Was he noticing her as a person? As a friend? Or as...something more? The corners of her lips quirked upwards and she shook her head in disbelief at the thought. Yeah right. At the very least, it had made her feel better.
Realizing what she was doing, she quickly wiped the smile off of her face and slammed the brush down on the desk. She hated feeling confused.
A soft knock at her door grabbed her attention, and she swiveled around in her chair to look at it. "What?" she asked tiredly, wanting nothing more than to forget the whole day after a full night's sleep.
"It's me. Can I come in?"
Trina sighed. Great, her little sister–the person she least wanted to see at the moment. "Sure, whatever."
The door opened a second later and the younger Vega poked her head in. "So," Tori started, awkwardly leaning against the door frame while pushing the door all the way open, "Getting ready for bed?" The older girl shot her a look that clearly said 'get to the point', so Tori cleared her throat and continued. "You'd tell me if something was going on between you and Andre, right?"
Trina laughed, and even to her ears it sounded less than authentic. "Are you kidding? Andre?"
"Well, you got back pretty late."
"It was barely seven!" she exclaimed, raising her voice slightly. She was freaked out enough about their sudden camaraderie as it was and Tori wasn't helping any.
"I know, but that's almost two hours after I left you guys." Tori was trying to keep calm, but it was obvious that she was beginning to grow impatient.
"Look, we stopped for drinks at Smoothie Kingdom and Andre doesn't let anyone except his grandma drink in his car so we ate in and talked about the video a bit. That's it." She curiously narrowed her eyes. "Why do you care?"
"Because Andre's my friend, and I don't want you to hurt him."
She didn't know whether to be shocked or appalled. Granted, her track record with boys wasn't that great and she was really mean to dorks like Robbie and Sinjin, but they weren't Andre. She knew instinctively that he wouldn't put up with any of the shit she tended to give other people.
And besides, who was Tori to decide whom Andre should and shouldn't date? Unless she actually had a thing for him, her opinion counted for absolutely nothing. Hell, her opinion still didn't count even if she did like him. She wasn't about to say any of that out loud, though.
"We're just working together. Once this whole video is over and Kojeezy makes me a superstar, we won't have anything to do with each other. Okay?"
Tori smiled slightly. "I'm not saying you can't be friends, Trina."
"Sure sounds like it." Trina got up and plopped down on her bed. "Are you done? I need my beauty rest."
Rolling her eyes, the younger brunette grabbed the doorknob to close the door. "Good night, Trina."
"Yeah."
After the door clicked shut, Trina switched her lamp off and burrowed herself into her comforter, feeling angrier than she had in awhile. The worst part, though, was that she didn't even know why. Why did it make her so angry that Tori didn't want her and Andre to get too close? And more importantly, why did she care?
Fed up with thinking about this on her own, she grabbed her cellphone from the beside table and shuffled through her recent calls until she found Andre's name. It didn't take long since he was the pretty much the only person that had been calling her for the last week.
She waited a few seconds for him to pick up, and the instant she heard the familiar click that signaled someone had answered, she took a deep breath. "Andre!" she yelled into the phone.
"Trina? Why are you calling me? And why are you yelling?" Andre asked, sounding surprisingly wide awake since it was already 11:30 and they had school the next day.
She blinked at his questions, unsure of how to answer either one of them. Why had she called him?
"I, uh...what are you doing?" she finished lamely.
There was an awkward silence for a long couple of seconds, and she was worried that he was just going to hang up on her. Finally, he answered. "Uh, just working on a new song. I got inspiration for one earlier today and wanted to get something down. What's wrong?"
Ignoring his question since she really didn't have an answer for him, she sat up and crossed her legs with interest. "Can I hear some of it?"
"What?"
Trina sighed loudly. "Your song. Can I hear it?"
"It's not really fleshed out yet," he mumbled, voice suddenly much quieter.
"I don't care. Sing some of it."
He was quiet for a few more seconds, but then he sighed into the receiver. "Fine." She heard him clear his throat and begin to sing.
"I don't know what you been used to,
Never been with a girl like you,
But, I can give you a love that's true to,
your heart, something, something...See? I told you it wasn't very good yet."
She noticed he sounded uncomfortable talking about this song, which was strange considering that he was usually happy to share his music with other people. But god, did he have a great voice. Something about the lyrics really resonated with her, and she had take a few breaths before she could speak. "No, I just...I love it."
Andre chuckled with embarrassment. "Really?"
"Really."
Another short silence followed her affirmation. "So, why did you call?" Andre asked again.
"Oh, I just, um, wanted to see if we were still holding the auditions after school tomorrow," she said, latching onto the first thing that popped into her head.
"Yeah, unless you have other plans?"
"Nope, see you then. Goodnight."
"Night, Treen."
She hung up the phone and put it back on the charger before lying back down on her bed. She still didn't know what to think about his song. She did know that it made her smile, but she wasn't exactly sure why. Trina turned over and groaned into her pillow. Why was everything with him so confusing?
"Alright, watch me and follow along if you can. I'm only going through this three times."
Trina stood in front of the dance studio mirror, flanked by at least forty other kids. Both she and Andre had been shocked by the turnout, especially since they were only expecting a dozen or so auditionees. Apparently, word had gotten out that the video would be played for Kojeezy, so everyone was doing anything they could to get in front of the camera. They'd even had to turn a couple dozen other kids away at the door after evaluating their basic dance skills.
She glanced over at Andre who was currently sitting behind a table and in deep discussion with Beck about something. As if he'd felt her staring at him, he looked up at her smirked, quirking an eyebrow in mild curiosity. She rolled her eyes and returned the smile before motioning for him to start the music.
"We're going to do it half speed this time, so pay attention!" she shouted, addressing the group behind her. She went through the moves as carefully as she could, being sure to exaggerate a few of the more subtle steps since they'd be harder to see once she sped up and vocally recited the steps for those who couldn't quite understand what she was doing. She was pleased to see that at least half of the dancers had actually managed to pick it up the first time, but by the time she'd moved on to full speed, only a quarter of the kids had kept up. She decided to do a few more runs with music to continue eliminating people, and after nearly half an hour had passed, she'd made her decisions.
Panting, she walked over to the table where Andre and Beck were and plopped down in the empty seat between them. "I like numbers five, twenty six, and forty eight the best. Numbers ten and thirty one would have more camera appeal, though."
Andre nodded, showing her his own list. "I picked thirty one, twenty six, and forty one as my top three. What about you, Beck?"
"Seven, Thirty one, and forty eight."
Trina stood up again and whistled to get the dancers' attention. "Alright, we've made our decision! Thirty one, twenty six, and forty eight are our dancers. Ten will be the back up. Thanks for auditioning everyone!"
She ignored the grumbles and glares of the people who hadn't been picked and walked over to address her newly chosen dancers.
The best dancer, Thirty one, moved in front of the others and stopped Trina short. "So are we going to have a dance off for the lead or what?"
Trina blinked, put off by the sheer audacity of the blonde–Lindsay, if she remembered correctly–and frowned. "Uh, no, I'm the lead. This audition was only to find backup dancers, which you'd know if you read the flyer." It was sort of a lie since Andre had never actually given her the lead role, but he also hadn't denied her.
"You?" The girl half laughed. "I'm the best dancer at Hollywood Arts, and you're Trina Vega. Maybe I should talk to the real decision makers about this," she scoffed as she looked over Trina's head at Andre and Beck.
It took every ounce of Trina's strength not to knock the girl on her ass. She didn't like to fight and hadn't been in one since middle school, but she'd lay the bitch out in a heartbeat if she kept popping her mouth off. She took a deep breath to calm herself before speaking. "I'm the choreographer on this project, and I'm the lead. If you don't like it, there's the door."
Andre appeared at her side a moment later, and she suddenly felt her bravado dissipate. "What's going on?" he asked, looking between Trina and the dancer.
The dancer, completely ignoring the older Vega, stepped closer to Andre. "Trina seems to think she's the lead."
The boy lifted his eyebrows slightly at the statement. "Because she is."
Trina might have laughed at the look on the dancer's face if she herself weren't so surprised by Andre's words. "What? Her? Do you want your video to suck?" Lindsey half laughed.
All signs of friendliness disappeared from his features, and he crossed his arms over his chest. "Like she said, if you don't like it, there's the door."
The blonde swallowed heavily. Despite being well known for his easygoing and friendly nature, Andre could be pretty damn intimidating when he wanted to be. She knew it was time to back down. "Fine, whatever. I'll still easily outshine her when Kojeezy sees the video."
With the conflict resolved, Trina gave them their practice schedules (though she was reluctant to give it to Lindsay) and sent them on their way, feeling drained from the day's activities. Tori had left over an hour ago due to theater rehearsal, so she packed up her things and headed to Andre's car for a ride.
She was unusually quiet as Andre drove her home, and she barely even flinched when her favorite song 'Five Fingaz to the Face' came on. To him, it was as sure of a sign as any that there was something wrong with her.
"What's up?" he asked, looking away from the road long enough to gauge her expression.
Trina shrugged but didn't answer, continuing to look out of the window. How could she even begin to answer that? She was happy, confused, annoyed, tired, and worried. Each feeling on its own wasn't bad, but altogether, she felt like a mess. It wasn't until they stopped at a colorful storefront five minutes later that she decided looked over at him. "Where are we?"
"Ice cream. My treat," he said, unbuckling his seat belt.
She glanced down at herself and frowned. She was wearing a pair of black sweatpants, white sneakers, and a black and white raglan. "Ew, no, I can't go out like this. Look at what I'm wearing." She almost regretted saying that as she felt his eyes run over body, and the warmth in her cheeks surprised her.
"You look great to me. Come on."
Sighing, she reluctantly dragged herself out of his car. She was relieved that no one seemed to give her a second glance, so she felt comfortable enough to straighten up and followed him inside. They grabbed a booth in the front so that they could look out over the street and ordered simple ice cream cones; butter rum for him, and chocolate for her. Their choices in flavors weren't lost on either of them.
She took one lick of her cone and smiled, instantly feeling much better. "Thanks," she said, taking another slow lick along the side.
Andre returned the smile, taking a bite from his own. "No problem. You deserve it for all your help."
"No, I mean, for backing me up with that bitch. You didn't have to do that," she said, unable to stop the bitterness from seeping into her voice at the mention of Lindsay.
"Did you really think I'd choose a back up dancer over my lead and choreographer?"
Trina paused mid lick to stare at him. "Wait, I'm really the lead? Like, officially?"
He looked at her as if she were stupid, nearly laughing at the question. "Of course you are. Beck agrees with me and thinks that you're the only one who could do it. I told you you've got moves, and after hanging out with you so much lately, I can see that you've got heart, too." She smiled widely at him, causing Andre himself to smirk. "I wish you'd do that more."
Confused, she titled her head. "Do what?"
"Smile like you mean it. It's really pretty."
Her face fell slightly and she shrugged her shoulders awkwardly. "It'd probably be beautiful if I had huge cheekbones."
Andre scoffed and sat back to glare at her. "Would you stop comparing yourself to Tori? Trina, you're-" he suddenly stopped, wide eyed, and shook his head. "Never mind."
"What?"
"Sorry, I got a little wonky in the head there," he joked, turning his head away from her.
She wanted to ask what he meant but he'd nearly inhaled the rest of his ice cream, standing up with keys in hand. She was forced to stuff hers down too, which wasn't hard since she just had the pointy tip of the cone left. She had to jog to catch up with him on the way to his car, and he didn't give her a chance to say a word as he started it up and peeled out of the parking lot as soon as she buckled her seat belt.
Despite her absolute best efforts, Andre refused to be baited into a conversation on the way to her house. Whatever he'd been about to say in the ice cream shop had spooked him into complete silence. She stepped through her front door fifteen minutes later after a rather chaste goodbye only to be met by her mom giggling to herself as she typed away on her phone to someone that probably wasn't her dad. "Hi honey, how was the audition?" she asked, not even looking up at her.
Trina let out a breath through her nose. As much as she wanted to call her mom out on the strange relationship she had with her dad's partner, she was more worried about the potential fallout that it could cause. If at all possible, she'd like to wait until she was done with college and fully self-sufficient before her illusion of a happy family shattered. "It was good, we found some great dancers," she returned flatly.
Her mother nodded before glancing up at her. "That's nice. So why are you an hour late?"
The girl tightened her lips, unable to believe that she was really getting on her case for a curfew she didn't even have. It felt a little hypocritical, actually. "Oh, Andre and I got some ice cream."
Her mother finally put down the phone and fully turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow. "Smoothies yesterday and ice cream today? You two are hanging out a lot outside of school."
She shrugged with annoyance and threw her purse down on the couch. It was obvious that Tori had been blabbing to their mother–for what, she couldn't figure out. "Well, this is a huge project and we have to work closely together to get it just right. The more time we put into it, the better it'll be."
Her mother hummed. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen you so excited about something," she said, a knowing look in her eyes.
"Mom, Kojeezy is going to see this. Of course I'm excited."
Her mom hummed again and turned back to her phone, giggling at something she'd just read and apparently done with their conversation. Taking that as her cue to beat it, Trina jogged up the stairs to get cleaned up.
She stepped into the shower a few minutes later, sighing at how great the hot water felt on her muscles after such a long day. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for her thoughts to wander back to the conversation she'd just had five minutes prior.
She knew what her mother was implying, but it was completely off base. Andre was a great guy, sure. He was talented, friendly, relatively popular, responsible, smart, strong, and had a pretty cute smile...but they were just barely friends. Once this project was over, they wouldn't even be that. People like him and people like her just didn't belong together. Besides, she got the feeling that Tori had a little thing for him, and if that was the case she definitely didn't have a chance.
Which would be fine, since Tori and Andre were practically made for each other. Two perfect little people who'd have a perfect little relationship and have perfect little babies while juggling perfect little jobs in the music industry.
She was vaguely aware that she'd squeezed half of the soap out of the bottle and groaned soon afterwards. Great, that was at least ten dollars down the drain–literally. Mood further ruined, she finished rinsing her hair and prepared to get out of the shower.
"Trina, you have a visitor!" her mother called from downstairs.
Grumbling angrily to herself, she quickly dried herself off and put on her bathrobe. No one ever came to see her, so why did they have to come when she was trying to shower?
She didn't know who she was expecting, but Andre was the last person that had crossed her mind since he'd just dropped her off. She suddenly felt self conscious and wrapped her robe tighter around herself, miles different than the last time she'd met him in her robe. "Oh, hey Andre," she said, trying to sound as casual as she could. She ignored the eyes of both Tori and her mother as they stared at them. "What are you doing back here?"
He held up her pink backpack for her to see. "You forgot your bag in my backseat. I thought you might need it for homework or something."
Trina gaped at the bag. She hadn't even noticed it was missing. "Wow, thanks." Even though he was just being nice, it made her strangely happy that he'd come all the way back just to give it to her–especially since he seemed to be over the little funk he'd been in. "Hey, do you have your school stuff with you?"
He looked at her strangely, tilting his head a bit. "Yeah, why?"
"Since you came all the way over, why don't you just study here and stay for dinner? That's cool, right mom?" she asked, giving her mom a look that clearly told her he was staying whether it was cool with her or not.
"Sure it is. We're having family pot pie, and I'll make two this time," she said, narrowing her eyes at Andre.
He grinned sheepishly and shrugged. "Sounds good. I'll call my grandma and let her know."
She bounded back up the stairs to get dressed as he walked out of the door, presumably to get his own backpack and call his grandmother. She considered dressing up a bit, but remembering how much he liked it when she didn't wear six inch heels and short skirts (which was still strange to her), she instead wore what she'd normally wear around the house–a pair of shorts and a Hollywood Arts t-shirt. They were just going to do their homework, anyway.
By the time she jogged downstairs again, Andre had already spread his books out on the coffee table. She frowned slightly when she saw that Tori was sitting next to him on the floor but quickly wiped it off of her face. They were actual friends, so of course he'd choose to sit with her.
Contrary to popular belief, the kids at Hollywood Arts didn't just take art related classes. They also had to take academic classes like Math and Science or else the school would lose it's accreditation. Sure, they were probably much easier than they'd be at a normal high school, but it was still a pain in the ass to do since it cut into their practice time.
She took the seat on Andre's other side, putting her own books next to his to begin studying. She tried her best not to keep glancing at him, but it was surprisingly tough. It took a good ten minutes before she was even close to being able to concentrate on her work.
Barely half an hour passed before Trina couldn't take it anymore. The smell of her mom's family pot pie continuously wafted under her nose, and groaning, she stood up. "I'm going upstairs. I can't work with that delicious smell distracting me."
"Me neither. I'll go with you," Andre said, grabbing his pre-calculus textbook.
Tori was on her feet a second later, also picking up her books. "Me too!"
She threw her backpack into her room and jumped on her bed stomach first, causing the stuffed animals she kept up there to fall off. Her bed wasn't all that big–only a full size–so when Andre sat down on her bed with his stuff, Tori had to sit in her computer chair. It was a tiny victory, sure, but Trina couldn't help but feel happy.
"You wear glasses?" Andre asked, picking up her frames from the nightstand. They were technically fashion forward being thick framed and black, but she still thought that they made her look like a dork.
Horrified that he'd found them, she leveled him with a glare. "Tell anyone and you're dead."
He laughed at the threat and held them out to her. "Put them on."
"I already have contacts in, so no."
"Come on, just for a second. Please?" he begged, brown eyes staring sadly into hers.
She sighed and rolled her eyes before doing as he asked. She hated wearing her glasses around other people, and it killed her that she was developing something of a soft spot for him. "Go ahead and laugh, I know you want to."
"Why would I laugh? You look cute."
He looked so serious that Trina scrunched her face up and hit him with her pillow, trying not to smile. "Shut up."
She really should've seen it coming since Andre never let her get away with anything, but she was still a little surprised when one of her teddy bears hit her square in the face. "Last time I give you a compliment," he joked.
"We have work to do, you know!" Tori interrupted. Both Andre and her sister looked at her incredulously. "Well, we do," she grumbled, looking back down at her book.
"She's right, the sooner I finish this the sooner I can practice the choreography some more," Andre shrugged, cracking open his own book for the second time.
They worked for another half hour in pain, their stomachs growling with the promise of the delicious meal warming in the oven.
Finally, the moment they'd been waiting for arrived. "Dinner!" their mother called from below.
Homework immediately forgotten, they quickly filed out of the room after Andre had packed his things up and headed down to the dining room. Their father had come home at some point and was already seated at the head of the table, jacket removed and gun exposed. "Hey, Mr. Vega," Andre said a bit nervously, taking the seat between Trina and her mom and leaving Tori alone on the other side of the table.
The main raised his eyebrows at this but didn't comment. "How's it going, Andre? Trina's been telling me about a video you two are working on together?"
Andre nodded, grabbing a large slice of the pie. "Yes, sir. It's going great, and Trina's really been a huge help."
"Trina?" her father asked incredulously. "Helping?"
A frown appearing on his face, the teen suddenly understood why Trina was the way she was. Not that she helped with the way she acted, but she was still their daughter and they shouldn't sound so surprised that she was doing something good. "She's doing all of the choreography, and she's going to be the lead dancer."
Her mother blinked owlishly at him. "Trina?"
Andre glanced over at Trina to see her picking disinterestedly at her slice of the pot pie and suddenly felt angry. How could they not see how talented she was? Yeah, she couldn't sing for shit, but surely they'd seen her dance before. Hell, even if they hadn't, they shouldn't be treating her like she'd never done a good thing in her life.
He clenched his fist in an attempt to calm down. "Why don't you come to the shoot? You can see Trina in action."
"I have to work," her dad said, shoveling a forkful of pie into his mouth.
"Me too," her mother chimed in. "Don't worry, honey, we'll see the video when it's done."
With that, he'd had enough. It wasn't their words that bothered him but the way they'd said them. They weren't apologetic about it all, and in fact seemed relieved that they had prior commitments. He didn't want to seem too angry, so he quickly finished his pie and stood up. "I've gotta get home to check on my grandma. See you tomorrow, Treen," he seethed, grabbing his bag and nearly stalking towards the door. He heard the sound of another chair being pushed back as he stepped outside, and a second later, a small hand wrapped around his wrist.
"Andre, wait!"
He turned to glare down at Trina. "What?"
She let out a breath through her nose. "Don't be mad at my parents. To be fair, I've never really given them a reason to want to watch me. Especially after the whole showcase and one woman play thing."
Andre ran a frustrated hand through his twists. "I just...I feel like no one sees how amazing you are except for me."
The girl blinked. "You think I'm amazing?" she gawked, staring up at him. She felt her pulse rise as she tried to fight down the fluttering in her stomach.
He averted his gaze and shrugged. "Well, yeah. Don't you?"
Trina smiled wryly. "Of course I do. I'm Trina Vega, the next big superstar."
He laughed slightly and shook his head, feeling his anger begin to dissipate–which was strange since she usually tended to make him angrier. But she was right; if he hadn't gotten to know her over the past two weeks, he wouldn't have been very interested in seeing her perform, either. At the same time, though, he wasn't her family. "I'm gonna head out," he said, turning towards his car.
She watched him throw his books into the passenger side of the vehicle and shut the door, sort of wishing she could go along with him.
He paused before getting into his car and smiled at her. "Night, Trina."
"Night, Andre," she replied, returning the grin with a wave.
She watched him pull out of her driveway and drive down the road, strangely missing him already.
AN: I'm a bit tired of this light fluff. Sorry about the errors, too. I try to proofread, but that cuts into writing time. Might need to get a beta :/ Thanks for the reviews!
LoneTrandeFan: That is the best username! I actually laughed.