Author's Note: Hmm. I think you're getting tired of me squeeing about the reviews I somehow manage to get for this story, so I'll just say thank you to: PaoHalliwell, Animefreakkagome, Peachie-Trishie, Just-Joy-4evea, im to lazy to write i story, supergurl03, Lega, blonde-gal, Banana Bun, Goodnite-And-Goodbye, katie (anon.), KungFunDuckie-x3, Gracefulfalling, sarah-disneystar, butterflygoodbye, havefaithrestart, lazydigitalbooklet., pink princess 16, brucas224, JaBoyYa, x3bmnheartsx3, xXriujooXx, Runaway Rockstar, have-a-cookie, JeNNiFeR07 (anon.), Mizz Stud Muffin, BlackMidnight1, and monko25. Also, a continued thanks to those who added me or my stories to the favorites and/or alert lists. (hands cookie)
(This chapter takes place after Shane's set up, just so you know. I think it's obvious, but I'm sort of self-conscious like that... so, yeah, nothing happened between Mitchie and Shane while he set up, and this is when everyone else has already arrived and stuff...)
Here comes the drama...
Second Chances
by PiperPaigePhoebe01
Chapter Five
Shane Gray turned to face the class.
"All right," he said, looking around at the teens in his class. His eyes glanced over Mitchie and her two friends, then came to rest on a few people in the group who looked like dancers. "As you all know, this is your dancing class. In this class, I'll teach you how to dance and sing at the same time, as some other things you might need to know. However, that's not going to happen today."
Shane waited until the whispers died down, then he pointed to the section of floor he had taped off earlier that morning. "Today," he continued, "we are going to have a dance off."
With that pronouncement, the room burst into excited chatter. It seemed like everyone was just waiting for a chance to let go in something like this—everyone immediately began dividing up into pairs, talking excitedly to each other. Shane grinned at their eagerness and waited until the chatter died down, which took quite a few minutes since it seemed everyone was excited.
"It looks like you're all incredibly excited!" Shane said as the teens stopped talking. "That's good, but who will set the bar and go up first?"
There was a flurry of hand-raising. Shane cast his eyes over the people who raised their hands—surprisingly, Mitchie and her friends weren't among them, even though he knew they liked to dance—and chose two people who looked like they were particularly willing to. The two he picked looked at each other in surprise, then stood up, looking a bit nervous.
"Okay," Shane said, leading them to the taped in area. "This is the area you can dance in. If you move out of this area, you'll be disqualified and the other person wins. You can take up as much space in this box, so long as you leave a small area for the other person to dance."
The two teens nodded.
"What are we going to be dancing to?" one asked, slipping off her short blue jacket and throwing it to one of her friends.
"Anything you like," Shane responded, "as long as I have it."
The other girl, the one who hadn't taken off her jacket, reached the pile of CDs next to the CD player before she could. She easily plucked a CD out of the pile, slipping into the CD player.
"Are we ready?" Shane asked as soon as the two girls were in the taped-in area. The two girls nodded, and Shane continued. "Good, but before we begin, I'll need your names so I can keep track of the winners."
"I'm Bella," said the girl on the left side of the area.
"And I'm Ari," the other girl said. "Aliena, really, but everyone calls me Ari."
Shane nodded and walked over to the CD player. He waited for Bella's signal, then pressed the play button. Some sort of jazzy hip hop music came on, and the two girls, Bella and Ari, launched into motion. Shane immediately knew he hadn't made the wrong decision by choosing them first—their dances were powerful, smooth and graceful, even though it was hip hop, perhaps the jerkiest dance invented.
Except... Bella seemed like she was set to impress. Her dance was powerful, her eyes blazing and her body moving almost too fast to see. Even though she kept to her "side" of the dancing area, everyone's eyes seemed glued to her moves and her dance. Ari was nearly as good, but she didn't command the attention that Bella did in the way she danced.
Their dance was over almost too soon—the music ended, Bella dancing to the very last beat of the music, and then there was silence for a moment as Bella and Ari stopped dancing. The sweat on their faces was now visible, but no one noticed as they applauded loudly. Shane joined in the applause.
"That was amazing, Bella, Ari," he said. "You both brought it."
Bella's cheeks flushed and Ari looked down, but he could tell they were both pleased. They walked back to their friends, whispering to them excitedly as soon as they reached them.
"Even though you were both fantastic," Shane said once he had given them time to squeal about their performance, "only one of you won your dance-off. Ari, I'm sorry, you were amazing, but Bella had something special."
Ari nodded. "Yeah, I know," she said in an unsurprised tone.
"Thanks," Bella said.
"You're welcome," he responded, amused as a blush colored Bella's cheeks vivid red. He turned to the rest of the group. "Bella and Ari's dances were amazing, but I'm sure there's more talent in this room than them. So, who wants to go next?"
Another flurry of hand-raising.
This is going to be fun, Shane thought before picking two people at random. The process went similarly to Bella and Ari's now that they knew what to do, and both of them were fantastic, but again Shane only chose one winner.
This process went on for at least seven more pairs, until everyone was clambering for the chance to go next. Everyone was so talented, Shane reflected, but all the people who went had volunteered, and he knew that there were often numerous talents in the group that never raised their hands, too shy to go up on their own. So, for the tenth pair to go up, he decided to choose two people who hadn't raised their hands.
Of course, only three people didn't.
Lola, Mitchie, and Caitlyn.
I am not about to call on Mitchie, Shane thought as he passed his eyes over the trio. Last year, Caitlyn and Lola had proven that they were amazing dancers—even though people forgot the words to Lola's song on Open Mic Night last year, they would never forget the way she had commanded the mess hall that day, and one of Caitlyn's hidden talents was well-known (if that made sense) to be dance.
"Lola, Caitlyn," Shane said. Their faces immediately snapped up from their conversation together, and their expression hardened as they saw who had called their names. Shane ignored their looks, continuing on. "Why don't you come up?"
Lola and Caitlyn looked at each other.
"Because we don't feel like it?" Caitlyn said.
"Yeah, we just like watching," Lola said.
"That's not like either of you," Shane said. "You're both great dancers, so why not perform for us? You have nothing to fear—everyone would like to see you perform, wouldn't they?"
"Yes!"
The response of the rest of the class was so overwhelmingly in Shane's favor that Lola and Caitlyn couldn't refuse. They reluctantly stood up, heading to the taped-in box everyone danced in. Lola took one side, Caitlyn took the other.
"Music?" Caitlyn asked Lola.
Lola smiled and walked over to the stack of CDs. She flicked through them, finally choosing one. She put it in the CD player, returning to her spot. Lola and Caitlyn exchanged a grin.
"Let's go," Caitlyn said, gesturing to Shane to start the music.
He did so, and a quick hip hop beat came on. Caitlyn and Lola began their respective dances. They were both powerful, but in a different way—Caitlyn stayed in the same place most of the time, her arms and legs working easily to the beat, whereas Lola moved in and around the space they had to dance, her eyes blazing as she weaved a powerful web.
Shane had to say he was impressed. Caitlyn kept closer to the classic hip hop dance moves, but Lola added her own twist to it and worked it to her advantage. They were both pretty evenly skilled—Shane would have a hard time choosing the winner...
The music ended almost before he realized it. Caitlyn and Lola finished their dance-off, turning to Shane with their arms crossed, looks of almost-defiance on their faces. Caitlyn looked particularly hostile, almost as if she was hoping that her look would force him to change the particular thing about him that she didn't like, almost as if she thought he could read her mind.
But, of course, that's obviously what she's trying to do.
Is she still angry at me for what I said and did to Mitchie?
Shane knew she probably was, but he pushed that thought out of his head as he picked a winner. It was hard, but he thought he enjoyed one of their dances better than the other.
"This is a hard choice," Shane said once the class's applause had died down. "Both of you were incredibly powerful, but I felt one of you was truer to yourself." He glanced at Mitchie's direction, noticing her apprehensive look. "Congratulations, Lola. I felt you were a bit more original with your style, and a bit more true to yourself during the dance."
There was more applause. Lola and Caitlyn headed back to their places on either side of Mitchie, whispering to each other. As they passed, he caught Caitlyn's whispered words.
"—of course, he's interested in 'being true to yourself,'" she said in a harsh, low voice. "The jerk."
Shane was not going to let that go.
"Caitlyn," he said, feeling the atmosphere suddenly change from something fun to something noticeably dramatic, like in a movie when something's about to go dreadfully wrong. "I know you may be upset because you lost, but that doesn't give you permission to call me a jerk during my lesson."
Caitlyn turned to him, eyes blazing. It looked like she was about to fight, and it looked like she had been ready for this moment for a long time. "Not even if it's the truth?" she asked, her voice as sweet as can be.
The class broke out into whispers again.
"Are you calling me a jerk?" Shane said.
"I would think that would be obvious," Caitlyn said, rolling her eyes. "But in case I have to spell it out, then Y-E-S. I am calling you a jerk."
Sniggers from the class.
"Caitlyn, you know the rules for insulting your instructor during class," Shane said warningly, not liking the way this conversation was going.
"So if I waited until after the lesson, I could call you a jerk as much as I like?" Caitlyn said innocently, and some people burst into laughter, Lola among them.
"No," Shane said. "I shouldn't be talked to this way, Caitlyn. If you do not stop right now, I'll be forced to go to Brown and tell him what's going on. I know this is a rule he enforces, especially with younger instructors like me."
"You shouldn't be talked to like this?" Caitlyn snapped angrily. "Do you really believe that? If so, you're more stupid than I thought you were, and that's a hard thing to accomplish. Can you really drive Mitchie to tears and be rude to her and not expect people to be rude back?"
"Caitlyn," Mitchie broke in, standing up. She looked distressed. "Don't do this."
"Mitchie, I hate to say it, but shut up," Caitlyn said quickly, shooting a look in her direction. "I'm the only one with enough guts to say that Shane is being a complete and utter jerk. Everyone else has gotten over Mitchie's lie, but no, not Shane, who is so superior that he can treat people he used to care about like crap and have no one call him out on it."
By now, the sniggers had stopped. Everyone was silent, their eyes trained on the drama enfolding right before their eyes.
"This is not about you, Caitlyn!" Shane snapped. "This is about me and Mitchie. What happened last year has nothing to do with you. She can defend herself—this is none of your business."
"If you would shut up about it, then it would be none of my business, Shane," Caitlyn snapped. "But it becomes my business when you are deliberately hurting my friend, not even caring about her."
"It's her fault!"
"It is not her fault! You can't blame her for just wanting to fit in!"
"Yes, I can!" Shane said, his voice rising to a near yell. "She should have known that trying to fit in doesn't do anything! She should have known her secret would get revealed and that it was better not to lie! She should have KNOWN!"
"She didn't!" Caitlyn yelled. "Damn it, why can't you see what she's going through?"
"Because she's a liar!"
"Oh, please," Caitlyn said. "Don't be all high and mighty. You're kidding me if you haven't lied! No, you're upset because she lied to you, because she's not perfect, because she wasn't completely honest with you! You're angry at her because she's human! You just want her to be so perfect, so honest, because you're used to the best. And you know what? I've got a newsflash for you: not everyone you meet is going to bend to your very will and be perfect!"
"I'm not expecting her to be PERFECT!" Shane yelled. "I just expect people I meet not to lie to me about who and what she is!"
Caitlyn opened her mouth to respond, her eyes blazing, but someone beat her to it.
"Shane!" Mitchie said. Shane turned, by this point so mad he could almost feel steam coming out of his ears. "This is enough! I lied last year about who I was, but in case you didn't know, I never lied to you in particular! I only lied because Tess Tyler intimidated me! You make it sound like I lied to hurt you, and that's not what happened! I never meant to hurt you!"
"Just because you never lied to me doesn't make it any better, Mitchie!"
"I—" Mitchie began in a heated voice, but Caitlyn burst in.
"I can't believe you!" Caitlyn yelled. "I can't believe you can be such a JERK! Mitchie does not deserve this!"
Shane was now so angry he didn't care what he said. He was so angry he said the first thing that came to mind.
"Yes, she does!" he yelled. "She deserves EVERYTHING I've given her and MORE!"
At those statements, two things happened at once.
One: Caitlyn took a few steps forward and slapped Shane across the face.
And two: His uncle came in, took one look at the scene in front of him, and asked, in a voice that could freeze hell:
"What is going on here?"
-
Author's Note: So... there you have it. Both Mitchie and Caitlyn finally snapped, Shane got slapped, and Uncle Brown walked in at the worst possible time. In the next chapter, we'll see exactly why Mitchie snapped... and Uncle Brown's reaction to the whole episode.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please review!