Chapter Five

She trained with them, reveled in their excitement, their want to dance, their need to move. She swerved when they swerved, she kicked when they kicked, she pumped when they pumped and she laughed when they laughed. Robert hung around, watching her as she learned the moves already pointed out for their piece, but by the end of the week, Andie's eyes twitched when she thought of the next part of the song they had to learn.

She threw her hands up in the air. "I've got nothing," she whispered frantically. "I cant think of what else we could do."

"We could try another set of Monster's moves to fill in as we go in for the next change," Smiles offered.

"Yeah, or we could let Camille take the floor," Kido commented, looking at the brunette with a cheerful smile. Camille smiled nervously back, suddenly fidgety.

"I'm not comfortable with dancing by myself, but I know a guy who'd be great at coming up with something else for the crew to dance to, if you want," she offered, her face alighting on Robert's as he sat at the corner of the room. He stopped, and stared at her.

"Could you bring him in?" Chase asked.

"Is he hot?" Missy jumped in, ruffling her frizzy hair.

"Um," Camille looked down at her feet, and Robert chuckled to see a fever red blush rise on her cheeks.

"Damn, he's taken," Missy stated, sitting down on the wooden floor.

"Oh, um, no he isn't," Camille replied fast, her hands flying out at her sides, as everyone took a seat in a circle in the centre of the floor. She came to sit down with them, and saw that Robert crouched down just outside of the group, watching her with what looked like sudden surprise on his face. "He isn't, taken, but he cant come into the school. He's not allowed. But-" at the dejected looks on the guys' faces, she pointed out, "I'd be more than happy to ask him about choreography, and he'd be more than happy to help, whatever way he can."

Andie looked at her carefully. "You sure he wouldn't mind? The more time that passes, the less time we have to practise, and while its possible that-"

"Tell her she'll have it by tomorrow," Robert interjected while Andie spoke, and Camille jumped.

"I know he'd have something really quickly made up for you guys, and I swear, once you see it, it'lll be amazing. I've seen what he can do. He doesn't go out much, and he barely talks to anyone, but when you see him on the floor, and all the moves he can do, it'll blow the crowds' minds." She flew her hands out from her sides, suddenly willing to defend her friend, the one who opened her to this tight group of people she'd come to love.

They shared a seat with her during break, they looked out for her when she couldn't look out for herself, and more importantly, whenever she hung around with them, Robert was never too far behind. He was always there, always watching out for them. Always making sure nothing came their way.

"If you're happy to learn the moves from this mysterious stranger, then sure, by all means," Chase said. "Let's just hope he has something good up his sleeve."

"Don't you worry, Chase," Camille heard Robert say, a light in his voice she hardly ever heard, "Moose'll come up with something that will blow your mind."

He had already come up with something. It just needed to be added to.

"Well then, I think were done for the evening," Chase stretched as Cable yawned. Missy sat up, looking at Camille, who stayed sitting where she was, smiling as everyone left. One by one, everyone walked out, chatting about the cinema, a new movie that was hitting screens, or a new dance song they were currently into.

"You locking up again, Cammie girl?" she asked and Camille shrugged. She watched her a second longer. "Do you want me to stay? I can so-"

"Oh no! It's okay, really! I'm perfectly fine here. My parents are coming to pick me up in a half hour or so, and I wouldn't want-"

"Cammie, I love you to bits! You're such a sweet girl, so I don't mind if you want me to stay," Missy added, just as Andie came over, rubbing her face with a towel she'd grown used to bringing with her to the rehersals.

"We can stay if you want, until your parents come," she said. Camille didn't know where to start. She absolutely loved how supportive they were. A week ago, and she wouldn't have had this friendship. She barely had other friends, and those she spoke to, she always had the feeling they spoke to her out of good manners, not because they wanted to get to know her. She smiled, a wide, shining one, full of light and happiness.

"It's okay guys. You get home and stuff. I kinda wanna do something by myself, if that's okay," she replied, standing up. Chase watched her, before he fiddled with his pockets and handed her the key to the front of the school.

"Guard it with your life, okay, kid? Don't let anyone touch it, go near it or find it," he said simply, like everything was sorted now. Camille took it and nodded profusedly.

"Of course I will, I swear my life on it," she said, her eyes filled with wonder. Chase nodded and smiled, before he ruffled her head, and she squeaked.

"Okay guys. I'm going home to sleep everything off, and hopefully, by tomorrow, we'll have something sorted," he called. "Thanks, Camille, for helping us." She nodded, laughing.

"No problem! Anything for you guys," she replied, adding the truth she firmly believed in. She held the keys tight, like a promise, and Robert watched her, a soft smile tugging on his lips. She was so happy, and that made him happy too. It made him believe he'd given her what he'd always wanted, and she was happy, because she always wanted it too.

"Right! See you tomorrow!" Everyone waved to her, and she waved back, as the dance hall went quiet, and the far off sounds of the front door of the building closing rang in her ears.

"They really are so nice," she said softly to him, and he shrugged.

"I wish I could have that," he replied, watching her, as she turned to him. "That friendship, that belief that you can always be counted on, that no matter what, you're there for them, that you're real."

"You are real, Moose," she replied. "You're real to me." He smiled, looking down to the floor, a faint blush rising up his neck.

"Oh stop, Chameleon," he joked, his voice lilting gently. He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "Now you're got me all in a twist." She laughed, before she walked over to him, a serious twinkle in her eye.

"Really? I have you in a twist? Considering you have to come up with a dance I have to copy for the others tomorrow, and you say you're in a twist?" she made to poke him, and he pretended he could feel it, jumping back and rubbing his side with a face of mock horror.

"You poke too hard, Cammie girl," he said. "Don't bruise this sexy body, please."

"Oh of course, Mr Sexy," she sighed, shaking her head.

"You agree that I'm sexy?"

"No, I don't."

"But you're blushing!"

"That is not blushing, you idiot."

"Are you sure? I know that a red face equals someone's blushing, and you most definitely are blushing, Camille Gage!"

She placed both her hands on her face, trying to cover herself, and turning away from him, a sharp ring of laughter on her lips. He laughed, listening to her.

"I think it's cute," he said softly, a smile on his lips, and Camille turned back to him, watching him as he rubbed his neck, and looked away, before he gazed back into her eyes, a soft twinkle there, of something-

"Now, the dance!" He clicked his finger, and on came a song Camille recognised instantly. Something by Timbaland, she knew, and seconds later, she began to sweat as Moose showed her the ropes of the dance he was choreographying. She followed, and done her best with the pops, locks, the shuffles and the hand throws. Moose could move, and she desparately wished she didn't volunteer him, considering she had so much to learn.

She gasped for air when he went into the third set, just as the song was reaching its bassy bridge. She held a hand up to him. "Please, have mercy!" Moose looked over his shoulder to see her slumped on the floor, her arms and legs splayed wide, and her face contorted into a look of pain.

"Jeez," he walked over to her. He should've known she'd be tired after the intense dancing she'd done earlier with the crew. "I'm so sorry! You should've told me earlier, I could've just shown it to you, Camille!"

She looked up to the obvious concern on his face as he kneeled down and smiled. "I'm not fit enough for you to teach me, master," she replied, like a wiseman, and Robert smiled at the statement. She took a second, as she sat up, and bit her lips.

"What is it? Are you hurt?"

"How come you cant come back?"

He stopped and stared at her, before he sighed and sat back on the floor. Through the light, she could make him out, but he was filmy, see-through. His face was soft spoken in this light, and she could barely make out the expression on his face. She could see his body, and she knew he was there, but it was like a blurry image. His checked shirt and black trousers were there, she could see them, but the skin underneath was as pale as ivory, like as if he hadn't been in the sun in years.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry-"

"I don't know how to come back," he replied softly. "All this time I've been here, I don't remember how I got here, I don't remember what brought me here, and I don't know what to do, 'cause I don't want to stay here for forever, which I'm worried that might be."

"You don't remember what-" she was about to touch him, when her hand fell through his skin, and a slice of something beeped and kept beeping, a slow and uneasy tempo. She stayed where she was, and listened. It was like a heart monitor, something that squeaked, and-

He jumped away, and gasped. "You can hear that?" She pushed her hands onto where his chest would be, and heard it all again, the beeping more persistant, and the sound of laboured breath, the sound of tires squeeling, the sounds of screaming, and Moose's voice, howling with pain-

He stood up and backed away, before he tripped and landed on his back. Camille stared and stared. She lost her voice, but pointed to him, and he shied away. "You can hear that, cant you?"

He stared right back at her, his mouth open, and he shuddered. "I've no idea what that-"

"I thought I heard you," she whispered, and she shivered against the sound of Moose, his whole body screaming with pain. "I thought I heard a car, and saw lights, and- Moose, it was you-" She gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. Robert shook his head, more fervently this time, and this time, he shuddered against the onslaught of images that wrecked his brain.

"You heard me? I thought only I could-"

"No, I heard it too," she walked toward him, and she held out a hand for him to take. It was shaking, just as her shoulders were, and her eyes were wide, as if caught in the lights from on oncoming car. Robert didn't want to reach out to her, he didn't want to take her hand, because he was afraid of what would happen next. He swallowed.

"I-I don't want to, Camille. I really don't want to," he said, so quiet, so terrffied, that he sounded like a child, crumpled in a ball. He shuddered against the feeling he got whenever he felt that, heard that scream. Camille shook her head.

"That was you, Moose. I know that. It was you."