Gilbert (April 28, Friday)

Every afternoon, the entire ballroom had been getting together to practice the routines. There was one person who was supposed to remember the music – which was a pretty shitty collection of melodies, if you asked me. But today, they came in empty-handed. "I'm sorry, guys," she said as we all crowded around her angrily. "I had taken it out to practice at home last night and forgot to put it back in. I have another CD, though…" She pulled an '80s mix CD from her backpack, causing several of our teammates to groan loudly. I took the CD eagerly and put it in our stereo set. Pushing play, I skimmed through songs until I found one I was satisfied with.

"Come on, guys," I cried, catching their attention as I grabbed Alfred. "Let's at least try!" He stared at me a moment before smiling. "Haven't you ever danced to, like, Michael Jackson before?"

He snorted. "Of course I have. But this isn't Jackson. This is…" He paused, searching for a word or a name. "A little harder to dance to."

I waved it off, grinning like a madman. "No, think of 'Grease' or 'Footloose'. We can lindy-hop to this." I wiggled my eyebrows at Alfred who shook his head.

"There's no lindy-hopping to 'Kids of America' but I can work with this anyway," he declared and we got into position as I restarted the song. There was never enough room in the dance room for us, in my opinion. We slid across the floor, spun, kicked. I wasn't sure we were actually moving in an actual dance but I didn't particularly care. I was having fun. That's what I enjoyed about it. Ever since Alfred had first danced with me and he'd snapped about what dancing was actually about, I'd never taken it easy. It really was an escape. There was no thoughts about what I'd be going home to, no reminders of how grumpy teachers were today, nothing even about the pissy girl who always criticized everyone during our ballroom practices.

It was always a new world Alfred and I would be transported to when we danced together. I didn't think I'd ever love dancing again but I did now. When the song finally ended, we were laughing hysterically and several other couples came out to dance as well. I think it was the most fun I'd had in a while during our practices.

"Make it or break it," Antonio muttered under his breath. It was our first real rehearsal in front of the ballroom coach. He would decide if he liked the routine we'd been practicing and if he didn't, he would cut a dance and replace it – which meant more work. It was also when he picked a theme for our costumes so we could start gathering those. I personally was hoping that he would be fine with everything because I wasn't up for a new dance.

See, Alfred had taught everyone a brilliant and painful way to remember our steps. He told us to kick our partner's shin whenever they made a wrong step to remind them where their feet should go. The first few days were hell and my shins still ached but it was a fairly quick way to learn as I hadn't stepped on his toes since Tuesday.

Our coach called up Feliks, Taurys, Ludwig, Feliciano, Lovino and Antonio to do their group dance. I watched, kind of actually nervous for them. I know they didn't want extra work to do either. We all watched them spin around the stage, captivating us all with their routine. Group by group, team by team, he brought us all to the stage where we danced our best and he nodded or shook his head and scribbled things down into his notebook. At the end, he stood up, smiling. "I love every piece of this. Keep working on your footwork and I'll get back to you Monday at lunch with costume ideas," he announced with his loud voice. "Now go home and have a good weekend."

Immediately, we all walked to the doors that opened to the main hall. Alfred, Matthew, Ivan and I all grouped together under the assumption we'd be getting a ride home from Alfred. He hadn't objected yet so I thought we were good. "You know," he mentioned as we entered the parking lot. "I think we should have a get together tomorrow. We'll have a pre-celebration."

"What for?" Matthew asked, looking at his brother in confusion.

Alfred laughed loudly. "For passing the coach's test today, of course!" he exclaimed and unlocked his car. "I mean, Antonio looked like he was going to have a full blown panic attack when coach walked in. He needs a pick-me-up."

"Sounds awesome," I declared, grinning. "When and where?"

"I'll have to talk to my parents first, and then I'll let everyone know." We piled into the car and Alfred took off towards home.

Alfred (April 28, Friday)

It was late evening, well after dinner, when I stepped out into the backyard. Looking around, I remembered so little. The yard was huge and green with a swing set off to the side. Flowers lined the fence; herbs and vegetables grew in the little corner to my right. Closing the door behind me, I went over to the flowers to look at them all. I was greeted with an overwhelming floral scent and a soft hum of bees that had yet to go to sleep. Smiling, I went to the swing set and planted myself on one of the swings.

I was almost too big for the swing so my feet had no problem hitting the ground as I lazily pushed myself back and forth. The sky was darkening and the first few stars were shining through the haze of the night air. It was beautiful and relaxing out here. I thought about what it had been like since Matthew and I had gotten here. I'd felt like I hadn't gotten a break in anything. I always had to be on the move: doing something, meeting someone, feeling something, saying something. It was exhausting and a relaxing night in the warm spring to summer air was just what I needed. I could hear Francis and Arthur chatting loudly in the kitchen as they cleaned up from dinner and Matthew's radio playing while he practiced his steps.

I kicked off my shoes and let the cool grass tickle the bottom of my feet as I swayed on the swing. I thought about dance and Gilbert. It was weird how I'd so willingly said I would be his dance partner when moments before he'd asked, I'd told him I didn't want anything to do with the ballroom team. There was reason, of course, to why I hadn't wanted to. It had a lot to do with people and how they judge. In my last school, I was best but I wasn't me. I signed up for ballroom because it sounded fun. Initially, I'd gotten caught up in it and was able to whisk myself away into an imaginary world for myself. I hated home that much. Then it kept going and I had to stay with one certain girl because we were the best. She demanded my attention constantly whenever she saw me, trying to make it look like there was more than just the dancing happening. Dancing became dull and meaningless. There was no world for me to escape to.

I guess I needed my escape more than anticipated. Dancing with Gilbert spun me into a magical world where nothing bad happened and if something bad happened, it was easily fixed. I didn't have to care about anything. I absolutely loved it. I smiled to myself, closing my eyes. Being "home" was harder than I'd expected. I suppose I'd hoped that it had been a dead end and we could just go back to the way things were. All I had really been looking for was answers. Now I was living with what I felt were close strangers. Seeing Francis and Arthur made me feel like I knew them but also that I didn't at all. They would tell stories from our childhood before we'd left and some of them really did strike me as true – I could see them if I closed my eyes. And some I didn't know what to think. I didn't like feeling the way I did. I wished I could have one feeling and be able to go with it; or maybe two that were similar instead of vastly opposite.

I slid off the swing and sat in the worn down grass, playing with a few strands that stood taller than the rest of their army. I was happy that I finally had my answers but I wasn't sure I could live with them. It was such a hard thing to grasp, to try and picture as real. Twelve years of living a lie and I was just now finding out. That was really hard on my brain. Memories mixed and swirled in my head until I wasn't sure the difference between images my head was using to explain everything and my actual memories.

Sighing, I looked around and listened to the quiet of the night. I was grateful for a place like this, however. The last house didn't have much of a backyard and – even if it had – I doubted that Matthew and I would have been able to enjoy it much. This house had the perfect backyard for me. I could imagine that, as kids, Matthew and I would have loved to come out here every day. There was probably an old blow-up swimming pool in the garage somewhere that could have been out on the lawn when it was really hot. Matthew and I would have probably run around playing make-believe. I kind of laughed at the thought. Growing up under the Anderson's roof hadn't been much fun. We weren't allowed to do much that could potentially harm us – including watching too much TV. I wished we could have grown up here instead.

A/N: I think this is possibly the hardest chapter I've put out yet, simply because I was on a huge writer's block. Anyhow, it's here. And, yes, I was listening to '80s music while I wrote the first half. XD

Also, I delayed helping my friend, Feliciano Holmes, with our collab story. So if you don't hear from me in the next several months, hope that I'm actually doing something to help. -.- Eventually, may actually have the collab story to post.

Hope you liked it and it wasn't too horrible. Sorry for the huge delay. Please read and review. Love, darlings!