Chapter 5

"Ohmygod, Gabi, that skirt looks sooo cute on you," Janine said.

The girls were out shopping for the "cool skirts" Janine had mentioned. Gabriella had tried one on and it did look good on her.

"You should totally get it," Haley commented. She herself was carrying nine skirts in her arms. They were also the "cool skirts" in nine different colors.

"What colors are you getting?" Gabriella asked, eyeing the skirt in Haley's arms.

Haley listed them all: "Yellow, red, teal, green, lime, white, black, purple, and cream."

"Why didn't you get cherry and nuts with that?" Janine joked.

Gabriella and Haley rolled their eyes.

The girls stood in line behind a group of chattering girls who were also buying the skirts.

"Hey, that girl has eleven colors," Haley pointed out.

Sure enough. the one with the curly redhead had eleven skirts in her arm. She didn't notice Gabriella and her friends staring.

Despite the length of the line (Janine guessed about a mile or two) the girls were paying for the skirts in less than half an hour.

"Kids must be shopping in groups today," Haley said as the girls got a smoothie (milkshake for Gabriella).

While Gabriella was sipping her Chocolate Chunk (chocolate milkshake with chocolate chips in it), Janine and Haley were bickering.

"Why do you always get the Mango Mix?" Janine asked, making a face. She watched Haley sip the orange-colored smoothie. "It's a mix of mango and banana...EW!"

"It's good," Haley insisted. "And what about you? Why do you always get the Strawberry Sip?"

"Because strawberry is delicious and it's healthy. It doesn't have a disgusting mix like mango and banana."

"The Mango Mix is not disgusting."

"Which shows how much you know."

"Mango is healthy. So is banana."

"But it doesn't taste good."

'How do you know? You've never tried the Mango Mix."

"You've never tried the Strawberry Sip!"

"Yes, I have. Rememeber last year? At my cousin's birthday party? You made me drink it."

"Oh...well, still I don't know why you bother with the Mango Mix."

'HEY!" Gabriella shouted. "Why do you guys always argue about smoothies? Janine, the Strawberry Sip is tasty for you and the Mango Mix is good for you, Haley. They're both equally delicious. You guys just have different opinions and taste." Then under her breath she muttered, "But you both argue about the dumbest things."

"I guess that's true," Janine said. "Maybe that's why Haley and I--"

But she never finished her sentence. She suddenly came to a halt and her expression became blank.

"Janine?" Haley said, waving her hand in front of her friend's face. Janine slapped her hand.

"OW!" Haley said. "You slapped me."

"Ssshhh," Janine said. "Listen."

Gabriella and Haley stood perfectly silent and still. For a few seconds, they didn't hear anything. And then theyheard it: a faint Spanish tango music.

"Where's that coming from?" Haley asked.

"This way," Janine said, walking in her left direction. "Come on!"

Haley and Gabriella knew it was no use to argue.Once Janine wanted to do something, she was determined to do it. So the girls quickly followed her.

Janine was right. As they kept walking, the music got louder and louder.

Soon they found the source: a tall three-story building. Gabriella saw an open window at the top.

That was probably where the music was coming from.

"Johnson's School of Fine Arts," Haleysaid.

"What?" Gabriella said.

Janine pointed at the huge, blue neon sign above the doorway.

How had Gabriella missed that?

"Let's go check it out," Janine said.

"Are you insane?" Haley hissed. "We'd be kicked out for sure."

"Oh, come on," Janine said. "I'd rather go in there and be kicked out than not go in at all. Besides, it's hot out here and I bet it's air-conditioned inside."

Gabriella and Haley finally agreed to go. It certainly was hot outside the girls had no desire to walk all the way back home. It was too much.

The girls threw their drinks away in a trash can and went in. Their shopping bags were in their hands as they walked in.

They were hit by a blast of cool air. Compared to the hot outdoors, the inside was practically...

"Wow," Haley gasped. "Look at this place."

The girls did look around. And Gabriella and Janine were amazed, too. There was a huge desk, but that wasn't the exciting part. It was the decor that caught their eyes.

The walls were a sunny yellow color. But most of the walls were covered with portraits of flowers and people or photos of people performing.

The photo nearest to Gabriella really caught her eye. It was a photo was a beautiful woman with curly hair. She was standing in a graceful pose while holding a bouquet of flowers. Gabriella saw that she was wearing a ballet costume. It was a black and white photo so Gabriella didn't know what the colors were.

"Excuse me," a rich woman-voice said. "But who are you?"

Gabriella found herself staring at a tall, skinny woman. Her hair was curly and brown and her eyes were a deep, emerald green color.

"I'm Janine and this is Haley and Gabriella," Janine said. "We're sorry for intruding."

"Oh, it is no problem at all," the woman said. "I'm Julie Johnson."

"Hey, I've heard of you," Haley said. "You were in the 2000 Olympics. My mom watched it on TV and she said you were really good at the Cha-cha."

"Why, thank you," Julie said. "I've taken dance classes since I was little. It is nice to know they have not been wasted."

Suddenly, Gabriella gasped. She looked at the photo...Julie...photo...Julie...

"Hey, is this you?" Gabriella couldn't help asking. She pointed to the photo of the ballerina.

Julie came over, took a look at the photo, and laughed. "Yes, that was me in France. I grew up there. That was in my late 60's. I studied ballet a long time ago."

"So you teach dancers?" Haley asked.

Julie shook her head. "Oui. I own this place, as you can probably tell by the sign. But I'm also the head teacher of the dance classes. At this school, we also teach singing, acting, photography, filming, cooking, and of course, general art."

"General art?" Janine repeated.

"Painting, drawing, sculpting are some of them," Julie said. "When you first hear the word 'art' you tend to think of colors and white paper and paints and crayons and all those things, no?"

"Yes," Haley admitted. "Yes, I do."

Julie smiled. "That tends to happen to most people."

"May we have a look around?" Janine asked. "This place looks really interesting."

"Most of my classes are not held on Saturdays," Julie said. "And so all the rooms are locked. And I have lost the copies of the keys to those rooms. I won't have them till two weeks from now."

Janine didn't say anything. Neither did Haley. But Gabriella could tell they were disappointed.

She knew Julie could tell, too.

"But, of course, my dancing classes are not locked," Julie said, smiling. "They are on the fourth floor. Follow me." She paused before saying, "You may leave your shopping bags here, if you wish."

That's exactly what the girls did.

"I thought this building only has three floors," Gabriella blurted out.

Julie laughed. "People always forget about the basement. That's where we have the photography and film classes. Since there are no windows, the sunlight doesn't get in the way.So the limit of light is entirely in the students' hands. At least, that is what I think."

The girls followed the woman into an elevator. Julie pressed the3 button. Gabriella saw there were only four floor buttons: B, 1, 2,and3.

"This floor is entirely for my dance classes," Julie told them as they stepped out of the elevator on the fourth floor. "Here, we teach all kinds of dancing: ballet, jazz, tap, western, folk, Latin (also cha-cha, tango, and salsa),and I have other teachers that teach tumbling, street dancing, and ballroom dancing. But right now, only my Latin dance class is in session.The other dance classes are on a field trip except tumbling and street which I have on Mondays."

'Tumbling isn't a dance," Janine said.

"It is to me," Julie said.

"It must be expensive to pay for all those field trips," Haley said. .

Julie smiled. "You are nice to be concerned. But my students are always up for some fund-raising and besides, you'd be surprised how much money I get from the parents who enroll their children here."

Julie opened a door at the end of the corrider and the girls immediately heard the same music they had heard outside.

Gabriella walked in to find a bunch of kids dancing with twirls and quick steps. Her eyes were immediately glued onto a couple in the middle. Gabriella couldn't see the boys' face but she could see the boy had brown hair. His partner was a pretty blonde with a serious expression on her face. Gabrielal looked down and realized the girl was dancing in high heels.

Whoa.

"They're amazing," Janine gasped. Julie smiled as she went over to the boombox and pressed the PAUSE button. The kids immediately stopped dancing. A few groaned but Gabriella was sure only she could hear them.

"Class," Julie said. "We have some visitors today."

Everyone stared. Gabriella almost rolled her eyes. They looked like robots to her.

"They had heard the music from outside," Julie said, eyeing the window. Gabriella saw some kids shift around guiltily. "They say you are an amazing class."

Gabriella looked toward the window. She didn't like all those kids staring at her.

"That's weird," a deep voice said. "I thought they didn't like dancing."

Gabriella faced forward again.

She knew that voice. It was deep and manly. Gabriella heard that voice everyday.

'Do not be silly," Julie said. "Of course, they do not hate dancers."

A tall, boy with brown hair came up to them.

Janine gasped. Haley yelped. Gabriella just stared.

Julie didn't notice any of this.

"Girls, I would like you to meet my nephew...Troy Bolton."

When Gabriella heard this, she pinched herself.

It hurt.

So...this wasn't a nightmare.