Chapter Six

It was the first time I had ever seen Nudge dance. It was the most incredible thing I had ever witnessed. She said it was modern contemporary. All I knew was it was weird yet wonderful. She had performed a solo in her dance class. It had moved me in a way I never thought dance could. She had thrown herself around the studio leaping and twirling. Her arms and legs were powerful and her movements strong. It was as if she could fly. I wanted to be able to fly.

Nudge had insisted I go with her to dance class. She attended classes three times a week. I had always known she was a good dancer. She had been taking ballet classes for as long as I could remember. But I didn't know she was that good. Nudge seemed to dance with an effortless grace. Everyone in her class was good, but she was the best. I don't know if I was being biased or not. But that is what I thought as I sat there watching her that day.

Age Fourteen

"Man Nudge, you freak!" I exclaim as Nudge comes and sits on the floor beside me. She looks up from her drink bottle that she pulls out of her bag and smiles proudly.

"Thanks...I think." She says nudging me playfully. She takes a sip of water.

"Are you finished now?" I ask.

"Gosh no. I wish."

"You've been going for two hours!"

"We have stretch class now. It only goes for half an hour." She informs me.

"Ladies." The teacher, whose name I learnt was Amanda, calls out clapping her hands together. "Do you want to join in Max?" She asks as the other girls take their places, spread out around the floor.

"Oh, okay. Thanks." I say surprising myself, and Nudge I think because she has the biggest grin on her face. I take a spot on the floor near Nudge.

I copy Nudge's actions. I sit on my bottom, back straight, my legs out straight in front of me.

"And stretch." Amanda instructs from the front of the class. Everyone begins stretching down. There arms out straight in front of them. Bringing there chest and head down to their legs. I try it. I can feel the pull in my muscles.

Nudge has her whole upper body down flat against her legs. I look around. So do all of the girls.

"How are you all so flexible!?" I ask. I can touch my toes, but no way can I put my body against my legs.

A girl with fire red hair beside me laughs. "Years of practice." She says smirking.

"No talking." Amanda says from the front of the studio. I look up at her and she smiles putting her finger up to her lips.

"You know Iggy, Gazzy and Fang would get a real kick out of seeing you here." Nudge whispers after a minute.

I roll my eyes. "I bet they would. Luckily they'll never know I was here." Nudge just smirks.

The stretch class went by fast. We had to do weird stretches and bent in awkward positions which I struggled with. Nudge took great enjoyment out of watching me struggle. She tried to hold back her laughter. I appreciated the effort.

"Best day of my life." Nudge jokes as she packs up her bag.

I laugh. "That's a big call!"

We are the last two left in the studio. Amanda just left telling Nudge to lock up after her. Nudge's class is the last for the night. It started at six and it was now eight-thirty.

Nudge told me, while we weren't supposed to be talking, that she would come up here to the studio and hire out one of the studio's to dance whenever she was sad or lonely this past year. Dancing would make her feel better. It's strange to think of this big part of Nudge's that I wasn't apart of last year.

"Can you teach me something?" I say before I know it. I startle myself again. And once again she is just as surprised as I am at this question.

"Yes of course!" Nudge says with great enthusiasm. She stands up abruptly, pulling me up with her. "Here take your shoes off." She pushes me back down again. I laugh. "Okay!"

I kick off leaving my socks on. I follow Nudge into the middle of the floor.

"Okay...well, where to start?" Nudge puts her hands on her hips. "We'll start with the basics. This is first position. Heels touch and legs rotated outwards from your hips until your feet make a straight line." I copy her.

"Good!" She praises me. "You have great posture."

"And second position. Your feet need to be turned outwards in a straight line and separated from each other by the length of a foot...Good. And third position one turned-out foot is placed in front of the other with the front heel touching the middle of the back foot." With a little wobbly at the start I am able to copy Nudge's actions and put my feet into the third position.

"You know what? I was thinking the other night while we were all watching the movie...while you and Fang sat next to each other on the couch." Nudge starts talking as she shows me fourth position. I watched her feet as she speaks, copying her. I keep my feet in basically the same position but I take the back foot and move it back so my two out- turned feet are separated by a foots length. My heels and toes are forming a square.

"What's that?" I ask after I'm happy with what I'm doing.

"That you and Fang would make a cute couple." She says. I look up at her forgetting about my feet.

"Nudge!" I gasp.

Where did that come from? I don't want her to say stuff like this. Everything is perfect as it is. I had dreaded that she'd bring up the whole her liking Iggy thing for months after she told me. This is worse.

"You would!" She tells me defensively. "I saw the way you were looking at each other. All lovey-dovey." She says the last part with a higher voice, teasing me.

"We were not! And I don't look at anybody 'lovey-dovey'." I say frowning. I'm sure my face is bright red because it's burning right now. I don't know why. It's not like I like Fang or anything.

"Fine. But you did look at each other a lot. And I saw those secret smiles." Nudge smiles at me in a mocking way.

"Secret smiles? I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure you don't. I'll make it my life mission to get you and Fang together. I knew it when I was six and I know it now. Call it destiny if you like."

"I don't like." I say bitterly. Nudge ignores me. "You two were made for each other."

I scoff. "I can't believe you. Teach me position five." I get back into fourth.

"Okay, avoid the subject." She's smiling victoriously. You would think I had confessed my undying love for the boy with that grin on her face.

"Alright. For five, feet touching, the toes of each foot reaches your heal of the other. Neither big toe should extend past the opposite heel." Nudge tells me as she demonstrates.

"Perfect." She complements.

Against my better judgement of never getting involved with matters of the heart, I wonder to myself if Nudge still likes Iggy. I fight with myself on whether to bring it up. Insensitivity wins. Or is it sensitivity? "What about you and Iggy?" I ask.

Nudge looks uncomfortable. "Oh. I don't know what I feel anymore. He had just been really nice to me and I thought I liked him…maybe, I don't know-" She trails off.

"No?" I ask as she says. "Come on I'll show you the basic hand positions."

"Now who's changing the subject?" I smile at her but follow her lead.

Nudge said I had picked up the things she had shown me pretty fast. I don't really know why I suddenly wanted to be able to dance so badly. The thought had never come to me before. But it felt good doing something physical. Something that challenged me. It felt like it was a natural thing for me to do. Almost like my body was made for it.

Nudge and I have been in the studio for an hour now and are suddenly interrupted by someone clearing their throat from behind us. We turn around to see Amanda standing there smiling. She has a box in her hands. I had noticed it earlier sitting on the bench by the music player.

"Oh. Hey Amanda. We were just about to leave. I was showing Max a few things." Nudge says happily as she walks over to her bag gesturing for me to follow.

"I see that. You're picking it up fast."

"That's what I told her." Nudge agrees.

"And you've never had dance classes before?" Amanda asks me.

I laugh but stop abruptly at the look on Amanda's face "Sorry. No I haven't"

"Hmm." Amanda says and turns around and starts walking away. She purses and smiles over her shoulder. "I just came back for this box of costumes. I have sewing to do. Don't forget to lock up Nudge. Night girls." She turns back around and walks off.

"I won't. Night" Nudge yells after her.

"Night." I call out as well.

"We should get going." Nudge says once Amanda is out of sight. "She loves you by the way." Nudge adds.

"What?"

"Amanda. She likes you."

"She seems like the kind of person who likes everybody."

"Na, she either hates you or loves you. She doesn't do anything in between. Take Lisa for instance, you know the red head that was next to you while we were stretching. Amanda hates her! But Lisa's a bloody good dancer. So Amanda tolerates her, against her better judgment." Nudge picks up her bag swinging it over her shoulder. "She loves me." Nudge grins. I laugh at her rolling my eyes.

I went along with Nudge to her dance classes' a few times after that first time. I liked having an excuse to leave the house. Dad had thrown himself into his work. He would go away for a week at a time fairly regularly. He had been away for work for a week around the time I discovered dance. He had left Ella at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I hadn't wanted to go, so after a whole lot of begging, he let me stay at Nudge's house for the week.

I wish I had asked Ella to stay as well.