Disclaimer: 'Step Up' isn't mine. The song is 'Green Light' by Roll Deep

A/N: The website is up and nearly complete! Yay! Okay, so, for more on this fic visit stepupnstepout (dot) blogspot (dot) com

Chapter Eight;
Angel In A Butterfly Dress

Moose flicked through the timetable, highlighting the classes he was teaching in green and those he was taking in yellow, the highlighting the height of his organisational abilities. For Moose organisation was a foreign language, somewhere in the same vicinity as a clean bedroom and long meaningful conversations with his overbearing mother, and to be honest he'd rather not go there, but since it was a beautiful afternoon he had taken himself out into the neighbourhood to search for a distraction from the silent cell phone sitting in his pocket. He found it in a local park, less a park and more a group of trees gathered around an open tiled space with a fountain in the middle. The fountain wasn't one of those large elaborate ones, little more than a few jets in a pool of water about an inch deep, but it did seem to be a gathering place for a large group of people right now, and as Moose glanced over at them he caught the eyes of the pretty brunette girl in the centre. She smiled at him before turning to the others around her. He didn't realise what was happening until he heard the music and looked up to find the group, of all things, dancing in the tiled area. They drew a crowd quickly… Moose among them.

"Put your hands up, take it to the floor, you already gave me the green light baby." A blonde off to the side was singing now, one foot perched on a boom box as a few guys pushed the crowd back and cleared an area between the fountain and the bystanders. It didn't take the audience long to figure out why when one of the men burst into the centre of the cleared area and started to pop and lock. But Moose's eyes were drawn to the girls now crouched in the fountain, the water splashing around them but not strong enough to soak them through. There were four, the brunette in the baby blue dress among them, and they had their heads bowed as the song continued. "Put your glass out, pour a little more, you already gave me the green light."

As the rapping began in the song, the girls in the fountain finally moved, flicking their hair up and out, splashing the water with fists. They raised slowly, the brunette the last up, and turned out to face the crowd. Then they began to dance, fast but deliberate movements a mix between hip hop and Bhangra Bollywood, stamping and splashing their way through the water with enough strength to make droplets hit the audience. The growing group seemed mesmerized, but as a dancer himself Moose saw beyond that, saw the true show that was going on here. It became even more apparent when the chorus started up again and the girls stepped out of the water and onto the edge of the fountain, stalking around it to the music, moving each on their own, no longer choreographed. Then, as the chorus ended, they stepped off the fountain and joined the guys on the ground. All except the brunette since they seemed to accept her as their leader. Moose became instantly wary of her as he watched the others gather around her for the dance.

"Eight days in a week, one smile in a dream." As they others breaked, each lower to the ground than the brunette, she just gave a hip hop roll and head toss, nonchalantly playing along as the guys on the ground around her to their chance to act overcome by her appearance. She loved the attention – that much was plain to see. "I say a couple words and she might be a lynx." A flick of her hair and a shift in her stance brought her resting heavily on her right leg. She held out her left hand for the next line. "I like the fact she ain't wearing a ring and she ain't looking at him." Two of the guys on the ground pretended to fight over her, rolling one over the other in a move Moose had seen done better before by the Santiago twins. "We're a perfect match, what a good catch. She's ten out of ten, I have gotta keep at it." She turned away now, another dramatic hair flick as she went, and raised herself onto the edge of the fountain again, crossing her arms and looking down at her fellow dancers. "She's so far gone, the green light's on, I ain't gonna turn back, it's a wrap…"

The blonde began the chorus again and now the brunette was alone on the fountain, once again the centre of attention, she took the lead. "Stop, take a look, left and right, is it clear for me to go?" Tracing one finger down her right cheek, she raised her head to look over the crowd, pushing her face to the left and then back to the right before turning to strut over to another part of the fountain. "Let me know, is it me that you've been waiting for?" At this she leaned towards an unsuspecting young man in the audience who had been watching on with all the self-control of a desperately hungry puppy. He nearly died as her finger came within an inch of his face before she turned and strode away again. "Put your hands up, take it to the floor, you already gave me the green light baby." Keeping her legs apart for balance, she raised her left hand lazily into the air and then traced it across her and all the way down her right leg until she touched the fountain. Then, just as before, she walked to another spot. "Put your glass out, pour a little more, you already gave me the green light." Both hands out this time, she leant forward and then back quickly, dropping her left and waving her right along, rolling it down to her side for a click before moving on again. "Put your hands up, take it to the floor, you already gave me the green light baby. Put your glass out, pour a little more, you already gave me the green light." She repeated the moves again for two more parts of the audience, catching Moose's eye again as she passed for the next line. She gave him a wink and his eyes fell to the ground. "Stop, pop, don't drop." One hand held out in a 'stop' movement, she caught it for 'pop', waved both hands around her head and then reached down and slapped the ground. She repeated it two more times as the line was repeated, again on different parts of the fountain, before the three other girls rejoined her. They stepped back into the fountain itself for the last line. "Don't wanna see red now flash your green light tonight." At this they all dropped to their haunches, hit the water one last time for the final dramatic burst of H2O, then fell onto their backs. The crowd burst in raucous applause as Moose slipped away, the image of the brunette girl in the blue dress stuck in his mind. He needn't have tried to remember her face, for she appeared at his side only a few moments later, towelling her face and hair dry as she tried to squeeze water from her blue sequined butterfly dress at the same time.

"Haven't seen you around here before."

Moose came to a stop, allowing her a chance to really go at her hair, the wet strands sticking out at fuzzed-up angle as she pulled the towel away. Not that he could judge anyone on their hair but still, she looked ridiculous and Moose motioned back to the fountain lazily. "You always dance in fountains?"

"It's fun, you should try it." She smiled and held out a hand. "I'm Erika."

He shook it. "Moose."

She gave him a look and for second Moose wondered if he was about to be recognised, then she seemed to shake it off and just smiled. "You a dancer Moose?" He wasn't much of a liar so he stayed quiet, just giving a brief shrug. "Well, you're in the right place if you are. They say New York is the dance capital of America, but they lie, because secretly it's right here." She smiled, motioning up to a building nearby. It was a large dark building towering over many of the other low-lying ones in the street. It must have been about ten stories high, five times bigger than Eckhardt. "That's Atherton, the best dance school in Philadelphia, and that's where I and my friends (he avoided correcting her horrible grammar) learn to dance. Well, in my case, simply master the skills we already have." She looked up at the place fondly. "It's pretty much the only place around here worth noting."

"What about Eckhardt Academy?" Moose asked, keen both for clarification and also because he liked the look on her face when he mentioned it. It was a mixture of disgust and horror.

"Where did you say you were from again?"

"I didn't."

"Eckhardt is an embarrassment to dance. Embarrassment to Pennsylvania actually." She gave a cold smile. "Now, don't get me wrong, Eckhardt has it's place as a feeder school, taking people from novice to slightly less novice, but there comes a point in everyone's career where Eckhardt's skill-level is far too low. From what I can see, that point is where dancers are able to differentiate their left from their right."

"Really?" Moose smiled softly as he realised what he'd walked himself right into – dance academy wars. It was like the Pirates vs. the Samurais all over again. Why did he have a knack for wandering into the battle zones? And this Erika, whoever she was, was clearly one of Atherton's many warriors. "So they're not a threat to Atherton at all?"

"Oh god no. Long term residents at Eckhardt fall into two categories - try-hards and no talents." She finally saw the timetable still held in Moose's hand. "You're a student there aren't you?" Moose gave an unapologetic shrug. "Well, if you're any good, you should come to Atherton. Some of the best dancers in the state have passed through those doors and soon enough they'll have an Elite dancer to add to their name."

"A what?"

Erika raised an eyebrow. "The Elite Dance Crew from San Francisco, they won 'America's Best Dance Crew' three years ago?" Moose nodded briefly. He'd heard of them. "Two members dropped out last month and they'll be holding a competition for two new ones. The winner gets $50,000 and a spot in the crew." She smiled, motioning to herself. "It's mine in the bag."

"Oh, so anyone can compete?" It was a backhanded insult that Erika missed.

"Only real competitors of course. If you join Atherton, you're in with a real chance, as for Eckhardt, well, they don't gave passes to financial ruins." Moose gave a heavy frown at this and Erika nodded. "Maybe you should talk to your headmaster, that Barry guy,"

"Chris Barry," Moose corrected.

"Yeah, him. Eckhardt's in financial trouble, the developers are coming and the bank could sell the school from under him at any moment, everyone knows this. You're clearly very new to town."

"A few days." Moose looked back in the direction of Eckhardt but from the park he couldn't see it, just frowning down the street in its direction. As he looked he sensed Erika's eyes on him and turned back to find her frowning at him. "What?"

"I can't shake the feeling I know you Moose." She narrowed her eyebrows. "Where are you from?"

"New York." Her eyes widened at that, but he was already contemplating heading back to the school and talking to Chris. "I have to go. Nice to meet you Erika." Then, shoving his timetable in his pocket, Moose jogged off. Watching him go, Erika just crossed her arms with a frown, already wondering where to start looking for this mysterious but familiar Moose.