Disclaimer: 'Step Up' isn't mine. Song is 'Feeling Myself' by Nipsey Hussle.

A/N: Extra special shout-out to MissHMalfoy for saying Erika was like Sophie. That made my day because well, I was hoping you'd hate her! She'll be back in this chapter. And to all my other awesome reviewers; I'd name you but you know who you are and I 'heart' you all! ;)

Also to Kenny Wormald for not only supplying Chris with a face but also with this dance. I stole it straight out of a lesson he gave at the Millennium Dance Complex. Find it on Google, just search 'Kenny Wormald' and look for the four-minute video. I have to confess it took me about an hour to learn. I'm losing it!

Chapter Nine;
You, Me and Who We Know

I'm feeling myself, I'm feeling myself…

The blonde took two steps out of the darkness and into the lighter half of the room, staring back at the reflection in the mirror. Her hair hadn't always been so light, once a dirty-blond, but years in the sun had made it brighter. Escaping into sport and running had been how Holly dealt with her life. She guessed it was much better than any other option – at least her escape was healthy.

As the music started up she lifted one hand into the air slowly, waving along in a Bollywood type move that raised her arm straight up and then brought it back down beside her. She breathed in deep and then the beat picked up and she lifted her arm to a right angle, sliding sideways and falling into a clap. Pushing her hands straight down flat, parallel to the ground, she raised herself up on her toes before jumping back, crossing her arms over her and snapping them wide. Now looking like that eager 'spirit fingers' coach from that old movie Bring It On, she gave a quick spin, jumping out of it into a crouch, smacking her knees with her fists before jumping straight up into a soldier position again. Putting her right hand to her chest, she moved her hips left and her shoulders right, a robot-like move she'd seen once, swapping it back and forth three times before pushing back on her chest so she jumped backwards as if pushed. Raising her right foot she smacked it with the palm of her left hand and then stomped it to the ground, gave a brief heel and toe slide and then twisted into two full rotations. But on the second rotation something appeared in her way.

"Oh, Chris, hi." Holly took a few steps back, frowning at him. "How long have you been there?"

"Long enough." He crossed his arms. "You didn't mention you did hip hop."

Holly shook her head. "I don't. I was just messing around." She picked up her water bottle. "It's not what I'm trained in."

Chris frowned. "You're not trained in anything, remember?"

Swallowing quickly she gave a wry smile. "You know what I mean." She shrugged. "Blonde, white girls from the suburbs don't do hip hop."

Chris raised an eyebrow. "Where does it say that in the handbook?" She gave him a frown. "You can do whatever you want to do, there's no rules of the street; hip hop is a way of mind, not a look. Maybe you should try doing it your way instead."

"That's deep." Holly bit back a smile.

"I'm an ex-street dancer. Ex-college student too but let's not bring that one up." He motioned to himself. "I'm a blonde white guy from the right side of town. If I can do it, you can too."

"You're a street dancer? You know, when you said you were an ex-dancer, I had you down as ballet or jazz or something contemporary."

Chris smiled. "I'm secretly a rebel without a cause."

"Okay then, show me what you've got."

He raised his eyebrows and turned away just as the song started to pick up again.

Yeah, yes, yo, I got the money and respect yo…

Hitting the floor onto his knees, Chris turned with a spin, landing with one leg up off to the side. In three counts he brought it forward, bouncing it along until it was level with the other. Smacking it with his fist, he lowered it so both knees were on the ground again and then jumped up first onto his toes and then back onto his feet. He stepped out on his right foot then, waving his arm out before curling it back in, lowering himself into a crouch. Lowering his left arm down to meet his right, he shot up and back onto his toes. Holly watched on with a slight frown, unaware before now that he could dance like this at all. It was like the feeling you got when you realised Santa Clause wasn't real – somehow you knew but at the same time you didn't want to hear it.

Kicking his knee up, he stepped out and spun, slapping his back foot with his hand before lowering into a pop and jump. At this he took a second to grin at Holly in a look that said 'so, how am I doing?' before he continued, dropping his left foot behind his right then stepping out with his right and pushing down. Facing right he waved his arms up and down like some oversized monster mouth before dropping into two points forward and ending on his toes. Waving his arms in front of him like some bizarre table washer, he twisted himself to the left, executed another turn then landed on his toes again before falling back onto his heels with a grin in Holly's direction.

Holly straightened her shirt. "Impressive. Now, try and keep up."

Tugging at her shirt, Holly raised herself onto her toes and took two jumps sideways. Chris watched for a moment as she fell back onto her left heel, raising her right foot into the air, before following on, copying her moves a few seconds after her. As she landed on her right toes she pushed forward with her right fist, punching the air in front of her then turned, coming face to face with Chris. Giving her a quick nod, he dropped one arm to the ground and, grabbing his left sneaker, stood on that hand for a moment before tipping off-balance and landing back on his feet. Meanwhile Holly had shimmied herself to the ground too, now leaning on one foot as the other stretched out sideways, heel perched on the ground and toes straight in the air. Chris appeared behind Holly in the mirror and she held a hand up, Chris expertly pulling her to her feet before spinning her and letting her land, legs apart and hands to her knees. She left it a second as Chris jumped into the same position before she arched her arms wide over her head, raised her left foot, and smacked her foot with the falling hands. She dropped the foot onto the heel, wiggled the foot twice and then dragged it back towards the other so she was standing straight again. Then, brushing her shoulders and plucking at her shirt like she was picking things off it, she turned in towards Chris, expecting him to do the same move.

That was when the chorus ended.

As Holly snapped out of the song's control she found herself mere inches away from Chris, his arm curled around her waist. She slid from his grasp quickly and he straightened up, frowning at her. "What?"

"Nothing." She reached over and turned the song off. "Just, uh," she paused then frowned back up at him. "What are we doing?"

Chris looked sideways for a second, clearly confused as to what the question actually meant and then crossed his arms again, this time somewhat defensively. "Look, Holly, I…"

"Why did you hire me Chris? I'm not as talented as Moose, I'm an awful teacher, none of the kids listen to me, and this," she motioned between them. "What is this?"

"I don't know." Chris finally admitted after a long pause.

They were both quiet for a long time and then Holly forced out the sentence she'd been editing in her head since she first met Chris. She hadn't wanted to say it, but from the second she walked into that audition and felt a pull towards the scruffy-looking dancer, she thought she might. She hadn't known then that he was her boss, so now she trod carefully. "I don't need a relationship right now Chris, not of any sort, my life is messy enough as it is."

He nodded slowly. "You're right." He turned away, preparing to leave, and then stopped. "I didn't hire you just because I thought you were gorgeous, or because you made me smile. I hired you because I saw, the minute you walked into that audition, how much you wanted… no, needed, to be here and I understood that. Eckhardt is my home, the only place that's ever really been mine, but there are so many things out there ready to take it away." He sighed, looking at the floor. "Eckhardt can be your home too, if that's what you want, as long as it's still here that is." And then he left, not giving Holly a chance to ask what he meant by 'as long as it's still here', but she didn't really need to, quietly knowing all good things would come to an end eventually. As the door to the room snapped shut, Holly just bit her lip and looked at the floor.

…

"You should've seen this girl right," Moose started up as soon as the answering machine came on, no longer put off by the beep, he was used to it by now. "All pomp and circumstance type. Anyway, according to her, Eckhardt is in financial trouble." He frowned even though Camille couldn't see it. "She might be lying of course, but why? I mean, apart from being a girl from Atherton." He paused. "Gosh, you should see this place Cam, it's huge even from the outside. Another snobby dance school by the looks of it. But if that's Eckhardt's competition then it's no wonder my new hip hop class only has ten students."

Moose pushed at the small cup of chips he'd brought to his room for dinner. He'd been unable to find Chris that evening and Holly was being about as welcoming as an angry tortoise, so he'd decided on dinner in his room. His new room at the school was already a mess, had been from the moment Moose paid Ms. Sylvester his money and moved in. He'd 'Moose-ified' the place. At least, that was how Camille had described her flat after Moose had stayed there for two days when his dorm at NYU had to be sprayed for bugs (seemed his rat-like freak of a room mate had let an experiment go too far!). He hadn't been allowed to stay long at her place after that.

"What if she is right and the school's in trouble?" He stood up from his desk and sat down on his bed. "I bet if you were here you'd find a hundred solutions." He paused, hoping Camille was there and she'd now decide to pick up the phone. "Okay, I'll call same time tomorrow. Night Cam." Hanging up he fell back against his bed with a sigh.

…

Google was the obvious start, even if typing 'Moose' and 'New York' into the search engine seemed like a fast track to getting herself a bunch of stories about elk gone wild in the Big Apple. It wasn't until she got to the second page that she found it. It was an old article from a New York dance magazine doing a story on the World Jam. With a frown Erika clicked through and up came the full story, picture included. She pressed print.

Turning off the computer she collected up the three pages of article and sat down in her brother's office chair, putting her feet up on his desk and scanning the page. She found the name on the second page; the reason Google had found the article in the first place.

"'Better known as 'Moose', Robert Alexander III helped lead the Pirates to victory. DanceJam caught up with Moose after the show and he told us how it was all one big mistake at first.'" Erika read off the page. She frowned. "Fantastic."

"What's fantastic?" Erika glanced up to find her brother standing in the doorway. "Apart from me that is." He popped his collar with a grin that fell quickly when he saw Erika's face. "What?"

"Guess who I ran into at Riggers Park this afternoon?" Erika turned the page over to show the Pirates. She tapped the image of Moose. "Moose Alexander, lead dancer for the New York Pirates, World Jam winners two years in a row." She raised her eyebrows. "Turns out he's in Philadelphia."

Paul frowned at the photo for a moment and then it seemed to dawn on him. "Eckhardt." He crossed his arms. "I didn't know Barry had the pull." Erika shrugged. "I knew he was hiring but this? This is bad."

"It gets worse," Erika said, making that face she only made when she'd stuffed up big time. "I might have mentioned the Elite dance competition to him."

Paul's jaw fell. "Ricky!" He shook his head and held up a hand. "Okay, fine, it's fine…" he paused. "If we get him to Atherton it'll be great." He gave a sly smile. "We better get to work if we're going to do this." He held out a hand and waved his fingers towards himself. "Phonebook. I have to call in a favour."