After Director Collins admitted her back to MSA, Andie believed she was finally truly happy.
She spent most of the time with her friends who really valued her. And even those extra ballet lessons she had every day after school were bearable.

Actually… they came to be quite fun. After watching their performance on the Streets, Director Collins had reconsidered his approach to modern dancing, street dancing in particular. He was like a different man opposed to his former strict and icy persona and Andie found out that he even had a sense of humor, imagine that. Rather dry, yes, but it was still there. And after a few weeks Andie realized that she's actually looking forward to these afternoon sessions. With Director Collins' warmer approach she in fact enjoyed learning ballet. It was just another dance style after all.

First thing that made her realize something was different was when she caught herself calling him Blake during one of their endless banters. They were always teasing each other all the time and it came out of her mouth so naturally. He didn't seem to notice it at all but Andie was quite baffled with herself. But after all the time they spent together and him finally acting like an actual human being she thought it was no big deal after all, especially if he didn't protest.
She also started noticing other things. She never before realized how literally hands on Blake's teaching style was. He was always correcting her pose or movement and very often not with words or showing the right way, but rather by positioning her body in the correct manner or even walking through the moves with her. What scared her more though, was how she reacted to all these little touches. Because Andie enjoyed them. Very much. But it wasn't until she caught herself sometimes moving wrong on purpose just so he would walk to her and she'd feel his hand on her skin, that she realized she was falling. She was falling for Blake and she was falling for him hard.

Every touch, every occasional smile would now make her heart flutter. She was confused with herself, this wasn't the place or the time to catch these kinds of feelings. Or the person, she reminded herself. But she couldn't help it. Especially when after a while she started to suspect he was enjoying the lessons and time they spent together almost just as much as her. That he was maybe finding mistakes in her dancing when there weren't any also to just have a reason to correct her, to touch her. But that couldn't be true, right? He was her teacher after all.

Andie had no idea that she was absolutely right. Guilt was eating Blake up but just like her he couldn't help himself. He treasured all the time he had spent with Andie in those afterschool sessions and was looking forward to it every day. He enjoyed their endless bickering and he very much did notice when she started calling him by first name. His first instinct was to correct her but his name never sounded so good like when it came from her lips. He was always excusing it all to himself as just trying to perfect her dancing. But deep down Blake knew it was a lie and he was terrified that Andie might know it too.

So as the proper teacher and director he forbade himself from thinking about Andie in any way that wouldn't be appropriate for their roles. And he kept to it. Until that one afternoon…

They were trying a new pirouette with a small lifted figure at the end and Andie couldn't focus at all. Every time Blake's hands grasped her waist she had to fight to not close her eyes and just let go. 'I should have worn a longer top today' was her only thought after the first attempt. She really did try to stay focused on her steps and what was expected of her to do but sometimes the only thing she could take in was where his skin was touching hers.

"Andie, Andie. Come on, you know better than that. Again, from the top, please." Blake said, bemused with her performance today. She huffed in frustration but dutifully tried again. After the first few steps she already knew she was moving the wrong way once again.
"Andie, stop. Where's your head at?"
"Sorry. Kinda hard to focus today." She didn't at first realize she said the second part out loud as well. But so what, it was true. And Blake, for the first time in their sessions only wearing a white tank top instead of sweatshirt, didn't really help.
"What's on your mind?" he asked with slight concern.
"It's nothing, really. Let's try again."
This time she did get to the part where Blake was about to lift her but as soon as she felt his hands on her waist she stumbled.
Andie cursed and turned her back to him in frustration.
"Are you okay?" he put a hand on her shoulder as he looked into her eyes through a mirror that lined the wall in front of them. Andie's breath hitched.
"Yeah, yeah, just peachy." She looked away however. She was scared he would see in her eyes what she was trying to hide from him. Her heart wanted to scream from his proximity and Andie didn't know how much longer she could stand it. When he let go of her however she felt disappointed.
"Try it again. Focus on your movement." Well, that's easier said than done, Andie said to herself.
She started the pirouette again but moved a little too vigorously and slammed right into his chest. 'Great, this just keeps getting better and better' she thought before it fully hit her how close they were. Her hand on his chest, his hands on her waist. After a moment Andie dared to look up and found Blake apparently struggling to form words just as much as her. That surprised her a bit. No way he could really be feeling the same way she did. But the longer she was looking into his eyes the more she was starting to hope. He didn't move away after all, he was still holding her close. And she was acutely aware of where their bodies were touching.
Andie tilted her head a bit more. Blake was still gazing into her eyes and this time his breath hitched when Andie slowly moved one of her hands up to his neck. She summoned all of her courage before it left her, stood on her toes, closed her eyes and pressed a light kiss to his lips.
He didn't move for a second. The second was long enough for Andie to start silently panicking that she read the signals wrong. But then he pressed her closer, put one hand into her hair and started kissing her back with such a fervor that it almost startled her.
She was drowning in the kiss. His passion surprised her but she lost herself in it. It could have been seconds, minutes, even hours before she felt Blake pull away. He rested his forehead on hers and she sighed contently.
"Andie, we can't do this," he whispered.
"It's okay, nobody's around here anymore," she whispered back, still in a haze.
"That's not what I mean."
She opened her eyes. "What?"
"We can't be doing this," he said matter-of-factly. Andie pulled away from his arms.
"I'm sorry, did I read the room wrong here?" she felt humiliation and therefore anger starting to seep in.
"Andie, this shouldn't have happened. I'm your teacher. And I simply won't jeopardize my future or yours, no matter my feelings. I have to apologize for my behavior."
"Ah, so now you're all self-righteous suddenly."
Blake didn't say anything, he just looked away, maintaining his usual stone cold facial expression and it was riling Andie up. There were tears prickling in her eyes even though she didn't know if it was of anger or hurt. To hide them, she started to pick up her belongings from the floor.
"I'm sorry Andie, it was -"
"Don't say it, Blake." Standing by the door already, she composed herself enough to sound calm and to look him in the eyes. "Just don't." Please, she added in her head.
"It was a mistake," he still finished.
Andie just nodded, turned on her heel and left the studio. She kept herself from running while fighting tears on the way. For a second it crossed her mind if Blake was going to go after her. What would she do. But she quickly dismissed these thoughts and left as quickly as possible. Who cares about Blake - I mean, Director Collins, anyway.

And even if she had waited for him, it would be pointless. He never came after her.

Following afterschool lessons were short, cold from both sides, with no physical contact and with great distance between the two. At the end of the second lesson Blake told Andie that her ballet skill improved considerably and that he doesn't see a need for any more extra lessons. Rest of her time at MSA they tried to avoid each other as much as possible and were very formally polite when interacting.