Page 31 of The Sky Between Us

Her eyes narrowed at me and I decided to help her out. I needed someone on my team, after all, and if I was going to do this and dance again, I couldn’t let it start this way.

With a nod of my head, I motioned towards the other girls and Claire quickly dismissed them to go warm up, leaving us alone.

“Listen, I don’t need to be a bitch if you won’t be one to me,” I said to her in a flat, conversational tone. “I don’t want to take your spot and I sure as hell don’t want to be a captain. It’s all yours. All I want to do is dance.”

She let her hair fall over her shoulder as she kept on eying me. It felt like I was under investigation for God knows what based on how seriously she was staring.

“I’m only asking you to respect me and I’ll respect you in return,” I continued, breaking her silent treatment. “Or we can go the other way about it, but I’m not sure it will be good for the morale of the team.”

A snort escaped her but she finally nodded. “Fine. You made the cut, but if you try and take my team away from me, you will regret this day for the rest of your life.”

Biting the inside of my cheek I stopped myself from laughing out loud. It was only a dance team, not the presidency and she acted like I was stealing her spotlight. She really needed to get a life.

I found myself being thankful for the path I stumbled upon during my last year of high school. Otherwise, I would have ended up like her, or worse.

“Sounds good,” I flashed her my sweet smile. “Do we have a deal?”

“Welcome to the team, Hazel,” she returned my smile. “I’ll get you a uniform. Now go get changed. You are already behind on the choreo.”

With a nod, I picked up my Louis Vuitton Neverfull bag that for some reason was always full of random shit and walked straight to the changing rooms to get out of these crazy skinny jeans and throw on some leggings. I was half surprised she accepted me this easily, without any stupid tryout or audition rounds. She must have been desperate despite the fact that my talent and name got dusty over the years. Yet, I still had the full package. Now I prayed to God, we only had to cheer for football and basketball games, and not soccer games. That would be the end of me.

Once I managed to remove my jeans, I adjusted my high waisted thong, checking myself in the mirror, to make sure I was covered enough, before slipping into my high waisted burgundy leggings with a matching sports bra that had cute lace detailing. Workout clothes were my favorite. I could live in them, no matter the color or the style. Too bad leggings weren’t considered pants in society and we still had to wear jeans. Yes, there were oversized ones, but I hated those.

After securing my bag in one of the lockers and pocketing the key in the back of my leggings, I jogged back out to where the others were warming up and practicing tricks. Stretching my arms over my head, I moved my shoulders in small rounds to warm them up in case I needed to do some acrobatics.

“Finally,” Claire barked out when I joined the group. “We were growing old here.”

Resisting an eye roll, I smiled. “Sorry.”

“Let’s do it from the top. Hazel you can watch and try and pick it up. It shouldn’t be too hard for you.” Coach Anderson said.

Still with a polite smile, I stepped aside and watched. Pom was different from cheerleading, where the dancers did fast paced arm movements in sync with the whole team so it was visually appealing. In UDA there were Pom, Hip Hop and Jazz categories. Jazz was all dancing, and I loved it. The dancers could show off their more lyrical side with technique, beautiful lines and passion for performing. It did require a long team turning sequence, traveling and using the entire floor and many ripples to show off dynamic. In the Hip Hop routine, the judges liked the hard-hitting moves, crowd pleasers and tricks, like kip ups and head springs. This National Championship was the biggest competition at university level and the talent was amazing. It took much more to succeed here than it did in high school which naturally made me anxious and caused me to doubt myself. Every single one of the girls was an amazing dancer and despite the Dance Awards, which was for competitive dancers up until the age of 18, being held by regions: New York, Las Vegas and Orlando, in college we were all put together. So much talent in such a small school.

“Did you pay attention?” Claire shot me a look over her shoulder and I nodded.

“Yep,” I answered, while I kept telling myself that I could do this. I could break free from the fear holding me back. I could take back my life.

“You are a turner,” Coach said without any question in her voice. “But you need to work on your flexibility. It has regressed. Stand in the fourth row, third place from the right.”

Taking a deep breath, I walked over to my new place in the back. For someone who was used to being front and center, and always featured, this was a slap in the face. But I reminded myself it was years ago. Times changed. I changed too.

Claire nodded, satisfaction glimmering in her eyes. “Right. Let’s do it from the top on my count. Hazel, follow!”

The team around me moved in unison as they went through the familiar motions. My eyes zeroed in on the team captain’s blonde hair and I followed her movements, letting my body do what it did best.

Dance.

It was a strange feeling to be moving and dancing like before. As if those four years were just a bad dream that I’ve been awakened from. Breathing didn’t come as naturally as these moves. I blended in, letting the crowd around me shield me, yet encouraged me to move as freely as I could. With every passing step, with every new movement and with every turn sequence I was shredding layers off. And by the time we went through the same motion ten times and practice ended, I felt like a completely new person.

“Good job, Hazel,” a brunette girl muttered to me as she gathered her stuff to leave.

“We have conditioning at noon.” Claire jumped in, squinting at me as I brushed out my ponytail. “See you then?”

“Sure,” I nodded with a small smile, picking up my bag from the locker. Most girls stayed in their workout clothes consisting of small booty shorts and sports bra. I was almost overdressed in my long leggings, but I didn’t care. “See you tomorrow.” I said my goodbyes as I headed outside.

“Wait,” the brunette girl caught up to me as we walked towards the dorms, across campus.

The sun painted the sky deep red as it slowly started setting. The trees around us drew shapes on the grass making me feel like we were in an enchanted forest.

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