Page 7 of Fire Dancing For Icey Dragons

"And the when is up to you. We practice at four on Mondays and Fridays. Wednesdays are out because we normally cheer for whichever of the Obscure Academy sports teams is playing. Oh, and Saturday mornings, ten am."

I raise an eyebrow. "That's a lot of practice."

"Welcome to competitive cheer," she says, picking up her mug and taking a sip.

"I've heard it's a lot."

"It is. But I don't imagine that fire dancing is any different, especially to get as good as you are."

I raise an eyebrow. "You think I'm good?"

"You know you're good, otherwise you wouldn't have been the entertainment at the food festival," she responds. "It's much more attractive if you own it."

"I'll keep that in mind if I want to impress any cheerleaders."

She laughs. "Knowing the squad, I'm sure you'll impress many of them."

"We'll see about that," I respond. "So why do you want lessons from the fire dancing team?"

For a moment, I don't think she's going to tell me, but then she sighs. "I think we're in a creative rut, and I want to win the final round of this year's cheer competition. So I'm willing to do anything to make sure that happens."

"Ah, the plot of every cheerleader movie ever." I finish off my coffee.

She grimaces. "That's what gave us the idea," she admits. "But how doyouknow that?"

"I love dance movies," I respond, not seeing any harm in telling her, it's not like she can do anything with the information. "A lot of them have the same formula, so I've watched some of the cheerleader ones too."

"Ah. Right. I thought you were going to say that you were a cheerleader in school or something."

"Sorry, no secret cheering past," I respond. "I was more of the smoking-behind-the-bike-shed type."

She rakes her gaze over me, clearly trying to imagine it. "What changed?"

"I upgraded to smoking batons," I joke.

Zara laughs, seeming to be a little bit more relaxed than before. "I don't know if you're being serious or not."

I shoot her a lop-sided grin. "I'm not going to tell you that."

"Maybe I should put you through your paces and see if you have what it takes to be a cheerleader," she responds.

"Let's see how my teaching you goes first." Though I'm not opposed to learning a few tricks. I'm not naive enough to believe that competitive cheer is an easy sport to be part of, and I'm sure that means Zara knows a thing or two that could help me when it comes to fire dancing. My days of doing it at the academy are numbered, but I'm hoping to find an amateur group I can join in whatever city my future career takes me to. There's nothing quite as soothing as spinning a flaming ball around above my head.

"All right, but the offer is there," she says. "Though I should warn you that I'm tough."

"So I've heard, you've gotten yourself a bit of a reputation." The moment I say the words, I regret them, especially as an uncomfortable expression crosses her face. It must be hard to know what people say like that, especially when it's kind of her job to be that way. "That's not what I meant."

"It's fine," she says, waving my concern away, but I can tell she doesn't quite mean it. "I know what people say, and I'm used to it."

"Zara..."

"It's fine. I should get to class." She scrapes her chair back. "Let me know how much you're charging and I'll sort it out from squad funds."

I open my mouth to say something else, and hopefully to undo some of the damage I just did with my dumb mouth, but she's already making her way out of the coffee shop and not looking back.

I groan and lean back in my seat. And to think that it seemed like she was just starting to like me too.

Chapter 5

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