Page 32 of I Don't Need Your Love
“How can we learn it all in just two weeks?”
I hold up my hands, my chest rising and falling as I try to catch my breath. “Hey, everyone!” I shout over the voices. “I know it might seem daunting, but I think we can do it. If not, we’ll pivot and try something else. But first, we need to try. We’re all here to support each other, right?”
Everyone cheers.
I look at Coach Moreno. “What do you think?”
“I love it,” she says. “Some of the moves might be a bit difficult, but let’s take it one step at a time.”
“Cool. So let’s start learning the routine. Addie, come join me. You know the beginning.”
We turn around and start teaching the routine. I think the fact that Addie is up here with me gives the rest of the team more confidence. If she can do it, there’s no reason they can’t, too.
It’s definitely a lot of hard work, but I can tell the team is having fun, too, particularly when the moves are more artistic than technical. I turn around and watch everyone work on the routine, scanning for mistakes so I can point them out. For some reason, my gaze latches onto Ryder.
He, too, is working really hard—I can see sweat gathering on his forehead. But he’s wearing a humongous smile on his face, which means he’s enjoying every second of it. Watching him dance, I can’t tell that he’s self-taught. He’s really good, a natural. He dances with a lot of emotion and doesn’t worry as much about his form, which he’ll have to work on because we’ll be judged on that. But it’s quite…well, beautiful to watch.
His eyes land on mine. He freezes for a second, as though he wasn’t expecting me to watch him. But then he puts on that lazy smile and continues to dance. My eyes drop to his injured leg, my brows creasing when I see him putting so much effort into his dancing. I hope he’s not straining himself. The last thing I want is for him to hurt himself.
“That was amazing!” I say when everyone learns the first quarter of the routine. “Let’s take a break and meet back here in five minutes.”
I make my way to Ryder, passing a few dancers on the way and letting them know they did a great job. I remind Naya to keep smiling because she tends to frown when she gets too much in her head. Ryder doesn’t notice me approach and walks away to grab his water bottle from his backpack. I follow him there and watch his throat as he chugs down the water. He downs the entire thing. I hope I didn’t work him and the other dancers too hard. No one is complaining, but you never know.
“Hey, Captain,” he says.
I blink and snap my eyes to his. “Hey.”
He grins. “Are you here to tell me what a great job I did or are you here to kick me out for doing horribly?”
“You didn’t do horribly. You were great. You’re really talented. It’s amazing that was all self-taught.”
His smile is so real and grateful that it makes goosebumps pop up all over my arms. “Thanks, kid. Means a lot to me.”
“I’m worried about your leg,” I inform him. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to be part of the dance team when you’re still recovering?”
“I’m past the recovery part,” he assures me. “And my doctors cleared me to dance. We’re good, Captain.”
“You sure?” I move closer so there are only a few inches between us. “You don’t have to prove anything to yourself or to anyone else. Some of the moves are pretty intense and I don’t want you to hurt yourself, Ryder.”
His eyes search mine, and then they drop to my lips for like half a second. My heart rate picks up. “I’m touched, Carly,” he murmurs.
I don’t think I’ve ever stood this close to him before—well, at least in a long, long time. Have his eyes always been such a beautiful shade of brown and were his eyelashes always this long?
“It means a lot that you care, Carly,” he whispers. “But I’m good. Just focus on the routine, okay? We have a lot of work to do if we want to kick butt at the competition.”
I blink again and nod. “Right. The competition.” I walk away, but then turn my head. “Just don’t break any bones or tear any ligaments on my watch. We don’t have any alternates.”
He winks. “Gotchya.”
After the break, we practice for another hour before calling it a day. Then we gather around Coach Moreno’s tablet and choose a design for our uniform. The Harrington Bay Academy Eagles haven’t had a dance team in so long, but we do want to pay homage to the previous team that kicked major butt. They had a red and black uniform with “Eagles” spread across the chest inwhite letters. We choose a similar style, but we decide to go with light blue and white colors. Of course Ryder has to order a guy’s uniform.
“I love it!” Naya says. “The design is so pretty.”
“Expensive, too,” I say. “Good thing money isn’t an issue at this school.”
“You think Principal Harrington won’t approve of them because of the cost?” Addie asks with worried eyes.
“She’d better,” I say. “She wanted commitment from me and she sure as heck is getting it. The least she can do is let us look cute out there.”
