Page 57 of Just a Little White Lie

“Well, I like chocolate. It’s brown and delicious, just like me.” Arlo wiggles his eyebrows, and everyone starts laughing.

I roll my eyes and grin, but my smile starts to fade when I notice Maverick glaring at me. I meet his gaze and softly ask, “So, not a sweet tooth, then?”

“I like jelly beans,” he mutters.

My lips start to curl into a smile, but I manage to control it and mark his name off on the roll. “Favorite color? I like the blue ones.”

He smirks. “Black all the way.”

My smile grows, and I feel like I’m getting somewhere. The rest of the roll call goes without a hitch, and then I get them standing and facing the screen.

“Okay, today we’re going to learn some basic hip-hop moves. We need to perfect these before we can start choreographing a dance.” Oh man, I sound way more confident than I feel.

I ignore the few mutterings from the back of the group and press Play.

Pausing it after the first move, I demonstrate what’s just happened and ask them to do the same, but they’re too busy laughing at me.

“What!”

“You’re really bad at this.” Maverick starts to laugh, and I’m struck by the beauty of his smile. It’s a rare sight, and I don’t want to kill it, but we’ve got a dance competition to prepare for.

“Okay! Okay!” I clap my hands above the noise. “Enough mocking of the teacher. I’m not the one who has to get up on stage and perform—thank God. You guys do. And if you want to be awesome, which I know you all can be, then you’re going to have to put in the effort. Now let me see these moves.”

We run through the basic steps, and they’re really good. A few of them could use a little extra practice, but Maverick, Arlo, Dante, and Alexia are freaking awesome.

My eyebrows wrinkle as I point at them. “When did you get so good?”

Alexia smirks.

“You told me you didn’t do dancing,” I accuse the four in the front row. “But you’ve been amazing this whole time?”

They look mighty proud of themselves as I give them a little throat growl. I shake my head, reining in my frustration. I should be happy about this.

“Okay. Okay.” I raise my hands. “This is awesome. You can dance, so put something together, then.”

Their smiles drop, and they look at me like I’ve lost my mind.

“We can’t do that, Miss.” Arlo shakes his head.

Dante steps up. “We just mess around. We can’t choreograph a full number for a competition. We don’t even know where to start.”

“But you’re so talented.”

“Yeah, for like a few beats. You’re our dance teacher.” Maverick points at me. “You’re the one who has to put this thing together.”

His face—all their faces—sends me a clear message: We’re counting on you, so don’t let us down.

I swallow and nod. The vulture is circling that much closer. I can feel it. My confidence wanes as I walk back to my computer and bob my head like I don’t know how to gain control of it anymore.

“Okay, well, okay. Yeah, sure. We can do this.” I dig my bottom teeth into my upper lip. My palms are sweaty as I rub my hands together. “So, we just have to… let’s string some of these moves together. Like we take that… what’s it called again?” I run to my computer for a quick refresher. “That Monastery move.” I try to copy it and score myself a few snickers. “And then we could, uh… well, let’s glide that right into the Woah move. Is it this one?” I cringe and do the move, but I’m sure I get it wrong.

Maverick covers his mouth and starts laughing while Dante leans against him and gives me a pitiful headshake.

But then it gets worse.

As if being humiliated by a bunch of teenagers isn’t bad enough, I glance to the back of the classroom and nearly drop dead when I spot Jack resting against the wall.

What is he doing here?

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