Do the D. A. N. C. E. [open]

[PETAL PAIX]

Petal was so excited she was bouncing. She’d never been in a high school before. Everything was so organized and tidy. It sort of looked like an office building with REALLY big offices. She also noticed it had a unique smell. Like paper and pen ink. Or maybe, the dreams of students! At least ten of the students in her class she knew at her school but the other fifteen were a total mystery to her. This was Petal’s dream. She was teaching dance as a class in a legit school. She could give out grades and make final projects and the best part was… she didn’t have to sort paper work for all the kids who enrolled. All she had to do was cash her check at payday! Not that the money was really what she was here for. If she could get one of this kids to discover dancing is his or her calling she would totally feel fufilled. Not many kids got to know what REAL dancing was. All that nonsense they did at school dances were just silly. Actually school dances were silly. Although she shouldn’t judge. Petal had never been to one.

Petal hopped out of her cute little office and nearly squealed when she saw all the new students. Okay Petal, calm down. Don’t scare them. She did a cartwheel across the floor and landed on her mat in front of the kids. The room instantly got silent. Perfect. “Okay, everybody. Shoes off.” She began to warm up a little while she waited for them to take off their shoes. She already had a pair of foot thongs on that were yellow polka dot. She just loved yellow. Okay, Petal, focus.

“I’m Petal Paix, your dance instructor.” She loved the way that sounded. “You can call me Ms. Paix. Let’s warm up.”

Petal went down into her splits and smiled as some of the kids gave her a ‘there’s no way I can do that in this lifetime’ look. “Just kidding. Everybody, get in a circle and introduce yourselves, please. Then we’ll warm up with something a little easier.”

[KYLIE JACOBS]

A dance class! Oh, why hadn’t she thought of taking one of these sooner? Of course, her childhood dance classes hardly counted! She barely remembered what she’d learned in those classes. It was a bit of a shame, really. She’d asked for the classes so her grandparents weren’t very pleased that she hadn’t taken anything from them. That was hardly fair, though. How could they expect her to remember dance lessons when she’d had singing and piano lessons as well? Perhaps she had signed up for one too many things back then… Nonetheless! That didn’t matter now. What mattered was that she’d signed up for Dance at Baum. And the best part? It was free! (Well, except for that this was a private school and her grandparents were probably paying some large fee for her to even attend).

She’d changed into black leggings and a green tank top, tying her hair up. She’d been one of the first to arrive, save for a trio of girls who looked a grade older than her. She wasn’t quite sure her to expect in the class. Hopefully it would be people she could get along with. Then again, Kylie usually got along with everybody. She never really gave them a reason to dislike her. Slowly, the room began to fill up and it’d gotten quite noisy when Kylie spotted a woman exit the teacher’s office. Was that th— Whoa! Cartwheels came easy to Kylie but the fact that this one had silenced an entire group of students impressed her. Kylie wiggled her toes, happy to have taken her shoes off earlier.
Wow, had she just done the splits!? Kylie already loved this teacher! Had she ever learned the splits? She couldn’t remember any of her dance lessons. Oops. For a moment, Kylie waited around until about half the circle had been formed. Then, she sat beside a dark-haired girl and waited patiently, if not a little squirmy and excited.

[janie0blake]

There were times when Janie loved her job, even to a ridiculous amount. She got to dance. She got to watch others dance. She got to learn new ways to dance. She got access to the studio whenever she needed to practice by herself if there wasn't a class. Of course, she'd found it unexpected that she enjoyed the teaching aspect of it. She actually had fun teaching others how to dance. Not to mention Petal was amazing, and being an assistant to her was a better job than she ever expected she could get with her background. There were times when she truly looked back at herself and smiled because she absolutely loved that she got to do this.

This was not one of those times.

No, this was one of the times where she was uncomfortable to an amount she didn't expect herself to be capable of, and it was just because of the location where Petal would be teaching a class today. The Gym at her old high school honestly didn't hold many memories for her. This was what bothered her, because what memories she did have were drug-addled messes of memories that she couldn't make head or tail of. One of them even had to do with her taking a bowling ball to gym class when they were supposed to be running. She wasn't even sure how she wouldn't have been expelled if her parents hadn't been key financial support to the school while she'd been there. Of course, as they had been, she had a diploma. And a job which had unfortunately brought her back to a past she resented.

Plopping her bag down next to the door, she took off her t-shirt and shorts to leave her usual dance clothes as the students started pouring into the gym in groups. Janie tucked the regular clothes in her bag with her red pointe shoes. She always brought them with her when she would be dancing. As the stragglers trickled in, she slipped on her legwarmers, star-printed to her delight, and stretched out of habit. She looked around to see Petal come out and grinned at her obvious glee. The instructor cartwheeled into the focus of the students, and Janie chuckled a little at her antics. She watched a few of the students scramble to get their shoes off with another amused grin, despite the fact that she'd probably be mistaken for a student younger than them because of her size...

Janie noted the usual raised eyebrows upon Petal's introduction, and laughed loudly at the reaction to her doing the splits, dropped jaws and eyebrows raised in shock instead of skepticism. Ahh... that circle routine? She shrugged automatically and moved into the shape. It would be entertaining to see how many of them would be convinced she was a student, or too young to be here until she got to introduce herself.

A blonde whose surprised face at Petal's actions had been particularly adorable sat next to Janie. Her eyebrows raised automatically, but she nodded in acknowledgement at the girl.

[ETHAN CAMPBELL]

It took a brave straight man to be able to willing step foot into a dance class. Okay, so not so willingly. Coach had his arm hypothetically twisted behind his back to go to dance class. Ethan was being used as a human guinea pig for the team because his coach had heard that dance can make guys agility and coordination better. That was all Ethan really needed to hear, especially since Coach promised him first string running-back if he went and told him positive things about the class to get other guys to go.

Alright he was pretty darn skeptical and nervous as he walked into the gym where they would be working today. A bunch of girls were already there and sitting together talking. He recognized a few of them from his days at Baum but couldn't remember their names. Ain't never been good with names which made him feel sorta bad as he joined the circle and unzipped his hoodie. He looked around the room and noticed that some girls were starting to stare at him. He gave them a small nod and tried to give a relaxed smile.

Ain't nothing to dancing, he thought. He could do this once they got started. Maybe he wouldn't be the only guy there...Yeah, that's the spirit. Oh shoot. What if another guy came and he was gay and... Oh man. He should've just told Coach NO DARN WAY when he had the chance. But it was too late to think like that as the group circled up and a bouncy, who he thought must be the teacher, dark haired lady did a cartwheel and splits in front of him. He instinctively winced and ran a hand down his upper thigh just thinking about the pain that could cause him. "OH MAN -- I ain't gonna be doing that! It hurts just lookin' cause I gotta be able to have kids you know..." he exclaimed to the group to break the ice a little. The girls who were staring at him before started to giggle and Ethan gave a chuckle back to let everyone know he was a real man. at... dance class.
Yeah, his pride was going to hurt tomorrow...

[SOREN SOMERSETT]

So what the fuck was this shit again?

Dance class. Dance class. Soren Somersett was signed up for a dance class. What was this, one of those weird TV-shows with body switching episodes where Soren had just randomly switched bodies with a French ballerina pussy? That was legitimately the only fucking explanation for the fact that Soren Skyler Somersett, All-League Honorable Mention Soccer player, was walking into a god damn high school to take a dance class.

Well, that and the fact that the Athletic Director was sending him for some experimental sports shit. Bastard. Soren was going to kick his ass.

He pulled open the door of the high school gym, a soccer ball darting between his feet. He’d been working on this new stepover move where he swung his thigh over the ball and used his heel to kick it up over his head as it fell. He was totally never going to use it in a game, but hey, the ladies tended to dig cool-looking shit like that.

He glanced around the class, his eyes falling on the dance teach-hot dayummmmm, was that a dance teacher or what? Soren kicked the ball expertly into the bleachers, watching it curve and bounce in the dead-center of the top riser as he turned swiftly to face her. The girl let out a small squeal that Soren swore he recognized from somewhere…was she in his grade at school? Fucking hell, so there were going to be Barrie kids here, seeing Soren Somersett screw himself over in a ballerina pussy class. Well, at least she was hot. Damn hot.

“Okay, everybody. Shoes off.”

Soren kicked his sneakers against the wall, sliding gently across the floor in socked feet. “Your mom took all her shoes off at my place last night,” he muttered under his breath to nobody in particular, making his way through the crowd of giggling chicks. If the soccer bros found out that Soren had been in a dance class, they’d never in hell let him forget it. “Hey there,” he murmured to Hot Barrie Dance Teacher Chick as he passed, waving and winking subtly as he searched vehemently for a corner he could lose himself in. He had a reputation to uphold here.

“I’m Petal Paix, your dance instructor.” She loved the way that sounded. “You can call me Ms. Paix. Let’s warm up.”

“Believe me,” Soren muttered, once he was at a safe distance from Hot Barrie Dance Teacher Chick. “Your mom got me all warmed up last night.” And that was when he spotted it. From across the gaggle of little giggling girl heads, a crew cut. There was another dude here. Soren shoved his way through the crowd, squinting to get a better look. He recognized the face instantly, but couldn’t quite place a name on it. Footballer, he knew. Like, American Tackle Crap, not real football. He’d seen him chilling in the weight room and shit, but had always mentally referred to him as Crew Cut Football Dude, because fuck you, he sucked at names. Still, he swore he’d seen the nameplate on the back of his jersey at one game or another. Something with a C. Cat…Cap…Cam…Campbell! Ethan Campbell. Alright. He knew what he was talking about.

Soren hurried over, nudging him. “Hey, bro, your coach shove you in here too?” Campbell was a cool kid, as far as he’d heard. American Tackle Crap’ers tended to be a rather fucking retarded lot in his experience, but so were the soccer bros, and Soren had managed to put up with them for the past two seasons. And this was good. Soren could chill with Campbell over here while Hot Barrie Dance Chick taught them in that ridiculously attractive outfit she was wearing, and none of the soccer bros or babes back at Barrie would think he was a ballerina pussy.

Hot Barrie Dance Chick dropped down into a split. Soren rolled his eyes. Splits. Really, man? Was that what they were going to be learning in this dance class? Because that shit was fucking easy. Soren dropped to the floor, his legs splaying on either side of him. “Alright, cool, what next?” he asked, flexing his fingers. "Soren Somersett, by the way," he added, since apparently they were making a circle and introducing themselves since they were apparently all god damn two years old. Still, if all that Hot Barrie Dance Chick was going to teach them in this class was splits, then Soren had this dance class shit in the bag.

[PETAL PAIX]

"OH MAN -- I ain't gonna be doing that! It hurts just lookin' cause I gotta be able to have kids you know..."

Petal laughed with the class and spotted Janie. She smiled at her and almost called her up to stand with her until another guy did the splits in front of her.

“Alright, cool, what next?” he asked, flexing his fingers. "Soren Somersett, by the way."

“Nice to meet ya,” she said with a smile. “You’re very flexible. Most teenage guys can’t do that without warming up. You do gymnastics?” She wouldn’t be surprised if he was a dancer in his younger years or something. She didn’t want to ask him that though because guys tend to get embarrassed for some reason. Dance was not just a girl’s sport! Plenty of guys (who like girls) dance professionally. She remembered a few guys that her mom thought were dreamy “back in the day”. Dancing guys actually got more girls.

Petal tried to ignore the looks that she was getting from the guys of the group. Her last thought kind of made them more prominent. She got up from her splits and motioned everyone to stand up. “Okay, later on this week we’re going to work on partner dancing since we have a few boys. But for now we’re going to stretch and I’ll teach a few basic steps,” she explained. She reached down to touch her toes. “Hey, Janie,” Petal lifted her head up and nodded to the spot next to her. “Can you be my second pair of eyes?” She got up and said, “You’re graded on your particapation. As long as you participate, you’ll get your shiny A.” She went back down and began counting.