Dancing for the Lord The Academy - By Emily Goodman Page 0,12

care, Danni-girl,” he told her. “And remember, every time you dance, make sure you remember who you’re dancing for.”

“I will, Daddy.” She stepped forward into his arms, embracing him tightly. “Pray for me?”

“Every morning,” he promised. “Just like I always have.”

There was strength in that, Danni knew. Simply knowing that her father would go to his knees for her at need had always been enough to warm her no matter how dark the problem might have seemed.

And he was right. Christmas wasn’t that far away. Surely she’d be able to spend a couple of days with her family then. It wasn’t as though they were that far away. Just a few hours, really; her father had already proved that the drive wasn’t that bad. He was even going to be making it back today—though it would be late by the time he got home.

“Be safe,” she told him. They exchanged one last hug, and then he was gone, leaving Danni alone with her new life.

Alone…and yet not. Before the front door of the house had even closed behind him, Danni heard a tentative knock at that connecting door again.

“You want some help unpacking?” Madalyn offered.

For a moment, Danni considered turning her down. The way she had asked, the other girl probably wouldn’t be offended if she told her that she had it handled, and she’d rather do it herself. After all, if someone else unpacked for her, she might never be able to find whatever had been in the boxes!

On the other hand, Danni knew what she would do if she was left to her own devices: she would brood. She would miss her parents, she would miss Michael…if she let herself go long enough, she might even find herself missing Lizzie!

Normally, she relished time alone, using mundane activities like unpacking her bags as an opportunity to spend some time in prayer. On this particular evening, however, Danny knew full well that she wouldn’t be praying. No, she would probably just brood—and that wasn’t exactly healthy.

So she smiled at Madalyn, and forced herself to sound like she meant it when she said, “I’d appreciate that.”

Chapter Three

Madalyn, as it turned out, was good company; and if she had to share her bathroom, Danni couldn’t think of a better person to share it with. Madalyn knew everything that there was to know about everyone and everything at the Academy, and she didn’t hesitate to share her knowledge with a newcomer—but she was never malicious about her comments. If she did have to share something negative—like, for example, when she warned Danni to stay away from the cafeteria food in the school if at all possible and come back to the house for meals if she could—she did it in such a good-humored way that it was impossible to take any ill-will from it.

“Now, the cafeteria food…well, the best that can be said for it is that they make sure they keep a stash of power bars handy,” Madalyn informed her. “But Mrs. Baxter is a great cook—so if you can get back here for meals, definitely do it!” She frowned. “Do you have your schedule yet? Some people got them in the mail before they came; but most of us had to go up to the office and get them.”

Danni’s gut clenched. No, she didn’t have her schedule yet. She wished that she did. It would be nice to have Madalyn show her around now, before she was worried about being late to one class or another as she tried to find her way around.

“Oh, don’t worry!” Madalyn told her quickly. “It’s not hard to figure out. All the academic classrooms are in one wing, see, and the dance classes in another. It’s a tight fit if you have back-to-back classes, but it’s not so bad once you get used to it.” From this, Danni deduced that Madalyn had back-to-back classes. “And really, it’s nothing that we wouldn’t be doing in college. We’re just doing it a couple of years early.”

Danni just nodded. By that point, she was so overwhelmed that she didn’t know what she was going to do come Monday morning.

Danni had really meant to make it to church on Sunday—to seek someone out and get them to tell her where to go. Unfortunately, she forgot to ask Mrs. Baxter Saturday night; and since she spent half of the evening pacing the floor of her room, she ended up oversleeping. She did, however, find a quiet corner where she could