Dancing for the Lord The Academy - By Emily Goodman Page 0,43
the whole, ‘get the academic stuff out of the way now’ thing, huh?” he asked conversationally. The way he said it, Danni had no doubt that he agreed with her; he was just starting the conversational ball rolling again.
“Oh, yeah. I was taking all the right classes at my school back home and everything,” she admitted cheerfully. “Besides, getting to just dance for a whole year? Tell me that’s not a dream come true.”
“Well, it might be a little difficult if you did decide to go on to college,” he offered.
She made a face at him. “They offer college courses as an option—some agreement with an online school or something.”
“You’re serious about this.” Nicholas—Nick—grinned. “Good. I hate being alone in the studying world.” He looked up at her consideringly. “Hey—how far along are you?”
She told him; his eyebrows shot through the ceiling. “And you’ve been here for three weeks? At that rate, you’ll be done before Christmas!”
“Maybe not done,” Danni informed him primly. “After all, my rehearsal schedule is about to get pretty crazy. I won’t be going quite as fast for awhile.”
Nick made a face. “Maybe not—but you’re still pretty far ahead of the game. I’m ahead of basically everybody in my classes.”
“We could work together,” she suggested shyly. “I mean, I work better when I’ve got someone to talk to while I do it—as long as you aren’t too distracting.”
“What do you consider distracting?” he teased.
“Someone who won’t actually let me work!” Danni rolled her eyes. “My friend Madalyn is great, but she will not understand that when I say I’m going to study, I mean it.”
“It’s actually kind of a common problem around here,” Nicholas told her. “People get in this mindset that they have all the time in the world; and then the end of the year comes up, and they’re only half done with the coursework. Mlle Kirby told me once that she thinks only about half a dozen seniors each year actually get to do the no academic work thing.”
“Wow.” Danni blinked. “That’s not many at all.”
“Well, it’s probably a natural response to the freedom.” Nicholas made a face. “I hear some of them even end up getting their GEDs so they can go on and join one of the companies.”
“That doesn’t make a lot of sense—not when we have this kind of arrangement set up.” Danni sighed. “But I guess you’re right. People react differently to the kind of freedom we’re given.”
“Some are a lot better than others,” Nicholas agreed. Grimacing, he pulled the ice pack free of his shoulder and tossed it down on a towel resting at the foot of the bed—a towel, Danni realized, that had been placed there for just that purpose. “All right. Fifteen minutes. You want to work on homework?”
“For fifteen minutes?” she demanded.
He shrugged. “I figure we spend this fifteen working out what we’re going to do, and for the next fifteen, you can read to me.” His expression was so pitiful that she couldn’t help but give in.
Danni stayed for another hour longer than she had intended to stay that night; and in the end, she only went home because the words on the page in front of her were starting to blur. It had been a long day, full of excitement and change—change that, she hoped, would turn out to be for the best. She couldn’t wait to start working on the Sugar Plum Fairy’s dance in earnest. Actually, she was just looking forward to the week ahead. Thanksgiving wasn’t something to be dreaded anymore; rather, it was an entire day that she and Nicholas would be able to spend practicing.
She’d have to keep an eye on him. She had the feeling that he had pushed harder than he should have today, and that his shoulder was hurting more than necessary as a result.
Danni knew all about injuries. Sometimes, you just had to push through them and pretend that you were all right even when you really weren’t. Other times, you had to sit back and nurse them for awhile. From the way Nicholas had talked—from his familiarity with it—she had the feeling that his shoulder had been a problem for quite some time, and that the best way to handle it would be for him to keep pushing as long as he could.
That didn’t meant that he had to push so hard that he got hurt. She was determined not to have a repeat of the Katarina incident, although of course, she wouldn’t