Dancing for the Lord The Academy - By Emily Goodman Page 0,59
work they were doing together, turning it in a little at a time to make up for the days when they didn’t have as much time to work. He could see her doing something to destroy all of Danni’s hard work.
Thankfully, he still had his own copies. They could handle that, especially if they went to their teachers and explained what had happened. At this point, it almost certainly wasn’t a secret that he and Danni were doing all of their homework together.
What Katarina really did was worse than anything Nicholas might have imagined—or at least it felt that way. By Monday morning, there wasn’t a single student at the Academy who would speak to him unless they absolutely had to.
They were out of their academic classes—essentially on Christmas break, though since they were all so focused on the ballet, it wasn’t really a break as such. Nicholas had planned to spend the day with Danni; but before he could head over to her house—the moment he set foot out the door of his own, as a matter of fact—he was seized by a furious-looking Allie.
“Come on,” she told him sharply. “You were off count yesterday. We’re going to practice.”
She didn’t give him a chance to protest. Actually, she very forcefully didn’t give him a chance to do anything all morning. They went through the dance until both of them were sweat-drenched and tired.
“Allie—“ Nicholas winced. So far, he had managed to avoid telling the girl about his shoulder, sure that she would just use it against him; but he was fast approaching a point where he was going to have to. They had a performance that night. A little last-minute practice wasn’t a bad thing, but if it went on for much longer, he was going to end up seriously getting hurt.
“What?” She stopped, hands on her hips, and glowered at him. “You aren’t about to tell me that you want to quit, are you? Because you’re the one who keeps screwing up.”
Nick gritted his teeth. “I—“ he began.
“Do it again, Nicholas!” Allie stormed back to her starting place. “Katarina said you’d be difficult. I should have listened to her.”
He set his jaw and kept his mouth shut. What good would it do him to tell her the truth now? Probably it would just make her angrier with him, and then they’d have to go through this thing again. He concentrated instead on giving her a technically perfect performance. He was exactly on time for every movement. He didn’t wobble so much as a single time. At the end of it, he was sure that there was nothing she could possibly complain about.
“You’ve moved that last grand jeté,” she whined. “You started it early every other time. If you change it now, my timing is going to be off.”
Nick’s hands tightened at his sides. He had never in his life hit anyone, but he had a decided urge to do so now. “Allie, I can’t do it again,” he said flatly. “Not if I want to perform tonight.”
“Oh, please. If I can do it, you can,” she sneered. “What are you complaining about?”
“You spend most of the ballet on that throne,” he reminded her patiently. “I dance a lot more of it than you do. And besides—“ He sighed. He was going to have to tell her. It was either that, or his shoulder was going to absolutely fall off before she let him go. “I’m sure Katarina mentioned the fact that I hurt my shoulder a few weeks ago.”
“Well, it sure wasn’t bothering you all last week, when you were dancing with Danni every time I wanted to practice.” Allie rolled her eyes. “One more time, Nick. You can manage that much.”
No, he really couldn’t. He knew it. The ache in his shoulder was a warning; and it would start throbbing in earnest if he slowed down long enough to let it get to him.
But it was stronger now. He had taken enough time off that it probably wouldn’t hurt him overmuch to push a little bit more today…right?
“Katarina said you were a wimp,” Allie muttered. “A little bit of pain, and suddenly, you can’t even dance a simple little pas de deux. If I didn’t know any better—“
“Enough.” He moved back to his mark, grinding his teeth so hard that he expected one of them to break. “Just dance.”
It was late that afternoon by the time he finally went to find Danni—who took one look at him