Dancing for the Lord The Academy

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 get away for a little while—a place where she could spend some quiet time with God.

It was chilly outside; but that was all right. Danni was used to bundling up to keep warm. She found a corner of the garden and let herself simply pray, listening for the call of God in her mind and spirit.

It came in a still, small voice as it always did, the reminder that Danni had needed since she had left her home. This is the place I have for you. She had long since learned to heed that voice, to acknowledge and trust it; and she was letting herself trust it now.

She was here for a purpose, and God had already planned things out according to his will.

That knowledge made her no less nervous as she faced the school for the first time. She’d been through it before, on a tour; but somehow, going on a tour and actually being a student there were two very different things. Danni swallowed hard, working up her courage.

“Oh, come on!” Madalyn grabbed her by the arm, tugging so briskly that Danni could either hurry alongside her or end up being dragged. “I knew you’d be nervous, so I was waiting for you. Come on, I’ll take you to the office—and if we’re lucky, there won’t be anyone here, and I’ll have time to show you where your first class is.”

Danni shot the other girl a grateful look. “Thanks,” she whispered.

“Oh, don’t mention it.” Madalyn grinned. “I was new here just a couple of months ago, remember? But I guess it’s a lot worse, coming in now. I mean, everybody else has already adjusted, and here you are, just starting out, you know?”

The words were intended to be comforting—Madalyn’s way of telling her that she understood how she felt. Danni didn’t feel comforted.

She did, however, appreciate a familiar, friendly presence at her side as she collected everything she would need from the office and stared down at her schedule for the first time.

7:00-9:00 a.m.: Individual practice with Mr. Oregno

9:15-10:30 a.m., Monday/Wednesday: English

9:15-10:30 a.m., Tuesday/Thursday: Science

10:45-12:15 p.m.: Individual class with Mme Renault

12:30-1:45 p.m., Monday/Wednesday: Math

12:30-1:45 p.m., Tuesday/Thursday: History

3:00-4:00 p.m., Monday/Thursday/Friday: Kids’ class with Mlle Kirby (scholarship aid)

4:00-6:00 p.m.: Open practice; please schedule a room if you wish to practice during this time.

Rehearsals will be held from 5:15 and following during the evenings, as well as on Saturdays. Some Sunday practices may be scheduled. Fridays are considered an open day and any rehearsal scheduled on a Friday is to take precedence over any previously scheduled class.

She’d never seen a schedule that looked so…busy…before. Oh, she could see that she was spending less than half of the time in academic classes that she had back home. Less than three hours a day, only four days a week….

“But those hours are really independent study, most of the time,” Madalyn told her when she commented. “I mean, the teachers are there if you have questions, and you have to work; but when you walk in, they give you a syllabus, and it’s your job to get as much of it done as fast as you can.” She made a face. “And as well as you can. If you do badly or try to skip something, they make you do it again.” It didn’t take Danni long to figure out that Madalyn had tried this once or twice and failed miserably.

“Actually,” Madalyn had continued, when Danni let her go on without comment, “most of the teachers design their schedules so that you can do, like, a unit a week. You can only take tests when you’re in class, but if you want to, you can do it that way. It gets you done….” She frowned. “I don’t exactly remember when. One every other week will get you done by the end of your junior year, so you can do the dance thing next year.”

Of course, Danni thought, that was assuming that you’d started at the beginning of the year. She immediately decided that she was going to set herself to taking a test every week in each of her academic classes—though when she was going to find the time to do any of it, she had no idea.

“Don’t worry,” Madalyn assured her. “They never make assignments due without giving you the weekend. I think that’s what Sundays are for, really.”

In Danni’s world, Sundays had always been for worship. She couldn’t imagine spending the entire day pouring over her schoolbooks instead of using it to praise God.

But You sent me here, Lord, she prayed resolutely. So I guess You know the direction You want this to go. Just…go easy on me, okay? And don’t let me lose touch with You. The more she saw of the Academy, the more vital she knew that prayer to be. Always before, she’d been surrounded by people who believed as she did. Now, she was surrounded by those who would think her beliefs quaint, or even downright weird. It would be a challenge to continue to practice as she believed—and yet somehow, she had to do it anyway.

Of course, the first part of the challenge was going to be simply getting through the day.

Finding her first class of the morning wasn’t hard—Danni just followed Madalyn, who was more than eager to direct her to wherever she needed to be. Unfortunately, Madalyn didn’t have English class with her; so Danni was left to find her way to the individual dance class on her own.

It can’t be that difficult, she consoled herself desperately. All of the dance classes are in one wing—so all I have to do is go there. Surely someone will be able to tell me where room…. She squinted down at her schedule. Room 203 is.

Unfortunately, none of Danni’s teachers seemed overly inclined to take into consideration that on her first day, she would benefit from a little bit of extra time. Instead, her English teacher held her over after class so that they could have a discussion about her books, and make sure she understood the way the curriculum was planned out at the Academy.

Danni got it. Really, she did. What she didn’t get was the way this blasted building was organized, or why on earth she had to run from one end of it to the other to get to her next class!

Girls were rushing everywhere, all of them looking purposeful. Danni supposed she could have stopped one of them and asked if they could point her in the right direction; but by that point, she was too overwhelmed to make eye contact with anyone.

203…203…come on, Lord, it has to be here somewhere. Please, please, just let me be able to find it!

“What are you doing?” A slender girl with long, black hair shoved Danni aside, glowering at her. “Don’t you know better than to just stand around in the hallway? I mean, good grief, some people think it’s important to be in class on time!” She put her hands on her thin hips, looking as though she might decide to say more. A glance at the clock on the wall, however, had her scurrying away again before she could say another word.

Danni wasn’t sure whether it was worthy breathing a sigh of relief or not. What was with that girl?

And, unfortunately, the black-haired girl wasn’t the only one who was about to be late. Danni glanced to the side, desperate—and spied a number.

202. Which means 203…. She glanced to the other side of the hallway. Yes! There it was! Thank you, Lord! Danni scurried inside, grateful—not for the first time—that she had long since developed the habit of wearing her leotard and tights beneath her clothing. It made for a rush if she was trying to get to the restroom between classes; but it saved her a lot of time when she was running late for dance class.

Since, in Danni’s world, dance class was the most important thing, that was definitely a mark in the plus column.

“There you are!” Madalyn hissed, grabbing her arm. “I was beginning to think I needed to send out a search party!”

“Got lost,” Danni whispered back, jerking her jeans down and pulling her sweater off over her head. Luckily, she had gone through these motions a hundred times before. It took her no time at all to transform from her street clothes to her dancer’s uniform. “Pointe shoes to start, or ballet slippers?” she asked swiftly.

Madalyn blinked. “Um—oh. Start out in slippers to warm up. We’ll all come over and put on pointe shoes in a minute.” She displayed her own slippers quickly.

Wincing, Danni realized that Madalyn’s were pink—as were those belonging to every other girl in the room. She hadn’t even thought about it; but for the last several years, her teacher, Carolyn Richards, had requested that the older girls wear black ballet slippers. It was a matter of practicality, really. The boys in the class—particularly Michael—had always worn black slippers; and they blended better during recitals if everyone wore the same color. She had a dozen pairs of black slippers in various stages of their life cycle, from the trashy pair that she kept tucked away in her locker at school in case she and Michael found a few free minutes to the brand new pair that she wore for class. She had pink ones….

Somewhere.

Actually, now that she thought about it, Danni was fairly sure that her pink slippers were tucked into her closet back in the dorm. It wouldn’t be hard to dig them out; but she hadn’t even thought about it before.

Blushing furiously, she jerked them on and hurried to find a place at the barre. There wasn’t anything she could do about it now.

Madalyn stared down at the black shoes. “Those are pretty!” she told her, a faint hint of jealousy in her voice.

“What?” Danni glanced back at her. “Yeah, they’re also different from everyone else’s.” She wasn’t sure why she had found it necessary to say that aloud. The other girl was nice, but it wasn’t as though she had her best friend.

It wasn’t as though she was Michael.

“Oh, don’t worry about that!” Madalyn squeezed her hand quickly before returning her own to her place at the barre. “Trust me, give it a week, and everyone will be wearing them.”

Danni hoped so. Ballet slippers weren’t half as expensive as pointe shoes, but they weren’t cheap, either; and while she might have a pair of the pink, they wouldn’t last her very long, not as much time as she was going to be spending in class now that she was at the Academy.

Luckily, Mme Renault chose that moment to enter the room, so she didn’t have to place her insecurity on display for the benefit of her new friend. She just bowed to her teacher along with the rest of the students, then followed the familiar instructions as they went through the round of limbering exercises that every dancer performed daily.

Here at the Academy, they performed them more than once every single day.

Plié, relevé. Plié, relevé. Grande plié, relevé. Grand plié, relevé. Second position, and repeat. Mme Renault tapped out the rhythm, and Danni quickly found her body settling into the familiar movements. She could do this. Everything else in the world might be confusing, but when she danced, she knew that she was home.

Lord, thank you for this, she prayed silently. Thank you for reminding me that You are still here, in the silence. Do You dance right alongside me, Lord? It was a favorite theory of hers, and one that had given her many joyful mornings as she considered the possibility that on the occasions when she thought she was dancing alone, it was really a pas de deux of the most intimate type of all.

“All right, girls.” Mme Renault clapped her hands, calling them to the center of the floor. “I would like for you to rehearse the piece of your dance that we were going over last week. Remember, I want to see graceful snowflakes.” She looked over the gathered young ladies. “Danielle? May I see you for a moment?” She gestured.

Danni had no choice but to follow her.

“We are in need of someone to fill Helen’s position in the ballet,” Mme Renault said frankly. “Do you think you will be able to learn the steps in time?”

“Sure.” Danni shrugged. “Um…snowflakes, right? I’ve been one in The Nutcracker before.”

The older woman’s face tightened ever so slightly.

Danni winced, realizing her mistake. “I mean, I’m sure the choreography is completely different,” she said quickly. “And I, um…I look forward to learning it.”

“See that you do so with all due haste,” the older woman warned her. “Now, carry on.”

Danni nodded and hurried quickly back to the floor. She put herself at the back of the room, where she would be able to see the other girls, and allowed herself to simply watch for a few moments.

Lost in the choreography, for several minutes, she didn’t even look at faces. On the second repetition, she joined in, determinedly reproducing the movements exactly as she had seen them in spite of the fact that if she had been at home, she probably would have suggested a couple of changes.

That grand jeté is in the wrong place for most of those girls. I can land it, but they’re flubbing it right and left. She had just had the thought as she went into the jump; when she came down, it was right in front of….

Oh, no.

It was the girl from the hallway—the one who had looked at her with such disdain. Danni winced. She had really been hoping that she wouldn’t have to encounter this girl again, at least for a little while. Why, Lord? Couldn’t I have at least had a chance to settle in before I had to confront someone who hates me?

“What are you doing?” the girl demanded.

Danni tried to make her face as calm as possible. “Um…dancing?” she suggested.

“Oh, is that what you call it?” She sneered. “Well, I suppose you’ll just have to make do for now, won’t you? But trust me when I say that you won’t make it long around here if you keep going like that.” She was gone again before Danni could reply.

Huh. Ego problems, if she can’t even handle an answer to her needling, Danni decided. She was trying hard not to let the other girl get to her; but in spite of those efforts, she had to admit that the barbed words hurt.

“What bile was she spewing?” Madalyn was at her side in an instant, somehow sensing that there was a need.

“Oh, it’s nothing.” Danni waved it off. “She didn’t like the way I landed my grand jeté, I think.”

“Oh.” Madalyn rolled her eyes. “Well, that’s Katarina for you. She thinks she rules the school and everything and everyone in it.”

“Huh.” Danni didn’t want to encourage gossip, but…. “So it’s nothing personal, huh? She dislikes everybody, not just me?”

“Pretty much.” She made a face. “Fancies herself the next prima ballerina for the company, if you can believe it. They’ve got a spot for her in the chorus line when she graduates, but if she doesn’t straighten up her attitude, Androv is probably going to take it away from her.”

“That doesn’t seem entirely fair,” Danni said softly.

“Maybe not.” Madalyn looked surprised to even consider the possibility. “But personally, I hope she gets kicked out soon. Her attitude really irritates me. And you know what’s worse?” She continued on in spite of Danni’s efforts to return to the dance. “Half of the girls in the school, like, worship her or something.”

“She’s good?” Danni asked softly.

“Yeah—good at being a—“ The word Madalyn used then was one that Danni wasn’t sure she’d ever heard thrown out in casual conversation before, and it reminded her of exactly how sheltered she had been, living back home. She’d known that girls talked like that—some of the cheerleaders had done it, for one thing—but they never talked like that to her. If they had, Michael would have put a stop to it.

Michael. She missed him more and more fiercely all the time.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong,” Madalyn continued, completely oblivious to the fact that her use of that word had made her new friend very uncomfortable. “I’d give anything to be able to dance like she does. She’s, like, grace in motion or something.” Which was exactly what Danni wanted to be, now that she thought about it. “But it’s like she sold her soul to be able to dance or something. And, um, no thanks, you know what I mean?”

Danni made a noncommittal noise and let the conversation go. She had a dance to learn, and a very short time in which to learn it—and besides, she had never felt that gossip was an adequate use of her time. She danced her heart out, giving it everything she had; and by the end, she was sure that she had at least the first quarter of the dance ready to go.

“You looked good in there!” Madalyn told her, grinning, as she jerked her jeans back on over her leotard and tights. She would have loved to take the time to change; but she had to hurry if she was going to be on time for math class as it was. Besides, she hadn’t thought to throw an extra leotard in her bag for later, and when she came back to help teach the kids’ class, she wouldn’t want to put on a sweaty leotard.

She had an hour. She could go back to the dorm and pick up a clean leotard then. It was very tempting—as was the idea of falling face-down on her bed for an hour before she had to return for the kids’ class. Probably it would be better all the way around if she did, actually. That would give her a chance to regain some of her inner calm before she tried to deal with a room full of kids. And how old had they said these kids were, anyway? She’d worked with the kids before—it had been one of the ways she helped to pay for all the extra dance classes—but some ages were a lot better to work with than others.

You could spend that hour getting some of your schoolwork done. That still, small voice spoke directly to her heart; and Danni already knew better than to ignore it. She had been listening to that voice for too long to set it aside now. She just wished—suddenly rather desperately—that she could put it aside, ignore what it was telling her.

But she wouldn’t. No matter how much she might like to ignore what that voice was telling her, she knew that it was right. She was really going to have to work hard if she was going to get ahead in these classes, especially since she did want to have the chance to devote her senior year entirely to dance.

Work hard now, do what you want to do later. With a sigh, Danni spread her materials out on a table in the commons area after her math class, staring down at her English book as though she had never seen one before. All right, Lord. Help me to do this well, because the last thing I want is to end up having to do it again.

She worked straight through the hour, pausing only once, to get up and drink down a few ounces of water. By the time she was done, she had a respectable pile of completed work in front of her—enough that she thought she could be proud to turn it in on Wednesday, at any rate. She’d read several of these stories before, in her English class back home.

Math. I’ll have to do some math tonight. Math wasn’t exactly Danni’s favorite subject. She preferred science, if it came to that, and maybe history—but those wouldn’t be until the next day, and she knew that if she wasn’t careful, she would end up putting off the less-favored subject until she had to take it her senior year.

She desperately didn’t want to end up in that position.

With a sigh, Danni slid her work into a folder and repacked her backpack, then hurried away again. Kids’ class. Well, she’d always enjoyed them before, right?

As it turned out, this was one of the best kids’ classes Danni had ever been in. The students were old enough that she could be sure that the majority of them actually wanted to be there, rather than being thrust there by parents with high expectations, but young enough to still believe that dance was supposed to be fun.

A room full of ten-year-olds had never been Michael’s favorite way to spend an afternoon; but Danni had to admit, if she was going to teach, this was definitely the age group that she preferred.

She threw herself into the afternoon with gusto, showing the students new moves, teaching them everything they needed to know and even showing them some of the tricks she had learned over the years, things that made the steps look even more graceful than before. By the end of the hour, she felt as though she had done her absolute best for all of the girls involved.

“They’re absolutely enchanted with you,” Mlle Kirby told her quietly.

Danni jumped. She had been staring blankly after the last of the dancers, thinking about…actually, even she wasn’t sure what she had been thinking about. The intrusion of another voice into her private world had been startling.

Mlle Kirby laughed. “How has your first day gone?” she wanted to know. “Feel like packing up and heading for home on the next bus out yet?”

Danni laughed along with her. “Not quite yet,” she told her, surprised to realize that it was true. “It’s going to be challenging, but there’s a lot of good here, too.”

“I agree,” the teacher admitted, lowering herself to the floor and beginning a round of stretches designed to keep her muscles limber even as she cooled. “I wouldn’t teach here if I didn’t believe it—though I do think they push you girls too hard, sometimes.”

Danni joined her in the floor. “I get the feeling that all of the push this year is to see whether or not we’ll even make it to next year,” she admitted. “Tell me honestly: how many people wash out before Christmas—or just don’t ever come back after the holidays?”

“A lot of them,” Mlle Kirby confessed, her voice slightly muffled due to the fact that her torso, bent over an extended leg, was pressed all the way to the floor. “The ones who don’t truly love it never make it, I’m afraid—though to be fair, those who have made it this long do usually stay through Christmas.”

“The performance.” Danni didn’t even have to think about that one. Anyone who had any love for dance at all wouldn’t dream of leaving in the middle of preparations for a big performance—which, now that she thought about it, made it all the stranger that Helen, the girl whose place she had taken, had left.

Mlle Kirby nodded. “Even these little girls will be in it. I think this group is going to make up most of the mice, actually.”

“Oh, they’ll be so good at it!” Danni could see them scampering across the floor in their little mouse costumes—and they had been very good at scampering, as she had proven just a little while ago.

“I think so. Androv still hasn’t brought me the full choreography, though—and you know as well as I that if we don’t start teaching it to them soon, they’re never going to remember the steps.”

“They’ll remember. We just have to find a way to cement them in their minds, that’s all,” Danni said cheerfully.

Both women, content with the cool down, got to their feet at the same moment. Danni pulled on her jeans over her leotard for what she very much hoped would be the last time that day, frowning as she realized that yes, she was definitely going to need to keep an extra leotard in her bag. She was going to have to visit the campus store and see if they had any others in stock—maybe a couple of pink, like the ones the older girls had been wearing that morning.

She almost hated to put her jeans on over the sweaty leotard—but there wasn’t any sense in changing now. She needed a hot shower and her bed…after she did an hour or so worth of math.

Danni grimaced. Math.

“Oh—Danni.” Mlle Kirby stopped her before she could leave. “I just wanted to tell you, you did very well today. I think I’m going to enjoy having you as my assistant.”

Danni glowed. “Thank you,” she said quietly, well aware that her voice had gone soft and hesitant. “That’s…very kind of you.”

“Kind, nothing!” Mlle Kirby informed her. “Usually, the girls I get in here hate working with the kids—they’re just doing it to keep their scholarships. You seem like you really enjoy it.”

“I do.” Danni shrugged into her sweater. “I used to help Carolyn—my teacher back home—with the kids’ classes all the time. She said that if I ever got tired of performing, I could come back and teach with her.” She grinned at the memory. Neither she nor Carolyn had ever dreamed that she would do it any time soon, of course—but the offer had been a genuine one. If she ever found herself in need of work, just as long as she could dance at all, she would be more than welcome at the Carolyn Richards School of Dance.

The reminder was reassuring. No matter what happened here, Danni knew that she still had somewhere to go. That was good.

Mlle Kirby smiled. “Well, I hope you’ll think about staying with us this summer, then,” she offered, to Danni’s astonishment. “We usually have a good crop of kids coming in for camp—I think you’d really enjoy them.”

“Oh…I don’t know.” Danni glanced down uncomfortably. “I’ll have to…I mean, my mom is really wanting me to come home for the summer. She’s not so sure about me being so far away, you know?”

“And you’re fresh enough that you’re still homesick just thinking about it.” Mlle Kirby looked sympathetic. “Well, the offer remains on the table, all right? Don’t worry that it will disappear just because you aren’t sure right now. If you keep up the good work, I’ll even write you a recommendation personally.”

Danni nodded noncommittally. The truth was, what she wanted more than anything was to go home for the summer. Yeah, she’d spend it dancing, probably volunteer to help Carolyn with whatever she was doing for the summer; but she would do it at home, with her parents, and her friends, and the people she had known since she was just a kid.

She would do it with Michael.

Funny how much he meant to her now that she was away. Danni hadn’t realized how important her partner really was until all these miles had separated them.

Suddenly, she was desperate just to hear his voice—to hear him telling her that no matter how bad things might have seemed, she was still where she was supposed to be, doing exactly what she was supposed to do.

In spite of the heavy load that both her books and her dance bag made—a load that, she had been assured, she wouldn’t have to carry all the time, since for the most part, her books would stay back in her room—Danni hurried back to the dorm. Her cell phone was exactly where she had left it, sitting beside her bed. She hadn’t wanted any distractions this morning; and anyway, if Michael got caught texting in class one more time, he was going to end up getting his phone taken away.

He wasn’t in school anymore.

Danni pressed the speed dial button that would get her her best friend, half praying in impatience until he picked up.

“Hey, Dragonfly.” The familiar voice rang over the line, cool, calm, and confident—Michael all over.

Danni bit her lip, suddenly unable to speak. What was she going to say to him? Hey, Michael, my first day was completely lousy. Wish you were here.

But it hadn’t all been bad…had it? After all, Mlle Kirby seemed to like her. And Madalyn was going to be a pretty good friend, if Danni could ever get past her tendency to gossip about everyone she knew.

“Hi, Michael,” she managed to get out, aware that the silence had stretched on for far too long. “How are you doing?”

“Missing you already.” But he said it so cheerfully that she knew he was all right. “How was your first day of classes? I was just thinking about calling you, but we hadn’t talked all weekend, so I wasn’t sure when you would be free. Wouldn’t want to interrupt dance practice or anything.”

“It’s over.” That was probably the best thing she could say for it: she would never have to go through this terrible first day again.

No, there was just tomorrow, with a whole new set of classes that she would have to scurry to find. At least tomorrow, she wouldn’t have to worry about the dance classes. She knew where those were.

Somehow, that wasn’t as comforting as it could have been.

“That bad, huh?” She could almost hear Michael slouching down on whatever piece of furniture was handy—and if she closed her eyes, she could picture it. He would have the phone propped between his ear and his shoulder, completely comfortable and at ease no matter where he was. As long as the conversation went on, he would be completely focused on the person on the other end of the phone.

Or, at least, he would be as long as it was her. If she had been beside him and it had been one of his girlfriends, on the other hand, she probably would have been teasing him—tickling his sides; running her fingers up his arm; anything that might distract him and get him to break the so-serious tone of the conversation.

“It…I just wish you were here.” She felt safer admitting that to him than she would have with anyone else. Michael understood her better than anyone else in the world. He would know that she wasn’t coming on to him, or making a pass. She just missed him—furiously.

“I will be next year,” he offered.

“Yeah, well, right now, next year seems like a really long way away.” Danni sighed. “I’ll be all right. And I think I may have made a friend. This girl, Madalyn, is really nice. I share a bathroom with her….” She chattered on for a few minutes, doing her best not to sound as though she was feeling sorry for herself. It wasn’t Michael’s fault that she had been miserable, after all—and it would just depress him if he thought the Academy wasn’t everything they had dreamed it would be.

“And I’m dancing pretty much all day every day, which is wonderful,” she added.

“That’s my girl.” There was genuine warmth and pride in his voice as he said the words. “I knew you’d find a way to make the best of things, even if today has been rough.”

“It’s definitely been that.” She sighed. “But tomorrow will be better—and next week will be even better than that.”

“And by this time next month, you’ll be insisting that you love it,” he agreed warmly. “Now—much as I’d love to keep talking to you, unlike you, I haven’t gotten to dance yet today.”

It was Monday—that meant Michael had class at six. Danni glanced at her watch, surprised—had they really been talking for more than an hour?

He laughed when she made that observation aloud. “You and me, on the phone for an hour? How on earth could that happen?” he teased.

Since they were usually together all day, the phone wasn’t actually necessary for the two of them; but Danni understood what he meant. On the rare occasions when one of them had been away from the other, they had been known to run up the minutes on their cell phone plans.

“Oh, go dance,” she told him, grinning. The smile almost felt right on her face again; and to her surprise, Danni realized that she had been grinning throughout most of the conversation.

“I miss you. It’s going to be weird in there without you,” Michael said seriously.

“Oh, yeah, it’ll be such a hardship—all those girls drooling over you,” she teased.

“Well, there is that.” He responded instantly, his own humor back in place. “After all, I’m such a desirable partner, you’ll be lucky if I’m still waiting for you by the time we’re together again.”

“Oh, you’ll wait for me,” she retorted immediately. “If for no other reason than because you’ll never find someone as good for you as I am.”

“Well, there is that.” Michael sobered suddenly. “Listen, Dragonfly,” he told her, and despite his use of the nickname, she knew that this was serious. “Things are going to get better out there. I believe that—and you should, too. God didn’t send you out there just to give you a hard time—and you and I both know that He sent you out there alone for a purpose. Keep watch for it, and trust that He’ll show you what it is when it comes, okay?”

“Okay.” No matter how many times she saw it, this serious Michael always surprised her. He was a true man of God, Danni knew—that was something that she had seen in him from the very beginning, and appreciated almost as long.

“I’ll be praying for you,” he promised fervently. “And hey—call again, okay? It’s good to hear your voice.”

“It’s good to hear yours, too.”

Danni hung up the phone with a smile on her face. She’d talked to Michael much longer than she meant to—she still hadn’t showered, and she had a lot of homework to get started on, after all—but it had made her feel a lot better to talk to him. She’d have to be careful, though. It would be easy to call Michael every day to get her dose of sunshine; and that was a good way to find herself putting off the things that she needed to do now, waiting for next year, when he was with her.

Tempting as that sounded, it also wasn’t the right road for her to travel. With a sigh, Danni got up off of the bed, stripping off her sweatshirt and slinging it toward her hamper as she walked.

Somehow, it didn’t surprise her when Madalyn chose that exact moment to tap on the connecting door to the bathrooms. “Hey!” she said cheerfully.

Danni turned, not the least bit embarrassed to be caught in her leotard.

“Oh, wow, you haven’t even had time for a shower yet, huh?” Madalyn frowned at her. “I’ll just leave you alone, then.”

“No, it’s okay—come on in.” Danni gestured to the foot of her bed. “I’m going to take a quick shower, but you can talk to me while I do.” She left the bathroom door cracked, stripping the rest of the way and slinging the leotard—now stiff with dried sweat—around it at the hamper without looking. If it missed, she’d pick it up later.

“So, who was that on the phone?” Madalyn asked curiously, as the water in the shower began to run. “Your boyfriend back home?”

“What? No!” Danni laughed at even the suggestion. “No, Michael’s not my boyfriend. My best friend, sure, but boyfriend? Not in this lifetime.”

“Oh.” Madalyn was quiet for a moment, then admitted, “it sounded like you were really into the conversation—that’s why I didn’t want to interrupt you.”

“I needed to hear a friendly voice.” Danni sighed, luxuriating in the hot water—though she didn’t take the time to enjoy it the way she would have if she had been at home. There were a dozen girls living in this dorm; if she used all of the hot water, most of them would be furious with her.

“I’m not friendly?” Thankfully, Danni already knew Madalyn well enough to realize that she was teasing.

“Not as friendly as Michael,” she shot back lightly.

The girls bantered back and forth as Danni showered—something that she’d never had the chance to do before, really. Oh, there had been friends in her dance classes from time to time; and when you changed in a locker room full of other girls, you got over any modesty issues in a hurry. She’d carried on shower conversations before, too, especially in those locker rooms.

This was different, though. More intimate—like something you’d only do with your best friend.

Danni smiled faintly at the thought. Wouldn’t her mother have had a fit if it had been Michael sitting in the other room? No, he was the one who had to wait downstairs on the sofa, patiently trying to make conversation with Lizzie while she finished up in the shower.

Funny, how much like a date that would have seemed to someone who didn’t know the two of them. Funny how Danni had never considered it before—and that it would occur to her now.

She wrapped a huge, fluffy towel around herself and padded on bare feet back to her bedroom. She was in for the night; so rather than dragging out another pair of jeans, she pulled out a pair of pajama pants and a T-shirt. Madalyn, she had noticed, was dressed the same way; this seemed fairly common for the girls when they were back in their rooms for the night.

“So,” she said cheerfully. “Want to do some homework with me?”