Dancing for the Lord: The Academy (20 page)

Katarina probably wouldn’t see it that way.

He spent the night worrying about all of the nasty things that she might do to Danni.  He didn’t think she would resort to destroying the costume—that would be childish—but Danni’s pointe shoes might be fair game.  It would be next to impossible for her to dance a full ballet in brand new pointe shoes.  Or she could figure out that they’d been holding back some of the 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 and gasped.

“Nick!  What have you been doing?” she demanded worriedly. 

“Dancing.”  He was massaging his bad shoulder, but it wasn’t helping.  Actually, he was pretty sure that the pressure of his fingers was only increasing the pain. 

“You look like someone dragged you through the wringer!”

“I’m glad someone besides me has trouble finding the distinction,” he muttered.

“Who?”  There was a terrible anger in Danni’s warm brown eyes. 

“Who do you think?” he snapped back before he thought about it.

Danni didn’t even have to consider it.  “Allie.”  She shook her head.  “I thought we had managed to get around her.”

“She wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Nick explained bitterly.

“You didn’t consider explaining to her that you’d hurt your shoulder, so you couldn’t handle spending the entire morning going through your dance together?” she demanded. 

“Did I mention the refusal to accept the word no?”  He knew his temper was too sharp, and he was treating Danni to some of those edges.  It wasn’t intentional; he just didn’t have any self-control left.

Please, Lord, just let her forgive me when this is all said and done.  It’s going to be a miserable night if I’m fighting with both Allie and Danni.

She looked deep into his eyes for a moment, and Nick had the uncomfortable feeling that she saw not only the pain but the desperate longing, as well. “Come on,” Danni said gently. “We’ll get that shoulder iced and start praying that you’ll be functional tonight.”

“You believe in wishful thinking, huh?” he demanded irritably. 

“No—I believe in the power of prayer.”  Danni slipped her hand into his, squeezing reassuringly.  “Your place, or mine?”

“Is Kat at yours?”  He regretted the words the moment they were out.  How was Danni supposed to
know
whether or not Katarina was home?

“Probably.  We’ll head to your place.”  She kept his hand in hers as they walked there, a gentle reassurance that reminded him that even though he was hurting now, everything would be all right. 

They had two hours before they had to report to the theater to get dressed, and Danni insisted that Nick spend all of them resting.  She would have appreciated one last run-through; but looking at him now, she didn’t even suggest it.

It wasn’t possible that Allie had missed his increasing pallor, that she hadn’t seen how hard he was fighting to keep from flinching every time he moved his arm.  She could be dense all she wanted to be, but she wasn’t
stupid
.

That meant that she’d had her own reasons for pushing him anyway—and Danni had the sneaking suspicion that those reasons had a great deal to do with Katarina.  Determined to ruin the dance any way she could, she had gone to Allie—who, as far as
she could tell, had once been a friend of hers—and begged her to keep him busy for the morning.  She’d willingly hurt Nick as a jab against her—or maybe a jab against both of them. 

Danni’s jaw tightened.  Katarina could insult her all she wanted. She would even hold her silence while the other girl ran Nick’s reputation into the ground, because the best defense they as Christians had was to keep quiet even when someone was being nasty to them. 

She couldn’t just keep quiet while Katarina did something that would get Nick hurt. 

Of course, even as she worked herself up into a righteous fury, Danni didn’t know the half of it.  Katarina hadn’t just asked Allie to keep Nick busy.  She’d asked her to keep him busy—and then she had “warned” her that if he didn’t want to keep up the practice session, he would start complaining about some ailment or another.

“His shoulder doesn’t really bother him as much as he claims it does,”
she’d told the other girl—in absolute confidence, of course. 
“Push him.  You’ll see:  one way or the other, he’ll manage to do it even after he insists that there’s no way.”
 

And Allie had believed it.  Worse—she had eaten up every word of it.  It had been bad enough that Nick had closeted himself away with Danni over the past several days.  That had been insulting, as far as Allie was concerned.  He spent a lot of time scooping her up and swinging her around; and the fact that she hadn’t been able to practice with him for an entire week had infuriated her. 

Nick piled his pillows into the familiar configuration and eased down on the bed.  Danni had headed for the kitchen, instructing him to relax while she alerted his house
mother that she was there and grabbed his ice pack.  It gave him a few minutes alone—and prevented her from seeing just how much he was cringing as he shifted into position on the pillows.

This was comfortable. He had done this a hundred times, and once he had his shoulder supported, the pain started to ease.

Please, Lord, let the pain start to ease.  I can’t afford to hurt this much today—not today.  Not the day of the performance.  Please….

It would have been more reassuring if it wasn’t his own stupid fault.  He’d been stubborn, forcing himself through the motions of the dance even though he had known full well that he wasn’t up to it.  He knew better.  If he had just walked out, Allie might have had some nasty things to say, but she wouldn’t have been able to stop him.

He’d ignored his body’s warnings.  He had ignored weeks of experience with this particular injury, not to mention the certain knowledge that if he pushed himself too far, he was going to end up in too much pain to perform that night.

I was stupid, Lord, and now I’m paying for it.  I know I deserve it.  Just…let me be able to dance.
  That was the only thing he could pray.  He knew the pain wasn’t going to abate
enough
by the time he was due to report.  It was just a matter of whether or not he was going to be able to perform. 

He
had
to be able to perform.

Danni came in with the ice pack, carefully settling it around his shoulder for him so that he wouldn’t have to move.  She was very gentle as she eased down on the bed beside him, slipping her fingers into his.  “How’re you feeling?” she asked quietly.

As if she didn’t already know.  His face usually gave it away long before she asked the question.  “I’ll make it,” he told her determinedly—which, now that he thought about it, was probably what she was really asking.  “I’m not going to let this stop me from dancing tonight.”

Danni didn’t correct him—didn’t point out that that hadn’t been what she was asking.  She knew that the important part was that he was able to dance, just as much as he did.  They were professionals—or at least well on their way to getting there.  That meant that when the time came to dance, they danced.  “Anything I can do to help?” she asked cautiously.

Nick closed his eyes. “Stay with me?”  He hated to make the request.  There were probably a hundred different things Danni would rather be doing that particular afternoon—but he didn’t want to be alone. 

More than didn’t want to be alone.  He wanted Danni with him. 

“Of course.”  She squeezed his hand, slid a little bit closer to him so that her body was pressed along the line of his again.  “Just try to relax.  You’ll be all right.” 

“Come here.”  He slid his arm around her, coaxing her to lean down with her head on his good shoulder.  “Do you have any idea how much you help just by being here?”

“As much as it’s helped me to have you with me?” she wanted to know.

“Something like that.”  He rested his cheek on top of her hair and sighed, some of the tension finally flowing out of him.  “Thanks, Danni.”

“What are partners for?” she reminded him.

He smiled.  They sat in silence for several minutes, and then he asked, “Your parents coming in tonight?”

“No.”  That had been the greatest disappointment of all.  Her father had to work the next day, and if they came up for her performance, they wouldn’t get back in time for him to sleep at all.  All of them had offered their regrets, but there was, they’d insisted, nothing they could do about it. 

“That’s lousy.”  Nick cuddled her a little bit closer.  “I was hoping to meet them.”

“I’d like to introduce you, too,” she agreed.

He hesitated; but if he didn’t talk about something, he was going to go crazy, testing his shoulder every five seconds to see if he’d managed to get rid of some of the pain yet.  “And Michael?”

Danni smiled sadly.  “Dancing in
The Nutcracker
at home—and probably missing me rather furiously right about now.”

He checked the clock on the bedside table—a rather odd time for a performance.  “Why now?” he wanted to know.