Silver Shoes 2 (4 page)

‘
This
is your dressing room? Ugh. It looks like where someone would go to die.'

Indianna and Daisy! Spies from Dance Art. At
our
school! And even worse, Jasmine and Tove were trailing behind them. They'd actually let the enemy in!

‘What are
they
doing here?' Riley said.

‘Oh,' said Jasmine. ‘Hi.'

‘Bye,' said Riley.

‘Not only is this school poor, it's also unfriendly,' sniffed Indianna. Her lips looked extra pouty today.

‘What are you doing here?' asked Ellie again.

‘Jasmine's mum ran us home from school,' said Daisy. ‘We're waiting to get picked up.'

‘Wait outside,' said Riley.

‘We don't want spies in here,' added Ellie.

‘Too late,' said Indianna, looking at me. ‘Oh, hi again, Ashley. Where's your protector this time?'

‘Waiting with the hose,' I said. ‘You look like you need cooling down again.'

‘As if we came in here to spy,' said Daisy. ‘Like there's anything to steal around here. It's an old church.'

Silver Shoes is in an old church, but it isn't as bad as Daisy suggests. It was a huge church
to begin with, and it's been renovated, with mirrors and new shiny wood.

It's also divided into three different studios: two main ones in the church and a smaller one in the old hall out the back. There are lots of long corridors that seem to lead nowhere. Even though it's kind of kiddie, Paige and I have often played hide-and-seek in the dark rooms and shadowy hallways.

‘Maybe it wasn't a good idea to let them in, Jasmine,' said Paige. ‘I'm not sure Miss Caroline would like it. We do go up against them at comps and stuff.'

Jasmine sighed. Out of all of us, she probably likes Paige the best. That's because Paige is rich, and so is Jasmine. Their mums hate each other, though, which they both find embarrassing, so they have this uneasy truce.

But Jasmine had her minions today. Jasmine, Tove, Indianna and Daisy go to
the same rich girls' school. And so that meant bad news for Paige.

‘How's your boyfriend, Paige?' asked Jasmine. She twirled her long caramel ponytail and looked out slyly from the corner of her eyes.

Paige went beet-red. ‘What?'

‘Didn't I see you dancing with some boy the other day?'

‘He isn't her boyfriend, he's her dance partner,' said Ellie. The freckles across her nose were standing out; it always happens when she gets angry. ‘Duh. Some of us want to try new styles to better ourselves. Others are just happy with the same old stuff.' She made a point of looking at all four of them. ‘Whether they're good or not.'

‘Guess that's why at the last comp I beat you,' said Jasmine.

‘Where's that grace dancers are meant to carry themselves with?' I said.

‘What class are you all about to do, anyway?' asked Indianna. ‘Jazz, just boring old jazz? Not all these new styles you're trying to do? Hip hop?' She blinked her long lashes at Ellie. ‘Musical theatre? Ballroom?' This one was to Paige. Then she looked at Riley. ‘Whatever you do.'

‘State athletics team, long jump, triple jump, and two-hundred-metre champion,' said Riley. ‘But you should know. Weren't you at the inter-schools athletics carnival this year? You know, you were the team that dropped the baton in the relay? If I remember right.'

Indianna seemed shocked but then she looked at her minions and made a quick recovery. ‘Like I care about some relay,' she said. ‘I go to Dance Art Academy. I'm going to be a famous dancer.'

‘Don't see why you're hanging around here then,' said Riley.

‘I just thought that was normal,' said Indianna. ‘I mean, look at Ashley. She started hanging around here. Why was that again? Oh. Because she couldn't afford to stay at Dance Art.'

‘It's none of your business why she did or didn't leave,' said Paige. ‘And we love having her here anyway.'

‘Why? Because she makes you all look good?'

‘Or because she thinks she's going to be the new face of the Danceworks dance range?' sniffed Jasmine.

Gosh. There are no secrets in dance school! Jasmine must have had her spies out to learn I was going to enter the competition. I hadn't even told Ellie yet!

‘Why would they pick anyone like you?' said Indianna. ‘They're not going to choose
some school-swapper. Or someone who can't even dance.'

‘You're very hung up on the fact that Ashley left Dance Art,' said Riley. ‘Probably jealous. Why else would you be here now? I think you're the spy, and you're trying to find out what it is that makes Silver Shoes so much better than Dance Art.'

‘Ugh,' said Daisy. ‘We've got better things to do.'

‘So have we,' said Riley. ‘Now, if you'll excuse  us, I think we've breathed enough germs for one day.' She shut the dressing room door in their faces.

‘I hope they're gone when we go out to class,' said Paige.

‘Jasmine's gonna get in so much trouble from Miss Caroline for bringing them inside,' said Ellie, gleefully.

‘It's sad if they've got nothing better to do  than to come in here and be all snotty,' said Riley.

‘Are you really entering the Danceworks competition?' Ellie asked me.

‘Yep,' I said. ‘Sorry. I know you want to, as well.' Ellie was quiet for a moment. It was like watching a volcano – would she erupt or just simmer along quietly? I felt like our friendship was hanging off what she'd say next.

‘Oh well, good luck, I guess,' she finally said. But she didn't look at me.

‘Well, Ash,' said Riley, jumping in, ‘you're lucky you did come to Silver Shoes. Imagine if you'd stayed at Dance Art. You'd turn out like
them
.'

‘Oh, the horror,' I joked.

‘Have a snake,' said Paige, holding out the packet. ‘You can pretend it's Indianna and Daisy's heads.'

I grabbed two and took a big bite. Snakes never tasted so good! But when I became the best hip hop dancer ever, and the face of the Danceworks Freestyle range, I knew it would taste even better.

All week I'd been watching hip hop videos on YouTube, to the point where Bridget got angry at me because she said I was using up all the download limit.

‘Sorry,' I said, but when she was cooking dinner, I got Brimax to help me with a playlist of the ‘best hip hop songs ever'.

‘These are the must-haves,' he said proudly, handing me the iPod. ‘And so begins your education.'

I turned the iPod on and jammed along to all my new songs while I was cleaning out the costume room at Silver Shoes. It was shaping up well, and I was getting a nice little pile of outfits for my shoot. On top of that, I couldn't believe I was up to my third hip hop class already!

Jay made us stretch a lot. It wasn't like jazz, though, where you spend a lot of time doing one stretch, and you switch cleanly from one to the other. Jay's style was really fluid. It reminded me of yoga, which I'd seen Bridget doing in her bedroom (when she thought no one was watching).

‘'Cause we gotta get limber,' Jay said, as we did side lunges, bam, bam, bam, left to right with barely a pause. Then we did ten minutes just on abs. I was used to that, because we did a lot of core work in jazz, but my abs were grumbling at me by the end.

I looked over at Tove, and she pulled a face like she felt my pain. It made me laugh, which made my abs hurt more.

As soon as we got up to dance, my shoe decided to fall apart. The whole sole of my left Chucks began to peel away, and a big split appeared on the side. I tried to keep dancing with it, but Jay's eyes were as sharp as his moves.

‘Lose the shoes, Ash,' he said to me while the others were getting a drink. ‘You look like a seagull flapping about.'

Of course once the shoes were gone and I got over the embarrassment of being barefoot (no one noticed anyway), I found myself hitting everything that Jay showed us. I was getting familiar with my own hip hop style and the moves came out the way my body told them to, instead of me trying to mimic everyone else.

There was even partner work in the sequence that Jay taught us.

Guess who my partner was.

Guess.

Tove.

I thought she would drop me, because she had to catch my hands and help flip me over so I did a mini somersault in the air. Then we both did a front aerial.

It sounded scary but we practised on the mats first, and having someone else's hands supporting me and holding me up meant it was unlikely I'd go splat on the floor.

Plus I'd done gymnastics for a few years when I was younger, so I was pretty good at tricks or anything acro.

Tove and I kept hitting it, over and over again, and eventually Tove was flipping me over so fast and we were doing our aerials in
sync that Jay started hollering, ‘Look at Cirque du Soleil over here!'

You know what? I started to feel like Tove and I could be friends. I guess having someone stop you from face-planting into the floor makes you start liking them a bit.

Jay called us over after class. ‘Girls, girls!' he  said. ‘Killing it! Those flips! You come straight from the Olympics or what?'

‘I'm an undercover gymnast,' I said.

‘I'm just naturally good,' said Tove, but she was joking. Who knew she had a sense of humour hidden under that Jasmine-inspired scowl!

‘So I've got a proposition for you,' said Jay.

‘A what?' said Tove.

‘I wanna make you an offer,' Jay said.

‘Ten million bucks,' I said.

‘Keep dreaming,' said Jay. ‘I'll give you ten dollars.'

‘This better be good then,' I joked.

‘You'll love it!' said Jay. ‘Listen up. There's a hip hop festival coming up in about a month.'

‘I know!' I said. ‘I went to the fundraiser night for it. It looks awesome!'

‘Look at you, all down with the battles,' said Jay.

‘I'm G,' I said, which was something I'd heard them say in one of the dance movies I'd watched.

Jay laughed. ‘You're not G, but you both know how to hit it. So I want you to be in the junior crew I'm putting together. I got asked to choreograph something for the final showcase. You in?'

‘I'll have to ask my mum,' said Tove, ‘but I think it will be fine.'

‘We'll be rehearsing the Sundays leading up to it,' Jay said. ‘Maybe extra if we need to.'

‘Is there a cost involved?' I asked.

‘Nah,' said Jay. ‘You just gotta turn up and show me what you got.'

‘Okay,' I said, ‘sounds good.'

‘Good?' said Jay.

‘It sounds exciting!' I said.

‘I'll ask my mum and let you know tomorrow when I'm here for jazz. Will you be around?' asked Tove.

‘I'm always around,' said Jay. ‘Miss Caroline won't let me leave.'

‘Cool,' said Tove. ‘See ya then.'

‘See ya,' said Jay to her flying braids as she ran out the door. He turned to me. ‘You in, AshFunK?'

‘Definitely,' I said.

‘That's the way,' said Jay. ‘But, Ash? You gotta get some new kicks.'

‘Kicks?'

‘Shoes,' said Jay. ‘You gotta work some funky high tops.' He pointed at my torn, dirty
Chucks in the corner. ‘I think they've danced their last step. Those babies are done.'

‘No problem,' I said. ‘I'll see what I can come up with.'

I knew what I would come up with. Nothing. Or a pair of Bridget's old, dirty netball sneakers.

Unless, of course, I won the Danceworks comp.

But I'd deal with that later. Because:

I had a crew!

I was going to dance in a hip hop competition!

A lack of shoes wasn't going to hold me back!