Silver Shoes 2 (5 page)

The community centre looked like an elephant had trodden on it and there was faded graffiti all over the walls.

‘Nice place,' Tove said, grimacing.

‘Guess we'll soon find out,' I said.

Inside, it smelled like disinfectant and the corner of our garage where the rain leaked onto the old carpet.

‘You here for the hip hop rehearsal?' asked a
boy, appearing round the corner of a hallway that led off into dark, smelly depths.

‘Uhhhh … yes?' said Tove. She was totally out of her element.

‘Cool, down here,' said the boy. He opened a door to our right.

I watched as he walked ahead of us. ‘Do I know you from somewhere?' I asked.

He flicked his eyes at me but kept walking. ‘Don't think so,' he said. ‘Come on.'

There were some steps that led down into a  basement space. The walls were draped with  curtains and there were milk crates everywhere, and movable flats. They had reflective vinyl sheets on them so they looked like mirrors.

Apart from the boy, there were about ten other kids, mostly around our age.

I quickly looked around. Phew. Some of the kids weren't wearing shoes. I wouldn't be
either, because, well, I didn't have any. I was just going to use the excuse that I forgot, but I  thought that if some of the others weren't wearing shoes, maybe it wouldn't matter.

At least until the performance. But hopefully I'd be rolling in my own Danceworks Freestyle hip hop range by then.

When everyone was inside, sitting around on the crates, Jay did his thing.

‘Welcome to my palace,' he said. ‘Thank you for coming!'

It was a bit weird to see him outside of the Silver Shoes studios, even though he was still teaching us dance, like normal. He looked too clean and proper to be hanging out in a basement, although his friendly eyes and super smile were still the same.

‘This is my boy Ryan,' Jay clapped hands with a tall guy next to him, who I think I'd seen at the fundraiser event. ‘We're gonna put
together the best dance ever for this festival. We're closing the show, it's gonna be tight, it's gonna be crazy, it's gonna be fun! Who's ready?'

Everyone cheered, except Tove, who kind of squeaked.

The song Jay had picked was called ‘Son of a Gun' by Janet Jackson and Missy Elliott. It  was this really funky remix where all the girls were meant to be rich and the boys broke into our mansion to steal our money, except then we girls turned into monsters and scared them off.

There were all these cool hand clap rhythms, which Jay told us was our chance to ‘really hit it', and the song had a soft, constant drum-beat that set the pace.

It was quite scary-sounding and there were lots of creepy sound effects like tap drips and echoes and electric guitar riffs. ‘Use all these
sounds to get into monster mode,' Jay told us. ‘Own the sounds, the creepiness.'

It was crazy fun. The dance was a softer style of hip hop with lots of pauses for effect. Sometimes it even seemed a little contemporary with strange body shapes and stilted movements.

Tove was really funny when she first tried to be a monster.

‘You look like a chicken coming out of its egg, not a zombie lady who wants revenge,' I said.

‘I'm so embarrassed,' said Tove. ‘How do I act all dead and angry? I've never been dead before.'

‘Just think of how you feel when Miss Caroline makes us go over a dance for the hundredth time because
one
person is behind the beat,' I said.

Jay taught us the whole dance in the first
rehearsal, except for a sequence at the end. It wasn't as tough as it had sounded because there were sections where the boys danced for 32 counts while we were offstage, and then we came on and danced for 32 while they had to pretend to be scared and hide.

There was also partner work towards the end. I was put with the boy we'd met at the start. His name was Benji.

At first I felt a bit shy but he was a really good partner, even if sometimes his back was kinda stiff – unlike poor Tove who kept bumping into her partner and scowling at him.

‘You're really good!' said Benji. ‘Where do you dance?'

‘At Silver Shoes,' I said.

‘Oh yeah, I know someone from there,' he said.

‘Who?' I said.

He went a bit pink. ‘Never mind,' he said.

‘Do you dance other styles?' I asked, trying to make him feel comfortable.

Benji went pinker. ‘Oh yeah, a few,' he said. ‘Hey, you wanna go over that last eight count?'

I knew well enough when someone doesn't want to talk.

‘Sure,' I said.

When we'd finished rehearsing I was exhausted! The ground wasn't sprung floor-boards like at Silver Shoes and my bare feet didn't exactly provide a lot of padding.

But still, I felt right at home, and I knew if I wanted to keep the feeling going, there was one thing I really had to do:

I had to ask Mum about new shoes.

Mum was in the kitchen, chopping up carrots. I say chopping, but she was more hacking at them while reading something written in a notebook.

‘You'll chop off your finger,' I said.

‘Hmm?' she said.

‘You'll cut your finger,' I said.

‘Oh,' said Mum. ‘Bit of extra flavour. I'm doing a roast. Aunty Liz gave me this cut
of lamb. The butcher gave her extra.'

‘Did you have a good day?' I asked, picking up a potato and cutting it into cubes. Mum and Dad like them cut in half but there's this special spice Bridget puts on the potatoes and it tastes better when they're in cubes.

‘What? Oh it was okay. Busy. Be careful with that knife.'

‘It's nice you're making dinner,' I said.

Mum looked up for a second. ‘Yes, well, I feel a bit bad sometimes, leaving you girls to fend for yourselves. It will be lovely to have a good family meal.'

Bridget came in then.

‘You'll cut your finger,' she said to Mum, who was still mutilating the carrots.

‘Oh stop fussing,' said Mum. ‘Did you have a good day? Not seeing Brimax tonight?'

‘He's at some hip hop thing,' Bridget said. ‘That's all he goes on about lately. Seems
to be in the air.' She gave me a wink.

Mum tipped the carrots into a bowl and dragged over some pumpkin. ‘That's nice,' she said. ‘Shall I take the skin off or leave it on?'

‘Off,' said Bridget.

‘Ash is becoming a real little hip hopper, or so I heard,' said Bridget.

‘Yes, I've been meaning to ask,' said Mum. ‘How are you going with it, Ashy?'

‘It's so much fun, Mum,' I said. ‘I'm going  to  be in a hip hop festival in a few weeks!'

‘Didn't take you long,' said Mum, looking up and smiling at me.

‘Do you want to come and watch?' I asked.

Then I wanted to take it back. Mum and Dad hardly ever see me dance. They're always working. I know they kind of have to, but sometimes when I see Paige's mum fussing over her and Riley's parents cheering and
waving in the audience, I get a bit sad.

I guess I'm a pretty good dancer and it would be nice for them to see that, and to see how much I love dancing. I always tell them it's fine that they can't come. But I know they would go if I said I really wanted them there.

‘When is it?' said Mum, cutting the skin off the pumpkin, and half the pumpkin with it.

‘It's in a few Sundays time,' I said. ‘In the evening.'

‘Sure,' said Mum. ‘If I'm not doing the Sunday shift at the club. It's very busy on Sundays.'

‘I'll be there,' said Bridget, taking the potato cubes and dumping them into the bowl with a little more force than she probably needed to. ‘I wouldn't miss it for the world, Ash.'

‘There's one other thing.'

‘Hmm?'

I poked at the carrot and potato. ‘I need
some new shoes for it,' I said.

Mum frowned. ‘Why?'

‘The sole came off my old ones,' I said. ‘Jay is doing all the costumes for the performance but I need these special high top shoes for it. Everyone has to have them. And I can keep using them in class afterwards.'

‘How much are they?' Mum studied the pumpkin like it was still on the vine, growing before her eyes.

‘Um,' I said. ‘About a hundred bucks. For a good pair.'

‘A hundred dollars?' said Mum. She began to cut the pumpkin again. ‘I don't think so.'

‘But I need them,' I said.

‘Sure you do. Wear your sandshoes.'

‘That won't win any cool awards,' I joked.

‘I'm sorry, Ash, but that is out of our price range at the moment. You'll have to think of something else.'

Oh well. Worth a try. It was lucky I
did
have something else up my sleeve.

I had quite the collection now for my planned hip hop shoot. But I had to get onto it quickly because the closing date for sub missions was next week!

The next time I was at Silver Shoes I did a final hunt around the costume and props rooms for anything I could use for the shoot. I was running out the door with a large armful when I crashed into someone.

‘Oh, whoops!' I said, as my armful of clothes tumbled to the floor. ‘Sorry!'

Then I realised who it was.

‘What are you doing here?' I asked.

‘Oh, hi, Ashley,' stuttered Benji. ‘Um …'

‘You never said you danced at Silver Shoes,' I said.

‘Well, I don't, not really,' said Benji.

I looked at his clothes. And his sweaty face.
It
looked
like he'd been dancing.

‘Just been running around the block then, have you?' I said.

Benji shifted his feet. He was wearing
very
dance-ish pointed shoes. They even had small heels.

‘I like your high heels,' I said.

Benji scowled. ‘They're
character
shoes,' he said, crossing his arms.

‘If you say so,' I teased.

Benji's hair was also slicked back to the max. ‘Your gel helmet is pretty cool, too,' I said. ‘At least your head will be protected if you fall over.'

‘It's for ballroom,' Benji snapped. ‘I do ballroom classes. I don't
like
it. Mum makes me. Don't tell anyone at hip hop.'

‘Oh,' I said, ‘you're Paige's ballroom partner! I saw you rehearsing with her once.'

‘We're dancing in a junior comp next week,' said Benji. ‘That's what we were just practising for.'

‘Paige didn't say she was in a comp,' I said.

‘Well, she likes doing ballroom about as much as I do,' said Benji. He frowned. ‘But that's because she does a million other classes.'

‘Yeah, she doesn't talk about it much,' I said. ‘Are you excited about the comp?'

‘Ugh,' said Ben. ‘It's all Mum's friends staring at me like vultures and swamping my head in hairspray. Like a whole bottle for one style. I hate that stuff. My hair isn't going to move. I don't even have that much of it!'

I laughed. ‘I'd like to see that.'

‘Come and watch if you want,' said Ben. ‘If Paige doesn't mind. It'd be good to have some friendly faces there.' He started heading down the hall. ‘See you at hip hop practice?'

‘Wouldn't miss it,' I said.

Because of my chat with Benji, I was late for jazz class, and I was still half pulling on my tatty slippers when I entered the room. I lined up next to Riley, who had a huge bruise on her leg.

‘Basketball,' she said, when she saw me looking at it. ‘Don't be fooled by the name Saint Therese's Primary. They aren't saints.'

‘Are you okay?' asked Paige, who'd caught the conversation.

‘Are you?' I teased. Usually Paige looks like a doll, but today she looked like she'd been thrown around the room all afternoon by a toddler. She and Benji must have really been busting out the tango moves.

‘I'm tired,' she confessed.

‘I told you to have more lollies,' Ellie said, looking up from where she was stretching. ‘I have that giant bag. If you don't eat them, Lucas will hunt them out and get hypo on too
much sugar.' Lucas is Ellie's little brother. He's way cute.

‘I heard you have a comp coming up,' I said to Paige. ‘Next week.'

Paige brushed her blonde curls out of her eyes. ‘How do you know that?' she asked.

‘I ran into Benji,' I said.

‘Ooooooh,' said Ellie. ‘
Benji
.'

‘How do you know him?' asked Paige.

‘He's in that hip hop thing I'm doing,' I said. ‘You're lucky to have him as a partner. We dance together in the hip hop class and he's great. Really nice, too.'

‘I bet he's nice when he's got two girls to choose from!' teased Riley.

‘Yuck,' said Ellie. ‘I'm not going to have any time for boys when I'm older. I'm going to be married to dance.'

‘How did you run into him anyway?' asked Paige.

‘I was getting some stuff from the costume room for the shoot and I bumped into him,' I said.

‘I forgot about that!' said Paige. ‘You're doing that tomorrow, right? Do you need some help?'

‘Sure,' I said.

Silence. I could feel everyone trying not to look at Ellie. Paige did some stretches. Riley studied her bruise. I pretended to fix my fringe.

‘Oh come on, guys,' Ellie finally said. ‘It's fine. I'm not going to enter the competition anyway.'

I risked a look at her. I knew our friendship was already on thin ice. I really liked Ellie and I didn't want to ruffle any feathers.

‘Really, it's fine,' Ellie said. ‘It's stupid anyway. I don't need a new hip hop wardrobe, I don't even do hip hop. And, like, I'm so
busy with my musical theatre stuff … and …' She  sighed. ‘Paige told me about your idea for the shoot, Ash. It sounds really fun. I'd like  to help too. I can do your hair and make-up if you like.'

‘I would love that,' I said.

‘Cool,' said Ellie, and she went back to stretching as if she'd been on my side all along.

I was playing it cool, too, though. It meant a lot to me that Ellie wanted to help with the shoot.

It made me feel like I had really found my place at Silver Shoes.

It made me feel like I belonged.