"Hey," I mouthed to her, her lips formed a tight smile and returned the greeting.
My gaze went around the room as I noticed my palms were wet. My partner wasn't even able to look at me without having to glimpse away; dancing with her was not going to work too well at this rate. We were totally going to stumble into a domino effect with everyone around us.
"Now boys have your left hand out and girls hold onto their hand like so. Then, boys, put your right hand on their lower back. And girls put your left hand on their shoulder," Mr. M instructed with the help of one of the female teachers.
I could feel Rachel tense up as I put my hand on her lower back little by little with her hand on my shoulder. She was barely touching me, never really had this problem with a girl before. Her chest was moving noticeably faster, big breaths almost as if she was trying to calm her nerves.
"Loosen up, Rachel," I whispered, running my thumb over her fingers.
"I'm calm," she responded, bringing up her eyes so that they were meeting with mine.
Neither of us spoke as some of the worse music I had ever heard started to fill the room. Some started to giggle when they heard the music. Who would in their right mind listen to this? It sounded a little bit like elevator music. We started to dance once we got the wicked death glares from the teachers about making fun of the music. Apparently this was what they thought good music was, and this was what they listened to on their free time…
We danced for about two hours rocking back and forth until we were taught how to spin the girls and bring them back in. It took about another two hours for everyone to be able to get the combination right. A few guys had to be dealt with as they were purposely dropping or tripping the girls during the moves. We danced for a little more. I spun Rachel out and she came right back to me slightly awkwardly, but still well which didn't surprise me at all considering how her willful personality made her work on things until whatever it was done, was done right.
One of the teachers finally said that we could go to dinner and we all stampeded out of the room as fast as we could in an attempt to get away from it all. I grabbed onto Rachel's hand and dragged her back to the dining hall so she could get through before she could object. When we got to our tables we all just collapsed in our chairs. I think my feet were about to go off and protest because of the abuse they just went through. If I never had to dance again it would be too soon.
"If you all would have bothered to listen," started the same teacher who said we could go to dinner. "Instead of dashing out of there like a herd of animals, you would have heard me say that dinner will be served in your rooms tonight."
So we all went to our rooms on our tired feet. I opened the door for Rachel, which she seemed happy about, and that made me smile. I made sure to double check this morning that I had my key with me when we left just in case she wanted to lock me out again. I was not about to play that game once again. She crossed her arms over her chest, her hands rubbing her arms gradually.
"Cold?" I asked taking a couple of steps closer to her.
"Always."
"Now that's not right," I responded, wanting to wrap my hands around her shoulders. Shaking my head, I sat on the bed grabbing the remote because she was not going to let that happen. "So before the food arrives let's find something on TV to watch," I change the topic, keeping my eyes off of her.
Some action movie that I had seen parts of was on so I stopped flipping when there was a knock on the door. I beat Rachel to the door as I brought in the two plates, placing them on the bed since there was no table. She sat across from me with her legs folded under her as we ate the quick meal before us. Rachel started to laugh at a line a character said.
"Didn't take you as an action movie kind of girl." I chuckled, pointing a fry at her.
Rachel rolled her eyes. "You really need to learn to get to know people, before you judge them," she stated, picking up a piece of breaded chicken.
"Hey, I'm a lot better than most of our grade," I shot back at her.
She raised an eyebrow cocking her head at the same time. "Don't judge your behavior off others."
"You do know you're fifteen right?" I questioned, taking a big gulp of my drink.
"I think I know how old I am."
"You're too mature at times," I started, but she sighed. "So how are your stories?"
She raised an eyebrow swallowing the food she was chewing on. Putting her hand over her mouth once the food was gone she answered.
"You remember that?" she asked another question instead of answering the original question.
"Yeah, you were the reason we got more essays in seventh grade, how could I forget?"
She gazed down with her cheeks turning pink. "Yeah sorry about that, but yeah I'm still working on a few things."
"What I stole from you in eighth grade was actually pretty good."
She laughed. "Yeah, still can't believe you stole one of
