Chapter 10
For the first time in two years, Felicia had a good nights sleep. She didn’t have a good dream, but she didn’t have a bad dream either, let alone her reoccurring nightmare. Felicia woke up to the smell of breakfast and to the sun. She stretched, put on her robe and headed downstairs. She saw Denise was the one cooking breakfast.
“Hi.”
“Hey sweetie, I hope you like pancakes.”
“I love pancakes. Do you need any help?” Felicia asked, standing next to her.
“You could wake AJ up,” Denise chuckled. “He always tries to sleep in.”
Felicia laughed. “Okay.” She started to leave, but then stopped and turned around. “Um…where is his room?”
Denise laughed. “Sorry about that. It’s the room right after yours.”
“Thanks,” Felicia said and continued upstairs.
Felicia went past her room to AJ’s just like Denise said. She opened the door and saw he was still sleeping. Felicia just shook her head and went over to him. “Aaaaaalex,” she said, shaking him like he shook her in the car. He wouldn’t wake up. She tried again, but still, nothing. She looked around the room and found a sock. Muwahaha. She went over to pick it up and waved it over his face.
“I’m up! I’m up!” AJ yelled as he shot up from his bed. “That was nasty! Where’d you get that?”
“Your laundry basket,” Felicia said smirking.
“Oh….well, I’m up now.”
“Mom is making pancakes,” Felicia said, still able to smell them.
AJ could smell them too. “I’ll race ya there.”
“Okay, on the count of three. One, two…” Before Felicia could finish, AJ had already gotten a head start. “Not cool!” she yelled and ran after him. She caught up and got ahead, but before she could get to the table, he picked her up and put her behind him before sitting down. Felicia sat down next to him and stuck out her tongue. “Cheater.”
“Hey, I never said it would be a fair race,”AJ said. “Those pancakes smell good mom.”
“Thank you,” Denise said as she brought over a big plate of them and sat down.
“Wow…that’s a lot,” Felicia said, thinking even if she only ate her fair share she still wouldn’t be able to eat all of them.
“Don’t worry, Alex here eats a lot of them anyways,” Denise said, winking at Felicia.
AJ sighed. “I give up.”
Felicia giggled. “So um, what should I wear for today?”
“Um…a tank top, gym shorts, and gym shoes.”
“Okay…but my gym shoes are pretty dirty. I have some jazz shoes though.”
“That will work. Fatima will love you.”
“Who’s Fatima?”
AJ put too much into his mouth and no one could understand him. Felicia giggled. “I see what you mean mom.”
Denise laughed. “I think what he was trying to say was that Fatima is their choreographer.”
“Cool.”
“While you guys are at rehearsal, I will go check to see if your boxes came in yet. If they come in I will pick you up early so you can unpack.”
“Thanks,” Felicia said as she finished up. “When are we leaving?”
“Oh, in about a half hour,” AJ said, finally able to talk.
“Okay, then I am going to get ready.”
“If you want, bring something else to do incase you get bored.”
“Will do,” Felicia said, even though she didn’t think she would get bored. She put her plate in the sink and headed upstairs to get ready.
Denise dropped Felicia and AJ off at the studio. Felicia brought along her journal and a cassette player with her dance recital songs. Aside from management people they were the first ones there.
“I’ll introduce you to Lou before we see Fatima,” AJ said and lead her through the building.
“Okay,” Felicia said, feeling intimidated by all of the people in business suits. These guys are taller than Kevin. They arrived at Lou’s office and went in.
“Lou? Are you free?” AJ asked as they walked towards him. Lou looked up from his work.
“Sure.”
“Lou, I’d like you to meet Felicia, my sister,” AJ said, slightly pushing her ahead of him.
Lou stuck his hand out for her to shake. “It’s nice to meet you. You’re the reason why AJ had to leave us for a few days, eh?”
Felicia blushed. “I guess,” she said softly as she shook his hand. This dude doesn’t give off a good vibe.
“Is it okay if she hangs out during dance rehearsal?”
“I don’t see why not, just as long as she doesn’t get in the way.”
Now I KNOW I don’t like him.
“Don’t worry, I doubt she will,” AJ smiled. “Let’s go meet Fatima.”
Felicia nodded as they left.
After a couple of turns, they ended up at the dance studio part of the building, they walked inside, and Fatima was stretching.
“Hi Fatima,” AJ said as he and Felicia walked over.
Fatima got up and turned around. “Hi AJ. Who is this?” she asked, looking at Felicia.
“This is my sister, Felicia. We are fostering her until my mom fills out the correct paperwork.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Fatima said.
Felicia smiled. Compared to Lou, Fatima sounded like she meant it. “It’s nice to meet you too.”
“Is it okay if she dances with us today? She already knows how to dance and she brought her dance shoes,” AJ asked.
Fatima smiled. “Sure. How long have you been dancing for?”
“Seven years, but I took two years off.”
“That’s still a long time,” Fatima said, impressed that a girl that young has danced for that long.
“I have a feeling this is going to be a dance related conversation. I’ll go wait for the guys outside,” AJ said as he left.
“So, what kind of dancing did you do?” Fatima asked.
“Well, I did tap every year. One year I took hip-hop, for four years I took ballet and jazz, and for the last two I took lyrical.”
“That’s cool. Do you remember any of your dances? Just so I can see where you are so I don’t have you do stuff with the guys that you can't do.”
“Yeah…actually, I brought a tape of the songs too. AJ said to bring something to do incase I got bored, and this was the only tape I had,” Felicia giggled.
“That’s coincidental,” Fatima chuckled.
Felicia took out the tape. “It’s the first song on side A, and its already rewound.”
Fatima put it in, and Tina Turner’s version of “Proud Mary” blasted through the speakers. The fast part had just started as the guys came in, not making a sound. Felicia didn’t miss a beat. She finished, and heard a bunch of whistling from the back. She got up, saw the boys, and immediately blushed. “Thanks,” she said softly, not believing they saw her.
“Yeah, you are defiantly going to help Nick,” Howie said.
Nick didn’t respond this time because he was so impressed.
“Felicia, I think you can do what the guys are going to be doing,” Fatima said, winking. “Okay guys, warm-up time!”
Felicia heard all the groans coming from the guys as they brought over the mats from underneath the stereo. Brian brought one over for Felicia. “Here ya go.”
“Thanks,” Felicia said smiling.
Felicia noticed this was pretty much the same warm-up that she used to do, so she had no trouble doing it.
“Stretch on your own for five minutes, then we will start working on the dance for “We’ve Got It Goin’ On”,” Fatima said as she went to get water. Most of the guys were doing butterfly stretches or reaching for their toes. Felicia decided she was going to try to do the splits. Here we go. She managed to do both the left and right split for a couple of seconds.
“Ouch,” Brian said.
Felicia giggled. “It doesn’t hurt too much.”
“Ouch,” Brian confirmed.
Felicia giggled again as she went into a front split.
“I agree with Brian. Ouch,” Nick said, watching her.
Felicia giggled again. “Whatever you say guys.”
Fatima came back in. “Okay, let’s get started. Felicia, you can watch at first to see what they are doing.”
Felicia nodded and brought her mat with her over to the mirror and watched the guys doing the dance. She watched and listened and liked both the dance and the song.
“Are you ready?” Fatima asked.
Felicia nodded and stood next to Howie on the end
“Okay, when the guys go into the two rows, just do what Howie and Nick do.”
Felicia nodded as the music started once again. They worked on this for the rest of rehearsal. All of the guys were out of breath, but Felicia wasn’t.
“Considering that was your first time going through the dance, that was very good. You are welcome back to dance with us whenever you want,” Fatima said as the two girls walked over to the stereo. She handed Felicia back her tape.
“Thank you,” Felicia said. She went to put her mat away and got her cassette player and her journal. She saw Denise standing in the doorway. “Did they come in?” Felicia asked as she went over to her.
Denise nodded. “They are in my car right now.”
Felicia turned to the guys. “I’ll see you guys later.” The guys just waved as they guzzled down their water. Felicia giggled and left with Denise.
Two hours later, Felicia had unpacked all of her belongings. The day’s events were finally taking a toll on her body and she just lay down on her bed once she was done. Once she felt better, she took out her guitar and started playing around until she remembered “The Queen and the Soldier.”
AJ had come home by then, and the guys came with him to play video games.
“Nick, want to ask her to come play with us?” AJ asked.
“Okay, where is she?”
“Try her room. It’s right before mine,” AJ said as he and Brian were setting up the Nintendo system.
Nick headed upstairs. He was about to knock on her door, but then he heard her playing and singing.
He said, "I've watched your palace up here on the hill And I've wondered who's the woman for whom we all kill But I am leaving tomorrow and you can do what you will Only first I am asking you why."
Down in the long narrow hall he was led Into her rooms with her tapestries red And she never once took the crown from her head She asked him there to sit down.
He said, "I see you now, and you are so very young But I've seen more battles lost than I have battles won And I've got this intuition, says it's all for your fun And now will you tell me why?"
The young queen, she fixed him with an arrogant eye She said, "You won't understand, and you may as well not try" But her face was a child's, and he thought she would cry But she closed herself up like a fan.
And she said, "I've swallowed a secret burning thread It cuts me inside, and often I've bled" He laid his hand then on top of her head And he bowed her down to the ground.
"Tell me how hungry are you? How weak you must feel As you are living here alone, and you are never revealed But I won't march again on your battlefield" And he took her to the window to see.
And the sun, it was gold, though the sky, it was gray And she wanted more than she ever could say But she knew how it frightened her, and she turned away And would not look at his face again.
And he said, "I want to live as an honest man To get all I deserve and to give all I can And to love a young woman who I don't understand Your highness, your ways are very strange."
But the crown, it had fallen, and she thought she would break And she stood there, ashamed of the way her heart ached She took him to the doorstep and she asked him to wait She would only be a moment inside.
Out in the distance her order was heard And the soldier was killed, still waiting for her word And while the queen went on strangling in the solitude she preferred The battle continued on
“AJ invited us to play video games. Well, we sort of invited ourselves,” Nick said sheepishly. Felicia giggled. “Do you want to play with us?”
“I’d love to. I’ll be down in a moment,” she said.
“Okay, see you later,” nick said as he headed downstairs. Felicia watched him walk away. She looked over to where the guys were and saw they were having some difficulties setting up the system. Well, at least that gives me some time to change. For some reason though, her eyes drifted back over to Nick before she closed her door.
