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Chapter Five: "What The Hell Is Wrong With Me?"

THERE WERE A crowd of people in front of the bulletin board. I wanted to push through to get to the front but Eduardo and Mary held me back, knowing that it will disperse soon. I haven't seen Lucas today and that made me wary. I liked seeing him, he seemed different, different than any guy I've ever known. There was something about him that made me want to know him better. Not that I even knew him.

A figure stood beside me and Zen leaned his head back against the wall, where a painting of a blue mermaid laid back and his head was on the end of her tail. "You think you made it?" He asked me in his deep voice.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I hope so."

He stood up straighter, crossing his leg over the other and crossing his arms. With the look on his face that usually looked as if he was sleepy, he smiled lightly. That's when I noticed that something was off with him. It wasn't just me who noticed too. Mary Anne looked at him closely, grabbing his face with one hand before sighing. "Again? I honestly thought you would give this up in senior year."

He licked his lips. "Old habits die hard."

Eduardo walked over, staring at his best friend before rolling his eyes. "I can't believe you."

Zen laughed a little longer than he should have. "Oh come on Ed, it was just a little. I didn't even smoke the whole blunt. It barely affected me." My eyes widened at what he said and I realized why he looked weird.

"I'm not the problem. I'm not even the one who'll get THAT mad. I don't care if it was a little, we're trying to look out for you. Think about Kim."

"Fuck Kim," Zen muttered. "She's busy all the time. Always talking about that stupid teacher Mr. Stiles." He muttered a few other things before walking off and I could see Eduardo struggle not to go after him before taking a deep breath, leaning against the wall.

There was a moment of silence between the three of us as people kept coming through the hall, checking to see if their name was on the list. "W-What about Kim?"

"What about her?" Eduardo asked me, closing his eyes briefly.

"Why did you tell him to think about Kim?" I asked, curiously.

Eduardo's eyes opened to look at his girlfriend. Mary Anne laid a hand on my shoulder. "Kim's dad died from a drug overdose when she was younger. Zen and her have been close since middle school. Last year Zen kind of started going to places and getting into the whole scene. He swore that he would stop because Kim didn't like it when he was like...that. It reminded her of her dad but-"

"But it looks like promises are meant to be broken unfortunately," Eduardo muttered, pushing his hair back. "Great now my mood is ruined. I'll be back, you guys can check if we made the team. That is honestly the last thing on my mind right now."

Eduardo trudged off with a hard look in his eyes. I could see Sarah coming towards us, tapping on her Samsung. "What's wrong with Eduardo?" She asked and I was shocked. How the hell could see tell when she was constantly on her phone?

"Zen." Mary Anne said and grabbed my arm. "Let's see if your name is on the list."

The crowd was small now, only three people looking up at the board. When they had left, Sarah, Mary Anne and I glanced at the board where the list was. I took a deep breath and looked through the names:

2014-2015 Hamilton Academy of the Arts Elite team

Captains

Matilda Dandan

Isaac Crow

Members

Ravi Kapoor

Hailey Franco

Andrea Capeletti

Eduardo Sanchez

Madison McHenry

Nikolai Ivanskov

Kaitlin Pender

Sydney Acosta

   Rita Smith    

Winifred Morocco

"You made it," Mary Anne exclaimed to me, giving me a hug. I stared at the paper, wondering if I was seeing wrong. Nope, my name was still on that list and I couldn't believe it.

"Whoa." I mumbled, fumbling for my phone in my pants pocket as Sarah took a picture of the list. I brought the phone up to my ear as Mary Anne let go of me and I gave her a smile. "Hey Wesley."

"Wait you sound excited," he mumbled. "I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Did Michelle say she was leaving and going to live with you? If you could take her I'd be very happy."

"Hey I'm right here you dipshit." She yelled and I could hear the movement in the background and the familiar noise of Wesley screaming for his life. After a couple of moments I heard Michelle speak through the phone.

"You're on speaker and Wesley is currently not available, tell me why you're in a good mood."

I closed my eyes and I could practically picture them wrestling and Michelle pinning Wesley down even with her skinny frame. He would let her win every time. "I made the team." I said with a large smile.

I moved my phone a good distance away from my ear as Michelle screamed and I could hear Wesley yell at her to shut up. "For god sake's woman, we're in a public place. Shut up!"

There was a couple more fumbles and shuffles as Michelle stopped screaming. "Congrats Sid. Michelle stop pulling on my hair, you raging lunatic."

"Thanks Wes. Michelle let go of him."

"Fine." She murmured but not before I could hear Wesley wince loudly.

"She said stop, you didn't have to hit me." he whined.

"She said for me to let go of you, she never said I couldn't hit you." I could picture the smug look on her face but I rolled my eyes.

"Okay guys I'll call you tonight."

"Bye!" Michelle yelled before I hung up but before hearing Wesley start to complain. They will never change.

Mary Anne, Sarah and I started walking towards the quad when I noticed Sarah had once again started texting on her Samsung. "Um Sarah?" I asked.

"Yeah?" she still didn't look up from the phone.

"Who are you always texting?"

"Oh you don't know," Mary Anne had a smirk on her face. "Sarah has a new boy toy."

Sarah's face flamed and she shoved her phone in her pocket. "He's not a boy toy, stop saying that." But she didn't sound mad, she had a smile on her face.

"Her boy toy," Mary Anne got a look from Sarah again. "Is this guy named Luke. They met over a job at a camp this summer where he was working with the soccer kids and they haven't stopped talking since."

Sarah looked incredibly shy about the subject, tapping her fingers against her pocket, waiting for the Luke guy to text her back. "Does he live in town?" I asked.

Sarah nodded. "Yeah he goes Bark-Ridge High." The name reminds me of that Jon Ming guy from Sunday. I wonder if he had already gone off to LA.

"Tell us more about him." Mary Anne demanded, hooking her arm around mine.

Sarah rolled her eyes behind her rimmed glasses. "I'm not telling you anything."

We sat down at the table. Luckily, five days into the school week was finally over. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zen hadn't appeared at lunch today but I certainly saw Lucas. We didn't talk but he flashed me a nod as he sat down at his desk beside that kid who wore sunglasses inside.

I followed a girl, Madison who had also made the elite team - a girl in grade eleven with short brown hair and brown eyes as she did an aerial in front of me and I did the same after her. We were in the middle of making a small duet using one of the two songs Mrs. Yousiff had left the contemporary class with to present of Tuesday. We were only in here for an hour before we could go home and home for me meant work and I was completely fine with that.

"Sydney." A voice called and I turned to look at Mrs. Yousiff who had been watching us. She waved me over and I carefully walked over towards, trying not to get in the way of other people's routines. "Let's step into my office."

She walked through a door in Studio A and I followed, down the hallway where other dance instructors who taught different classes sat down in their separate closed offices. Some were dark inside, letting on know they weren't there or probably teaching a class at the moment.

Mrs.Yousiff's office was at the end of the bright hallway filled with pictures. I noticed the different pictures of many dancers, famous dancers littered on the walls. It was pretty cool.

She sat down at her desk and I entered the room, closing the door and sitting down at one of the two chairs. There were certificates in the room, and I could see their own Regionals and Nationals trophy on a shelf along with an old World Championship trophy along with some others from competitions. There were a lot.

It made me feel a little bit homesick. I remember when we had won Regionals for the first time in years- three years ago when I was fourteen and how when we arrived after the long trip people had literally jumped on me in congratulations. I took a deep breath, pushing away the memories before focusing my attention on Mrs. Yousiff.

"Sydney, you've been told about Mrs. Cahill's proposition for the dancers here?" I nodded and let her continue. "Well it seems she found an interest in you and is wondering if you would be up for the offer." She handed me a card and it had Elizabeth Cahill's number and email.

My eyes widened, this day could not be getting anymore weirder. "Really? Me?"

A small smile came across her face and I hesitantly took the card. "Yes you. Apparently Lucas had put in a great deal for you also." Why would he do that?

"Wow...um, thank you." I said in shock and Mrs. Yousiff laughed.

"Do not thank me, Ms. Acosta."

"No -no-I mean thank you for putting me in this school and for putting me on the team."

She didn't say anything at first. All she did was regard me in her eyes and I didn't feel intimidated for once, I sat up straighter. "You deserve it." Was all she said and I nodded in gratitude before leaving the room, the card between my fingers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sydney, doing okay?" Mr. Moir asked, the owner of the store.

I nodded, giving the customer the receipt. It wasn't hard, I've done this for a while back home. "I'm good."

He laughed. "Well you're making the work seem easy for everyone including yourself. You should get a raise."

"I literally just started two days ago sir." I mentioned. He laughed even louder before going to the back before I turned around to face the next person in line.

My eyes widened and my breath was caught in my throat at Lucas who was looking down at the menu on the counter, tapping his fingers against the table and had earphones in his ears.

Shit, he was seeing me in this uniform. I was wearing the ugliest by far orange shirt and black pants not to mention the visor hat on my head with the store's logo on it.

The lighting made his freckles more visible and the beanie on his head was a knitted green one but he wasn't wearing his glasses. He wore jeans and a Tommy Hilfiger."Um...can I have two large pizzas, one cheese and one pepperoni?"

I struggled to say something. What the hell is wrong with me, I asked myself. "I-is that all?"

His head whipped up to face me and he seemed surprised too. He reached his hands up to fully pull out his earphones to focus on me. "Sydney, hey."

"Hey." I mustered out.

"I've been seeing you a lot huh?" he laughed a bit. I really liked his laugh and the way his dimples deeply indented as he did so. His smile could light up a room. "You work here?"

I nodded. "Got to make money for college somehow." I said, looking down at the counter, trying to avoid his eyes.

He reached in his pocket and pulled out the money I asked him for. "Keep the change."

I nodded, putting it in the register but Lucas didn't move to side instead he stood there, watching me. There was no one else in line anyway and I looked behind me to see some of my co-workers already making it and putting it in the oven. "So what college are you planning on going to?" He asked me.

"J-Julliard. In New York."

His eyes widened but his expression did not show any amount of surprise. "Wow, you'll make it for sure."

"Thanks," I shouldn't have said anything more but with the way Lucas was staring at me I wanted to talk to him. "Do you plan on going anywhere?" I asked him quietly.

Lucas shrugged. "We're in grade twelve. This is the time to think more about where you want to go after high school. There are tons of art programs especially in the states, some in Canada and in aboard especially but I haven't decided. Sometimes all this thinking does damage to my brain." He said that last sentence with a teasing smile when another person moved beside him.

"Lucas is the pizza done?" The voice asked. It was a voice of a child with a tinge of a different accent but I couldn't place it.

The little kid-well he was basically 5' nothing for his age was looking at Lucas with a concerned look. He had big blue eyes that reminded me of Mrs. Cahill and I could see a faint resemblance to Lucas when he talked and the dimples showed in his own cheeks. His brown hair was ruffled messily and he wore a bright neon blue sweater. He was absolutely adorable but I didn't think he would love it if I straight out said that.

Lucas looked down at the kid. "Soon." Lucas looked up, his eyes flickering between me and the boy. "Um, Sydney this is my youngest brother Phillip. Phillip this is Sydney, we go to the same school."

This was the kid that would be getting the lessons for his recital.

Phillip looked at me and regarded my appearance with a pouty face. When he looked as if he approved he smiled brightly at me. "Hi I'm Phillip and I'm eight years old, it's nice to meet you."

I smiled back at him. It was hard not to. "Hey Phillip, I'm Sydney and I'm seventeen years old. It's nice to meet you too."

"I like your hat." He pointed up to the visor on my head and I almost laughed.

"Thank you."

Phillip looked up at Lucas. "I want one."

"Phil if you want one, you're going to have to work here." Lucas said with an amused expression.

Phillip scowled or at least tried too. "I'm not working. Ivan told me that I'll never have to work a day in my life." I'm guessing Ivan was one of their brothers. The one that Kim's cousin was getting married to this November.

With the amount of money their family had I wouldn't be surprised if he never did. Lucas rolled his eyes. "Ivan is a stupid brother. Besides you came here with me to get a pizza instead of calling for one. We worked enough."

I couldn't help myself but I gave Lucas a look. "You didn't work."

Lucas turned to me and scoffed playfully. "Yes I did. Do you know how much work it took to pull him away from his games? It took time and effort."

"You're lying to yourself." I said with a burst of confidence.

"Sydney-"

"Are you two dating?" Phillip suddenly asked, looking confused as all I could think about was the way Lucas had said my name.

I quickly avoided Lucas' gaze, tracing the outline of the menu. Lucas laughed. "No we're not dating. We're just friends."

My head moved up to look at Lucas. "We're friends?" I had to ask.

"We're not friends?" he countered with a smirk that looked really good on his face. Stop thinking about his face, I told myself.

I took a deep breath. "Yeah I-I guess we're friends."

Lucas leaned in and my eyes widened and my heart quickened as his body was almost over the counter. His head moved to the side of mine, his lips near my head and I held my breath, trying very hard not to inhale. "You got the job you know? You can quit working here and give lessons to Phillip. My mum would pay much more than you can get here in a week or even a month."

"I-I don't even know. It's my mom. She'll start questioning and it'll lead to me never getting what I want. It happens all the time." I admitted, furrowing my eyebrows and keeping my eyes trained on the counter.

Lucas pulled back to look me right in the face. "Just call my mom's phone. She's very persuasive besides people's dance careers come to ends eventually. Some people become chorographers. This could be practice."

I could see Mr. Moir slide the pizza boxes on the counter and I took them handing them to Lucas. "I'll tell her."

Lucas observed me with his brown eyes before nodding. "I'll see you on Monday."

"Bye Sydney." Phillip said with a grin as they walked out the store. I sighed to myself as I watched his retreating back.