LITMIR.BIZ

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bus was coming.

      As Tristan and Julian walked out of school, Julian couldn’t stop laughing. “Did you see Ms. Mullen’s face?”

      “Yeah, but she still didn’t give you any marks for it!” Tristan said, laughing at him.

      “Oh, who cares!”

      “Oh no, there’s the bus! We’ve missed it …”

      “No, we haven’t,” Julian said, breaking into a run. “Come on, hurry!”

      “We are so not going to make it.” Tristan started running anyway. The bus driver waited for them patiently. They were out of breath as they got on the bus.

      “Thanks,” Julian said, smiling at the bus driver.

      “Come on, we can sit here,” Tristan called impatiently. “Oh, did you know we have rehearsal today?”

      “What?” Julian was confused. He sat down beside Tristan, and Alexandra moved over to make room for him. “I thought we didn’t have rehearsal until tomorrow? It’s always on Saturday, isn’t it?”

      “No, we have rehearsal tonight, after class, for Rose and Sugarplum and Arabian leads, and Russian,” Alexandra explained. “No Dmitri yet, though, because they’d have to pay him. It’s leads and corps together that are rehearsing tomorrow.”

      “Oh,” said Julian. “Are we going to have time to go home and get dinner?”

      “No, there’s only an hour break,” Tristan answered as he wrestled his lunch out of his backpack. “We can go get sushi, though. There’s a really good place right next to the academy.”

      “Cool.”

      “Do you want to come with us, Lexi?” Tristan asked casually.

      “Um, I’ll see okay?” Alexandra answered. “I think I might be going to get dinner with Grace. But I really want sushi, so maybe I’ll come with you anyway.” She shot a glance to the front of the bus, where Anna and Grace were sitting together. She took her juice box out and jabbed the straw in violently.

      “Okay, cool,” Tristan said, making an effort not to look at her.

      “Hey, are you guys going to get sushi later?” asked Taylor from the seat in the corner. Julian looked up, surprised.

      “Yeah, wanna come?” he asked. Tristan kicked him.

      “Where’s Kaitlyn?” Tristan asked Taylor pointedly.

      “Oh, she’s sick,” said Taylor happily. “She phoned me last night and asked me to tell everyone that she can’t come in today because she’s, like, sick. I would really like to come. I love sushi.” She smiled brightly at Julian. Tristan groaned and sank into his seat, sprawling his legs into the aisle. Alexandra ignored them and concentrated on her juice box.

      As they went into the changing room, Tristan punched Julian on the shoulder. “Ow, what was that for?”

      “Getting in touch with my ‘masculine side.’ Why did you have to invite Taylor?” He rummaged through his locker for a clean shirt, picked one up, and smelled it. “Ugh!” he threw it back in and tried another. “I mean, she’s so annoying. It would have been cool with just the three of us.”

      “Oh,” said Julian. “Sorry. I didn’t know you didn’t like her. She just seemed like she really wanted to come.”

      “Yes, that doesn’t mean you have to invite her!” said Tristan patiently. “And I didn’t say I disliked her. I just said that she was annoying.”

      Kageki leisurely wandered into the changing room.

      “Where were you?” Tristan asked.

      “I missed the bus?”

      “Do you—” started Julian.

      “Jules, do you have an extra shirt?” Tristan asked quickly, cutting Julian off. Julian gave him an annoyed look.

      “No!”

      “That’s okay.” Tristan smiled sweetly.

      Walking up the stairs, Julian whispered angrily to Tristan, “I thought you and Kageki were tight!”

      “We are! That doesn’t mean that the whole school has to come with us. Try to hurry after class, okay? Maybe we can ‘accidentally’ forget that Taylor wanted to come.” Julian sighed.

      Upstairs, all the girls were putting on their pointe shoes. “We have Mr. Moretti today, apparently,” Tristan said. “I am too tired for his class today.”

      “I don’t like his class,” Julian said, putting his soft shoes on the wrong feet and trying again.

      “You just don’t like him because of how he says your name,” Tristan laughed. “Juuuuliiiiiaaaan.”

      “No, I just don’t like his class.” Julian was defensive. He was still annoyed at Tristan. He rolled into the middle splits and put his earbuds in.

      Mr. Moretti came into the class without anyone realizing. He stood there for a few minutes, waiting to see if anyone would notice. As they continued to talk and stretch, he frowned and walked to the centre. “Children,” he said quietly. “Is this a coffee shop? Would you like some tea perhaps? Coffee? Possibly a cookie?” They quickly unplugged and started shedding layers of clothing. “Had a good lunch, baby?” he asked Angela, smiling sweetly at her. “It looks it.” He walked to the barre and began leading class. “One, two, in, point your footsies, babies!”

      After class, Julian turned to Tristan. “Is it just me, or does Mr. Moretti totally creep you out?”

      “Oh, it’s just Mr. Moretti,” Tristan shrugged. “I think he secretly wishes he could work for the CIA or be a pilot or something.” He saw Taylor and mouthed, “Hurry up.”

      “No,” Julian mouthed back firmly. But they ran down the stairs to get changed.

      “Hey, Lexi,” Tristan said hopefully from the door of the boy’s changing room as Alexandra walked downstairs. “You coming for sushi?”

      “Oh, yeah,” she said, surprised. “I said I was going to, didn’t I?”

      “Um, yeah, right,” said Tristan. “Me and Jules will be out in a sec.”

      As they left the academy, Taylor kept up a running commentary. “I really liked class today, didn’t you? I just love Mr. Moretti’s classes. Oh, are we not going in there? You’re right. The other place has much better sushi doesn’t it? Omigod, I am such a dumb blond. I totally forgot to bring my school stuff out of my locker. It’s okay, though, I never do my homework anyway.” The other three kept silent, with their own thoughts to occupy them. Taylor eventually ran out of steam and walked silently, watching them nervously.

      “Is Russian hard?” Julian asked suddenly, turning to Tristan.

      “Oh, no. I mean, it’s really tiring, but you’ll be fine.”

      Relieved, Julian quickened his pace. Tristan and Alexandra drew abreast of him and matched it. Taylor was forced to walk behind them as there was no more room beside them.

      “Mr. Moretti is really hard in rehearsal, though,” Alexandra said. “I mean, that’s good, but if you’re not used to it, it can be pretty tough. Like, he gets really mad if you don’t remember every correction and apply it the second he says it.”

      “Yeah. And once he threw the CD player at somebody who kept messing up,” Tristan snickered. “And then he kicked them out of the show.” Taylor fell back a little more — that was her.

      “But you’re a boy, so they won’t kick you out,” Alexandra reassured him, patting his shoulder. “They totally need you.”

      They’d arrived at the sushi restaurant.

      “Do we have time to eat there?” Alexandra asked.

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