ALICIA’S DANCE STUDIO
Thursday, October 8th
8:03 P.M.
“Sur-prise!” Massie burst into the studio, her smile ready for its close-up.
“The Curse!” a girl shouted.
Eight shocked faces glared back at her, but she only recognized one of them.
Alicia stepped forward. “Um . . . what are you doing here?” She was wearing a crisp white button-down (Ralph, obviously) tucked into denim short shorts with red hearts on the pockets and a matching metallic belt, just like the others.
The invisible fist that had been gripping Massie’s stomach all evening reached up and grabbed her throat. Her Socc-Hers uniform, despite its cut-above-ness, was ah-bviously out.
“I thought you said she wasn’t on the team,” hissed a bony brunette in third position.
“What team?” Massie dared.
“The new cheerleaders,” offered a curly-headed blonde. “The Heart-Nets.”
“What?” Massie’s eyes begged Alicia’s to make this all go away.
“You can totally join if you want,” Alicia tried. “I’d love to have you. It’s just that . . .” Her voice trailed off.
“What?”
“I’m sort of already the alpha.” She shifted uncomfortably in her moccasins, which had tiny hearts dangling from its fringes instead of bells.
Massie felt her pores contract.
“I don’t mean the alpha in life. Just in dance. You can totally still be the alpha in life. I mean, I want you to be. It’s just that I’m so into dancing and I would really like to try choreo-graphy.” She paused. “Actually, if you want to be co-captain you totally can. It would be great. I’ll deal with the routine and you can deal with the—”
“Shut up, please,” Massie mumbled flatly.
“Huh?”
Alicia seemed slightly taken aback. But come awn. Did she hawnestly think her little speech would make this Brad Pitt–size betrayal hurt any less? The only thing it did was make Kristen’s seem a tad less traumatizing.
“Um, Alicia is my name V?” Massie asked loud enough for her teammates to hear.
“No.”
“Then why would I follow U!?” She bolted into the cool night air, only beating her tears her by a fraction of a second.