The Dance 2

Morning found Jack with his head on one of the many tables in the hotel café, staring blankly at the menu over the coffee bar. He sighed.
He REALLY hated mornings. Sam returned with two cups of coffee and a few sandwiches and sat down at the table, setting one coffee in front of the miserably stiff and tired boy. Jack groaned.

"What motive could they POSSIBLY have had to schedule my next dance at seven in the morning? I'm going to be too stiff, too tired, and too pissed off to perform well!"

Sam shot him an annoyed look. "Language, Jack. You're too young to be swearing."

Jack huffed slightly in annoyance, but raised his head and drank his coffee. Sam chuckled to herself and ate her sandwich. "You're right though; five in the morning is a little bit early to have to wake up. Especially since we were so comfortable." She glanced over at her boyfriend and sighed. "Jack, sit up straight. You're only going to make yourself stiffer."

"What are you, my mother?" Jack said with an over exaggerated eye roll.

Sam pouted. "Well, if you don't WANT to listen to me, that's fine… I just won't kiss you…"

Jack giggled but sat up straight. Sam laughed. "See? Wow, you're like five inches taller all the sudden!" Jack blushed and ate his sandwich.

"We should hit the road; I really don't want to be late. I'll bet they mark you down for missing your session." Sam nodded and finished off the rest of her sandwich in a very unlady-like manner, then grabbed her coffee and stood.

"Shall we go?"

Jack nodded and followed her across the street to the convention center. It was almost empty in the early morning; with most of the other dances scheduled in afternoon slots, only a few extremely tired boys milled about almost aimlessly. Sam chuckled.

"Wow, boys are like zombies when people make them get up before nine." Jack groaned.

"It's not a natural hour. Who gets up at five in the morning?"
Sam laughed and led him to a couple of empty chairs and set her backpack down on them, then handed him his own. "You should go get changed." Jack rolled his eyes.

"It's cold. I don't want to wear tights."

Sam leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "You know, you're really cute in them…"

Jack's cheek turned red and he stood up. "So, I should probably go change then…"

Sam smiled to herself as she watched him cross the empty hall to the men's dressing room. He had a cute butt, she decided. And he knew how to move gracefully. That wasn't the sort of talent the boys at her old High School had. Thugs and brain-dead jocks that was what they all were. Her smile broadened. She had definitely lucked out with her choice in a guy.

It was a few minutes before Jack returned, dressed in silver tights and a light blue tunic-style top. Sam couldn't help but gawk. This was an outfit she hadn't seen before. He flushed slightly as her eyes traveled over his body, and struck a pose.

"Do you like it?" Sam nodded, mouth slightly open, then shook her head to regain her composure. "So, where do you have to go to do your routine?" Jack checked his slip of paper.

"I think it's a room on the second floor. You can wait here if you want, since I don't think that they let people come in and watch. It's all being filmed for television." He sighed. "I feel like I'm on a lousy reality show." Sam laughed.

"Well, it gets your face out into public, right? You'll be famous before you know it."

"I don't want to be famous. I'm running away from home, remember?"

Sam giggled and gave him a push. "Get going… you'll miss your dance." Jack pretended to stumble and laughed, then trotted off up the stairs to the second floor. Sam smiled at him as she watched him go. Perfect, she thought to herself.

*~*

Jack didn't like his dance. His plan had been to save his best dance for last, but as he moved through the steps, rather awkwardly he thought, he realized that he might have been better served pulling out all the stops now. There was no way he was going to make it to the next round. He finished his routine without a great deal of emotion, gave a slight bow to the judges, and left the room. He felt like he might cry, and in truth, he wasn't really certain why he didn't. His chest tightened and tears formed around his eyes, and he made his way dejectedly down the stairs to where Sam was waiting for him. When she spotted him she gave him a broad smile, then hesitated when she saw the expression on his face, and rushed over to his side, guiding him to his chair.

"Are you okay? You didn't hurt yourself, did you?"

Jack shook his head. "It… wasn't very good. I don't know why, but it was just… all wrong. I'm not going to make it to the final round. Not with another hundred dancers still to go."

Sam sighed and pulled him against her chest, resting her chin on his head. "It'll be fine. Maybe you were better than you thought!"

Jack choked slightly and felt the tears, unbidden, slide down his cheeks. Sam rocked him slightly, not saying anything.

After a few moments Jack was able to regain his composure, and sat back up straight. "I don't know what happened. I just thought… it felt rough, it was really bad." Sam patted his shoulder.

"Well, we'll see. Let's get some lunch, and then we can come back and see if they've chosen the fifteen finalists." Jack nodded and took her hand, following her out of the now busy convention center to one of the café's nearby.

*~*

Jack simply couldn't bring himself to go over to the group of boys and girls clustered around the list of those who made it to the final round. He just couldn't. It would hurt too much to know that he had been eliminated because he had a bad dance. If he was going to be eliminated, he wanted it to be because his best hadn't been as good as the best of other people. He nudged Sam. "Do you think you could go over and check for me?"

Sam laughed. "Fine. But I just want you to know that you're being silly." She slid between a couple teenage boys and made her way out of Jack's sight towards the front. He waited nervously, trying to ignore the disappointed faces of those who had been rejected leaving the crowd to return to their rooms. It was taking Sam a while, he thought to himself. Why was it taking so long?

And then she was standing in front of him, a grin on her face bright enough to blind him, and she pulled him to her and gave him a VERY deep kiss, dipping him down and then spinning him around.

"YOU MADE IT!"

Jack's mind was blank. It wasn't possible, it couldn't have happened. Then Sam kissed him again and all thought fled his mind.