Twice the Talent (6 page)

“Lindsey, I keep telling you, it's not just that I'm too busy, it's also that I can't dance,” Alex said, trying to be polite.

“That's just an excuse,” Lindsey said. “Besides, dancing with us is better than working on some lame report with a loser!”

She emphasized the last word, looking at Max as he made his way out the door behind Mrs. Bridges.

That was too much for Alex. She couldn't keep ignoring Lindsey's nasty remarks about Max. Not anymore.

“Listen, Lindsey, Max is not a loser,” Alex said.

Lindsey laughed. “Are you serious? He never changes his clothes or even showers, for that matter. He falls asleep all the time. That is super lame!”

“Oh yeah?” Alex shot back, getting angrier and angrier. Why was her friend being so mean? “Well . . . well, maybe I don't want to be in your dance because I think your whole routine is lame!”

Lindsey's jaw dropped, and behind her, Rosa gasped.

“If that's how you feel,” Lindsey said, her voice cold as ice. “Come on, Rosa.”

Alex stood, frozen, as Lindsey and Rosa walked away.

That was
not
the right way to handle things,
she scolded herself. She had worked so hard to become friends with Lindsey, and now everything was ruined!

Well, Lindsey ruined it too, by being so mean to Max,
a little voice inside her reminded Alex. But it didn't help. Because Alex knew that by insulting the dance routine, she had not only insulted Lindsey, but Rosa, Annelise, Charlotte—and Emily.

“Oh no,” Alex groaned. Once Lindsey told everyone what she had said, she wouldn't have a friend left in Ashland!

“Two cheeseburgers, extra ketchup,” Ava announced, holding up a greasy white paper bag as she walked into Kylie's hospital room later that afternoon.

“Ava, you're the best,” Kylie said, sitting up in her hospital bed. Ava pulled a green plastic chair closer to Kylie's bed and sat down. She thought her friend still looked really tired. Her braids were pulled back behind her neck.

“When you texted me that you had creamed chicken with peas for dinner on Sunday, I thought you might appreciate these,” Ava said, handing Kylie the bag. “Mom stopped at Burger Hut on the way here.”

“Tell her thanks,” Kylie said, biting into the burger. “Oh wow, that's good.”

“How does your leg feel after the surgery?” Ava asked.

“It hurts pretty badly, but the medicine helps,” Kylie said. “I just want to get out of here! I'm going crazy. But the doctor says I might have to say another couple of days.” She sighed.

“Well, you didn't miss much at school,” Ava reported, trying to remember if anything interesting had happened. “Oh yeah. During lunch, Billy Scarbek balanced a chair on his nose. He said he was practicing for the Variety Show.”

Kylie stopped chewing and looked down at her hands.

“Hey, you looked sad when Alex mentioned the Variety Show on Saturday, too,” Ava said, remembering. “You weren't going to be in it, were you?”

Kylie put down the cheeseburger she was eating and took a deep breath. “Ava, I need to tell you something about me that you don't know,” she said solemnly.

“Okay, now I'm in suspense. What is it?” Ava asked.

“I love line dancing,” Kylie blurted out. “I know
you probably think it's goofy, being from the East Coast and everything, but it's actually a lot of fun. I learned when I was a little kid.”

“Well, you are wrong about me thinking line dancing is silly, because I don't even know what line dancing is,” Ava admitted.

Kylie picked up her phone and found a video clip. Then she handed it to Ava.

“This is line dancing. You've probably seen it in movies and stuff.”

Ava looked at the video playing on the phone. Three rows of people wearing cowboy hats were dancing in perfect step. They clapped and slapped their knees in time with the music. Ava thought the tune was pretty catchy.

“Hey, this is cool,” Ava said. “It's pretty amazing the way everybody does the steps at exactly the same time, and they keep the lines straight too.”

Kylie smiled. “I'm glad you don't think it's dumb. Anyway, since the theme this year is Wild West, my line-dancing friends and I were really excited to have an act in the Variety Show. When I texted them that I broke my leg, I could tell they were upset. The dance works with five people, but it looks a lot better with six.”

Kylie looked really sad, and Ava felt so bad
for her friend. She wanted to do anything she could to make Kylie feel better. Before she could really think about it, she blurted out, “I'll take your place!”

Kylie looked surprised. “Ava, that's sweet, but what about your ankle?”

“It's been a week already, and it doesn't even hurt,” Ava countered. “I'm allowed to walk on the brace, I just can't jump and run and stuff. It doesn't look like there's any of that in the video.”

Kylie looked thoughtful. “No, there isn't, really. I mean, you'd probably be okay . . . but you didn't even know what line dancing was until I told you!”

“I know, but it doesn't look that hard,” Ava said. “I mean, I'm sure you need to practice a lot, but I learned a lot of complicated cheerleading routines when I was pretending to be Alex, right?”

Kylie shook her head. “Yeah, and that worked out really great,” she said sarcastically.

Ava laughed. At the beginning of the school year, Alex wanted to impress her friends by trying out for cheerleading, but she knew how terrible she would be at it. So Ava had agreed to dress like Alex and try out in her place. She was supposed to do well enough to be
respectable, but not well enough to make the team. But she had really gotten into it, and Alex (actually Ava) had made the team! Then, when the real Alex took her place on the team, it had been a disaster.

“Okay, that wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done,” Ava admitted. “But the point is that I was really great at cheerleading. And on the football field, I have to follow complicated plays all the time. So I should be able to figure out line dancing, right?”

Kylie looked amused. “You know, it just might work,” she said. “Okay, do you know Carly Hermano?”

“Yeah, she's a cheerleader,” Ava replied. “And I think she's on student council with Alex.”

Kylie nodded. “So, Carly and I were in dance class together when we were little. She's the one who's leading the dance. I'll text her and let her know you're going to replace me.”

She had a funny grin on her face when she said it.

“You don't think I can do it, do you?” Ava asked. Kylie's skepticism made her even more determined to help the line dance be the best act at the Variety Show.

“I think that it's really nice of you to do it, and I think it's going to be really fun to watch,” Kylie replied. “I just hope I'll get out of this hospital before the big night!”

“Of course you will,” Ava assured her.

Then she realized that she had just committed to performing a traditional Texas dance in front of a crowd filled with native Texans, and she had just moved to Texas and had never even heard of line dancing before.

What have I gotten myself into?
she wondered.

“Why do you keep checking your phone?” Ava asked her sister on the bus ride to school the next morning.

Alex looked around to see who was sitting near them, and then spoke in a low voice.

“It's a long story, but I kind of insulted the dance routine that all my friends are doing for the Variety Show,” she explained. “I texted Emily last night asking if I could talk to her, but I think Lindsey must have gotten to her first, because Emily hasn't texted me back. I don't know if it's because she's mad at me or because she's still feeling bad from her cold.”

“What do you mean, ‘kind of' insulted?” Ava asked.

Alex sighed. “I told Lindsey it was lame. But she was being mean, and I couldn't help myself.”

“Well, I'm sure Emily will understand,” Ava told her. “She's nice. She knows how Lindsey can be sometimes.”

“I hope so,” Alex said anxiously.

“Anyway, I didn't tell you my news,” Ava said. “I'm going to be in the Variety Show. I'm taking Kylie's place in a line dancing thing.”

Alex's eyes got wide. “You mean Toe the Line?”

“Toe the Line?” Ava repeated.

“Yeah, it's the name of the line dancing group,” Alex explained. “It's a pun. You know, T-O-E . . .”

“Yeah, I get it,” Ava said. “Kylie didn't say they had a name.”

“Well, everyone on the committee is super excited about it,” Alex reported. “Apparently, they're amazing and they brought the house down last year.” She looked at Ava. “Line dancing can be pretty complicated. Are you sure you're up for this? I mean, with your sprained ankle and all.”

“I'm up for it,” Ava said firmly.

Alex studied her sister's face. She could see the nervousness behind her confident statement. But she knew that once Ava was determined to do something, there was no talking her out of it. She had fought hard to become the only girl on the boys' football team. And she had never given up when their parents refused to let her play basketball. Besides, she really had been amazing during cheerleading tryouts.

“I'm sure you'll be great,” Alex said supportively.

The school bus made a noise like a groaning dinosaur and pulled up in front of school. When Alex got off the bus, she spotted Emily's blond head among the crowd of students walking into school.

“See you later,” Alex told Ava, jogging toward her friend.

“Emily!” she called out.

Emily turned. She didn't smile when she saw Alex, but she didn't look upset, either. She marched right toward her.

“Do you really think our dance routine is lame?” Emily asked directly.

“That's what I wanted to explain,” Alex said. “Why I texted you last night. But you didn't text back.”

Emily sighed. “Lindsey was texting me like crazy too, and I didn't want to get into some text war. So why don't you explain, then?”

The girls walked into the school and leaned against a wall in the front hallway.

“I'm so sorry,” Alex said. “We were in social studies class, and Lindsey was saying mean things about Max. She's been saying mean things about him for days now. I think she's still mad at him for embarrassing her.”

“Yeah, I know,” Emily admitted. “I've been wanting to say something to her about it, but . . . what does that have to do with our dance routine, anyway? That's the part I don't get.”

“Well, she said it was lame that I was working on my project with Max instead of joining your dance act, and that Max was lame, so I just said that the dance routine was lame,” Alex said. “I didn't mean it. Lindsey just pushed me too far.”

Emily nodded. “Rosa said it happened something like that. I understand.”

“So does that mean we're good?” Alex asked. “Because I really, really, really am sorry.”

Emily smiled. “Yeah, we're good.”

Alex smiled back, relieved—until she remembered that just because Emily forgave her didn't
mean Lindsey would. “I know you're good, but what about everybody else?”

“I think Rosa understands,” Emily replied. “Annelise and Charlotte will too, once I explain it to them. But Lindsey is really fuming about it.”

Alex nodded. “I'll make it right with Lindsey, I promise.”

The first morning bell rang, and the girls scurried to their lockers. Alex felt comforted knowing that Emily understood and was still her friend, but she knew that making things right with Lindsey wouldn't be easy. She and Lindsey had gotten off on the wrong foot right from the start, and it had taken months for them to finally become friends. This might be the last straw in their friendship.

Alex's hunches were right. In social studies, Lindsey made a point never to look in Alex's direction. And when Max approached Alex and said he would meet her in the library after school, Lindsey whispered something to Rosa and then laughed really loudly.

At lunch Lindsey made it very obvious that she was talking only to Annelise, Charlotte, Rosa, and Emily. She acted like Alex was invisible at the table. Alex knew that talking with
her then wouldn't have done any good, so she spent most of the lunch hour listening to a conversation Ava and Jack were having about college basketball and tried to act like everything was normal. She started to wonder if apologizing to Lindsey was even worth it. She could be such a difficult person!

Do I really need a friend like that?
Alex wondered. But the problem was that Lindsey was friends with Emily, and everyone else Alex liked. She had to get along with Lindsey, or things would be forever awkward anytime she hung out with her friends. And Lindsey was usually a nice person, and a lot of fun to be around—Alex didn't know why she was still holding a grudge against Max.

But when and how she would make it right to Lindsey—that was what she had to figure out. She had other things to do in the meantime.

Like working with Max on their social studies project, for one. When the final bell rang, she first headed to the auditorium to see Chloe Klein, the sixth-grade class president. Chloe was one of the other student council members working behind the scenes on the Variety Show. Alex
found her backstage, writing in a notebook.

“So, we've got some acts rehearsing today,” Chloe informed her. “I'm going to talk with them to find out what kind of lighting they need and what kind of props they're using.”

“Sorry I can't help today,” Alex said.

“That's okay. Kendall and Jerome will be here soon,” Chloe said. “You can be here on Thursday, right? We're going to start choosing the lineup and talking about the program.”