Second Chance

[Sam Ballerino]

Sam peeked her head into the gymnasium. It was empty. Good. She slipped inside, flipping a couple of light switches by the door. She waited a moment for the dusty beams to flicker on before taking a real good look at the place, and noticed with pleasant surprise that there was a stereo in the corner, an iPod connector snaking out from behind. Brilliant.

She set her backpack and dance bag down next to the stereo, pulling out her iPod as she knelt down to figure out how to make it play. She plugged her iPod in to the connector, and found the power cord for the stereo. She found a power outlet on the wall, inserted the plug, and pushed the stereo’s power button. She messed around with it until she managed to get all the settings right, and searched through her music library for the song she wanted, Second Chance, and let it play on the "repeat one" setting. This was her song; it was one of her favorites, and the one she tended to use as a freestyle song – no real choreography, she just let herself move whichever way her body told her to go. Maybe someday she’d choreograph something. Someday.

My eyes are open wide
By the way I made it through the day

She pulled off her jeans, revealing the dancewear underneath – wine red leotard and tan tights, and a pair of black bike shorts.

I watch the world outside
By the way I'm leaving out today

Slipping off her shoes and socks, she put on a type of modern dance “shoe” – simple pieces of elasticized fabric with cushioned soles on the balls of her feet that allowed better movement when she danced barefoot.

Well I just saw Haley's comet, she waved
Said, "Why you always running in place?

She began to move through the space, turning, reaching, leaping, falling, moving, being… she was conscious of nothing but the music, flooding through her like water, movable and yet unstoppable. It took over her movements, her emotions, her being, as she let herself succumb to the flow.

Even the man in the moon disappeared
Somewhere in the stratosphere…"

She was so lost in her dance, in her music, that she didn’t notice the gymnasium door opening. She wasn’t alone anymore.

Tell my mother, tell my father,
I've done the best I can...

[Nicolas Constantine]

Nick skipped class again. He was doing it quite often now and for some odd reason, he was still able to keep his grades high. All he really needed to do was do the homework, which he sometimes just slipped on the teacher's desk and went to find a nice place to take a nap. It was chilly outside, so Nick wanted to find somewhere warm to sleep today. Which is why he tried the handle of the gym, to see if it was unlocked, and to his surprise, it was.

It was strange that he hadn't noticed the music before entering the well lit gymnasium, but the notes flooded into his mind when he opened the door. He peeked his head in to see a girl dancing. A girl he knew.

Nick smiled with deviance and decided to sneak over to the bleachers and lay down, looking at her. She hadn't noticed him come in, as she was dancing vigorously to the music. He stared at her and smiled once he had lay down, head in hand, eyes sparkling at her body's movements which were defined well within her leotard.

She still hadn't noticed him so he spoke up in his English accent.

"So do you do this every day? 'Cause that is hot."

He smirked and waited for her to realize she wasn't alone in the gym.

[Sam Ballerino]

Sam was in the middle of a triple pirouette when she heard a voice behind her. She'd had no idea anyone else was in the gym with her, and squealed with surprise, falling ungracefully out of the turn and falling on her ass. She looked to where the voice had come from.

"Nick!? God, you scared me..." She was breathing hard, a combination of the intense movement she'd been doing, and the scare of Nick's sudden appearance in the room.

As soon as she got over the shock, though, she felt a twinge of annoyance creeping up on her. As much as she liked Nick, she felt that he was intruding on her personal time a little bit. This was a kind of release for her, but she didn't have this kind of space at home, or this kind of privacy at the dance studio she went to. And his Paris Hilton quote bugged her a little bit. Modern jazz wasn't supposed to be "hot," it was supposed to be beautiful. She could tell by his smile that he was probably joking, though, and so shook her head, laughing softly as she stood up, walking to the corner to turn off the music.

"Do I dance everyday? Yes. This..." She lifted an arm to the gym where she'd been dancing. "Not every day. Just when I'm feeling poetic."

[Nicolas Constantine]

Nick laughed hard when she squealed at her notice of his presence. It was exactly how he wanted to startle her, even though falling on her ass seemed to hurt a little.

"Nick!? God, you scared me..."

He chuckled.

"I meant to do that..."

"Do I dance everyday? Yes. This... not every day. Just when I'm feeling poetic."

Nick was still in the mood to mock her.

"Ah, poetic. Is that what they call it these days..." he said, his accent making the words sound facetious, "I could have sworn that was sexy."

The grin on his face was wide and mirthful.

[Sam Ballerino]

Nick may have been grinning, but Sam was not anymore. Now he was just getting on her nerves.

"Time and place, Nicolas... Time and place..." She muttered, just barely loud enough for him to hear.

She realized that he was trying to flirt with her again, and under most circumstances she would have been fine with that. Under mot circumstances she would have accepted the compliment with charm, and thrown a flirty comment right back at him.

But what she'd been doing just now was a release of emotion. An expression of herself. And she was more than a little hurt that all Nick seemed to be seeing was her body. It just wasn't how she wanted to be perceived... and it wasn't how she'd perceived him. She'd thought, out of anyone, he'd be the one to understand what she was doing, and what this time meant to her. But apparently not.

She picked up her jeans, preparing to put them back on and pack up her things.

[Nicolas Constantine]

"No, no, no! Sam, don't pack up your things! I was just kidding!"

Ugh, Nick had done it again... He realized that maybe he went a little overboard on the flirting. There was a time and place for it, but Nick had failed to realize that she was expressing her art. He wouldn't like it if someone was shouting cat calls at him while he was practicing one of his many instruments.

Nick took a deep breath. He could tell she was pissed.

"I'm sorry for have intruded on your dancing. Please continue and I'll keep my mouth shut." he said it with an overly apologetic tone.

[Sam Ballerino]

Sam stopped, her jeans halfway up her legs, and just looked at him. Maybe she did have him pegged wrong... but his apology seemed sincere, and Sam didn't want to stop dancing yet, anyway. She gave a little sigh and shook her head at him, smiling softly. She slipped her jeans off and went flipping through her iPod. Second Chance was her private song, but she had a lot of other things she could show him if he wanted more.

She found the song, a perfect one to play that would hopefully show that she' accepted his apology. Hah. This'll confuse him, though... It was one she'd been working on in one of her classes, but she thought he'd enjoy it nonetheless.

She pulled on a pair of character tap shoes, simple 2-inch heels with metal taps on them, and picked up her fedora. She pushed the play button and got up, putting the hat on her head. The opening notes to Cole Porter's Too Darn Hot played over the stereo - one of those showtunes that hardly anyone recogized as a song from a Broadway musical anymore.

She used the fedora as a prop during her dance, a jazzy tap number that would only be described as fast, fun, and... sexy. At least, it would if she played off the moves right. The song finished and she held her ending pose for a few moments before allowing herself to relax and wipe the sweat out of her eyes.

[Nicolas Constantine]

Sam was "Too Darn Hot" for Nick, and this dance proved it. He never knew that dancing could be so enjoyable to watch, even though he thought it was probably because Sam was the one performing it. Of course he still had feelings toward her, but now they were more mutual, and he knew that there was the possibility for it to turn into something more than friends, but not right this moment, he thought.

Once her number was over, Nick applauded her exasperating performance and even whistled a little.

"That was bloody fantastic! You definitely have a knack for dancing." he said after he finished his ovation.

[Sam Ballerino]

((OOC: sorry for the wait. inspiration's been slow in coming, and i didn't want to insult you by forcing a shitty post. >.<))

Hearing Nick's applause, Sam gave him a little bow, and came to sit next to him on the bleachers.

“Thanks,” she said, taking off her tap shoes. “It looks cooler when everyone’s here. The staging is so neat, and it makes more sense when my partner’s actually visible…” She wrinkled her nose, grinning. “But I’m glad you liked it.” She laid back on the bleachers, just relaxing. She hadn’t practiced that one in a while, and she’d forgotten how tiring it was.

She knew it was one of the flirtier dances she could have shown him, but surprisingly, she didn’t feel like it was weird around him. She wasn’t trying especially hard to flirt with him; beyond the fact that he was rather nice to look at, Sam didn’t really feel any attraction toward shim. He was nothing more than a friend, but was quickly becoming a very good one, despite the fact that they hadn’t known each other very long. She felt very open and comfortable with him, so flirting didn’t seem quite as… flirty.

“So, why aren’t you in class?” Sam asked, jokingly. She didn’t really have a reason to be knocking him for it, as she wasn’t in class either, but she couldn’t help asking.

[Nicolas Constantine]

Nick leaned back as well, mocking Sam.

"Er... Well... I've kind of been ditching class a lot recently. If you haven't noticed I haven't been in our class for the last few days."

Nick referred to the only class they had together, where they had actually first met. He smiled at her and realized he hadn't given a reason.

"I just don't find these classes to be challenging. I mean, I speak English, I'm never going to use the advanced math they teach, and for my music classes, I could teach those teachers a few things."

He didn't want to seem too cocky about the music part, but it was true. And then he looked at her with suspicious stare.

"Wait a tic. Why are you not in class, young lady?"

[Sam Ballerino]

Sam let out a contented sigh and closed her eyes. "Same as you, I suppose. I don't need to be in class today because I could teach that class better than my teacher does. I mean, can we at least find an English teacher who knows how to spell?" She shook her head, thinking of the poor woman trying to remember how to spell "bowl." "I think a lot of it is nerves, though," she added. "The kids here scare her, I think. Hell, they scare me." She laughed. She had to admit, though, she was starting to get used to the place a little bit. She still walked around in fear of pissing off the wrong person at the wrong time, or that Ricardo would show up to woosh her off to training with Damien, but so far the people she'd met hadn't been nearly as short-tempered as she'd imagined, and the training at least would be good for her.

"So I figured as long as I didn't need to be there, I'd go get some alone time. The song I was playing when you came in... That's my stress relief song. The one I can just release to, you know?" Again with the sharing things. Normally Sam didn't share that kind of information with anyone. But Nick seemed... trustworthy. And ready to listen. And she liked that.

[Nicolas Constantine]

Nick rested his head on his hand to make himself a pillow to lay on as he looked up at the ceiling, listening to Sam speak. He knew exactly what she was talking about with the teachers and the kids. He, unlike Sam, could actually defend himself and kick some serious ass if he needed to, though. Nick turned his head to her when she mentioned her stress relief song.

"Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Every song I have is a stress relieving song for me, but that just because music is what keeps me sane." he smirked a little.

"So I apologize again for interrupting your alone time."

He looked into her eyes with his dark blue ones, and smiled widely to show how apologetic he was.

[Sam Ballerino]

Sam smiled at him as he apologized. "It's fine. I've got plenty more classes I can ditch. And I'd hate to miss an opportunity to talk to you." She smirked.

"I know what you mean though. I'm almost always listening to music. This one I'm particular, though... I don't know. It's fun to dance to. To let go to." She was probably making absolutely no sense to him. She stopped. "It's... special to me. Which is why I got upset when you started teasing me. So I'm sorry, too."

She turned to look at him and was completely snagged for a moment by his blue eyes. She'd forgotten how nice his eyes were. She grinned and sat up, stretching her legs into a perfect split on the narrow bleacher. Leaning forward and grabbing her foot, she lay her head down on her knee.

"I think the period's almost over, but I don't really feel like going to my next class, either. You wanna blow this popsicle stand with me? Or should we stay here and I can teach you how to dance, too?" She smirked up at him, suddenly remembering that he owed her guitar lessons. Maybe piano, too, if she could squeeze it out of him. But she doubted that he could pull a musical instrument out of thin air.

[Nicolas Constantine]

Nick cringed when she performed the splits. He knew exactly what she was talking about, when she was speaking about her special song. He caught her getting lost in his eyes when he looked at her, but it happened sometimes, it couldn't be helped and he knew it. He smiled at her.

"How about you stick to the dancing and I stick to making the music you can dance to, alright?" he said rhetorically.

"But I would love to get out of here and wreck some havoc or whatever you American children do these days. What would you like to do, love?"

Nick didn't mind, he was just going to ditch next period like she was as well, so what was better than hanging out with Sam?

[Sam Ballerino]

Sam laughed. "I'm sure you could dance well if you tried. All it takes is physical strength - which you have -" she smirked at him again - "and a sense of rhythm - which you have." She'd make a dancer out of him yet. Someday.

"I hadn't really thought about where I wanted to go," she said. "I just want to get out of here. I'm sick of school for now. I've wanting to go find a park or something. I miss climbing trees." She winced a little bit, laughing at herself. Not a lot of people expected Sam to be a tree climber. "But I don't know what it would take to leave. If the Pillars are watching or something." She got a sudden flash of an Orwellian style poster with the words THE PILLARS ARE WATCHING YOU on it, and right after another flash of her and Nick as pixelated video game characters trying to sneak past a digital Damien. Both thoughts made her smile.

She looked back at Nick again. "Did you have any ideas?"