Contemporary Love

Chapter one: 'Mac-a-doodle-doo'

"Mac-a-doodle-doooo!"'Danny shouted as he ran into my room to wake me up. I looked at the clock and sighed. 5:45 A.M. I flipped over onto my back and complained to myself for about a minute and then proceeded to get up. Danny had since left my room to do god knows what.

"Danny! What do you want for breakfast?" I yelled as I walked into the small kitchen. On the counter as I expected, was a note from my mother, or as I call her, Ruth.

"Pancakes please!" Danny shouted back from his room where he was hopefully getting ready.

Macie,
I'm working doubles all week long, so I'll just stay in the staff's room here.
No sense in me coming home, just to go back in a few hours. Please make sure
Daniel is ready and On Time for school and please pick him up On Time too. And
one last thing, there's nothing left in the fridge, so please go grocery shopping for us, I'll pay you back some time.

Mom.

I opened the fridge and true to her word we had nothing. I saw a half jar of bread and butter pickles, a slice of cheese, and maybe enough milk for a bowl of cereal. I opened the cupboard and we had enough for one bowl of Lucky Charms for Danny. I finished pouring his breakfast as he walked into the kitchen. He looked at the cereal in my hands and frowned.

"Sorry bud, Mom forgot to go grocery shopping. After school I’ll go, okay?"

He murmured an 'okay' and grudgingly ate his Lucky Charms. I took out the pickles and ate them, knowing that it was going to be the only thing I had until lunch time.

"Alright Danny, I'm going to go get dressed, so finish your breakfast, and then go watch cartoons while I finish." I said and made my way down the hallway. I opened my door and turned on the light to reveal my lightly purple painted room. I grabbed my skinny jeans off of my dresser and pulled on my t-shirt. I finished my morning routine of brushing my teeth, putting my hair in a fishtail braid, and minimal makeup and walked out while putting my dance clothes and shoes into my bag.

"Okay Danny, let's go through the check list. Book bag?"

"Check."

"Sneakers?"

"Check."

"Coat?"

"Check."

"Lunch money?"

"Check."

"Good, now let's hop to it and get you to school." I said as we made our way out of the door. I locked the door and double checked just to be sure, and made my way to my 2006 Kia Rio. This was the one thing my dad left me when he passed away, and I cherish it like it's my baby.

"Seatbelt Daniel." I said as he settled into his booster seat as I started the car and backed out of the driveway. Daniel's school, Wesley Prep Elementary, was ten minutes from Wesley Prep, and about a half an hour from our beat-up house.

"Remember that you have a field trip tomorrow to the Art Museum and you're staying overnight at the hotel and going to the Historical Museum the day after that, so I will pick you up on Wednesday night from Mrs. Jones's house after my shift ends at the diner." I said as we pulled into his school. He grabbed my hand as we walked into the school toward the day care center where Danny stayed until school started.

"Hi Macie, Hi Daniel, how are you this morning?" Mrs. Jones asked as we walked into the day care center. Danny looked at me for permission to go play with the toys and I nodded. He hugged me goodbye and ran off.

“We’re doing well today. Please tell me if he misbehaves today when I pick him up tonight. We’ve been working on manners lately, and so far he’s been very good at using them.” I said and she laughed.

“You’re going to be a good mother when you grow up Macie.” Mrs. Jones said as I waved goodbye to Danny and her. Once back in my car I drove to my school. Wesley Prep was a once in a life time chance for me, and the only reason I’m there was because I obtained a scholarship with my grades. Without them, I wouldn’t have the privilege to go there. Dancing was my life, next to Danny of course, and I hoped to become a professional dancer when I grew up. I pulled into the parking lot, and grabbed my bag from the backseat.

Wesley Prep is a very large school, with three floors of classes, and about six floors filled with dance floors and studios, and about three hundred students per grade. All of the students were here for dance too. My genre of dance is known as contemporary, and my class has twenty boy and twenty girls. We’re all very passionate about what we do.

My schedule consists of eight different periods. First was math, calculus to be exact, second was forensic science, third was dancer’s nutrition, where we learned how to take care of our bodies because they’re our temples and without them we wouldn’t be able to dance, fourth was US history and government, fifth was lunch, sixth was my dance background class, seventh was Pilates/Yoga, and eighth was my dance class. I was busy from start to finish, but I loved it. I stopped to my locker before going to my first class. I was always the first there, and the last to leave.

“Good Morning Miss. Crane, I have a note for you to go to the office before class starts. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about though, now run along dear, you don’t want to be late for class now do you?” my teacher, Mrs. Pike said as I walked in. I shook my head to answer her question and walked back out the door and headed toward the office.

“Hi, can I help you Miss?” the secretary asked me as I opened the door to the office.

“Uhh, Mrs. Pike said that I had to come to the office before first period. My name is Macie Crane.” I said and she smiled.

“Oh, Yes, Mr. Graves, the principal would like to speak with you.” She said and motioned for me to go into his office. I grimaced, wondering what I had done, but couldn’t think of anything. I waved slightly to her as I walked past and into the principal office.

“Hello Macie, how are you this morning?” Mr. Graves asked as I sat down.

“Okay I guess.” I said and shifted in my seat as he starred at me.

“Right, now on to why you’re here. I was looking over your record, and you have an outstanding record, and the top grades here at Wesley Prep. That’s why I was wondering if you would be interested in showing around a new student that is going to be starting here today at Wesley Prep?” he said with a smile on his face.

“Uhh, sure?” I said more as a question than a statement.

“Great! He will be arriving shortly. And thank you once again Macie, I know that it’s very short notice.” He said as someone knocked on the door to his office.

“Come in.” He and his door opened. “You must be Blake Hemmingway. I’d like you to meet Macie Crane; she’s going to be showing you around school for the next few days seeing as you both have the same classes.” Mr. Graves said and I looked up.

Before me stood a six foot tall male, and he was attractive as hell. Dark brown hair and bright blue eyes adorned his high cheek bones and defined jaw.

“Hi.” I squeaked out and he just blinked.

“Hello Macie.” He said, and his voice was baritone deep to my alto.

“Right now, how about you show him to his locker, and then off to class you go. I’ll phone down to Mrs. Pike and tell her that you two will be a little late. Now Mr. Hemmingway, I hope you enjoy your stay here at Wesley Prep.” Mr. Graves said and dismissed us.

I got up and followed Blake outside the office. He waited for me to close the door before following me.

“What locker number is yours?” I asked him as we made our way up the stairs.

“146.” He replied and I smiled.

“That’s right next to mine, so I’ll show you where it is on the way. Here at Wesley Prep the lockers are assigned by the style of dance that you dance. They think that it will make us bond more. The girl who was next to mine decided to change genres. I guess they just gave you hers.” I said and he just nodded.

“So what are the people like here?” Blake asked me as we stopped to our lockers.

“I don’t know. I never really talk to anyone, I mainly keep to myself. I’m a very busy person and people get disappointed when I don’t have enough time for them. So I found that it was easier to keep to myself I guess,” I said and tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear.

“Well that’s too bad. I always try and talk to everyone. It makes me feel better about myself, knowing that I haven’t left anyone out.” He said and closed his locker. I nodded and motioned for him to follow me to Mrs. Pike’s class.

“What are the classes like here?” he asked after a few minutes of silence.

“As long as you do your work, and stay out of their way and out of trouble, the classes run pretty smoothly and quickly. I happen to be really good at school, so all of my classes are a piece of cake.” I said and stopped in front of the calculus room.

“Well this is it; calculus time.” I said and opened the door and made my way to my seat. Mrs. Pike had Blake introduce himself and say a little bit about himself and asked him to take a seat anywhere he liked to. Typical of the girls, they wanted him to sit next to them. They always tried too hard. He looked around the room until his eyes landed on me and he set on his way to the back of the room to sit next to me. The rest of the girls in the class scowled at me and turned back around to listen to the rest of the lesson. It was going to be a long day if this was how it was going to be.

Forensics was fun since we were doing a mock crime scene, so Blake just observed today. In dancer’s nutrition we made a healthy chocolate protein bar that we could eat before or after a dance practice, and US history and government was just review for a test we had on Thursday. By the time lunch rolled around I was starving. Since we were such a big school we had multiple lunch line with multiple options.

“So what’s good to eat here?” Blake asked me, making me jump because I didn’t know that he was behind me. I put my hand over my heart and scowled at him.

“You scared me Blake.” I said and he chuckled. “And as for food, everything here is delicious. The lunch ladies actually give two hoots about what they make. I for one love the Mexican line. They make the best chicken taco salad. And I do believe that what I’m going to have today.” I said and made my way over to the line which wasn’t too long.

“Hi can I have the Mexican Chicken Salad please?” I asked the lunch lady and she nodded and smiled as she prepared it for me. “And can I have the Pollo a la Tampiquena please?” Blake asked the next lay who nodded and prepared his. We waited for a little while and then went to find a seat once we had our lunches. I took him to where I usually sat and he followed.

“Do you always eat alone?” he asked and I nodded.

“Do you mind if I sit with you?” he asked and I shook my head. He nodded and sat down and started eating. He took his first bite and groaned. I gave him a look and he just shrugged his shoulders.

“You can’t blame me, try this.” He said and held his fork in front of my mouth. I knew he wasn’t going to back down so I opened my mouth and closed it around his fork. We locked eyes and he pulled the fork out of my mouth.

“See, isn’t it good?” he asked, his voice a little gruff. I nodded not trusting my voice by the way he was looking at me. We finished the rest of our lunch in silence and made our way to our lockers to grab our dance clothes.

“The lower six floors are the dance floors and studios. We are on the bottom floor. The elevator says CON on the button so you can’t miss it.” I said as we made our way to elevator. “Dance background class is held on the respective floor of the genre so our last three classes are on the bottom floor.” I said as the doors closed. For the next two hours we learned more about contemporary dancing and did Pilates and Yoga to help with our flexibility. Dance was the last class, but also my favorite. It was the only class that I could truly show who I was and let myself loose.

I put on my foot thongs and started to warm-up. Today we were learning a new routine and I couldn’t wait. Blake walked over and we did a few pair stretches before our instructors came in. After two hours of practicing we had the dance down. It was by no means perfect, but it was definitely something great. After preforming the dance about five times we were all breathing hard but smiling brightly. This was the moment that we live for. The instructors let us go shower and said that they would meet us tomorrow. I grabbed my water bottle and chugged it as I walked to the showers. After I put on my clothes again and checked my watch. My eyes widened as a saw the time. I was going to be late to pick up Danny if I didn’t hurry.

“Macie!! Wait up!” I heard Blake yell from behind me and I stopped and waited for him. He caught up with me and we continued walking toward the door.

“Listen, I know we just met today, but I don’t have a ride home so I was hoping that you could drop me off. I’ll give you gas money.” Blake asked with his eyes wide open, and I caved.

“Where do you live?” I asked as we continued on to my car.