Ohio Is for Lovers

The next twenty minutes as the crew left the bowling alley were rather a blur to Lena. She remembered saying goodbye to Derek, and letting him kiss her on the cheek quickly before she followed her friends outside to the busy city street. The BVB boys all jumped into Andy's mom's car, and Lena, Carson and Eve all got into Lena's car.

Lena drove, thinking that Carson and Eve would head back to her house for a bit to have dinner and talk about everything that had happened at the bowling alley. But much to Lena's surprise, Andy's mom's sleek black Subaru pulled up behind Lena's small light blue Cadillac in the driveway of her home.

"They followed us here?" Lena whipped around in her seat to glare at Carson who just sat there smiling.

"Okay, so I invited them over..." Carson admitted. "But, can you blame me? I really like Ashley and Eve really likes CC. And we all know you missed Jake. Now is your chance to catch up with him."

Furious, Lena undid her seat belt and bolted from the car, slamming the door shut behind her. She ran up the steps and unlocked the front door before dropping her dead weight on the couch and letting out a large groan before everyone else came inside to join her.

The next thing she knew, she found herself uncomfortably sandwiched between CC and Jinxx on the couch. Eve sat on the other side of CC, Jake sat awkwardly on the arm rest of the couch, Andy sat on the ottoman with his eyes glued to his phone, Carson sat on the floor by Andy's feet and Ashley wandered around looking at the framed pictures on the mantel.

"You've been doing this for quite a long time, haven't you?" He asked, picking up a picture of four year old Lena in her bright yellow costume with big tutu and hair all done up in a perfect bun. CC stood up to get a better look at the picture.

"Well, yeah." She said, thinking back to when she started at age 3. All they had made her do was simple skips, learning the basics of pointing your toes and what first position was. It was all so simple back then. Now she was doing grande jettes, triple pirouettes on pointe, echappes, and grande battements.

"Hey, guys!" CC's voice caught everyone's attention.

Lena looked over to see him sporting Lena's fifty-six dollar rehearsal tutu around his waist. "I can be Lena!" He continued, rising onto his tip toes and circling himself with his arms raised above his head.

Everyone burst into fits of laughter but Lena just let her head drop in her hands. "You really think ballet is a joke?" She said, a bit more anger in her voice than intended.

CC stopped and unsnapped the back of the tutu, taking it off and putting back on her bag in the corner. "Sorry, Lena... I was just trying to have fun and make everyone laugh."

Lena shook it off. "No, it's okay, CC. I'm sorry. I don't know why I snapped like that." She admitted.

"But to answer your question," Ashley cut in. "Ballet is easy. I mean, all you have to do is wear a giant tutu and dance on your toes with a big cheesy smile on your face while you prance around the stage."

Lena raised her eyebrows. "You really think it's that easy?"

Ashley shrugged. "It looks like it. No one else agrees with me?" He glanced around the room but no one spoke up to defend his statement.

"Well," Lena said, standing up. "If you all think it's that easy, let's take a class together. Class starts in an hour. Let's get going."



Lena could already tell this was going to be a disaster but she needed these boys to understand that ballet wasn't as frilly as they thought. She dressed each of them in a pair of black leggings and gave them black socks, since they didn't have any ballet shoes. When they walked through the door of the studio, Lena inhaled deeply, missing the smell and the feel of her home away from home. Despite much of the trauma she endured here, her dance studio always felt like a place where she could be herself.

She turned around to see the boys huddling close to one another. "Let's go!" She waved them on and had them follow her up the stairs and into the studio room. As soon as she walked through the door, a group of girls ran up to her hugging her tightly. The boys just stood by and watched.

"Lena!" They all exclaimed.

Lena smiled widely. "Oh my god! You're all in this class now?" She exclaimed, excited to see that the kids she used to teach when she was a teenager had all grown up and moved on to bigger and more challenging classes. "I'm so proud of you guys!"

Lena's teacher, Erica, approached her and gave her a welcoming hug. "We're glad to have you back, even if it's just for a little bit."

As Lena pulled out of the hug, she introduced each of the guys. "I brought some friends along to try out the class." She motioned to each of them. "Jake, Jinxx, CC, Andy and Ashley."

The teacher nodded. "Nice to meet you all. I hope you have a fun time!"

As Erica dismissed them and walked over to the stereo in the corner, Lena found a place on the barre and Jake came up behind her.

"What are we supposed to be doing?" He half-whispered, looking around at all the girls standing at the barre that extended all the way around the room.

"Just put your left hand on the barre and wait, alright?" Lena said, turning her head back around to the front.

"Because Lena brought some friends with her today," Erica began to announce. "We will do military barre next week. So, what I think we'll do today is a quick barre, work on your petite allegro and adage and then power hour to finish off the class. Sound good?"

"What the fuck is power hour..." Lena heard CC say to Jinxx behind her. She giggled to herself as the music started and they began with their grande plie exercises.

"Grande plies!" Erica shouted over the music as she walked around to give corrections where needed. "Andy, more turn out!" She yelled. "Watch Lena. No gripping that barre, ladies. Fingertips only on that barre."

They had only done 4 grande piles in first position and CC's thighs were already burning. Jake had absolutely no balance and found himself holding onto the barre for dear life, despite Erica walking around and telling him otherwise. Ashley's alignment was all off, and he found he couldn't keep his upper body upright. Jinxx kept looking down at his feet, thinking that was going to help. And Andy couldn't keep his turnout.

"Where's that turn out, Andy?" She called out again, and again, and again.

During their petite allegro, all the boys had trouble with pointing their toes. "Point those toes, gentleman, you're making me cringe!" Erica shouted and all the girls around them laughed.

"Having fun?" Lena asked with a smile on her face, looking at all their pained faces. "Good, I'll take that as a yes."

"They've never done ballet before, have they?" Erica asked Lena.

Lena shook her head, resting one hand on the barre behind her. "They have no clue what else is in store for them."