Grease Monkey Jive Read Free Page A

your palms absolutely flat, you’ll tip her off.”
    There was an apprehensive murmuring and Benjie said, “Holy crap,” and looked at his partner whose eyes were wide with fear. She said, “How do I get my hips in his hands?”
    “Like this,” said Alex. She stood either side of Scott’s prone body, her feet level with his knees and she leaned forward, body straight, hips thrust out until Scott’s hands were on her hips. She grabbed his wrists and lifted her feet and once again she was a bird flying over his floorbound body.
    “Keep hold of his wrists until you have your balance, then you can open your arms to the side. Head up. Don’t look down or you’ll end up going over his head.” That got a laugh, especially as Scott made a move that looked like he was going to pitch Alex over his head and she made a grab for his wrists.
    “Once you get to here, boys, I want to see you work,” said Scott, turning his head to look away from Alex and back to the class. “Push-ups.” He bent his elbows back to the floor and then straightened them, taking his Alex bird for a ride as though she was a strange new form of human dumbbell.
    That earned more applause and some awed grunting from the male partners.
    Over the next hour, the eight couples tried out Bird on the floor and, despite some impressive collapses and quite a few near un-mannings from poorly placed knees, by the end of the session they were all able to hold the Bird position and complete a few push-ups.
    “Thanks everyone. Next week we’ll try it from standing,” said Alex and the class gave her and Scott the traditional end-of-class, thank-you handclap.
    When the room emptied, she looked at Scott. “You had a good day?”
    “I had a completely yummy day.”
    She took his hand and dragged him over to a bench adjacent to the floor-to-ceiling mirrors that lined two full walls of Wallace Dance Studios. “Tell me about it because this, just now, was the best part of my day, so I’m jealous.”
    “Poor baby. You first, and then I can cheer you up.”
    “I missed out on a High Distinction in Business Statistics by two points.”
    “Two tiny points?”
    “Two. They might as well be Sydney Harbour big, that’s the difference between the HD and an ordinary Distinction.”
    “Poor baby,” Scott repeated, but this time voice iced with irony. “An ordinary Distinction in the subject half your class will fail because it’s so damn hard.”
    “That’s not helping, Scotty.”
    “Oh get a grip, Alley cat. It’s two points. Who’s going to care?” Scott rocked his shoulder into hers.
    Alex looked at her bare feet. “I care.”
    “What about Mommy Dearest? I think this is all about her.”
    “It’s not, of course it’s not, but she won’t be pleased.”
    “I guess it puts a pimple on your perfect record in Mommy’s big black eyes.”
    “I wish you wouldn’t call her that.”
    Scott rolled his eyes. “I’m not the one with mommy issues.”
    “Are you sure about that?”
    “Totally girlfriend. As if! Anyway, why does she have to know?”
    “She’s my mother and she loves me and I still live at home, so she supports me too.”
    “She keeps you tied to her.”
    “You really hate my mother.”
    Scott sighed. “I don’t hate her. That would require a certain amount of energy I’m simply not willing to expend on her. I just think she has a serious case of living her life through you, and you have a serious case of thinking that’s ok.”
    It was possible that Scott had a point. “Since when did you graduate with a psychology degree?”
    “Doesn’t take an official qualification to work out you have separation issues to deal with.”
    “I don’t think I like you anymore.”
    “Oh, such tough talk from such a little bitty girl.”
    Alex put her hand over Scott’s face and gave him a little shove. “Now tell me about your day.”
    He shifted back away from her hand. “Oh yes, let’s make it all about me – that’s much more