Movers and Fakers Read Free Page B

bun-heads!).
    HAD No. 3: To heal and dance by morning.
    HAD No. 4: To swear off boys until graduation.
    HAD No. 5: To be the best.
    The slipper had worked for Natasha, and so far Skye had managed to keep all her HADs alive. For the past week, the elimination
     assembly the Jackie O’s all feared had not materialized. Shira had been called away on urgent business, and school had chugged
     along as usual in her absence. Paranoia was running high, what with the additional eyes glued to every ceiling, but Skye had
     kept her head in the game. She had earned Charlie’s forgiveness for bringing dancers into the tunnel by promising to come
     clean to Shira and take the blame if it ever came up.
    The hardest HAD to honor was actually a spectacular success. For the past week, she had ignored Taz’s endlessly flattering,
     dangerously tempting stream of text messages. Shira’s most kissable son, famous for dating models and starlets, was cryogenically
     frozen in Skye’s heart; she would only thaw him out once she had proven herself to Mimi. The only thing Skye needed to do
     now was earn the title of best dancer at the Academy. Triple had Mimi wrapped around her calloused toes, but today all that
     was about to change. The new, disciplined Skye was about to demote Triple Threat to Double Trouble.
    Two earsplitting hand-claps and the jangling of twenty thin gold bracelets announced Mimi’s entrance. Intimidating and gorgeous
     in a low-cut black leotard and an electric blue dovetail skirt that showed off her burnished caramel skin, Mimi inspired awe
     and fear in equal measure. Skye plastered a toothy smile on her face and stood at attention next to the barre, trying to look
     nonchalant even though her future at Alpha Academy depended on today’s performance.
    A few more dancers had arrived moments before, still in chat mode as they unzipped their hoodies. Mimi narrowed her golden
     eyes at them, her mouth pursed in a glossed, furious
O
.
    “Mouths closed, toes pointed! If I wanted to hear what you had to say, I would have become a shrink and not a choreographer!”
     Mimi made eye contact with Skye and acknowledged her with a slight tilt of her chignoned head. “Show me how you feel with
     your bodies! Music… on! Up-tempo, major key, updated funk!”
    A half second later, the studio’s voice-activated music library made its selection, and the room was a swirl of drums, horns,
     and booty-shaking soul. “Positions, please!” Mimi yelled. “Sleeves, far right, front corner! Let’s see what you can bring
     to the sequence. We’re picking back up from the step-ball-change, dancers! Ah-one, ah-two, ah-one two three four!”
    The floor of the studio bounced with the pressure of the sequence, a series of jetés and leaps combined with the hip-pops
     and boom-shaka-laka drop-and-recovers in a kind of hip-hop-meets-classical-dance hybrid. Skye felt the rhythm of the dance
     reverberate through her legs and spread through her whole body. She knew every twirl, every flip of the hand and roll of the
     hips, because she’d studied them so carefully while sitting on the sidelines. Her muscles twanged like the strings of a guitar.
     She could make them sing any song she wanted today. And she wasn’t even tempted to throw in a Skye-style flourish. Out of
     the corner of her eye, she saw Prue and Triple hip-thrust-and-turn and up-two-three-four in perfect synchronicity with her.
     Her body and spirit soared with the music as she matched her fellow dancers step for step. Mimi’s appraising eyes rested on
     her, but she continued to look straight ahead, smiling.
    She was back
.
    When the music stopped, Skye let her shoulders roll back and planted her feet in second position, panting from exertion. She’d
     nailed it.
    “Sleeves, again. Solo this time,” said Mimi. “Music, repeat!”
    On top already!
Skye danced the sequence again, careful not to incorporate any of her usual head bobs, extra hip swivels, or anything else
     where