Chapter Twenty-Five: Run

“Hey, kids, guess what.” Kevin said, flopping onto the couch beside Peyton as they drove towards New Mexico for their fourth concert after Thanksgiving.

“What?” Hayden looked at him from where she was sitting, curled up in a ball, on the couch.

“We’re teaching a dance class,”

Peyton actually snorted and Melody raised her eyebrows, “Huh?”

Kevin glanced at Peyton and shook his head, “What’s so funny about this? And we’ve been offered to teach a dance class, all seven of us.”

“You’re serious?” Tara shook her head, “You actually expect me to teach a dance class?”

“It’s for kids, Tara,” Kevin said, giving her a degrading look.

“When… and why, are we doing this?”

“In a couple of days, when we’re in LA.” Kevin said, “And because we can, it’s something nice to do, and—”

“Yeah, yeah, benefit of others,” Tara sighed, “All right, I’m in.”

“I wasn’t really asking,” Kevin said.

“Just let it go, Kev,” Peyton said, shaking her head, “So, what kind of dance are we teaching??”

“Uh, well,” Kevin looked a little uncomfortable, “The people who offered this opportunity to us kind of already chose who was going to be teaching what… and with who.”

“So, what’s the big deal?” Peyton asked, before taking a drink from her water bottle.

“Well, Hayden’s been assigned to ballet, because they read you took a ballet class when you were younger. Tara and I are teaching hip-hop… which I think I’ll fail at, Nick and Melody are teaching a tap class and…” He took a deep breath and said the last phrase in one huge breath, “JoeandPeytonareteachingballroomtogether.”

Peyton spit out her mouthful of water all over Melody, who surprisingly didn’t react and patted her twin on the back as she coughed. When she finally stopped choking, she looked at Kevin and said, “Are you serious?”

“Yeah, Peyton,” Kevin sighed, “I tried to talk them out of it, but they wouldn’t listen.”

Peyton didn’t say anything, she just nodded silently.

“It’s just one class, Peyton,” Melody said in a comforting voice.

“Yeah, I guess,” Peyton sighed.

“Oh, and did I mention we have to learn a routine to teach the class?” Kevin said after a brief silence.

The whole bus glared at him, and then Joe entered the room and looked around, “What happened?”

Before their concert in Albuquerque that night, Big Rob took them to a dance studio where each group was sent to a studio each, where a teacher would teach them a routine.

Nick walked in and found Melody standing beside the instructor, a tall, blonde guy. She was already wearing a pair of tap shoes and she smiled brightly when Nick entered.

“Luke, this is Nick,”

“Hi, Nick,” Luke shook his hand and grinned, “Have you ever taken any dance lessons before?”

Nick shook his head, “Nope.”

“Well, let me find you a pair of tap shoes and then we can start,”

“How’d you get your shoes so fast?” Nick asked.

“Uh, they’re mine,” Melody replied, “I taught a tap dance lesson awhile ago, and I used to take lessons when I was younger.”

“Really?” Nick was surprised, “I didn’t know that.”

Melody shrugged, “There are a lot of things you guys don’t know,” She paused, “We all took dance classes. Peyton is a pro at ballroom dancing, not that she’ll ever admit it. She thinks it’s something to be embarrassed about.”

Nick shook his head and then looked at Melody, “You think Peyton’s going to kill him?”

Melody nodded, “Oh, yeah.”

“Oh f—”

“I’m sorry,” Joe groaned, closing his eyes and anticipating that she was about to smack him, just maybe.

“Tell that to my throbbing left toe,” Peyton said through gritted teeth.

“From ze top,” Their tall, red-headed instructor, Angelique, said, clapping her hands.

Peyton had to bite her lip to not curse loudly… or kill Joe. They took their beginning positions, and began their dance slowly.

Joe was counting under his breath and trying not to step on Peyton’s feet for a third time.

“No, no, no!!” Angelique stopped the music and looked at them both with her green eyes flashing, “Ze Viennese Waltz eez supposed to be… beautiful, le exemple d’elegance, a dance of love! Not ze first time you ‘ave ever touched a person of ze opposite gender!!”

Neither Peyton, nor Joe, said anything for a few moments. Angelique broke the silence by looking at them with her green eyes narrowed slightly, “You should know better,”

Joe was confused, until he realized that it was Peyton that Angelique was talking to.

Peyton didn’t say anything, she just sighed and looked at the floor.

“I t’ought dat maybe zis would be a little bit difficult, so I made a call.” Angelique announced.

Peyton looked up, curious, as Angelique cleared her throat and a tall, dark haired guy with bright blue eyes entered the room.

“Hey, partner,” The guy said, grinning.

Peyton smiled brightly and threw her arms around him, “Ryan!!”

Joe raised his eyebrows. Ryan. As in the cousin, Ryan?

Ryan chuckled and patted her on the back, “You’re looking pretty good for a drop-out.”

“Yeah, I missed you too,” Peyton said sarcastically.

“I asked you ‘ere to inspire,” Angelique said, raising her nose haughtily, “Now… inspire.”

Ryan nodded, “Okay, Angelique, I’ll try,” Then he looked at Joe, “You must be Joe, I’m Ryan, Peyton’s cousin and ex-partner.”

“Partner?” Joe raised his eyebrows.

Ryan raised his eyebrows also and then looked at Peyton, “He doesn’t know, does he?”

Peyton shook her head, “Nope.”

Ryan grinned and said, “This is why I brought this,” He pulled a book out of his bag and handed it to Joe, “This should clear things up a little.”

Joe took what he found out was a photo album and opened it, finding several photos and newspaper clippings of Peyton and Ryan. He almost had a minor heartattack, and then he read the titles.

Pre-Teen Team Wins Gold

Taylor & Harrison; Perfect Team

Astoria Cousins Wow Again

Joe looked at Peyton, “You’re a champion ballroom dancer.”

“Used to be,” Peyton replied.

“You still are,” Ryan said, patting her arm in a reassuring way.

“Exactement! Angelique exclaimed, “You are still a champion dancer, which means you should ‘ave no problem with somet’ing as easy as a Viennese Waltz.”

Peyton took a deep breath and then looked at Joe. Joe felt his heart give a flip and he tried to ignore it. Peyton pushed her bangs off her face and looked at him, “We can do this.”

Joe nodded, “We can.”

The next day, they stopped on their way to Arizona, to practice their dances once more. But before they began their dances, Joe cleared his throat, “Hey, guys, I wrote a new song.”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him.

“Really?” Tara raised her eyebrows, “Play. Now.”

Joe raised his eyebrows, but nodded at Nick, who was sitting at the piano.

After a few bars of an introduction, Joe cleared his throat and began a ballad;

It’s about time you got here,

Seems like it’s been a year,

Since I saw you,

Yeah, you know it’s true.

It’s like “where ya been?”,

I’ve been in a spin,

Since I saw you.

Been missing you.

Yeah, when you were gone,

It wasn’t the same here,

Could you hear the silence ringing?

Yeah, I really missed your singing.

When you were gone,

I was so, so all alone.

When you were gone,

Everything was so completely wrong.

And now you’re here.

And you’ve given me the perfect song.

A stunned silence followed this, only being broken by the sound of the door closing behind Peyton as she left.

DUN, DUN, DUNNN. Haha. Sorry it took me so long to write this, I was away all weekend, and school's been a little crazy lately. But lucky for you all, I'm almost done the next chapter, which should be fabulously dramatic :)Special thanks to my rocking buddy, Kristen, who's the source of all these songs. Thanks for all the reviews, keep it up!!