A/N: Sorry for updating so slowly…I was on writer's block P.S. Please check out my Criminal Minds Crossover with Bunheads…would mean a lot!

Italicized words are characters thinking. (Mainly Michelle)

"Okay guys-"

"Ahem?" Melanie coughed.

"And girls-"

"Ahem?!" Ginny coughed.

"Ladies? What the heck do you guys want from me?"

Everyone started to laugh. Michelle's shoulders sagged, realizing she wasn't behind the cruel joke being played on her.

"Boo?" Michelle looked hopelessly at Boo, her one student who always told her everything…she was her biggest role model.

"We just learned about Women's Rights and the amendment passed for those rights in school…plus we love messing with you!" Boo started the laughter again.

The laughter instantly died down when Sasha walked in with a visible enough baby bump. It wasn't big at all, but Sasha was known as the skinniest girl in Paradise…and now she wasn't. Everyone had heard about her dad in the paper. She hadn't gone to school for the past two weeks and wouldn't see, talk, or text anyone including Melanie, Ginny, Boo, or Madame Fanny. She only accepted Michelle. It was just like when Michelle came to town and Hubbell…well we don't want to think about that, do we? Michelle could feel her pain and embarrassment as well as see the red spots starting to form on her cheeks. The tears welled up in Sasha's eyes as she zipped up her oversized sweatshirt.

"I…I thought class was over by 7?" Sasha stuttered through the obvious sniffs to cover tears.

"It was, honey…but we had that dance coming up so soon that Fanny thought it would be good to have an extra forty minutes of practice." Nothing but pure silence filled the room until Michelle spoke up. "Class is dismissed."

"What?" Questions arose from the class almost immediately.

"But Michelle, we only practiced fifteen extra minutes!" Ginny stated confused.

"No buts." She took a shaky breath. "I think I worked you hard enough today. Till tomorrow."

The class hurriedly gathered their things and left to go to the dressing rooms. They avoided eye contact with Michelle and Sasha. Once everyone had left Sasha took a quick glance around to make sure nobody would hear their conversation. Then she burst out in tears. Michelle quickly ran and put her arms around the thin-framed girl with a large belly.

"Everybody knows…How did…I…I hate him so much, Michelle!" Sasha couldn't finish her sentence, but Michelle understood what she meant. She felt different than she ever had before. She felt empathy toward the person, just a baby, who was pregnant not by her choosing or fault.

"I know, honey, I know." Michelle rubbed her back soothingly as she wished her mother would have one time in her life. Instead her own dance teacher did that. So she did, too. "But you can't fight a gun. Everybody knows that."

She heard the handle connected to the two glass doors in front of the studio rattle for someone to let them in. "Open up!" An angry voice of someone who sounded like a smoker yelled for a path to the studio inside. "I can see my daughter from right there, open up!"

Sasha pulled back from Michelle and wiped her eyes. The brunette cautiously picked up the keys to the studio and placed them in the key whole. She walked backwards to Sasha and held her arms from behind her body, guarding the abused child. "It's open." Michelle raised her voice towards the unknown figure behind the doors.

The doors burst open in an instant and Anastasia Torres stood in the center of the studio and charged toward Michelle.

'It's not like I haven't been yelled at by another one of my student's mothers before…Thanks Claire.'

"You can't just take my daughter in as your own and let her move in with you! My husband is in jail because you snooped around and made her tell her lies about him! Have you no conscience? What's wrong with you?" She stood so close to Michelle, she could smell the alcohol on her breath. She could smell the smoke on her clothes. She had messy dirty blonde hair and a hat to cover the top of her head. She was wearing an oversized sweatshirt that said and showed things unspoken. And her wrinkly sweatpants and bags underneath her eyes were proof that she hadn't slept in days.

'I guess you have to stay awake somehow…man, I bet she had a really bad hangover…ouch'

"Look, Anastasia, I didn't take your daughter as my own. She needed a place to stay where she isn't raped or beaten, so I let her stay here. And I didn't snoop, I tripped over her bag in the dressing room and they fell out." Michelle took a step forward and got in Anastasia's face. "And don't say your own daughter is telling lies. She's pregnant for God's sake! Do you want a DNA check? Because I'm willing to do anything it takes-even go to court-to make sure this girl and her child are safe and away from you."

For a moment Michelle heard nothing but heavy breathing out of anger come from Anastasia's mouth.

"Mom, I'm fine." Sasha said, deciding to break the silence.

"Yeah, you will be…with me." She grabbed Sasha by the wrist. Michelle could tell it hurt by the way she winced in pain.

"No. Mom, please!" Anastasia looked at her daughter with fury in her eyes.

"Excuse me?"

"Please Mom, let me stay with Michelle."

"What the heck does she know about pregnancy? I'm your mother, I've gone through it."

"I know more than you know, Mrs. Torres."

The two women stared at each other for a while, discussing the fate of Sasha without speaking. Mrs. Torres let go of Sasha, who instantly started rubbing her aching wrist.

"Take her," She said as she locked eyes with Michelle, "but I don't expect you to come back home."

Sasha nodded and watched her mother walk through the doors and out into the cool night air.

"Do you need an ice pack? I can go grab one from my place, quick." Michelle asked after she had left.

Sasha shyly nodded. Minutes later Michelle returned with an ice pack in her hand and placed it on Sasha's red wrist. After moments on silence, Sasha spoke up with the question that had bothered her since it had come out of hiding in Michelle's brain.

"Michelle," Sasha started slowly, "what do you mean you know more about pregnancy?"

Michelle stared at the hard wood floor and took a breath before she would answer the most difficult question she had hid for sixteen years…

To Be Continued…