Kimber curtseyed again. “Pleased to meet you, Miss Alison.”
She smiled at the rest, the majority of whom were wiggling like it was killing them that they hadn’t spoken to her. “You all look very pretty.”
As she’d hoped, all the girls smiled back at her. One kind of fluffed her tutu, which made Kimber stifle a laugh.
Then she heard a loud clearing of a throat. The girls froze.
And Kimber lifted her eyes to see Shannon staring back of her like Kimber had just been caught with her hand in a cookie jar. “Sorry for interrupting, Shannon.”
“I should hope so,” Shannon huffed. The little girls giggled.
“I was just walking by and saw this . . .”
Shannon raised her eyebrows. “Mess?”
“Yes. This mess.” She picked up one forlorn-looking red-and-black nutcracker. “These poor little guys need to be cared for better, girl.”
“I know.” Looking uncomfortable, she added, “We had a hard time trying to find the right costume.”
“I’m a snowflake!” Alison piped up.
“Are you? Like in Frozen?” She was pretty sure there were talking snowflakes in that movie. But maybe they were fairies?
All the girls erupted in laughter. Shannon too. “I guess you ladies are not dancing in Frozen?”
“They’re snowflakes,” Shannon said importantly. When Kimber continued to gape at her, she added, “They live in the Land of Snow in The Nutcracker.”
“Ah.” Kimber held up one of the wooden guys littering the floor. “It’s all making sense now.”
“Want to see us?” little Erin piped up. “Can we show her our dance, Miss Shannon?”
“I don’t see why not.” Walking to her iPad, Shannon said, “All right, snowflakes. Let’s see if you can get into position.”
The little girls went tearing around, giggling and whispering to each other. Five seconds, then ten passed.
“Now, who’s ready?”
They each raised a hand. Well, except for Erin, who was smiling at Kimber.
“Erin, I need you to be a snowflake right now, if you please.”
The little girl immediately straightened and carefully curved her arms just like the others.
Still holding one of the wayward nutcrackers, Kimber leaned against the back wall as the music started and the little girls all tried to perfectly mimic Shannon who was dancing the steps directly in front of them.
Their dance was imperfect. Okay, it wasn’t very good. Most of them were late on Shannon’s counts. One simply twirled a lot, another kept looking like she would rather be running through a field instead of concentrating, and little Alison got her feet tangled when Shannon called out pas de deux and almost fell.
But not a bit of that mattered. What did was the look of delight on their faces, their extreme adorableness, and the almost angelic expression that had appeared on Shannon’s face as the little girls’ parts were done. As if to celebrate, Kimber’s beautiful sister began to pirouette like she was a ballerina in the middle of a music box.
She looked so beautiful.
Shannon loved dancing. She loved teaching dance. And because of that, it all showed brightly through each cell in her body. Kimber could watch her every day, just seeing that look of bliss on her sister’s face made everything a little bit brighter.
And right on the heels of that realization was that knowledge that Kimber wanted some of that too. She wanted it bad.
When the music ended and all the girls curtseyed, following Shannon’s graceful example, Kimber clapped. “Bravo!”
They grinned at her then sobered as they looked at their teacher.
Shannon wasn’t smiling.
“Snowflakes, we have some work to do before our performance. A lot of work,” she said in a sober tone. “If you cannot start dancing in a straight line and moving in sync, I’m afraid we’re going to have to have extra practices.”
One of the little girls frowned. “But, Miss Shannon—”
She shook her head. “No, I’m afraid there is no good excuse here. We must dance our best, even in front of ladies like Kimber.” She rang a little bell. “Go take a water break and come back in five minutes. We’ll go over the middle section one more time, and then try it to music again. Off you go.”
They scattered like wildflowers in a summer wind.
Walking to her side, Kimber frowned at her. “Boy, that was kind of harsh, teach.”
“I have to be. Once I smile at their cute antics, they’ll try do the same things again and again. Trust me on this.”
“I do. But they were sure cute, though.”
Shannon smiled. “Oh. My. Word. They were so cute. I dream about these little girls, they make me so happy. But they are currently some sorry-looking snowflakes.”
“I guess I can’t argue with that.”
“So, you haven’t told me why you’re here. Did you need something?”
“No. I was . . .” How could she admit that she was feeling kind of blah about her work situation? “I guess I had a little bit of time on my hands so I decided to come down to see if you needed help cleaning.”
“As much as I need your help with those nutcrackers, I need help teaching even more. Want to help?”
“No. You know I don’t know a thing about dancing.”
“You can listen though, and help me keep an eye on twelve busy six-year-olds.”
“I don’t know—”
“Here they come.” She lowered her voice. “It’s easy. I promise, even you can catch on. Just watch me and try to help the girls do the same thing. Thanks!”
And with that, Shannon clapped her hands and told the girls to get back in line. “Miss Kimber has agreed to help me teach this class today, ladies. She’s going to help me correct your mistakes.”
Little Erin smiled at her again.
Kimber smiled back, fearing that hers looked far less sure.
But there was no time to lose as Shannon called out, “Watch me ladies. I’m going to do this once by myself, then we’re all going to do it together. Plié, revelé, chassé to the right.” She paused. “Ready?”
“Yes, Miss Shannon!” they chorused.
“Let’s go then. Kimber, you watch the six closest to you.”
“Yes, Miss Shannon,” she answered.
And then she had no time to even smile at the girls. All she could do was keep up and arrange little girls’ arms and positions.