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While he had heard the footfalls outside, he expected some lone student, teacher, or janitor to be moving past, and certainly not someone that Andrea knew. It only occupied a second of his time to notice, and he was back to the more demanding task of learning to dance. Noises in the hallway pretty much came down to the constant back noise of school in the end, something so familiar that you forgot about it, and with his back to the door, he didn’t even notice how close this stranger was. If he had, he would have stopped and waited for them to leave.

Curse his magnificent concentration.

The door clicking had the same effected as shooting off a starter gun, and he jumped before turning about. It didn’t even occur to him to remove his hands from the other boy, and by that time, the redhead had already seen them doing the training-wheels two step (or whatever the dance they were doing).

“Ah?” Words escaped him, fleeing the scene to leave him standing there, as awkward as he was dancing, and while Nora and Andrea chatted and he was introduced, he was trying to think of a way he could grab his things and race out the door the girl was otherwise occupying. The window seemed like a nice option.

While he wanted to pummel Andrea for admitting he was learning to dance, he was quickly introduced and the damage had been done. “Uh, yeah. Nice to meet you.” His words garbled somewhere and he looked around before stepping aside. What if she went around telling people he was learning to dance? Andrea might have the confidence to tell everyone to screw themselves, but he didn’t. This wasn’t the sort of attention he needed right now. “Maybe we should reschedule.” He pointed out, thinking it best if he just rushed out while he could.

His eyes glanced up to the girl, wondering what she was thinking right about now.

Nora's perpetual sweetness was something Andrea was more or less used to, but something about her tone coupled with the fact that she had just caught him dancing with another boy made him a little nervous. Had Ladon voiced his question, the taller boy would have agreed that he would have liked to know what Nora was thinking, too. Andrea trusted that she would not judge him if she knew that he did think Ladon was a little cute, but still. He also had a feeling that Nora might feel the need to share the joy with all the world. And this was the first time he was a bit apprehensive of that.

So Andrea felt a bit relieved when she instead asked for a dance lesson for herself.

"You upperclassmen and your prom," he huffed, making the joking tone in his voice obvious. Then he glanced back to Ladon. "Maybe you two can partner up, and it'll be a little more normal that way, with Nora dancing the girl's part and you dancing the boy's part? And I can run the music and keep time for you or whatever." He smiled at Ladon, hoping there was no sign of a blush on his cheeks.

At the other boy's request to reschedule, though, Andrea took on a faint look of concern. "Would it help to take a breather and sit down for a few minutes while I show Nora the basic step, and then you two can both give dancing a try together?" He did not want to directly ask about whether or not his injuries were okay with Nora there, for his male friend's sake - Ladon looked flustered enough already, and Andrea doubted Nora babying him would make him more comfortable.

Nora probably would have gotten a bit too cheerfully enthusiastic if she'd been able to put two and two together regarding choice things about Andrea and this dance lesson, she had an invasive way about her that was masked -- well, caked over -- by overwhelming sugary sweetness. Fortunately, one two did not encounter the other for her in this circumstance and she remained oblivious, more interested in learning new dance moves to impress a potential prom date with than she was with any personal conflicts Andrea may have been hiding in his closet.

"It's okay, don't you worry, sweetie," she was saying, before popping her tote bag up off her shoulder and dropping it next to the door. "I promise I won't bite, and I just know we'll do fantastic with Andy teaching us! He's just a wonderful dancer, we're lucky we don't have to pay him for this."

The girl was just bubbling over with funloving enthusiasm, and approached the makeshift dance floor with a playful twirl before stopping in front of Andrea. "I guess I'm ready whenever you are. Let's get a swing in our step!"

Maybe Nora was too sticky sweet for his liking. Calling him ‘sweetie’ was not winning him over quickly, and he started to feel a bit sick to his stomach, much in the way you felt when you ate your weight in chocolate and followed it down with a jug of Grape Koolaid. It could have been nerves, but it could be Miss Sunshine bouncing around and spilling her excited optimism everywhere. There was something about being upbeat, but this girl was the techno-remix of that.

Andrea had strange friends.

When asked to look at his playlist, he bashfully rose his hands and shook his head. “Oh ~ no. This is just fine.” What did he know about dance music? He was even less of a DJ than he was a dancer, and he always worried that messing with someone else’s things ran the risk of breaking it. There was also the fear that he would pick a song and get both of them sticking their tongues out in disgust, wondering what in the world was wrong with him and his taste of music to the point that they didn’t even want him in the room anymore. Even though he knew it was Andrea’s playlist and everything on there was something he’d like, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking these scenarios up. Instead, he kept himself quiet as he sat, hands on his lap and trying to blend into the background like one of the inspirational posters hanging around the classroom. Hang in there.

"Well," Andrea told her, stopping for a moment. "This is the very basic step, so anything else I can teach you is embellishment on this one."

He glanced over at where Ladon was sitting and gave him a small smile. "You two want to try out the basic step together?" he inquired, peering at the dark-haired boy but directing the question to both of his students together. "Maybe if you two are dancing together, I can keep an eye on both of you better and help correct you more easily? I think both of you are already like, at least seventy-five percent of the way there, though. You're both picking it up pretty fast."

Andrea released one of Nora's hands for a moment to brush his bleached fringe out of his eyes, and awaited the response from both of them.

"I guess that would be the best next step, wouldn't it?" Nora agreed, eyes still sparkling with her overbearing sugary sweetness. It was easy for Ladon to imagine that the moment she touched him, he would be leaving the room with a sudden case of type 2 diabetes. She really was far too enthusiastic, almost like she was putting genuine effort -- and far, far too much of it -- into being happy and fun and carefree, or that she was she was some kind of enthusiasm vampire, given hers had put a drain under Ladon's own.

Fortunately, Ladon didn't spontaneously turn into marshmallow fluff or disintegrate into a pile of sugar sprinkles the moment Nora's fingers wrapped around his palms. Her grip wasn't one of death, but it was most certainly one of awkwardness, soft and smelling of scented lotion and with all the uncomfortable warmth of a pair of hands you really had no interest in touching. It was like the accidental, disconcerting brushing of fingers with a cashier when they handed you your change, except sustained across several minutes.

What made it worse was that Nora wasn't even quiet during the whole process, instead passing across little phrases of encouragement: "Don't worry, we can do it!" and "There we go, we're doing fine." At least she wasn't insulting and picking away at his mistakes -- but still, maybe that would have been better.

Ladon liked encouragement. He did not like a personal cheerleader, and the focus of both Andrea and Nora made him more self-conscious. He started to worry more about making a mistake, but at the same time worried his palms were getting sweaty and Nora would think he was gross. Then he wondered if his breath was okay and wished he had a pack of mints in his pocket just to be sure. His worry lead him to think up inner narrations for other people, and he started to think that Nora was saying encouraging things because she was getting frustrated and was trying to get him to learn faster to move on. Then he started to think that Andrea was getting bored, or was going to start sighing or rolling his eyes at his slow progress. This in no way helped him with dancing, and he started to get worse. Not use to having anyone cheer him on, the attention was having the opposite affect and made him curl into himself more and more. At the point Andrea started to talk, he was thinking that he should rent a dancing video and learn in the privacy and security of his own room. Then again, maybe he could just stab his leg and use that as an excuse to not dance, but then he remembered how much of a impact that would have on him being on track. Damn.

When Andrea suggested music, Ladon turned and exhaled a quick and almost desperate. “We’re ready!” Music would make it harder for Nora to talk or so he hoped. The girl made his skin crawl by how bright and cheerful she was, and her constant encouragement made him feel as if he was undergoing physical therapy and every step that wasn’t a fall was a miracle, a step in the right direction to recovering and becoming a normal member of dancing society.

Andrea poked the center button on his music player, set up with its portable speakers, and a moment later, some old-style swing music started to play. The boy turned it up a little and then looked up at his students, tapping his fingertips lightly on the table in time to the tune. The tempo was a bit faster than the one he had been counting out before, but not by much.

"Is this too fast?" he inquired.

Then the boy laughed softly at Nora's suggestion and stood up. "I could do that if you want, and take turns. Who would like to dance with me first?" If Nora volunteered, it would give Ladon another moment to rest. Or, if she volunteered Ladon, maybe he could try to boost his friend's confidence a bit more. ... Also, he did sort of want to dance with just Ladon again, even if Nora was here now, too.