Chapter 1
COURTNEY
“Potty break, excuse me really quick,” Abi says as she makes a beeline for the studio door, aka freedom.
I catch her elbow, spinning her in place.
“Nice try, but denied. Do you know how many yoga classes I’ve been to now?
Six. I can give you the dates if you’d like a refresher.
Do you know how many Zumba classes you’ve been to with me?
Zero. Got those dates too.” I pull out my imaginary planner and pen, tapping on my palm as though it’s my calendar.
“Doesn’t count,” I counter, leaving no room for argument.
She crosses her arms, but I can see the sparkle in her eye. She wants to do this, she just doesn’t want to suck at it. She’s an Andrews after all and we like to succeed.
Violet pipes up. “Abs, if I’m doing this, you’re doing this. But quit talking about potty breaks. I’m nervous enough about jumping around after Carly. If I run out, I’m fine. I just pissed myself.” She sighs heavily.
We don’t dare laugh. It’s a very real concern for Violet. We’d teased her about doing post-partum Kegel exercises until Ross said he was ‘helping’ her with that. Abi and I had both quickly ew’ed out of that conversation after that.
“We’ve got a few minutes before we start, so let’s ask Stacylynne to give you a quick breakdown.
” I already showed them the basic footwork, and to Abi’s credit, she did pretty well at the event during the one time she did Zumba with me.
But perfectionism runs in our blood and Vi’s got her own healthy dose of it too.
Abi snaps her fingers and points at me. “Good idea. I do have a question.”
Oh shit. There’s no telling what question Abi might have, but if it gets her talking to Stacylynne and not making a run for the door, I’ll take it.
“Hey Stacylynne! This is my sister, Abi. I finally got her to come to class.” How’d you like that bus, sis? Throw you right under it and let the wheels bump, bump over you. “And my sister from another mister, Violet.”
Stacylynne is her usual effusive self, exclaiming excitedly, “Oh Abi! Violet! It’s so nice to finally meet you two in person!
I’ve heard so much about you and Ross talks about Carly non-stop, flashing pictures to anyone who even makes eye contact with him!
Welcome to Zumba!” Literally everything she says ends in an exclamation mark…
at least one. And she’s bouncing around on her toes before finally giving in and scooping Abi into a hug.
Abi looks over Stacylynne’s shoulder at me and mouths, “Is she for real?” I nod back, grinning. Yep, she’s legit this… awesome.
Stacylynne then squeezes Violet, and there’s a chance of a Code Yellow, so I jump in to save Vi.
“I showed them some of the footwork, but they’re a little nervous about the twerking. I thought maybe you could give them the breakdown?” Pure sweetness in my tone, but there’s a hint of ice in it, knowing Abi in particular is going to kill me. But this opportunity is too good to pass up.
Stacylynne claps and bounces again. “Absolutely! You’re the yoga sister, right?”
Abi answers slowly, not sure what that has to do with anything. “Yes?”
“You are so set then. Follow me.”
Stacylynne drops into a squat, and Abi and Violet match her pose. “Good. So knees behind your toes, hips pressed back, hands in the middle of your thighs… not on your knees. Save those joints.”
Abi blinks, likely thinking Stacylynne is probably not talking about knee joints. But she actually is. Knees are important… for so many things, like blow jobs and doggy style and oh yeah, picking stuff up off the floor. But that’s not as exciting, though I can drop it like Jillian does now.
Stacylynne keeps going, completely unaware of my mental tangent fantasizing about Kaede taking me from behind on that fluffy living room rug.
“Now, from yoga, you’re familiar with doing cat and cow back stretches.
So curve your back up like a scared cat, good.
Now reverse, and go swayback like a cow.
Again, pay special attention to your hip movement, the release up and the drop down of the pelvis.
” Abi does several reps, her yoga giving her way more flexibility than I had when I started.
Violet follows along as best as she can.
“Here’s the tricky part. The cat and cow pelvic motion continues, but the upper back and shoulders stay still.” Stacylynne demonstrates slowly, her mid back to shoulders not moving and her hips lifting and dropping. It takes a couple of tries, but Abi and Vi do it too.
“And faster…”
“And faster…”
Stacylynne speeds up all the way to eleven, twerking like the Twerk Queen she is.
Vi stares open-mouthed, but Abi tries valiantly.
It’s no use though, it’s a losing battle of experience and comparatively, Abi looks like the virgin twerker she is.
Even so, Stacylynne cheers her on, “Yasss, girl! Hit that bounce! Beautiful!”
Violet and I cheer them on, clapping and grinning.
“Get it, Abi,” Violet says as I slip my phone out to take a quick video. With Abi, you never know when that’ll come in handy. Purely for private use and sisterly blackmail, of course. I’d never let anyone else see it.
Abi laughs, losing the rhythm and stands up. Offering a high five to Stacylynne, she says, “Thank you so much. That actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be.”
Stacylynne returns the high five and adds a wink to Violet, “Homework!” Her sing-song’ing of the word says quite clearly that she doesn’t mean for them to practice alone.
“I did have one other question. Is there any way you can get my sister up front with you today for at least one song? I want to see her doing her thing front and center like the boss she is,” Abi says, pure love and light. And evil domino setter-upper.
I shake my head, waving my hands in front of me. “Nooo. Hell no.”
Stacylynne stops my hands, holding them in her own.
“Absolutely yes. You are one of my star students, going from tight and uncertain to loose and sure. Beautiful both ways, as your truth. But your progress is something to be proud of and a shining example of what can be accomplished when you push through difficulty and maintain the course.”
She lost me somewhere around ‘yes’, when my mind starting screaming in nerves, but I appreciate the compliment.
I can’t do this!
Oh yes, I can. Watch me!
Angel and devil still fighting in my head, but this time, it’s the angel with the positive attitude who wins.
“Okay,” a disembodied voice says. Oh shit, that was me.
I throw Abi a glare at the returning bus she threw me under, but I guess that’s fair.
Abi grins in answer, beyond excited to see me do my thing.
And I put two and two together and realize my twerk video of Abi is going to be useless because she’s absolutely going to film me too.
I learned some of those sisterly lessons from her after all.
But I smile her way anyways, not mad and maybe even a little excited to show off.
“Can we do the salsa one I like? The Gente de Zona one?”
Stacylynne claps again. “Yes! Your hip flow is lovely on that one. It’ll be about halfway through the playlist, so be ready, Courtney!”
Abi, Violet and I return to our places, scooting our towels and water bottles out of the way. “You ready for this?” I ask them.
“Bring it,” Abi responds.
Vi cringes. “I think I do need to pee before class starts.”
As Violet hustles off, I remind Abi, “Hey, you’re still good to take care of my plants while Kaede and I gone, right? We leave this afternoon for Charlotte.”
Abi grins evilly. “That depends on how this goes,” she says, spinning a finger in the air to indicate the Zumba class.
But I know her buttons, so I feign utter sadness, “If you say so, but it’d be a real shame for Spikeasaurus Rex to die of dehydration after a long, healthy life of twenty years because you were mad at me.”
“It’s a cactus, Court! They barely need water,” Abi argues. But after a moment, she sighs, “Yeah, I’ll take care of your plants. Way to get at my heart.”