26. Harlowe
Nutcracker rehearsal was way less dramatic, so when I went home, I was much more relaxed. I could have worked on composing, but I decided not to. I wanted to go there with Topher, but I never would. Well, maybe I’d look him up after I graduated if I ever made it.
But to make it, I did need to take his advice.
He wasn’t wrong. I needed to capitalize off the video Gadreel took of me in the subway.
I found the video. I didn’t read the comments, but I did leave a cheeky one to come follow me for new stuff and then went to stalk my classmates so I could make new stuff.
I’d bought a set up when I thought I was going to do this in my apartment and packed it because a little voice and my best friend told me to. I had it. I pulled it out and went to bed.
When I woke up, I realized I had a ton of new followers, so I guess that meant I really did have to make videos. I was torn between going in the courtyard and filming myself doing a solo or doing what I wanted to do and hunting down Rue, Cullen, and the dancers I’d gotten to know.
I didn’t want the Immortal Nightmare boys thinking I was stealing their schtick, but I really wanted to make a video with dancers. Rue and Cullen were amazing together and when I stalked them, they made content together all the time.
I just needed to ask if they wanted to make it with me. I grabbed my massive tumbler of coffee and headed down to the common room. I found them with their layers of clothes, stretching like always.
“I have a proposal if you’re interested in hearing it,” I announced.
If I tried to do what Cullen was currently doing with his body, I’d end up in the hospital. And he still managed to speak and be cheeky.
“I’ll agree to anything if you show us the Lurch dance.”
“What if I want your soul?”
“Ah, you heard that urban legend, huh? That when you enter the room with the defense committee to hear if you passed your thesis, they’ll give you any contract you want if you sign away your soul in blood.
It’s all horse shit. My torrid affair with that bassoon player ended because he graduated.
None of the professors are demons and no one tried to buy his soul.
He’s playing with the orchestra in Portland like he always wanted. ”
“Good to know. I got recorded in the subway without my permission and it ended up going viral. That deathly hot guy, Topher says I should capitalize on it and start posting content, but I don’t just want to do me playing.
“Since I’m at Nutcracker rehearsals as an assistant, I mostly get to watch all of you.
You’re amazing and so inspiring because I can’t even do what you’re doing to warm up.
I’ve been writing a piece, and I’d love to have dancers with me.
And I’m not greedy, so it doesn’t need to be exclusive to my channel.
If you want me to play something live for yours, I’m totally down. ”
“Leif is going to lose his damned mind,” Alexa laughed.
I had no idea who that was. I knew all the dancers who stretched in the common room, but Leif wasn’t one of them.
“He’s the Nutcracker Prince. You haven’t met him,” Rue said.
“He has this idea for his thesis, but was having trouble finding someone to write the score. He’d been going on about a video and was trying to find the girl.
He was so excited about it, it was adorable.
We didn’t know you were the girl in that video until he saw you.
We finally asked to see it and you’re so talented. I’d love to.”
That was one. I still didn’t know who Leif was because the Nutcracker Prince had been practicing with his mask on. He was talented. I could tell even though the Nutcracker Prince had a lot more pantomime than dancing.
“You want all of us?” Alexa asked.
“I figured I could just send you a link to what I’ve written or want to play and you can decide if you want to choreograph something to it and who you want to cast.”
They all agreed, but of course, Cullen had conditions.
“I have the most interest in choreography out of this group, so I’ll be doing the most of it. The others do it when something inspires them, so that could happen. I will do it on one condition. I want to see Lurch.”
Rue shoved him.
“Don’t be a dick.”
“I’m not embarrassed. Put on the right music and I’ll happily show you Lurch. I know I’m a terrible dancer and I don’t care. I do it anyway. I’m also terrible at sports, but I hate them, so I avoid doing them.”
“That’s my girl,” Cullen said. “I have no shame and we recognize our own, Rue. Send us a link and we’ll handle it.”
“Awesome. And can someone introduce me to Leif? I think it would be really cool to score his ballet. I’m not sure if I’m the right person, but I’m willing to talk about it.”
“I’ll make it happen,” Rue said. “Leif is probably the nicest person you’re ever going to meet, and he’s an insanely talented choreographer, but he has a really bad habit of thinking everyone else is better than he is.
He’s been stressing about introducing himself and asking because he thinks you’ll say no and be mean about it. ”
“And we’ve told him you’re cool and not like some of the competitive divas here,” Cullen said.
“But Leif is the unofficial mascot of the dance department, so if you are hiding some heinous inner bitch, you’ll have every ballet dancer at Blackvale after you.
I don’t think you are, but if you’re being adopted by the dance department, you have to help protect Leif from the assholes at this school. ”
“Full disclosure, a lot of people want to work on that ballet. Leif already has the leads cast, but there are a lot more moving parts to a ballet than the dancers you see on stage. If you see Isobel trying to get at him, you’re expected to use your body to stop her,” Rue said.
I frowned because the first time I met Isobel, she was with Rue and Cullen. I thought they were friends, but come to think of it, I hadn’t seen her around my dancer friends since.
“I thought she was your friend?”
“No, she was harassing us to get to Leif. You haven’t spent much time around the musicians, but Isobel is in love with Leif and thinks they are going to be the next Immortal Nightmare.
Dante is a cello player and composer who is in love with Isobel and actually could make her famous.
Dante isn’t asexual and aromantic like Leif.
She’s abusive towards Dante and won’t take no for an answer with Leif.
Isobel is going to have opinions if you score that ballet, even though she’s not a composer. ”
Cool, cool. She already didn’t like me because of how I got in. Pretty sure it was somehow my fault she was out of tune based on the look she gave me when I answered Klaus, even though I didn’t name her.
“If we’re all going to be friends, you have to dislike Isobel,” Cullen said.
“Well, I don’t know her, but I can tell you that she already doesn’t like me and I’m super into consent and people who respect that. I can run interference if she makes Leif uncomfortable. I can also make it super weird so she won’t even look at him if I’m standing next to him.”
“How weird?” Rue asked.
“I can only tell this story once you get a few in me, but remind me to tell you the story about my best friend’s ex, a side pickle, a bottle of hot sauce, and a cup of iced coffee.
If he walked in that deli while we were eating after that, he turned around and walked right out.
Which was awesome because that deli had the best egg salad sandwich and we didn’t want to have to find a new sandwich spot. ”
“Pinky promise if you make it weird, it’s when I get to watch it go down,” Cullen said.
“I’ll do my best. I’m going to go record a video by that statue of the oddly sexy angel in the quad.
I have no idea what Leif looks like because he’s wearing a mask at rehearsal.
I also don’t want to upset him if he’s shy, so if you could find the time to introduce us, I’d love to talk about scoring his ballet. ”
And I was. I might make a bigger enemy out of someone who already didn’t like me, but I didn’t much care what other people thought and I wasn’t going to not do something I’d enjoy and could open doors for me because Isobel thought she owned someone who didn’t want her.