Flowers at Five in the Morning - Chapter Three

The scene laid out before her was austere but amazing beyond all belief. It was unimaginable and she seemed to be the only one to think so. There were a few students in the seats, some in the front aisle and the rest hanging off of the stage - and what a stage!1

Odette slowly moved forward turning up and around to stare at the high ceiling, the booths along the walls, the royal mezzanine hanging shallowly into the seats, the plush sea of chairs she walked in and the low stage in front of her, it reached deep back into the theater and held a few boxes on the walls flanking either side of the stage.2

The style was so old! It was like a minimalistic adaption of one of the theaters that Voltaire might've seen his plays upon. But there was definitely no defining age among any of it. Someone had themed the place upon the school colors and it had no flair of a modern theater.3

As Odette continued to walk down the slope through the seats, she saw a dips in the floor right in front of the stage where 3 flights of stairs led down to a spacious orchestra pit. She looked back now again and saw a spectacular array of stacking layers above the mezzanine; each one holding a large amount of stage lights and a few huge spot lights scattered through out.4

When she turned back the talking stopped and everyone trained their eyes on her; the new girl. Clara tried to give an encouraging smile, but walking forward into a group of people in a class named RECTUM was not easy.5

But for some reason, the stage fueled her. Odette walked with straight back toward the stage, she dumped her bag by the stage and leapt up onto it. She landed with her legs crossed and hanging off the edge of the stage and after a moment the chatter quietly picked up again. Clara looked at Odette carefully, before turning back to the boy who was talking to her.6

Behind Odette, the curtains rustled and heavy footfalls approached.7

"Odette?" The man asked and she turned her head. "Welcome." He said nodding his head in affirmation, obviously glad that he had guessed correctly.8

He was a lot older than his voice suggested and looked very comfortable at center stage where he stood. He smiled at Odette and warily she returned the smile. He stood looking everyone over and allowed himself a small smile. He put his fists on his hips and sighed, no one noticed him or paid him mind. Odette was still looking over, trying to figure out what kind of a man named his class RECTUM, but his short and shaggy grey hair, the multitude of smile wrinkles and carefully creased plaid shirt leant nothing to help her. 9

After another moment he suddenly clapped his hands together, loudly the sound reverberated against the back walls and demonstrated the perfect construction of the theater. No one really paid attention to this detail other than Odette, everyone else now had their attention on the teacher.10

"Odette!" The man said, her head snapped to look at him too and his voice rolled magnificently around the room, "The architecture may be marveled at at another time, please, grant me your focus." Someone sniggered.11

Odette felt the heat rise in her cheeks and she bent her head with an embarrassed smile.12

"Brian," The teacher addressed the boy who has sniggered, "You performed your expression at the end of last class, but I'm not sure everyone got to see it. Would you like to-" Brian's face lost all color and he shook his head violently. "Oh, alright." The teacher felt somewhat let down.13

"Now," he clapped his hands and turned to Odette. The expression on his face was slightly vacant and his smile was slightly unnerving. He closed his eyes and folded his hands in front of him, seemingly in silent thought. The class gave each other uncomfortable looks. Brian held a slip of white paper in his hands and fiddled with it loudly.14

"Sir?" Brian asked. He came forward and spoke again less loudly. The class was now beginning to speak with one another again. The teacher bent down and took the slip from him, looked at it and patted Brian on the head. He said something quietly and Brian left, looking very relieved.15

"Well, thats interesting," The teacher said, Brian pulled open the doors and they fell shut behind him when he left. It was quiet again. "So, lets start with our new student just as our old one has left the building."16

Odette looked up and saw that everyone was looking at her again.17

"This is Odette everyone, she'll be with us for the rest of the year." He gestured to her, "Now everyone in this class was required to showcase how they creatively express themselves." He gave her an evaluating look, "You look like you might be an actress or model type. Maybe a singer?" He looked to get a hint from her, so he paused. "But thats not up to me. So, do you have something with which you can show us how you express yourself? If you would like to have sometime before you actually do that, you could show us next class."18

Finally he paused long enough for Odette to think. She was very nervous about doing anything in front of all these people she didn't know, but knew it wasn't very different than actually performing in front of an audience. She'd learned something once...19

"Odette? What is your art?" He asked and she looked at him blankly for a moment. She was tempted to say words similar to those of her idol, that she was her art, but she wasn't brave enough.20

Quietly she said, "I dance."21

For a split second she could have sworn he smirked, "Would you happen to have something to show us?"22

"If I can have music?" She was asking for permission.23

A boy sitting on the edge of the stage jumped off and ducked down into the orchestra pit. He came back with a thick black chord and showed it to her, "Do you have an iPod?" The teacher asked.24

Suddenly aware that everyone was watching her as she moved, the blood rushed to her face and she kept her head down as she brought her iPod to the chord where it lay, and plugged it in. The loud clicks of the scroll sounded hollow in the big room. She selected a music video that would take a moment to start, pulled off her sneakers, and took off her sweater. She quickly took the middle of the stage and the students settled in to watch.25

The moment Gary Barlow began to croon, Odette was moving. She started slowly, gracefully pulling her feet about in sweeping moments and lifting her arms up around her. She turned in a slow modified pirouette and bent her form, turning back now and began to smoothly dance across the stage in well rehearsed lines. She moved her limbs in symbolic emotion, feeling the music pull her more and more as she began to forget her choreography. Her heart sang with the string instruments and without meaning to she began to smile. She twirled and embraced the air with genuine feeling, gracefully she kicked her legs and suddenly exploded into a jump. Her movements became more powerful and deliberate as the song continued, feeding more and more into her soul. She pulled her body around her, completely forgetting she was in a room filled with strangers. The smooth stage held her fast as her bare feet moved across it and for the first time since she had moved to Birmingham she felt alive. As the last chord rolled out into the room, she folded in on herself on the floor in a bow, one leg stretched out in front of her, her arms to either side, her face hidden.26

She lifted her face, still grinning and met the eyes of her silent classmates. Her smile faded fast,no one stirred for a long moment, until Clara overcame her awe and looking around the room, began to clap.27

Like a sudden jolt back to the present, others began to clap as well. Odette pulled herself off the floor and smiled. She tucked her hair behind her ears and stuck her feet back into her shoes. Everyone was now applauding her and she blushed again. A foolish grin came across her face again and she stood soaking it in. She realized, of course, that it sounded like there were many more people cheering then there actually were.28

The teacher came over to her and gave her a hard pat on the back where she was sure she almost fell off the stage.29

"Good job." He said, pulling her iPod off of the chord, he handed it to her. He then proceeded to jump off the stage, "Now!" He turned to the class in preparation to say something.30

Odette put her iPod back into its case and closed her bag, she came off of the stage and was immediately approached by Clara who was smiling wide at her. Just over her shoulder Odette could see a boy with immaculate hair and the collar of his polo popped looking at Clara with earnest concern. His arms were crossed and he looked like he didn't want to be standing off alone. Clara stepped in the way however and now the worrisome boy was blocked by a cascade of curly chestnut hair.31

"Oh my god, that was amazing!" She glowed with happiness at Odette, "Can I hug you?" Without waiting she pulled Odette into an awkward embrace and Odette patted Clara's back for a moment.32

"You were so good." She rolled her eyes and smiled. "Are you going to join the dance department?" Odette suddenly forgot about the fact that the teacher was talking to a student about what sounded like her performance and directed all her attention at Clara.33

"Dance department?" Her eyes were wide. 34

"Yeah," Clara obviously didn't think much of it, "They could use someone like you." A tan hand came from behind and rested itself on her shoulder, Clara started forward a little. She turned and the boy that had been so ill at ease a moment ago was smiling lovingly at her, his hand now resting comfortably at the small of her back. Clara didn't seem to like the attention, but smiled at him polietly.35

"Chad," She said pointedly as if to introduce Odette indirectly, "Didn't you think Odette's dance was superb?" 36

Chad looked at Odette for a moment sizing her up and thought hard for a moment about something, coming to a decision he nodded to Clara. "Yea, she did good."37

Clara rolled her eyes, Chad pretended he didn't see that and seemed to forget that Odette was standing there. He leaned in to whisper something in Clara's ear, in a romantic, cute, boyfriend type way, but Clara resisted. Odette looked away awkwardly and saw a mousy girl watching enviously with a wide mouth, when Odette caught her eye however, the girl looked away blushing. Clara took a step away from Chad and slightly angered he scowled for a moment, then reconsidered his chances.38

"I'm having a party on Friday, my parents will be around, so it won't be like the last one." Chad said, opening an invitation to Clara. Clara however smiling, looked frantically at Odette and smiled at her. 39

"We'd love to come to it," Clara looped her arm into Odette's and smiled, unsure, Odette smiled back weakly. "What time?"40

Chad stuttered looking at the two of them, "J-j-just get there after 6:30. It g-goes at least until 12. Or whenever we kick you out," He seemed to be pointedly looking at Odette, then to Clara, "All your friends will be there."41

"Great!" Clara smiled, "We'll be fashionably late, of course."42

Chad once again, tried to get Clara into a half embrace, but she sidled away closer to Odette.43

The teacher then called out to the students for a moment and everyone turned to look. Now that Chad was only warily keeping an eye on the two girls, Clara quickly whispered in Odette's ear.44

"I hope you don't mind that I invited you," Clara quickly added, "I mean, you don't have to come if you don't want to."45

Odette shook her head and put her finger to her lips. "I'm actually kinda glad to be getting socially involved so quickly here." She smiled wryly. "Even if I was kinda forced into it."46

Clara grimaced, "Ouch."47

"Odette!" The teacher called out to her, "Would you mind giving a mandatory improvised speech on your performance just now?" He didn't wait for an answer, turning back to the rest of the class.48

Clara lifted an eyebrow at Odette, who cracked up. Smiling to herself, she walked over to stand next to the teacher.49

"So, whenever you're ready to, you need to explain about how you felt, why you moved the way you did and why you feel that dance expresses you." He paused and looked at her expectantly, "Oh! And if you can tell how this particular bit expressed you, you get bonus brownie points."50

Clara made a face at Odette behind the teachers back and Odette blushed looking at her less than interested classmates. Not in the least eager, she took a breath and tried to explain that spasm of joy she had flitted through on stage.