49 Boom, pop.

LJ

I roll my shoulders forward, together at first, then one at a time, peering at their range of motion in the mirror. I decide to make bigger rotations before rolling them backwards. I feel little knots pop in the blades as I slowly raise my shoulders up. Ah, that feels good. I roll my head around to stretch my neck.

It is quiet in the practice room, as I imagine it is quiet in the entire building. It is 8:00 in the morning, usually the staff and the bosses only come in at 9am. Ned is usually here by 9, with Lia beating him by 15 minutes. I only know this because they both check the practice rooms on weekday mornings to see if I'm here before going up to their respective offices. They don't even say anything to me, the both of them. Ned sticks his head in the door and raises his eyebrows at me in a sort of forced greeting, then leaves. Lia sticks her head in the door and rolls her eyes at me, then leaves. Yes, I feel loved.

The artists who use the practice rooms don't come in until maybe 10? This room is reserved for us every weekday morning from 7:30 to 10, whether or not we have a comeback or concert or anything to practice for. But I always have something to practice for, so I'm here everyday. I'm still trying to convince Ned to let me use the room on the weekends, but he insists the room belongs only to the trainees the whole weekend.

I start to move my shoulders in improv. Pop, lock, wave. I lean my spine into a spiral and experiment with popping to a rhythm in my head. Boom, pop. Dum boom boom, pop. Boom ba-dum, pop. Dum boom boom, pop.

I raise my arms, concentrating the tension in my upper arms and elbows and release the tension through my forearms, my hands shaking off the energy. I try it again and try to make it look more elegant. I know that doesn't sound like it makes any sense, but I am happy with my refined shake. I repeat this, releasing the tension in my knees, complimenting the shake with a bounce into the ground. I rebound and step forward in a ball change with my feet, cocking my chest forward, hips angled back, arms swinging backward naturally. This rebound continues into a little cake walk as I move around the studio.

I notice that I had walked in a circle and was now coming back to my starting position facing the mirror. I continue the circle by rolling my hips - forward, to the right, backward, to the left. And again. And again, following my hips as they take me around in full circle. I repeat this revolution, watching myself in the mirror.

I can imagine millions of Geends screaming, wetting their panties.

I chuckle at myself and release my right foot to swing around in a huge circle front, side, back, taking my arms out to steady my balance. From this open position, I pull my foot and arms in and spin. One. Two. Three. Four. I jump and plant both feet onto the wooden floor, letting my knees absorb my landing, stopping my spin.

Behind me, applause. I see Burt clapping in the mirror. I turn around and we start laughing.

"Is that for Song 6?" he asks, looking a bit worried. Part of the concept of Boy Next Door was we were the best dancers in the industry, though Burt has always struggled with choreo and makes an extra effort to not let it show.

"No, no," I assure him, "I'm just playing around."

"I want you to know that I can only do a minimum of 7 spins, Mr. Choreographer," he teases me. I blush. This is my first chance to choreograph for us, my first chance to choreograph anything, ever. I have Song 6 all figured out in my head, but I wanted to work mostly on patterns today. Okay, now he reminded me and I'm beginning to feel nervous again.

"You're early," I said.

"Not early enough," he shook his head, walking into the studio, tossing his bag into the space beside mine. "You are starting to come in earlier, aren't you? Don't you know I come in early precisely to copy your warm up?"

I laugh. "No, I didn't know that, I thought you just liked to wake up early," I said. He looks really worn out, though. I watch him lie down on the floor his head on his bag, like a pillow. "Are you okay?"

He shakes his head. "Hungover," he grunts.

"Wow," I nod. Burt doesn't get drunk easily, so he must have been drinking the whole night to get to this state. "Were you drinking with Steve?"

"Mark," he replies. "Who is going to be late, by the way. If he arrives at all."

I had turned to the mirror again and started moving my chest in isolations. "Why, is he hungover too? How much did you guys drink, anyway?" Mark also doesn't get drunk easily.

"Not a lot," I hear him assure me.

Then, the door suddenly opens and a girl is about to walk in, stopping when she sees us. I whirl around. "Hi Kate," I smile.

"Hi LJ," she smiles back, although her smile didn't reach her eyes. She looks around the room, checking to see if anyone else was there, checking which one of us Burt was.

Burt suddenly sits up straight like I used to as a child when I had to wake up early to go to school. "Hi Kate," he smiles too. "Are you using this practice room or the small one?"

"Oh, are you using this room today?" she asks back.

"Everyday till our contract ends," I reply, good naturedly. It was easy for Kate to assume they booked this room because it was the bigger one and there were 9 of them in Goddess Athena after all. "What time is your schedule?"

"10, but I wanted to do stretches," she explains.

"We have this room till 10," Burt tells her.

"Oh okay, I'll check the other studio, then. Sorry, guys," she waves at us.

"No prob," I call after her as the door closed. Burt suddenly starts to laugh. "What's so funny?" I ask him.

"It's a really funny story," he assures me, lying back down and closing his eyes. "But it's too early for story time."

I chuckle and face the mirror again. Now, where was I? Boom, pop. Ba-dum boom, pop.