Nancy and George stopped short. Nancy was close enough to see Lawrence’s expression of concern turn into one of startled annoyance.
“If that’s all the thanks I get for saving you, maybe I should have dropped you,” Lawrence retorted.
“Saving me! That’s a laugh,” Shana declared. “Nancy and George are witnesses to the fact that you deliberately dropped me. Right?” Hands on her hips, Shana turned toward the two girls.
“Witness to what?” Lawrence laughed sarcastically before Nancy or George could answer. “To your own clumsiness? Who are these two friends of yours, anyway? And why are they hanging around the school like they belong here?”
“Leave them out of this,” Shana snapped. Taking a step toward Lawrence, she poked him in the chest with her index finger. “You’re just trying to avoid the fact that your hands weren’t in the right place on my waist.”
“No way.” Lawrence moved closer, towering over Shana. “You were wiggling like a nervous worm. I couldn’t balance you right.”
For a moment, the two dancers glared at each other. Nancy could feel the tension between them. She didn’t dare say anything, especially when she had no idea what had caused the near-accident.
“I think we both know what the solution to all of this is,” Lawrence said in a low voice. “Get yourself a new partner, one you can blame all your mistakes on.” Then he turned and started toward the door.
“You know there’s no one else around who can partner me,” Shana yelled after him. “So we’ll just have to simplify the choreography for you.”
“For me?” Lawrence halted. “Give it up, Shana. This whole thing was your own fault. Your timing was off. You’re not nearly as good as you think you are. Both your sisters can dance circles around you, even Michelle. Darci should be dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy role, and you know it.”
With that, Lawrence pushed his way through the doors and stormed out of the studio.
“Pompous jerk,” Shana muttered as she sat down on the wooden floor. Ripping off her satin toe shoes, she flung them after him. “He makes me so mad!” she declared, tearing the lambswool padding from her toes and throwing it after her shoes.
Nancy had never seen Shana so worked up. Maybe the tense atmosphere at the ballet academy was getting to everyone. “Don’t you two get along?” Nancy asked in a teasing voice, hoping to break the tension.
Shana gave Nancy a wry grin. “That’s an understatement,” she said with a sigh. “Actually, we used to be um . . . friends. I mean, before I got an audition with the New York Ballet Company and he didn’t.”
“Jealousy again,” George remarked to Nancy in a low voice. Then she picked up Shana’s toe shoes and handed them to her.
“Mmm,” Nancy replied, thinking of Darci.
Shana walked over to the piano and punched off the tape recorder. The romantic Nutcracker music stopped. Then she gathered up her sweats and shawl.
Finally she said, “You know, Lawrence thinks I could arrange an audition for him with the New York Ballet Company if I really wanted to. But, I’m just a member of the corps de ballet right now—which means I’m not much more important than a piece of scenery. Lawrence doesn’t understand that I have no say in who gets to audition and who doesn’t.” Wearily, Shana slumped onto the piano bench.
“Would you arrange an audition for Lawrence if you could?” Nancy pressed.
Shana shook her head as she tucked her toe shoes into her dance bag. Then she bent down to slip on her sweats. “No, he needs to do that himself. Lawrence has to have more confidence in his own abilities. It’s the only way he’ll make it in New York. The competition is cutthroat, and you’ve got to be able to deal with it—on your own.”
“Do you think Lawrence knows how you feel?” Nancy asked.
“I know he knows, because I told him,” Shana said. “Someone had to. He’s fooling himself if he thinks a recommendation from me would make a difference. Blaming me is just a cop-out.”
“Makes sense,” George said, nodding. “Do you think Lawrence was mad enough to have taken screws out of the demonstration barre so you’d fall?”
“No way.” Shana tucked an errant wisp of flame-red hair back in her loosened chignon and shook her head emphatically. But then her green eyes took on a faraway look. “At least I’d hate to think he’d do something like that,” she said finally. “Not to me.”
While Shana was talking, Nancy walked over to the studio doors and peered into the hall. She wanted to make sure no one was listening to them.
When she returned, she sat down next to Shana on the bench. “Maybe we’d better tell you about the other things that have happened,” Nancy said in a low voice. Then she and George told her about the missing antique ornaments and the canceled programs.
“Poor Madame Dugrand,” Shana murmured when Nancy had finished. “But what could those things have to do with the demonstration barre falling, or with Lawrence almost dropping me?”
“Maybe nothing,” Nancy admitted. “But I can’t help thinking they’re all tied together.”
“And you suspect Lawrence?” Shana shook her head. “I don’t know, Nancy. Lawrence might be mad at me for a lot of things, but he’s devoted to Madame Dugrand. I doubt he’d hurt her just to get back at me.”
“Maybe we should tell Shana what we overheard at Yogurt Heaven, Nancy,” George said in a low voice.
“What?” Shana looked back and forth at her two friends.
Reluctantly, Nancy repeated the conversation they’d overheard between Darci and Lawrence.
But Shana didn’t seem angry. Instead she let out a sigh. “I should have known this would happen. Poor Darci. She wanted to be the Sugar Plum Fairy so badly. She’s had to dance in my shadow all her life. Besides, Darci has a huge crush on Lawrence. My dancing with him must really burn her up.”
“So you don’t think they’ve teamed up to drive you away?” Nancy asked.
Shana shrugged. “I don’t know anything anymore. I thought I was coming back to help Madame out, but it’s been one disaster after another. Maybe I should just go back to New York.”
“No way!” George said firmly. “Look at all the help you’ve given the other dancers. Madame needs you.”
“Maybe.” Shana stood up. “Well, I have to get going. Madame wants me to help choreograph the fight scene between the soldiers and the mice.”
“How’s your ankle?” Nancy asked, getting up.
Shana smiled. “All better, thanks to the ice pack. Look, you guys,” she added as the three of them walked to the door, “I’m going to talk to Darci the first chance I get.”
“Don’t tell her I’m snooping around,” Nancy cautioned. “I don’t think it’d be a good idea to blow my cover.”
