Read Let's Rock! for Free Online Page B

laugh or get your attention.”
    â€œThat sounds really mean,” Anya said. “Why would we do that?”
    â€œBecause you are showing everyone in the audience how it feels to be homeless. When no one cares or hears you or understands what you are going through.”
    â€œCharlie has no voice,” Bria said. “Like a silent movie.”
    â€œExactly!” Toni said, patting her on the back.“But we’re going to give him one. At the end of the routine, I want you all to make a circle and lift him in the air. You’re going to literally support him and accept him.”
    Liberty looked bored. “So, Bria gets to go up in the air and do a solo and everything and we get to dance around her? That doesn’t sound fair.”
    Toni scowled. “Didn’t you learn anything today at the shelter? Enough talking—all of you. I need to fix things.”
    Liberty sniffed and took her place in the back line. “If I was going to fix things, I’d make me the star and Bria the background dancer.”
    â€œWell, if I was going to fix things, I’d superglue your mouth shut,” Rochelle tossed back.
    â€œLadies, I hear whispering,” Miss Toni said, fumbling with the buttons on her MP3 player. “I want concentration. Not gabbing.”
    They ran the routine over and over again. Bria started by walking out onstage with the famous Chaplin waddle. She leaped through the air,then froze in an
attitude
, balancing on her right leg while holding her left at a 90-degree angle in front of her.
    â€œHold it, hold it,” Toni coached her, “as if you’re frozen in time. Now the rest of you … come forward.
Allongé!
Liberty, stretch out that
arabesque
!”
    The girls swirled around her. “Let me see
balancé
—together! As one! Up, down, up, down,
relevé, fondu, relevé, fondu
!”
    Bria started to wobble. Her leg was killing her from standing like a statue for thirty-two counts. “Now, Bria. Crouch down, get tiny, as if you’re trying to hide from the world,” Toni called. Grateful to drop her leg, Bria sunk to the floor and wrapped her arms around her knees.
    Toni hit a button and the music came to an abrupt halt. Bria looked up, worried she’d done something wrong.
    Toni pulled her up to her feet. “I’m not feelin’ it,” she said sternly.
    Bria sighed. No matter how hard she tried, there was no pleasing her dance coach.
    There was a knock at the studio. “May I make a suggestion?” J. J. said, poking his head inside.
    Toni frowned. “Can you not eavesdrop?” She was pacing the floor, trying to come up with a way to make the routine work. Everyone was exhausted, physically and emotionally, from the entire day.
    â€œWell, technically, it wasn’t eavesdropping. It was more like eaveswatching. Through that teeny tiny crack in the door frame,” J. J. said.
    â€œThe shades are drawn so no one can see in,” Toni explained. “No one meaning you, too.”
    J. J. smiled and ignored her. “So I was thinking, why do we need any music?” he asked. “I mean, it’s called ‘Listen Up,’ and it’s about silent films. Wouldn’t you get more attention if there was no sound at all—just motion?”
    The girls looked at Toni for her reaction. “I can’t tell what she’s thinking,” Scarlett whispered to Rochelle.
    Toni cleared her voice. “I still hear whispering,” she said. “And I have something important to say.” She turned to face J. J. “I like his idea—but I think it needs tweaking.”
    J. J. raised an eyebrow. “Tweaking? What sort of tweaking? ’Cause people don’t tweak Mr. J. J.”
    â€œI like the idea of no sound … until a point. Let’s run it again,” Toni commanded.
    The Divas got back into position, and did the entire routine over, this time with no piano