Page 11 of Sway

Look, indeed, you little tart. “Hello Princess Di,” I look down on her snagged Pucci hair scarf. “So, did you bring your Daddy’s check book so you can buy another one of my partners? How much did he spend to get you spot on show? Oh right, Miss Molly Mormon would never do that.”

Salomé starts turning her back toward me but Jenny can’t resist opening her big mouth.

“No, Vika,” she says, “the producers just decided this season to omit the requirement that the professional dancers have to sleep with the judges.” Diana and Salomé laugh. “Great break for us, don’t you think?”

I flip my hair over my shoulder. “Laugh all you want now, girls. There’s more to this show than simply dancing. You have to dance Standard AND Latin.” I eye Jenny hard on that last word. “And it takes star quality to look good on camera. None of you got that.” I swivel around and walk over to the next studio where Nicole is teaching the kids. She’s hugging a crying student over in the corner.

God, what drama are these kids into now?

I put my sunglasses back on. The sunlight is bouncing off the mirrors and blinding me. Several young children are doing endless circular rumba walks around the floor.

I let Cha-Cha out of her carrier and she scoots across the floor, trotting between all the children practicing. “Cha-Cha, sofa. Sidet.” She drops her little butt down on the couch. “Good dog.” Can’t have any of those kids stomping my darling. I walk over to the windows and close the blue velvet curtains. Some fans are gathered on the street waiting for a glimpse of me. I blow them a kiss before joining Nicole and the sweaty girl in the corner.

“Nikita,” the girl says to Nicole, tears staining her pale, heart-shaped face. “I just can’t take it anymore. Maksim said that I’m fat pig and slow like slug. He says I’m pathetic and he don’t know why he ever was in love together with me. He thinks he is only reason we are champions.” Her cheeks get all blotchy and she grinds her heels into the floor. “I don’t want to dance together with him anymore. Please don’t make me.”

The other teens in the studio stop dancing and turn to watch the train wreck. Alla’s partner, Maksim, is flirting with another girl.

Nicole puts on her signature happy face for the students. “Nothing to look at everyone; Alla is just feeling ill. Please continue your walks.” Nicole cranks up the music and mouths “help me.”

I’m on it. This kind of talk is the plague—there’s no need to poison the other kids’ minds.

I sit Alla down at a table on the other side of the floor. Nicole comes over and joins us as Cha-Cha hops into my lap.

“Now Allichka,” Nicole starts, picking her words very carefully, “you’re just upset. I’ll talk to Maksim. He doesn’t mean what he says, he just wants to win. You want to be champions, right? Do you think it was always easy for Eric and me?” She points over at Eric, who is sitting on the couch across from us, cooing at their baby. “Eric broke my heart a hundred times but we stuck together and became champions. I will stay with him no matter what. I know it is a sacrifice. Trust me, you’ll thank me one day.”

Alla blinks out tears. “But Niki—”

“No buts!” Niki blurts. “You will not break up with Maksim. Look how miserable Salomé is since she broke up with Genya.”

We all turn as if on the same string to see Salomé in the adjacent practice room, bent over in a stretch with her huge butt up in all its horror. I shudder. I can’t believe we used to be best friends.

“She’s right, Allusja,” I say, petting Cha-Cha. “Twenty-four is too young to be has-been. Don’t get stupid on us.”

“I won’t let you be that stupid,” Nicole says. She takes the weepy girl by the hand and leads her to the floor where she gives her a soft pat on the head before heading back to me, her eyes wide in a “Can you believe this?” look.

Cha-Cha jumps off my lap and nips at Maksim’s ankle. He picks her up like she’s got mange and carries her over to me, his arms outstretched.

“Maksimka,” Nicole says, coming up as I take my dog, “would you please try to be nicer to Alla for me?”

“Sure, Nikita, anything for you,” the studio’s resident prince says, trying to turn his charm on her.

Lowering her voice, she says, “Just be kind to Alla. For me.”

“Da, Nikita.” He traipses off as if we’d just been talking about the weather.

“He’s arrogant little man, that one,” I say.

Nicole sighs and gives me a sincere hug. “Thanks luv, for backing me up. She looks up to you like a sister.”

Of course she does. “No problem, Nikita. These kids need to learn about sacrifice.”

My husband pokes his head around the corner. “Would my two favorite lassies please join the others?”

“Sure, Daddy,” we say in unison.

We walk into the other room where all the dancers are lined up like we’re here for an American eighth grade dance—boys on the left side and girls on the right. Jenny, Salomé, and Diana are holding each other’s hands and Iza’s back is turned to them. I take Nicole’s hand and we slide in between Iza and Jenny. I want to be in the center just in case one of the cameramen shows up.

Iza gives me a kiss on the cheek. “I can’t believe we’re starting a new season already. It feels like we just finished the tour.”