you can't help but become the sun / julien baker

chapter forty-six

Maggie's Pov:
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"I feel like I'm gonna throw up," I squeezed Julien's hand as we walked up to the doors. "This is so scary!"

"You'll be okay," she opened the door for me, like the gentleman she is.

"Magnolia! Hi!" Donna, the same receptionist, and choreographer who taught me, greeted us at the door.

"Hi, Donna! This is my girlfriend Julien! I'm here to show her where I used to dance and maybe do a routine for her!"

"Oh, that's a lovely idea! It's so good to meet you!" the slightly older woman beamed. "You can do what you want, there's no one in studio A all day so you can work in your old studio!"

"It's nice to meet you too!" Julien ran her thumb across the back of my hand, to keep me calm.

"That's perfect! Thank you!" I was gonna bring Julien to the changing/waiting room but Donna stopped us again. When I was a student, Donna was always pretty kind but could be insensitive at times.

"Magnolia, you look so different! I almost didn't recognize you! The last time I saw you, you had blonde hair and you were skinny-skinny! She was always the smallest size on the team!" God damn it, maybe this was an awful idea.

I had a death grip on Julien's hand, "Well it's been a while, I'm gonna show my girl around. It was nice talking to you." I pulled Julien along, and we went into the changing room.

The room's walls were littered with photos, trophies on shelves, and plaques hung up. "Is this baby Maggie?" Julien asked, pointing at a photo of me on the wall.

"Yup, those are all photos of my biggest dance achievements," I sighed. Looking at my past self, I didn't wanna take off my over-clothes. Julien was gonna be disgusted, she'll see how much I've changed and be disgusted.

"I think I prefer you like this," she turned to me, grabbing my other hand. "Sure that's the same girl but she doesn't look very happy or healthy. Now, I wanna see you dance."

"Okay, please don't make fun of me," I let go of her hands, pulling my hoodie off. Julien's eyes flickered down to my black sports bra that very tightly held my boobs in place. "I'm not very good anymore."

"Shut the hell up, you'll do amazing!" She held my hoodie while I removed my sweatpants revealing workout-type shorts. "You're so beautiful."

I blushed, "thank you, honey. I want you to go up to the viewing room, it's just up those stairs. I don't want you to know what I'm gonna do," I kissed my girlfriend's cheek and pushed her towards the stairs.

Once she disappeared, I quickly walked back out to ask Donna a question. "Hey, do we still have those black trays from the water dance? I have this idea and was wondering if I could use them."

"Of course! They're right here," she grabbed three trays from a cabinet. "There's water bottles in the room, just make sure to clean up the mess once you're done."

"I will! Thank you!" This was dangerous, but I wanted to do the most for my girl. Taking the trays, a few bottles of water, a beach towel prop, and then a few mats and I got to work.

Stretching was first, I knew that it was very important and I didn't wanna hurt myself so I took this very seriously. I saw Julien's shocked expression as I slid down into the splits.

I winked up at her, then continued my stretching routine. Next, I tried out some tricks. I started easy with a backbend, cartwheel, and a backhand spring.

Then, I advanced into a chin stand, a front and back aerial, and a few other moves. Lastly, I retaught myself things like an Illusion, a Fan Kick, and various other kicks that I used to do often.

As I went for a water break, I got up the two songs I was gonna choreograph to. Six minutes of dancing after not dancing for years was idiotic, especially because normal routines were two minutes or less.

Turns were next, how the hell am I gonna do as many turns as I want to? How was I gonna not slip on the water after the first song? I had so many unanswered questions that I should've thought through before I started.

After putting my water and phone down, I started on my turns. Immediately, I fell out of the first turn sequence. I'm gonna need a miracle to help me get through this.

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a/n: Second to the last chapter of Act Two!

I realized that i'm not totally prepared for this book to end because I don't have enough written for the next book so while Act Three is a bit longer than Act One and Two, i'm pretty sure uploading will go back to Mondays and Fridays.

Also, if you're a dancer and I do a poor job on this chapter and the next one, I completely apologize. I rewrote these like three times and tried to use dance terminology but I don't think I did a very good job.

-A