Chapter Text
The music pumped through his veins. It crescendoed, and Cyrus no longer had any idea where he was with respective to anything else in the studio, much less the exact choreography he was dancing at the moment, but that didn’t really matter. All he could see was gleaming green eyes. All he could feel was smooth hands gripping his wrists. As the music ended, Cyrus collapsed on the floor, crying and wondering how he had gotten to this point.
(6 weeks earlier)
Cyrus’s chest heaved as he held his final pose and waited for the music to finish. To be quite honest, the dance wasn’t his best work. The first two minutes or so of choreography was pretty solid, but he ran out of time and had to rush the last bits of choreography that day, so it was pretty repetitive towards the end. But the judges (consisting of the principal and the two assistant principals) seemed to like it, and there was a heavy round of applause, so it must have been alright. Cyrus could even make out some people standing up (that was probably just Andi, Buffy, and Jonah, but it was still cool!). After the judges finished their remarks, he walked off stage to gulp down about 2 full bottles of water.
The talent show lasted for six more acts. Most of them were singers, but there was also a band, another dancer, and a guy who did killer impressions. Cyrus was particularly impressed with his Miss Piggy. Then the judges called all of the acts back on stage to commend everyone for performing.
“Remember to vote online for your favorite act! We’ll see eight of you back here in four weeks for finals! Good luck and good night!” said the principal. The lights rose and the audience began to meander to the auditorium doors. By the time Cyrus had collected his bag and water bottles from backstage, Andi, Buffy, and Jonah were waiting for him by the stage doors.
“That was amazing Cyrus! I can’t believe you’ve been holding out on us!” gushed Andi.
“Yeah, Cy-Guy! Since when do you dance?” asked Jonah.
“This is my fifteenth year.”
“Wait, how old are you again?”
“Buffy, we’ve been best friends with him for over 10 years!” interjected Andi.
“Yeah, but I wanted to make sure that I didn’t accidentally forget that he was immortal or something. You’ve really been dancing since you were two?” she responded.
“Well, I was three by the first recital, but yeah, I was two when I started. Didn’t you know that?” Cyrus said.
Buffy shrugged. “I guess I never really knew the specifics. I just knew that you’d been dancing since basically forever.”
“Well, Good-man and good girls, what do you say to celebratory milkshakes at the Spoon?” said Jonah.
“Well there’s nothing to celebrate yet since I haven’t been voted through, but who am I to say no to milkshakes?”
Cyrus rode with Andi, and Buffy rode with Jonah. The creative car beat the athletic car, and Cyrus went inside to secure the good booth while Andi called her mom to let her know where she was. She came back right after Cyrus ordered their baby taters and milkshakes (vanilla for Andi and chocolate for the rest of them), joined by Buffy and Jonah and a bouquet of flowers.
“We would have given them to you earlier, but we didn’t trust ourselves to keep them intact through the entire show,” said Andi as Buffy handed him the flowers.
“You guys really didn’t have to get me flowers! I wasn’t that good, and besides it was only the prelims!”
“Yes we did! It’s not like we could’ve made you posters like you do for Buffy’s basketball games or organized snacks like you do for the Space Otters, so we did the next best thing,” said Jonah, sliding into the booth across from Cyrus.
“Whatever, I probably won’t be put through anyway.”
“Shut up! Yes you will!” said Andi.
Cyrus would’ve argued further, but their milkshakes arrived at that moment.
“Vanilla milkshake?” asked the waitress.
“That’s me!” Andi exclaimed as Buffy rolled her eyes.
“You have got to be kidding me. Vanilla isn’t even a flavor!” Buffy said while helping pass Cyrus and Jonah their drinks.
“Yes it is! It’s the flavor of sweetness and deliciousness!” Andi shot back.
Cyrus settled back into his seat. He had heard this same argument at least a thousand times. Buffy maintained that vanilla barely had any more flavor than water. Andi disagreed. At this point, a trip to their favorite milkshake-and-baby-tater spot wasn’t complete without a new iteration of the debate. Still, Cyrus enjoyed it. Their friendly banter allowed him to relax.
Until he spilled his milkshake, that is.
“You are definitely the clumsiest dancer I know,” said Buffy while Cyrus groaned and tried to blot the milkshake off of his shirt.
“Shut up. Yeah, I’m definitely going to need use water on this. Be right back,” Cyrus responded as he scooted past Andi to head to the bathroom.
Fortunately for Cyrus, the milkshake was surprisingly easy to clean up. He was in the bathroom for no more than four minutes, and he was about to head back to his table when he heard a toilet flush. He looked up to see none other than TJ Kippen staring right back at him in the mirror. Cyrus didn’t know anything about TJ other than that he was in his history class and that he was the source of Buffy’s hatred for male jocks, but he suspected that nothing good could come of this interaction.
“Hey, aren’t you that guy that danced in the talent show?” asked TJ. So he’s going the “fein interest” route Cyrus thought to himself.
“Y-yeah,” he said out loud, and, in a moment of unprecedented confidence, he added “You got a problem with that?”
“No, not at all!” TJ chuckled, as if he found the idea of having a problem with Cyrus ridiculous. “I just think it’s interesting that you keep so much to yourself in class but you’re willing to dance in front of the entire school.”
“It wasn’t the entire school! And how do you know enough about me to even make that judgement? You started off this entire conversation with ‘Aren’t you that guy?’ It sounds to me like you don’t even know who I am!”
“You’re in my history class.” When a look of confusion passed over Cyrus’s face, TJ continued. “What? You can’t honestly tell me you never noticed.”
“No, I know that you’re in my class. I just didn’t think you knew that. You’re a pretty aloof guy.”
“Well history just happens to be the one class I pay attention in.”
“Are you telling me that TJ Kippen, Grant’s resident stoic jock, is a history nerd?”
“I didn’t say that! … But yes, I am. Don’t go spreading it around! The last thing I need is having my reputation ruined by some smallfry that danced in the talent show.”
Growing, more confident by the minute, Cyrus responded with “Aw, and just as we were getting to be friends!”
TJ didn’t necessarily growl, per se, but he was intimidating enough to make Cyrus quickly add on “But you have my word! I will not go around ruining your reputation. Even if I think you’re being ridiculous.”
For a moment Cyrus thought TJ was going to say that that wasn’t enough and demand that he somehow remove that particular piece of information from his brain, but then he sighed and said “Thank you,” which threw Cyrus for a second before he moved on to another question that had been brewing in his mind since he first saw TJ in the bathroom.
“So what are you doing here anyway? I don’t think I saw any of your friends out there.”
“I’m just picking up Amber. She gets off work in five minutes.”
“Oh, are you two dating?” Cyrus really did not care about TJ’s answer, but he figured he had to do his duty as Andi’s friend.
“God no,” TJ groaned. “Why does everyone ask us that? Can no one get it through their thick skulls that we’re fucking siblings!”
“Wait, she’s your sister?”
“Yes, unfortunately. And,” TJ said, pulling out his phone, “apparently she got off a little early. See ya later, Underdog.”
“Bye TJ--wait, what did you call me?” Cyrus asked, but TJ had already left the bathroom. Sighing, Cyrus dabbed at his shirt one last time before returning to his baby taters (and his friends, but his taters were more important).
“What took you so long?” Jonah asked as Cyrus slid back into the booth.
“Yeah, what exactly were you doing in that bathroom, Cyrus?” Buffy added.
“Oh, TJ Kippen was here to pick up Amber and he was in the bathroom and we ended up having an...interesting conversation.”
“Wait, is TJ dating Amber?” Andi interjected.
“You don’t have to worry about TJ stealing your girlfriend Andi,” Cyrus responded.
“She’s not my girlfriend!”
“But you want her to be,” teased Cyrus. “Apparently they’re siblings. Not sure why no one seems to know that.”
“Anyway,” said Buffy, steering the discussion back to Cyrus’s conversation in the bathroom, “What did you guys talk about? Why were you guys talking in the first place?”
“To be completely honest, I have no idea. He asked if I was ‘that guy that danced in the talent show,’” Cyrus said with air quotes.
“Did he mess with you? I swear to God-”
“No, Buffy, stop! He was actually pretty cool about it, and then I learned that he’s a huge his-” Cyrus paused, remembering TJ’s almost-threat about ruining his reputation. “He’s a huge Hiss Hiss fan.”
“Hiss Hiss?” Andi asked.
“Yeah, apparently it’s some indie emo band or something.”
“That sounds like total bs,” Buffy said. Cyrus just shrugged. “Fine, keep your secrets. Is that all that happened?”
“Yeah. He got text from Amber saying that she was done early, and then he left, but then as he was leaving he called me some name. I think it was Underdog? I’m not really sure. He left before I could ask.”
“I wonder what that’s about,” said Andi.
“Me too. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow in history.”
“I didn’t know he was in any of your classes,” said Jonah.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have expected him to be in AP US History,” Buffy added.
“I guess everyone’s got their secrets,” said Cyrus. “Well, now that the baby taters and shakes are gone, I guess it’s unfortunately time to go home. Don’t make that face, Andi! We need to sleep!”
“Fine,” she grumbled. “Do you need a ride, Cy?”
“Nah, it’s nice out, and my house is only ten minutes from here.”
“Okay. Bye everyone!”
In usual Good Hair Crew (and Jonah) fashion, it took ten minutes for everyone to say goodbye and get out the door. When Cyrus finally started his walk home, the cool breeze was a breath of fresh air. As much as he loved his friends, they got to be a little overbearing at times. Who cares if he and TJ Kippen exchanged a few words in the bathroom?
'I care' thought a tiny piece of his mind, but, as it made no sense, Cyrus elected to ignore it. Instead, he plugged in his earbuds and started to choreograph a new dance. If he was put through, maybe he’d use it for the finals. The song was only about three minutes long, and it varied enough to allow Cyrus to use lots of different moves. Before long, Cyrus was turning and jumping home as much as he was walking, and he was still dancing when he reached his front door eight minutes later.
“How was the talent show, honey? I’m so sad I had to miss it,” his mom called from the dining room.
“Mom, it’s fine! I told, you, it was only the preliminary round!”
“I know, sweetie, I just love watching you dance so much!”
“Thanks, Mom. I’m pretty tired though, so I think I’m going to go to bed now.”
“Of course. You can tell me all about it in the morning.”
Cyrus practically sleep-walked his way to bed, barely registering his toothbrush and sink and pajamas as he used each to prepare for sleep. However, just before he finally drifted off to sleep, there was one very clear image in his mind: TJ chuckling. What’s that all about? Cyrus wondered, but he didn’t have time to answer his own question before falling completely asleep.