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The Light is Fading
by Krissy

chapter three

Aurora jumped when she heard the front door slam shut. She quickly rose from the couch, wondering what on earth got Justin mad enough to be slamming his door and stomping up the stairs to go to his bedroom in a fury fit. She quietly crept upstairs. Justin’s bedroom door was closed, so she timidly rapped on in a few times before it flung open.

“What!?” Justin yelled into the hallway. He saw his sister and cooled down a bit. “Oh…”

“What happened?” Aurora asked quietly.

“The tour date was moved,” Justin explained a little more calmly than what he’d greeted her.

“Isn’t that a good thing? I thought you needed more time.”

Justin swallowed hard, visibly trying to control his rage. “The tour wasn’t moved to a later date…”

He didn’t have to say anything more after he trailed off.

“How soon does it start?” Aurora inquired.

“In one month.”

“But it’s only April!” Aurora protested. “It was supposed to start in June! Why’d they move it sooner? You’ll never be able to spend time at home until after the stupid tour!”

“The tour is not stupid!” Justin spat. “The tour is part of what I do, and I just happen to love what I do. I’ll deal with it…we’ll all deal with it.”

“We’ll all deal with it?” Aurora began to smile slightly. “Is Monique going on tour, too?”

“I’m not sure she will now that it’s moved sooner. I hope she still can. You’ll just have to come late though,” Justin said with a small smile curling the corners of his lips.

“Aw…why can’t I just skip some school?” Aurora pouted.

“One word: finals,” Justin reminded her.

“Ugh! I hate finals! Why can’t I skip them?”

“You’re not going to skip your final exams, Aurora. I don’t even care if Mom says you can. Got it?”

“Yeah, fine, whatever.” Aurora pretended to sulk.

Justin laughed at her pout. “Hey, don’t you be using that look, I invented that look! You can ask Mom to prove it!”

Aurora’s face brightened and she giggled. “Why shouldn’t I do the look that you invented? Does it work too well or something?”

“You bet it does work well!” Justin chuckled. It seemed like his thoughts of the tour were long gone. “It’s getting on ten-thirty. You should be hitting the sack.”

Aurora sighed. “Mom lets me stay up later…”

“Does she really?” Justin asked skeptically.

“Well, now that I know I’ve perfected ‘your look’, I’m sure she will!”

Justin shook his head as he laughed. “Get to bed, ‘cause if your grouchy tomorrow, Mom’s gonna kill me.”

Aurora heaved a sigh. “But…”

“Don’t you like sleeping? You manage to sleep in until one o’clock on weekends,” Justin reminded her.

Aurora opened her mouth to argue, but found that she didn’t have a good statement that could help her out, so she slowly smiled and nodded. She backed into the room across from Justin’s, a bedroom that he had made just for her.

“You just wait, I’ll be more prepared for an argument next time. You may have won the battle, but you haven’t won the war!” Aurora spoke with confidence.

“Oh, so this is a war now, is it?” Justin asked. “I think I’ll get more prepared for our next ‘battle’. You’ll see, I’ll win. Mom will be on my side!”

“Oh great. Well, I say that Mom isn’t allowed in this war.”

“You’re stalling.”

“Well, I can see when I’m not wanted!” Aurora joked. “G’night Justy! Have purdy dreams!”

Justin chuckled. “Have a good sleep.”

With that, Aurora closed the door to her bedroom.

Justin watched it for a few moments, then retired to his own bedroom. He got changed into his pajamas and laid down in bed. He lay there, pondering in the dark for hours.

“How are we supposed to get everything ready in one figgin’ month?” Justin asked him self quietly.

He tossed and turned all night long. He waited several long hours before his mind finally surrendered to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, the five dancers and two choreographers were having a meeting with Johnny and the tour managers. Johnny had just finished explaining the new tour dates.

“What? We can’t do anything any earlier! We were already being rushed!” Patricia argued.

“Look, I’m sorry, but—“

“Sorry? You’re sorry? That’s it? The least you could do is move the tour date back. I’ll admit that the guys and these girls are fast learners, but even I can tell right now that they’ll never be able to learn all of the choreography in one month. There’s just not enough time,” Lisa tried to explain, but it seemed as though nobody except for her fellow dancers and partner were listening.

“I can’t help that.”

“Yes you can! Just extend the tour into the fall a little bit! At least that will give us some time!” Nikita, one of the dancers rose to her feet as she spoke.

“We’ve tried that, but the stadiums aren’t open on the dates that we’d need them,” one of the tour managers informed everybody in the room.

Groans and moans came from the dancers as the seven women exited the office.

“How are we gonna learn all the dances in a month?” Keeya moaned.

“With a lot of practice and early mornings. That’s all I can tell you right now,” Patricia sighed with discourage.

“Probably a whole lot of late nights, too. No more weekends off, that’s for sure,” Lisa reluctantly informed them.

“What?” Brooke gasped. “Look, we know it, you know it, we are going to need breaks sometime, or we’re gonna get burnt out. We’ll do horribly!”

“Trust me, we know. The guys have gone through this before; they’re fairly used to this. Maybe they’ll give you girls some tips,” Lisa said, trying to encourage them that it wasn’t such a bad thing.

“Don’t worry girls, once it’s done, everything will pay off,” Patricia assured them.

The five dancers glanced at one another and began to smile. Maybe she was right…

* * *

Justin pounded his head on the passenger door window. Aurora rocked her head cheerfully from side to side as she listened to the music that was blasting from the car speakers.

“It’s rainin’ men! Alleluia! It’s rainin’ men! Amen!” Aurora sang a little too loud with the music for Justin’s liking. In fact, the music itself was way too loud for Justin’s liking at six-forty-five in the morning.

Justin leaned back in his chair, as though trying to avoid the sound waves of the radio. It didn’t work.

“Can’t you please turn that down?” Justin whined.

“What?” Aurora yelled over the music. “Did you say something?”

“Turn it down!” Justin yelled back.

“I know we’re going down town!” Aurora replied, her voice almost completely drowned out by the music. “That’s where the studio is, isn’t it?”

“No! That’s not what I said!” Justin rolled his eyes.

“Who’s dead? Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry Justin!” Aurora called with a look of concern on her face.

Justin looked confused. “What? What about my head?”

Aurora turned the music down so that they could barely hear it. “Who’s dead?”

“What?” Justin shook his head to get rid of the ringing in his ears. “What do you mean ‘who’s dead?’ I asked you to turn down the music the first time I tried to talk to you!”

“Oh, sorry! I guess it was just up too loud for me to hear you!” Aurora giggled.

“If you blow my speakers, you’re buying me new ones,” Justin told her.

“Oh…I guess I’ll just listen to the music a little quieter, then,” Aurora replied as she turned her attention to the streetlight ahead that had just turned green.

Justin slumped down in his seat. There was no doubt about it; today was going to be a long day.

chapter four


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