2

Alex talks with DJ Daddy about the music, he wants some of his own songs played. DJ Daddy gets defensive, "Don't you be telling me how to DJ bro, I don't tell you your dancing sucks!" but when Alex offers a ticket to the Barcelona Championship event (with a promise of DJ-ing for the gaming world to see) – Daddy relents. Oh fuck it, I'll call him Kiddy from now on cause DJ Daddy's a mouthful.

"Yesss!" Alex goes to himself, fist-pumping at his own little victory. But since he doesn't have Oingo Boingo's vinyls at hand, he has to make do with plugging his own phone into the mixing machine. That's no small feat since the phone's audio jack are meant for the likes of earbuds, and speakers expect much more powerful sound output, relatively speaking.

"Why's it sound so noisy.." Alex goes, and then Kiddy has the idea to have Alex connect his phone by Bluetooth, and now the audio is crystal clear.

Snippets of Oingo Boingo pop through the speakers as Alex sifts through his song collection, and he can't help but have a sheepish smile – people making intermittent glances at him. It's his first time doing this, and he's sure it'll blow the socks off everyone!

Azad is by the Sangria punch. He's feeling the buzz starting to wear off, and debates whether he should risk getting drunk for the rest of the night – after all, even though it's like being chained back at home with his mum by all these rules, rules, damned rules, he still cares enough about being there again for his own family, even after the wildest nights.

Then Amarna comes by, and she takes a scoop of the Sangria into her glass, and like a cat she licks the drink, sampling it, and Azad – observing this, he feels the electric charge, and inclined to join in on the fun, he gets an empty glass and drinks some.. downing Amarna's nectar of life.

His mouth is left red. He feels the beginnings of euphoria take over, and it's like he can't hold himself back anymore, his urges, and so he grabs Amarna, and starts to dance with her.

She gets in sync with Azad's groove.. and soon, her feisty twirls mutate his groove with her own rhyhms.

"I love you baby," Amarna sings, and she leans in closer to Azad's ear, "and if it's quite all right, I need you baby to warm a lonely night – I love you baby.. trust in me when I say.."

He wishes her words were for real.

"Azad, what are you fucking doing with my girl?"

It's Matthew. He's very miffed, and Azad – the influence of alcohol is taking hold. Azad sees Matthew's bushy, unshaven, disheaveled and ugly nerd face, and no, Amarna doesn't deserve a douche like that.

Amarna deserves this moment of happiness, indulged in and shared with Azad.

"Hey Matthew, verpiss dich," Azad says, finally saying that feeling mounding at the back of his mind.

"What?"

Amarna is just waking up from her stupor of happiness, realizing the two men are arguing over her.

"She's happier with me," Azad goes. "And can't you see, we're dancing?"

Matthew takes that as a challenge. His face momentarily scowls as he allows an idea to enter his head..

"So you think you can dance with Amarna, you skank?"

"Chill," Amarna says, her words a bit slurred. "The both of youse. I just want to relax and have fun.." With both arms she grabs the two of them together. "Why don't you two just get along."

Matthew gently nudges Amarna away from Azad's reach, and then, like his chests naturally puff out, he tells DJ Kiddy to put on one of his tunes.

[It's Eminem – Crazy in Love.]

Matthew, joined now by his guy friends, start a dance number they've privately rehearsed at home. They kick, they twirl, and lift each other off the floor like a 90s boy band, and on the sidelines, Amarna is rolling with giddiness, watching her boyfriend perform.

Azad can barely hide his jealousy; he's trying to find where Alex is – there he is, still fiddling with his phone. You should be here by my side! I need you to help me kick their ass!

Alex isn't aware of the dancing – he's on the DLC levels of Enter the Gungeon, where it's the insides of some long forgotten eldritch monster, and he's fighting what are essentially the remnants of the monster's white blood cells. The lost Hand of Manos must be retrieved at all costs!

His earbuds over his ears, Alex is only becoming aware of how loud the DJ music has grown, and is thinking about moving out to the halls for some quiet. He looks up, and then his eyes gape wide at the organized commotion.

It's Matthew and his crew, looking hell-bent and intent and tryharding as orange spotlights hang over their every movement.

"Can't you see what you do to me baby,
You make me crazy, you make me act like a maniac
I'm like a lunatic, you make me sick
You're truly the only one who can do this to me-"

Azad side-glances at Amarna – is she falling for this corny shit? It's eye-rollingly cringy, what they put their dance moves to this song. Like what the hell, they're stretching their asscheeks in front of everyone before they group together like a cheerleading squad to lift Matthew up in the air.

"Huah!" Matthew goes, already declaring his won dance-off.

Everyone is loudly clapping, and Azad is wondering how he's gonna top them. It's not like he's prepared dance moves just for this occasion – if Amarna were his girl, she'd encourage him by recalling how he greeted Alex earlier, with good jest.

"He's certainly got you beat, mate," Kevin goes, nudging Azad by the arm.

Alex is going to have the DJ play his Oingo Bongo collection in retaliation. Instead, what happens is that his phone slips out of his hands, and it clatters onto the floor, into the shadows where

[Muse – Supermassive Black Hole]

plays.

"Oh well," Alex shrugs, it's just as good, and he likes the song, so he rolls with it and to the beat of the deep drums, he tugs open his shirt, and lunges forth onto the dance floor.

"What's this?" Azad goes, not even recognizing this song as Alex reaches out and grabs Azad to join him. He's so awkward as he tries to gauge what kind of movements he's supposed to make.

"Roll with it," Alex whispers into his ear. "Trust me."

And when Azad sees Amarna – almost in a slow motion, she's innocently gazing at him – it clicks in him what he has to do.

"Ooh baby don't you know I suffer?
Oh baby can you hear me moan?
You caught me under false pretenses
How long before you let me go?"

Azad dances as if caught under a trance. He whirls with Alex – the sweat gleaning off their bodies, and Azad's hair swirling, he falls to his knees and slides forward, letting Alex clamber over his head.

No shame. No worry. Only unbridled self-expression.

Amarna can only feel real joy out of those two, who she'll compare with the flamenco dancers she's admired so from childhood. And what thrills her isn't that they're essentially competing over her (Matthew vs. Azad), it's that with men, they generally compete over what they find wonderful, beautiful, or they just have to have it. A quality which she'd like to have more of in herself sometimes – a go-getter of life's treasures.

You don't just sit there, hoping for life to touch you. Go out there, and follow it, wherever it may take you. Under every nook and cranny, in the eyes of anyone she meets, from the cities she ventures to, to the lonesome forests of old, there is life.

She starts to clap along, and everyone else joins her with it (except Kevin, who seems to stare almost contemptuously). A sensation of her chest being weightless seeps in, but she shrugs it off, it's the music and their dancing and the overall mood.

"You go, guys!" Azad hears, and I'll say the dance moves Azad and Alex pull off easily rivals Fred and Ginger, except it's not swing.

"Glaciers melting in the dead of night
And the superstars sucked into the supermassive
b l a c k h o l e."

Azad feels like he's overheating. He's also feeling a sense of weightlessness in his chest, but he forces his concentration and brings out some of the Turkish dancing he's learned from his father, where his arms are out wide and his feet are tapping the floor.

Then he has Alex by him, and he puts his hand on Alex's head, and they both go down on the floor into a breakdance, and everyone just loses it.

They are butterflies, fluttering their wings, and when Alex arches his abdomen upward, as he strokes his own groin, the girls (along with Nick Nicktron) go wild for that.

Finally,

"From my heart and from my hand,
why don't people understand
my intentions?"

the music crossfades to Oingo Boingo's Weird Science, and Alex's soul perks up. "Azad.. Azad! I know you're tired, but please please join me on this!"

Azad, wiping the sweat off his brow – he lifts himself up with a momentary wave of blackout to his head, before hopping in on Alex's science tune(TM).

Amarna's also heard this song (from Rick and Morty), and she lets out an involuntary pip, and joins in on the dance with Alex and Azad, leaving Matthew with a "Amarna, the hell's wrong with you?" look of betrayal, oh dear.

On the floor, she joins hands with the two of them, and they're all doing a danube with Amarna being a focal point, the smiles on their faces so natural.

Everyone is whooping and cheering, it's like the entire gym floor is alive and reverberating throughout the otherwise lonesome school.

DJ Kiddy Smile is pumping his arms, careful not to spill his glass of Sangria near the turnstable, and then, briefly, he sees a violet butterfly just out of his vision, and he looks around – he doesn't find it, and he looks back at the dancers, and he feels like if he could reach his fingers out, he could.. just pluck them around like toy fingers. Put them onto the rotating vinyls and watch them spin around and around, in an improvised carousel.. he feels woozy.

An unfamiliarity. Apprehension. His chest quivering and giving way, like premonitions of an impending heart attack.

Inward, something is waking up. Outwardly, he still looks joyful (albeit pale and more noticably sweaty) as his eyes observe his own hands – they bounce up and down with what's supposed to be the moment's joy.