fandomhigh | Pole Dancing For Fitness, Thursday, Third Period

The students would enter the Danger Shop, which was outfitted as a dance studio, but with poles, to find their teacher muttering and flipping through some paperwork. "What? What? I thought I was supposed to be teaching adults!" Sorry, Vanessa, it's teenagers. Keep it clean!

"Okay," Vanessa said, switching on a smile. "Hi, guys! I'm Vanessa, and I'll be teaching you to--" Oh, God "--pole dance. For fitness! Definitely not for anything else! Although if you have to work your way through college, I mean, there are worse ways." She wasn't wrong. "So! Today we're going to go over the rules and a few basic moves, and then I want everyone to introduce themselves and--" asking them to tell her why they'd signed up for a pole dancing class seemed like a minefield "--tell me something about yourself!" That was probably also a minefield, but it seemed slightly safer.

"So, rules. Shoes and socks off, please, you'll need to be barefoot for this class. Come dressed in something you can move in, and, barring any island weirdness, come dressed. Form-fitting so we can see your movements is good; exposed is less good. Now stand on tip-toes and grasp the pole with your dominant hand up as high as you can go, like this," she demonstrated ~~the video being for player edification~~. "Hold it like it's a baseball bat, get a good grip on it. Shoulders down and back. You always want your weight to be leaning away from the pole, so that your momentum doesn't smack your face into it. No one likes a pole dancer with a black eye, am I right?" Right. Teenagers. Awkward. "Anyway. Take three steps around the pole, starting with the inner foot. Then you're going lift your exterior leg and push off as you do so, using your momentum to spin, like ~~in the video~~ so." Vanessa demonstrated. "This is called a Fireman Spin for how it resembles the way a fireman, uh, goes down a pole. If you do it with your free leg bent, like so," and she demonstrated that as well, "it's a Pinwheel. Give it a try a few times, try a Pinwheel if you feel up for it, and then once you have a feel for it, show me your best attempt and introduce yourself."

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Vanessa executed a picture perfect Pinwheel and told her students, "I'm Vanessa Carlysle, and I'm your teacher. I'll be getting married as soon as my fiance and I can get our act together and actually plan a wedding. Now who's next?"

By the time her introduction came around, Summer's Pinwheel wasn't the best, but it wasn't too shabby, either. It mostly just lacked confidence, if you got right down to it.

"I'm Summer Smith," she offered, "and I've been looking forward to this class all week."

Which had more to do with pissing off her dad than it did the actual pole-dancing itself, but she didn't need to bring daddy issues into the game so early.

"I'm so glad to hear that!" Vanessa said. Really, she was. She would even support doing it to piss off Summer's dad. "I hope you'll have fun."

"I'm Gratuity Tucci," Tip said, looking faintly mortified as she stood next to her pole. "And taking this class is not going to help convince anyone that's not a stripper name, is it."

"I don't think I've ever met a stripper who called herself Gratuity, actually," Vanessa said, considering. "And I've known a lot of strippers. If that helps any."

"It does a little," Tip admitted. "I never thought of it as one myself until one of the teachers here said it was."

"...was it Wade?"

It was Wade, wasn't it? It was okay, Gratuity. You could tell her.

"Is that Deadpool's first name?"

"I'm so sorry about him."

"I suppose someone has to be." Tip shrugged. "I mean, I've definitely heard worse. It's nice that he's open about being a dick." A beat. "Pardon my language."

That still tended to come out every now and then, especially when she was talking to — and about — authority fiures.

"I'm Rey, and I can't do what you just did."

She probably could if she tried more. She was wiry.

"Sure, you can!" Vanessa told her. "It just takes a little practice, is all."

"I'm Mara Jade," Mara said, and now she was thinking about what Gratuity said. "...does that sound like a stripper name too?"

"Ooooo, a little bit," Vanessa admitted. "Semi-precious gems, you know?"

Mara made a face. "I was afraid of that."

"Is Jade your surname, or is it a double barrel first name?" Vanessa asked. "Because you can't help it if it's your surname. My surname has a y where most people use an i. Lots of people have assumed it's fake."

"It's my surname," Mara said. "Well, at least I know I have another career option open to me?"

"You can make good money, if you don't mind gross guys and paying your rent in ones," Vanessa told her wryly.

"I'm used to gross guys," Mara said. "I'm a dancer already--mostly at political events."

"Little concerned that a teenager is dancing for the grossest of the gross guys," Vanessa said, honest and almost chipper. "Please tell me you keep your clothes on or I'll have to find out how that mandatory reporter thing works."

"Oh, fully clothed," Mara said. "Think extremely old Senators and system governors."

Pole Dancing For Fitness, Thursday, Third Period

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