"Or a three day ride on a train," Locke muttered. He had been numb when he rode into New York City, not just physically, but mentally as well. Most of the ride Locke had viewed the passing scenery with little connection. His brain had just been the screen that a movie was projected onto. California was indeed very, very far away. "Skype's the best. It's how I make sure that everyone's ok back home." The topic was making him homesick, and as he always did when Locke was faced with an emotion he didn't want to deal with, he shoved it way down inside himself. Time to talk about something else.

His shoes were apparently a good enough topic to talk about. Once again Elise had Locke questioning his feet. There was nothing wrong with his shoes in his opinion. The soles were thin, but did not have holes in them. On rainy days they didn't have the same level of water resistance that leather sneakers might, but he liked the way that the hightops fit him. He liked having that much closer a connection to the ground. "What's wrong with them? They're still in one piece and fit me. Next you'll say I need to go shopping for new jeans." Of course he was wearing one of his older pairs of jeans, one that Kendra had tried to convince him to replace. As long as the seams were holding things together, Locke's battered clothes were good enough for him.. In reality he could use a shopping trip for clothes. He'd grown a little, and now the hems of his long sleeves left a bare inch. An inch might not be much, but it was plenty for a guy who hated the smallest chill.

He returned to the dancing position, wiping his hands off on his jeans before taking Elise's. Locke did a few odd wiggles, trying to find that proper posture position. It still felt wrong to stand up so straight. And yet he also had to be relaxed. Obviously the oxymoron never occurred to the creator of the cha-cha. "Alright, no complaints," Locke said, a small chuckle accompanying the promise. This dancing thing wasn't the disaster that he thought that it was going to be. Although he still hadn't gotten the hang of looking at Elise while they danced. Locke continued the same dance steps as before, nodding his head without looking down at his feet, or even at Elise's head. So far he hadn't tried doing a turn for one simple reason. Elise might have told him how he was suppose to do the turn, and how to let her know when a turn was about to happen, but she left out one critical step. "When do we turn?"

“Fit you? Well, if they look like they’re about to fall off, they don’t really fit,” Elise pointed with a knowing raise of her eyebrows. “Plus, they’re high-tops, which look ridiculous in every occasion. I’m just saying. A simple pair of sneakers are much more functional and comfortable. They have better grips, better arch support, and your jeans don’t bunch up around them. They are, over-all the superior choice. Plus, they’re cheaper,” she added in explanation with a slopping smile and a bob of her head.

At the mention of his jeans she looked down and noticed several tears. She honestly had no problems with the pants. “Well, if you don’t plan to go anywhere fancy or feel cold, then those jeans look fine to me,” she said in reply with a shrug. “But if you want to go shopping for new pants, you can go right on ahead,” she added, thinking she was maybe getting a little too bossy.

With relief, she heard Locke lead the conversation back to the dancing. She could talk about dancing all day. There was no controversy and it was an easy thing to get others to understand. “Well, the turn, like I said, is going to take place at the short end of the S. Basically while you step back, you’re going to lift your arm the way I taught you and turn me. Then you’ll bring your arm back down and continue the step. To be honest, your feet are doing the exact same step during a turn as you are doing right now, so don’t worry about it."

Motioning with her head, Elise smiled at him. “Go ahead, try it out. You’ll probably get really easily, but if for some odd reason you don’t, we can just try again. Dancing is something you get better at with practice,” she said in a low reassuring tone. In her experience, people tended to get overly nervous for turns and twirls. They were actually not nearly as hard as most people made them out to be.

"They are comfortable," Locke stressed. It was one of the most used excuse to cling to clothes that did not look good or were ill fitting. "And I don't worry about traction. I like the thin soles, and the lack of arch support means that there's more contact to the ground. They're a better foot choice than thongs." Elise wasn't the first person who tried to convince him that his chucks weren't a good choice for footwear.

Dork, Locke thought. Once more he failed to express what he meant to a female peer. Strange enough his personal insult didn't have the usual sting to it. "I get where the turn goes with the steps. I mean I think I can do it. And I know how I'm suppose to let you know when one is coming, but how am I suppose to know when to turn? Like in the music I mean. How often and when I guess."

When Elise smiled at him Locke's head snapped back down to his feet once again. Something went wrong with his footwork as he studied the gray toe section of his sock. It was like when you have to spell a word over and over again. Like a repeated word the footwork no longer looked right. He tried to do the turn at the end of the 's', but it became jerky. He tripped over his own feet.

“Alrighty, don’t get all defensive. I’m just sharing a personal preference in shoes. You can totally take the advice or leave it as you like,” Elise said with her usual nonchalance and shrug of the shoulder. Returning her focus to the dancing, Elise was pleased with Locke’s success so far. He indeed seemed to be learning at a very nice, brisk pace. Plus, he actually listened to her advice, which was better than most of the eight-year-olds she taught. He was also a much better conversationalist and didn’t burst out into nervous giggles like the thirteen-year-old boys. To put it plainly, Elise was enjoying the lesson immensely.

At his clarification, the girl had a complete Doh moment, and laughed lightly at herself. “Oh, well, you can actually do turns whenever you want as long as it goes with the steps. The beat will remain the same with or without the turn. The one thing I would advise is to not do a bunch right after each other unless your partner is pretty experienced. It can make the girl pretty dizzy and flustered, something you don’t want her to be on the dance floor,” she explained, rolling her eyes upwards at her own lack of understanding.

She followed happily, as the boy began to try out the steps, but her smile began to dip as Locke’s gaze suddenly dropped to his feet and his steps faltered. She started the turn as he motioned, but felt him begin to get tangled. Elise finished her quick step-turn, and rushed forward to catch him. The grab was a little messy with a couple bumps and a near drop similar to the many in the mud pit, but eventually she brought both of their momentum’s to a halt.

Tsking lightly, the girl was tempted to go at the boy like her mother did but she restrained herself and instead focused on the silliness of the situation. Laughing lightly, she straightened herself out. “Well, well, something went wrong there. Remember to not look down at you feet, yeah?” she said in a good-natured tone before continuing. “OK, I want you to practice the steps by yourself a couple times until you have the rhythm. When you feel ready and confident, just tell me, and we’ll try the steps as a couple again. When you feel ready and confident with those steps, then we can try the turn again. Take all the time you need. I’ll be ready when you are. Does that sound OK?” she asked smiling.

”I thought that the point of this dancing thing was to get the girls to swoon,” Locke joked. He didn’t want to learn how to dance to attract girls. Having girls clinging to you might be other’s ideal situation, but Locke rather enjoyed having his space. That had been the reason why his only girlfriend had broken up with him. She wanted a guy who would pull her onto his lap at lunch, and sneak kisses in a dark movie theatre. Holding hands was enough for him. ”Dizzy and flustered is what we’re aiming for right? I mean it’s not like I’m going to win them over with roguish good looks or a dazzling personality”

Nor was he going to win anyone over with dance moves, Locke realized quickly as his turn went terribly, horribly wrong. Elise’s years of experience kept her from being stomped upon, but all that Locke was able to do was force himself to blunder on. She halted him before he could study the ground closely with gravity’s assistance, but the fact remained that he had all the grace just then of a one legged fish on land. ”I think I just became part elephant,” he half joked, pissed at himself. He had been doing ok before. Frustrated he separated himself from Elise and wiped his hands off. They had gotten a little sweaty. In fact he was feeling warm all over. ”Geeze, even messing up is a workout.”

His brows knitted together in intense concentration Locke started to practice the steps once again on his own. Without Elise to worry about the Californian’s head remained up. His steps were tentative, as if he didn’t trust himself to do them right. Locke was a bit of a perfectionist, always wanting to do the best possible job on anything he attempted. To him it was critically important to not trip over his feet yet again. “Do you teach little kids the cha-cha too?” he asked, growing more confident as he worked things out. He gave a test turn a try, bit his bottom lip, then repeated the action.

“Swoon, yes. Collapse completely, no.” Elsie countered with a playful wag of the finger. “Plus,” she added with a wink, “Those roguish good looks might surprise you.” Laughing gaily, Elise forced herself to stay in a good mood. Everyone made mistakes and Locke would obviously be no exception to that rule. “Hey,” she said with a shrug, “The fact that you haven’t tripped sooner means you’re way ahead of the learning curve, buddy.” Elise also considered saying that messing up was called messing up for a reason, because well you got all messy, but she soon realized that would have been a very bad joke. One, poor Locke would probably not appreciate. Instead she focused her attention on Locke’s relearning of the dance steps.

The progress was slow, but she eventually spotted the muscles in his shoulders relaxing. His brows began to unkind as well. Elise was finally convinced he had gained at least some of his self-confidence back once he started speaking again. Form what the girl could tell, Locke was not a nervous speaker, so his talking would indicate the exact opposite. Elise couldn’t help but grin foolishly at the thought of Locke blabbing nervously as she was in the habit of doing.

“Yeah,” she said her inner laugh from her earlier thoughts evident in her tone, “I teach kids of all ages. I help out at my mom’s dance studio about three times a week, sometimes four if there’s a competition or something coming up.” Clapping at Locke’s multiple successful attempts, Elise moved ever so slightly closer to him. “You’re looking good there. Do you want to give the whole partner thing another go already, or do you want to practice a little more?” she asked, obviously feeling of his progress herself.

((OOC: Sorry for such a delay in posting. I thought I had replied last week.))

Locke smirked. He wouldn't say he had 'roguish good looks'. If anything maybe the natural look. Girls didn't come up to him and tell him he was cute. If they giggled as he passed the likely cause was a piece of toilet paper stuck to his shoe. "Yeah, I'll attract a girl made out of molten lava. Might not be able to dance with her, but she'll be hot." Even in his head it sounded stupid. He didn't care. According to Elise when he stumbled meant that he was doing good.

Feeling pleased with himself Locke turned his head to Elise, a proud smile on his face. She was grinning back, and it was in her eyes too. Locke's smile faded slightly, puzzled as to what he had done that made Elise happy. Maybe it was the memory of her mother's dance studio. Whenever he heard a computer boot up loudly Locke couldn't help but think of his dad settling down to work. The familiar tapping of fingers on a keyboard was almost like a lullabye to him growing up. Or maybe it was the image of little kids doing the same moves she was trying to teach him. Chris and Mai both liked to move around, and almost like a movie he could see them imitating the dance steps. Laughter rippled through his body. Knowing Mai she'd probably end up taking the lead, forcing Chris to be the girl. Elise drew closer as he laughed, and after pinching the bridge of his nose to keep from laughing Locke answered her. "I think I'm ready."