nicolai ·· move by the rhythm the gypsies play

[eulaline alette poe]

"come on, come on!" eulaline tugged nicolai's arm once they arrived at jenkins park and practically sprinted to the pomaika'i playground. it was a breezy day on ehu island. there had been typhoon warnings all over the pacific, but ehu island luckily dodged them. the beaches weren't swimmable for a couple of days, but everyone was just happy to be alive. a part of eulaline wished the tsunami had mysteriously killed one of the zebras, but she hadn't prayed in a long time and that was probably god's punishment to her for not doing so. eulaline had on a teal crocheted beanie with little poofs hanging at her shoulders, an oversized knitted gray sweater, and black tights on. she was prepared for this post-tsunami weather. bring it on, god! she told her reflection as she got ready that morning. and now, nothing was more exciting to eulaline than standing on the swingsets and swinging and pretending like she knew gymnastics on the jungle gym.

finally, eulaline was at the playground and jumped up, grabbing a bar on the monkey bars. she started swinging back and forth, blowing a raspberry at nicolai. "i feel so free when i'm here," eulaline loved feeling free. as a dancer, she felt that feeling every day. but lately, she had devoted so much time to dancing and choreographing that she needed to step back for a few hours. and what better place to relax and gossip than an empty playground? "god, what's up, nicolai?" she asked casually. "how are your classes and all that jazz? what's new in your life? any hot babes i should be hearing about? give me the 411!" eulaline swung her legs to hold onto one of the bars on the overhead ladder, made sure her knees and lower leg had a good grip, and let go of the bar which her hands were on. she swung upside down, her long brown hair hanging below her, blowing lightly around because of the wind. if eulaline had a banana, this would be a picture perfect moment.

[nicolai ivan glazcov]

The girls light sing song voice tried to pull him along at a quicker pace than his feet seemed to walk, and almost as if on que, when the little ballerina had realized that his body wasn’t nearly close enough to him, she wrapped her arms around his and pulled him at a quicker speed. All Nicolai could do was chuckle at the fact she had wanted to come here, of all places, a playground that was clearly not built for ‘kids’ their age. It was something that american’s did he just didn’t understand, but he always found it funny. “I’m coming I’m coming, don’t pull the Russian.” Eulaline took off in the direction of the swings, and he continued to take his time.


No one, but the two insane dance majors were out at all today, and from the looks of it, they would probably be the only ones out at all today, and maybe even the next. Most were smart enough to know if there was a typhoon warning, that they should probably stay inside and make sure that they were safe. Though, on their side, the weather men had clearly said that all the extremely fast winds, and the real damage had missed the small island, leaving just enough power to throw some strong enough waves to leave everyone off the beach.


So that’s where they were, on the playground. Pulling at his slate colored peacoat, he made sure that all the buttons were latched closed, before stuffing his hands in his pockets and walking up to the girl who had just run from him like a child from its father. “well there you are,” he said watching her jump up on the bars, “now that I’ve finnaly caught up to you, you won’t run away… right?” the light sarcasm was in his voice as he looked up to his ballroom partner, how was now swinging back and forth, letting her tongue stick out and blow what he could only describe as a raspberry at him.


Eulaline’s hair poofed around her shoulders and she smiled while speaking, a smirk on the Russians face, “us Russians know how to fly, you know," he said leaning in, " and iif you’re really good.” He looked back and forth, once and twice, “I’ll teach you how.” Of course he had absolutely no idea how he was going to do that, but he was at a playground, there had to be something that he could do there, right? But before he knew it, the girl was speaking and flipping herself around so that she was hanging onto the metal bars with her knees and looking up to him with a smile on his face, how adorable. “well, the sky is up, but for you…… I think it’s the mulch.” He smiled, “oh oh, my classes.” Nicolai laughed and watched her as he spoke, “Russian is too easy, my dance classes, you are in, and ive been putting of some of my painting assignments, but ill get to them soon.” Eyes glued on the girl, he made sure she didn’t fall, and was ready to catch her if it came to that. If that was his job in ballroom, and occasionally ballet, he would do it here with her. “and what about you, ehh? Le francais pas terrible, out tres bien?” he knew French, but was clearly much better in other, much more important languages.

[eulaline alette poe]

like a monkey, eulaline dangled upside down, clinging onto the bar with her dear ballerina legs. as nicolai talked about teaching eulaline how to fly (she wished she had reacted better to that, but the brunette made a mental note to bring it up to him later), eulaline's eyes scanned the surrounding area as she devised her strategy of running away. she thought about swinging her body up, letting her hands grasp onto a bar, somehow quickly slipping her legs back under her, poking nicolai, yelling tag, and running away. she wouldn't let him be lazy about it! and then she would probably jump into the middle of the jungle gym on the playground, climbing up to the top. and once nicolai was in the center climbing up after her, she would jump as far away as she could from the jungle gym. god, she was probably going to break a leg today. suddenly, it occurred to her that she hadn't much been paying attention to what he had just said, but tried piecing together bits and pieces of what he had just said so she could pretend she had been listening the entire time. after living with her mother almost her entire life, eulaline had pretty much mastered this concept.

"oh, you're taking russian? nicolai, you lazy fuck," eulaline laughed, still swinging her body, lightly punching his arm. "why don't you take something you don't know, like hawaiian? you just want that easy a." who was eulaline kidding? if she knew a language offered at bouscher, she would probably do the same thing. she laughed at nicolai's attempt at speaking french, "oui, ton français set trés terrible," she winked. eulaline pushed her hair out of her face as she continued to catch nicolai up on her life. (but, god, this wind was frustrating. on the one day she didn't have her hair in a ballerina bun, too!) "but i'm doing okay in french class. i mean, i could be doing better. it's getting like so much more complicated than singing the abcs. we're learning to conjugate verbs in all sorts of tenses and sometimes it's frustrating, and all the time it's confusing. i get them mixed up all the time. my dancing classes are going great, as you know," eulaline rolled her eyes at herself. "my photography classes are so stressful! i mean, i love photo and all but i really hate how much time i have to spend in the darkroom. some people love it you know, but everything is so hard. i'm just not quite good at developing film." eulaline hated to admit it. she loved to think of herself as the most fantastic photographer bouscher academy had to offer, but who was she kidding?

eulaline blew a raspberry at the air. "i'm dating this french guy!" she offered. they weren't exactly official, but in eulaline's heart, they were. "he's from like, iono, new york or something. but, his family is from france and we met in france over christmas break. god, and he came here! he came here, nico! he's a dream. do you know william dupont?" eulaline hoped he did. "he's too dreamy. god, a total boy though. i don't know what it is about you boys and checking other girls out while you're on a date." eulaline furrowed her eyebrows and pouted. she couldn't keep a serious face for long, though, and was soon laughing about everything she had just divulged to nicolai. god, she couldn't keep her mouth shut!

[nicolai ivan glazcov]

It was surprising how many pretty girls had made their way around the school, but he always had a thing for the dance majors. He didn’t think it was their body type, or what they looked like, but it was normally how they carried themselves, and the personality behind the wall. It was the clashing of personalities that he usually loved, along with the sharing of something so close and personal to the both of them. For dancers, dancing wasn’t a choice. If someone is a true dancer, they don’t do it for fun, they do it to live – it is that important to them. Most true dancers don’t know what to do when their carrer fades, or they are hurt so badly that they can’t do anything anymore. When that happens, not only does their source of income fade, but a big part of them goes with it. That passion is what he loves, and when he see a true dancer, it is like a spark is ignited inside him. He saw it in eulaline’s eyes when she danced, but now, all he could see was the inner child in her as shehung upside down laughing like a giddy girl.


Nicolai covered his arm where the girl had slammed her fist into him and he faked a frown, “ouch.” He said sarcastically before laughing, “of course I took Russian! I don’t need to spend any more time on a language I already know, you know that Russians learn like five when they grow up, so why learn another language that I will never use in my life..? isn’t that stupid, id much rather put that time into my dance, wouldn’t you?” Nicolai tilted his head smiling, playing with one of her loose hairs that hung upside down. “Oh la la!” he placed his hands on his cheeks amused looking to the sky for a moment as she continued to speak. “oh I know your dance classes are good.” He winked, and squatted, only slightly, so that he was face to face with the girl, “we should really be working on our foxtrot, but instead we are here.”


Pushing down the voice screaming in his head to grab her tongue, he arched an eyebrow, “you are..?” he didn’t sound surprised, but more was just questioning her words, but she continued to speak. “Yes, I do know him, not very well though, but im sure he’s nice if you are dating him.” He shrugged and stood back up, placing his hands on the top of the bars without a problem and sighed, “you know, a wondering eye comes from the man not enjoying what he has right in front of him.” He didn’t want to crush her love, that was just awful, so he tried again, “or maybe you haven’t been dating long enough yet.”

[eulaline alette poe]

it had slipped eulaline's mind that other countries were much more advanced than her own. she shrugged her shoulders at the last question, unsure if it was rhetorical or one to be answered. deciding to take it as the former, the brunette kept her mouth shut for them. she loved how seriously nikolai took dance. eulaline's social life as of late had been completely shot to hell; she had been out of contact with many of her friends and rarely saw her beau. eulaline let herself out of the dance studio maybe once or twice per week to catch up with her friends. it was almost crazy, but she was choreographing a dance for the student showcase and couldn't risk a day of not practicing. "nicolai, we have to let loose every once and a while!" eulaline spoke freely. "i mean, our foxtrot? das perfect, nico!" she giggled, eulaline's inner islander coming out through the words she spoke, and how she spoke them.

"he's trés fantastique!" eulaline's grin could not get any wider. when she fell for a boy, she really fell for him. "he picks me up from the dance studio sometimes and carries my bag to my dorm. super charming. super french. super fine," eulaline could have talked about william all day. eulaline did frown a little when nicolai mentioned that a wandering eye only came from someone not enjoying what he had in front of him. even with his justification quickly after the though, eulaline had to ponder about it. "that makes so much sense, nico," she said to the former sentence. "oh, that's a little saddening." eulaline swung herself off of the monkey bars and turned her frown upside down! "let's not worry about that. taaaag!" eulaline pushed nicolai a little and immediately ran away. "you're it, nico!" she giggled, throwing her hands in the air as she ran through the empty playground.