Gotta Get Dat [Open]

If Thorn had not been the woman that had given Jacob his new tattoo, and the woman who had also playfully teased him in that certain way before, he might have taken issue with her tone and innuendo. But he was willing to believe that was just all part of her total package, and thought very little of Thorn's flirting. It was just the way she was and the way she spoke. If she did mean anything serious, it was hidden by her playfulness and Jacob's familiarity.

He joined in her chuckling, letting her know that he knew what kind of wavelength she seemed to be operating on. Then he had to have another chuckle when she pointed out her plus-one: a young fellow he saw earlier dancing quite strangely, in that way that signaled "irony" to other young people.

"Well, it sounded like the DJs are starting up a dance contest. Maybe you could alleviate yourself of your singleness with a good dance."

Jacob had an idea of what kind of "dance" some of the students would partake of, and he kept his misgivings about it to himself. Kids would be kids and he hated to be the old guy telling kids to stop dancing, however suggestive it might become.

Thorn's hand on his tie, his chest, was met with momentary widened eyes. It was such a forward gesture! But he calmed back down and didn't move away at the touch.

"The tattoo or the woman? Both are doing fine anyway. She loves the tattoo and the way it turned out, and I've gotten a few compliments from my students too."

With her closeness he let his eyes travel up and down Thorn once, observing her.

"You look nice, by the way. You pull off a nice beret."

"None taken. I understand the feeling..."

Thorn and Jacob were watching the same pair of kids grind on each other, and Jacob felt more embarrassed for them than disgusted. There was the lingering sense that, if he were younger, he would "get" what they were doing more than he was currently. Dancing like that was just so shameless and, to him, awkward. But he could feel the existence of a few threads of logic that would compel the kids to grind away anyway, regardless of how it looked or how many pants it threatened to ruin that night.

Perhaps his lack of disgust, and partial understanding, also stemmed from the fact that he had probably danced like that even at his age after a few drinks. Not that he was going to admit that. And it was not like it was how the kids were doing it. Jacob preferred something more sensual and formal. Intimate latin dance styles possessed a lot of full-on front-to-back contact with gyrating hip movements.

Thorn's impression got a nice chuckle out of Jacob, which was somewhat stifled by a bit sympathy he had for the girl. Even though it was a joke.

"Aww... Don't call yourself that. You seem like a good girl, and you work in a fine establishment."

Jacob quickly fixed his tie, unperturbed by the handling of his clothes.

"I think my students would call me the cool teacher, but it's not like I'm trying. I'm their instructor when I need to be, and I try to be worthy confidant when they need it."

The new tattoo on his wrist was harder to conceal than his previous ones, and it made him even more the cool guy teacher than before. Before it, the students had never asked if he had more, and they certainly never badgered him to see them.

"For tonight, though, I think I can stick with being the laid back teacher. Everything seems to be working out just fine and, besides, we have Lelei to keep everyone on their best-ish behavior.

You ARE on your best-ish behavior, right?"

The offer to leave with Thorn was surprisingly tempting. Thorn was a lot of fun to talk to and hang around with, plus Jacob's "troubled girl" senses were tingling enough to warrant attention. There was no single strong compulsion for him to go with her, but there were a lot of little curiosities and encouragements from many parts of him that added up. However, he was also bound by his obligation to the dance and the other teachers. He looked out onto the dance floor, and out to the other teachers, to see if maybe it was okay.

The music was pumping and the beats were heavy, care of the masterful mixing of DJ Nomura. It was intoxicating to the students and whatever shyness they might have had about the dance contest was swept away by the power of music, and the peer encouragement of watching other students jump into the dance circle. The air of the group, the crowd washed away inhibitions and kids were dancing whether they were good at it or not, alone or with someone else. In the end, everyone was having a great, if somewhat suggestive, time.

"Now here we go! Here we go now! That's what I call dancin', guys and girls! Get on in there and show us what you got! I wanna see hands in air, bodies groovin' and butts movin'!"

Donny was stirring the hype pot and getting more people to join. The other teachers seemed to be on the same level as Jacob regarding the more suggestive dances the students were doing. The grinding and booty shaking got a lot of reactions out of the teachers, but they seemed to know that it was still in good fun and let it go. It was only when couples tried sneaking out the ballroom did someone get a little concerned, and followed them off to make sure they were not fooling around in the school proper.

Lelei himself took notice of Jacob's concerned looks. After they met gazes, Lelei gave a quiet head nod that tried to reassure him that everything was fine. Lelei also flicked his eyes to the spiked punch bowl. He was waiting until Thorn left to switch it out for the sober punch bowl.

"Um... Okay! I think things are handled here. So lets go somewhere quieter then, shall we?"