Courage

Chapter 1

Lydia had strawberry blonde hair that hung down over her shoulders, she has light blue eyes that were like pools of blue water, calm and quiet. She was one of the prettiest girls in the town but Lydia didn't see herself in that way. She stood in front of her mirror for many hours looking at herself in the reflection, she was wearing a crop top with shorts, so her stomach and legs were on show. She turned from side to side picking at the 'fat' she claimed was on her stomach and her thighs. She walked over to the black electric square that was sitting in the corner of her room ready for her to use. She quickly made her way onto it before looking down at the digital screen, that showed how much she weighed. At first the number was not clear but after a few minutes the number flashed onto the screen. Lydia's breathing started to increase as she got of the scale and read the number. 80 pounds. that was way too much. She slowly made her way to her wooden school-like desk where she kept her journal. She opened the journal smiling and the glittery 'L' on the front that told everybody around her that it belonged to her and nobody else. She flicked through the pages to reveal months and months of thoughts, then she got to the page she had wanted. It was towards the back of the journal so nobody would suspect it. There on the page was lines and lines of the amount of calories she has eaten and the amount of pounds she had weighed per day. Lydia has been restricting herself to a 300 or less calorie diet per day, usually this resulted in her going without any food for a couple of days before she would be forced into it by her overprotective parents. Lydia tried as hard as she could to keep discrete about the things she was doing knowing that if her parents found out she would be forbidden to do the one thing she loves the most, dancing. You see Lydia wants to become a professional dancer one day, she trains 40 hours per week to be the best dancer she can be, and even she had to admit she was improving a lot faster than many of her peers. Dancing was the one thing that made her feel completely free, where she could go and let out all of her feelings, and unlike everything else she was actually good at it. Her studio, MPD, was one of the top studios in America, which made her experience a bit better knowing that she was known in the dance world. Lydia always made sure that she turned up at least 10 minutes before every dance rehearsal so that she was prepared and warmed up so that they could start dancing straight away. She walked into the pink room that was lit up with fairy lights, she placed her bags in her locker that was built along one of the walls with all the rest while she started to talk to a couple of her friends that had also arrived early. Her coach, Sandra, wouldn't call them in for at least 5 more minutes so they had time to talk while they stretched. Lydia started to daydream as she stared into the blank space. MPD had a competition last weekend and Lydia had been entered as a soloist the only problem was she had not won her age division which meant Sandra was defiantly going to be mad at her. Lydia has already punished herself by not eating anything since the competition, telling herself that if she proved she could win she would be allowed a small bite of some type of food. However she had yet to see Sandra and she knew if anybody was going to punish her it would be Sandra so she was slightly worried. Suddenly she felt somebody shake her body as she became aware of her surroundings. It was time for her to go into studio A. Time for her to see Sandra and get her doom. Lydia walks into the Red and White Studio and walks into the middle of the room, facing her reflection. Studio A was the best studio, as you walked into the room the first thing you would see is ballet bars on each of the walls, ready for lessons. The whole room was walled with mirrors, this is the best feature of the room because it means that all of the dancers could see how they look from the audience's perspective. In the corner of the studio sat some mats that the girls had used to do acrobatics on and some props that were used frequently in the dances. Lydia looked at the props in the corner of the room, wondering if she would be using one at the next competition, She looked back towards her coach at the front of the room and stood there in silence. She felt her friends smile reassuringly at her before looking back at Sandra, smiling softly. Sandra who wore a MPD shirt and tracksuits, She had her long brown hair, that reached just below her hips, tied up in a pony tail to keep it out of her face. She was as thin as a stick, which of course, Lydia was jealous of. Sandra started to speak softly to Lydia and all of her teammates as she went through one by one their compliments and corrections.

"Okay, First Sarah, You did Brilliantly in your solo, the turns and the kicks were flawless. What let you down was the group. You missed out a leap at the beginning and was behind with the counts at the end. Other than that it was pretty good." Sandra said to Lydia's first Teammate. She went through everybody else and came to Lydia last. Sandra smiled sadly at Lydia, knowing something was up, as it wasn't usually like her to not win, and especially to not do her best. Sandra stepped to the side, making sure to stand directly infront of the poor girl.

"Lyd, what happened? This is never like you? Yes the competition was hard. But you didn't even try!" She said curiously.

"I am so sorry Sandra, I was a bit distracted last week but I promise that if you give me another chance this week I will show you that I can and will do better!" Lydia replied pleadingly. Sandra stepped back to her original position with a look of question on her face. After a few moments she came back into realisation and started handing out dances to the girls on the team.

"Okay, Obviously we will be doing a group routine, it will be in the Junior Category and everybody will be in it. Now Sarah, you and Julie will be having a duet this week. You will be in the Teen Duo-Trio Division. I am counting on you guys to win. Next we have Jesy, Hanna and Alice who are doing a Trio in the Junior Duo-Trio Division. I know you girls will do your best and do me proud. Next we have solos, now Jen and Lizzie you will both be doing solos Lizzie you will be in the Mini Category and Jen you will be in Junior. Now my last Teen Solo will go to Lydia. Lydia, you better prove me that I have made the right desition in choosing you. I am expecting you to win." Sandra states in a firm tone. Lydia nods, eager to show her teacher what she can do. Sandra dismisses the girls from the line so that they can warm up. Lydia and a group of her peers went to the corner and started to stretch whilst discussing their dances for this week. Lydia was bursting with excitement over her solo and could not wait to find out what the message of the dance was. The girls stretched for a while longer before Sandra dismissed everybody to get something quick to eat, everybody but Lydia rushed out to the den, however Lydia stayed behind, she didn't want to give herself the chance to even think about eating. That wasn't an option now that she was starting to get the hang of her new diet. Sandra noted this lack of movement but instead of saying anything about it, she simply called Lydia over to start working on her solo for the week.

"Okay, Lyds your solo is about a girl who starts off being very shy and secretive but as the song goes on she starts to open up to the audience showing them everything about her and exploiting all of her flaws. It is a beautiful Lyrical piece to the song 'Flawz' This dance requires 100% emotion and you need to make sure the judges feel everything." Sandra explains as Lydia listens intensely. This was definatly one of the best messages Lydia has ever been given in a dance and she was excited to show the dance to everybody.