C Minor // R5

Pinky Promise

Four years earlier:

"Get over it, Nina. You're not going to Joffery." My mom said, loading the groceries into the car.

"Why?" I ask.

"Because you're eleven years old, and as much as I think you're an amazing dancer, you're not moving to New York by yourself." She says.

"Can we meet in the middle somehow?" I ask as my mom gets in the car.

"I don't think there's a middle with Joffery. I think it's a beginning and an end." My mom says. "So you might as well save paper and stop putting pamphlets in my purse now." I sigh. Joffery is my dream and my mom knows that. We pull into the driveway and finally, and idea sparks in my mind.

"How about this-" I start.

"Here we go." My mom interrupts.

"No, just hear me out! If I ever get the opportunity to get an audition for Joffery, you have to let me audition. No matter what." I say. My mom sighs.

"You know what, Nina. Deal. But if you did get excepted, which may or may not ever happen, you wouldn't necessarily get in." She says.

"Are you serious I ask."

"I am but Nina you-"

"THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!" I jump up and down. My mom laughs. I hold out my pink to her. "Promise?" I ask. She locks her pinky in mine.

"I promise."

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Four hours later I find myself sitting on my window seat listening to What Do I  Have to Do? By R5, and flipping through the giant binder that I had compiled over eight years of Joffery pamphlets. I wasn't even thinking about how I would get to visit Ross. I was thinking about how the opportunity that could change my life that I've wanted forever has come, and my mom has brushed t aside. She broke our promise.

I want to go to Joffery so bad. I need to go to Joffery.

Suddenly I hear a knock at my door.

"Nina?" I hear my mom say in a hushed voice.

"Come in." I say. I see my mom come through the door and close it carefully behind her. She looks at me for a second. Her auburn hair and Hazel eyes matching mine, and although she is not as small as me, she has a slightly petite frame. She sighs and comes to my window seat to sit. I take out my head phones as she sits.

"Mom...I'm sorry...for earlier. You're a great mom. I'm just really upset, you know? This is my dream." I say.

"I know. I'm sorry Nina." She says.  just shrug, because I'm still pretty upset. She takes the binder of pamphlets from my lap and laughs. She points to a pamphlet.

"You gave me this one seventeen times. And this one, eight, this one four. Oh, and of course the classic form to sign a child up which was given to me forty three times." She says. I laugh. She slowly takes the form from it plastic protector and skims it through. "So I just got off the phone with Aunt Caroline Jean."

My Aunt Caroline Jean, or CJ, as Isaac and I call her, is my aunt. She's my mom's younger sister by six years and she's the coolest person ever. She's a chef in a restaurant too, and she always makes the best food.

"Oh cool! Is CJ visiting from Los-" And then it hit me. CJ, the Joffery form. I look up at my mom with wide eyes. She can't contain her smile.

"Pack you're bags, Nina. You're going to LA!" My mom says.

I scream.

"ARE YOU KIDDING?!" I squeal. My mom shakes her head no and I scream more and I hug her. "Mom!" I say. She is laughing.

"I made a promise, kido."  can't stop smiling.

LA, CJ, Joffery and Ross.

This is the life.