Clandestine {Harry Styles Fanfiction}

Part 15

Hi guys!! :D

So...I failed you guys again :( I said I'd try to update in 1-2 weeks and it's been 3. I really do try, honest I do. But I'm a very busy bee I have work and friends and I went on vacation last week and I'm moving in less than a month to an entirely different state so I'm trying to spend as much time with my friends before I move. I'm going to miss them very much :(

Anyway, I hope very much that you enjoy this chapter :) It's kind of a filler chapter, just a lot of fluff. But it was fun to write so I hope you like it :) If you do, please vote and comment :)) <3 :)) <3

Madeline

The little girl’s tap shoes were brand new and so glossy she could see the stage lights mirrored in them. Her taps rang clear as a bell through the auditorium; practically bouncing off of the walls along with one of Nicki Minaj’s crappy songs.

It struck her as rather odd that she would be tap dancing to Nicki Minaj, especially since it was 2003, or so the large white banner draped over the stage said. ‘2003 Pepperidge Hill School of Dance Showcase. Welcome Parents!’ it spelled out in bold, black letters. Of course, the little girl thought that the banner ought to say ‘Welcome Parents and Grandparents!’ because her own parents weren’t in attendance, but her Grandparents were. They sat front row, beaming proudly up at her as she tapped her way through her solo.

Still, her parent’s absence couldn’t put a damper on her mood. She loved dancing. She loved the costumes, the backstage rush, the resonance of hundreds of hands clapping. Just being up on stage reinstated what she’d known since was three years old, that she wanted to be a professional dancer someday. Professional was a big word for an eight year old, but she knew exactly what it meant.

She might be a Radio City Rockette, or a Broadway Star, or a Cirque du Soleil contortionist. Those were all professional jobs. But what she really wanted, what she dreamed about every night the second her hazel eyes fluttered closed was to be a ballerina, for while she loved to tap dance, ballet was what her heart truly desired.

Because she’d been thinking about being professional, and not focusing on her solo, the little girl was caught by surprise when she felt the floor beneath her begin to crack like ice. She put her hands up to her ears as the music grew louder and fuzzier and the stage began to spin. The audience was spinning too, but they seemed unaffected, smiles still stretched across their faces. Her tap shoes slipped from her feet and continued their dance without her. The fissure below her was widening, following her as she tried to flee from it. She tried to scream but the tapping drowned her out. The floor of the stage was swallowing her whole…

I shot up in bed, my heart pounding. Nicki Minaj grated against my eardrums from the clock radio on my bedside table. 3:00 AM was the time blocked out in red on the digital screen. Rubbing my tired eyes, I reached over and hit the round alarm button on the top, silencing Nicki’s nasally ‘singing’. God, she was awful.

I could feel my heartbeat slow from its wild thrashing as my eyes adjusted my dark bedroom. It hadn’t been the first time I’d had a dream about falling. In fact, dreams like this had been frequent ever since I’d fallen through the ice at my Aunt and Uncle’s over a month ago. I was suddenly terrified of falling, and the dreams always left me shaky and wide awake.

My eyes found their way to the black lump next to my bed. My suitcase. Suddenly, I remembered what day it was and why I was up at three in the morning. My heart began to pound all over again. My fingers stumbled blindly over to the lamp on my bedside table and switched it on. Yellow light spilled across my duvet.