unconditional (BOOK #2) [TO BE PUBLISHED]

Chapter 28

a/n: NOT EDITED. THANKS TOO ALL OF YOU WHO VOTED & COMMENTED. I Love reading your thoughts and opinions, thanks for reading too :) 

Chapter 28 (Chelsea POV) 

Change of any kind is scary and fear never travels alone, it brings doubt and insecurity along for the ride.

It had been 10 days since I decided to perform for the holiday show, with a few of my own stipulations of course. And as I had changed my mind, so had Professor Baptiste and the human that didn't understand no, Junior Professor Katelyn Price.

Instead of doing the Nut Cracker, we would be performing Tchkovstys' Swan Lake in December. I would be dancing Odell/Odie but only for one night. At my request whoever was the understudy would be dancing the second night, whether or not that was Madeline did not concern me, until it did.

Gabriel had promised and reassured me that a group of people that owed him favors could and was willing to run security for me for both nights but that didn't sit well with me. If they used the first performance as a way to case open areas and holes in security they'd use that second night as the night to kidnap me or something. He assured me that they would be on the lookout for Leo as well.

Back to Madeline, Baptiste - who I thought would support Madeline and Scarlet to her dying breathe, much to Madeline displeasure - thought if she couldn't pull it together within the next month, the second understudy, Heather, would perform. While I could effortlessly pull off 32 Fouettes flawlessly and heather could do 27 of them, Madeline could do 13... and even then they looked messy.

So while many of the other dancers understood that I only wanted to do one night, many were baffled at the sheer ridiculousness that Madeline and not Heather would be filling that role.

Rehearsals with me progressed, however when it was Madeline's turn, it felt like we would have to take 10 steps back after taking 20 steps forward. She was simply complicating everything, stating once that the dancers were the ones with the mistakes, and because they messed up, it broke her focus. She was making the simple confusing and equally frustrating. We had yet to have one good rehearsal out of three and if this was what the next three months would be like I felt as though I would give my spot up to Heather. You could tell that she had talent, any corrections she was given, she took them and improved, even going as far as recording herself and asking me why or how to make her foot stop turning out, when she spun. Then by the next rehearsal, it didn't happen more than twice. Improvement. Madeline? She made everything look like work.

.

.

Groaning I went to Jamie's side as we left what I would call another shitty practice.

Looking around I heard Jamie in my head, honestly why don't you just order her to quit he whined, clearly exhausted as were the rest of us. That's a misuse-

No... letting us suffer is a crime... three more months of this Chelsea? And if she only practiced as much as ran her mouth his animosity clear even over the link, as each day a new little whisper appeared. So far we had; she offered me to do the first night. Why? Because her performance was going to blow mine out of the water. She was going to show everyone how my role should've been danced.

I was holding them back, she offered me help but I can't pull my head out of my ass long enough to accept it from her. I was only part of this show because I paid Baptiste and Price off, and the gossip only got worse but then we had the humans that were actually there for rehearsals that were setting the story straight much to Madeline's chagrin.