Spinning Out✔️

10. New photos, Old feelings, and Weird Costumes

Luna's POV

June 21st

6 days till the Competition

11:24 am

"Okay, quiet down, please. Let's focus."

My students all lined up together across the room.

Each of them was dressed in variations of ballet attire.

Their bright eyes stared at me with sudden interest as they waited for me to start class.

Teaching the juniors was a breeze compared to the primary classes.

Little kids had a way of breaking you down and making you question everything. They had absolutely no filter and did not believe you had feelings.

You wouldn't believe the number of times I'd been told that I had knobby knees from little 8-year-old girls.

One time one of my students tried to convince me that a nose job would do me wonders because "that's what mommy got and she was happier now."

That was an interesting conversation I had to have with her mom after class.

The juniors however were within the 13-17 range and they were more focused on dancing now.

There were many junior classes taught here and I was signed up from two of them.

Right now I was teaching a ballet class of 11 where the average age was 15.

I always looked forward to teaching. Plus I knew that there weren't many ballet teachers of color even in a city as diverse as New York.

I wanted to set an example.

Growing up, I was always the only black girl in every ballet class. Let's just say it wasn't the best for my self-esteem.

"Miss Luna, do you think we'll be ready for our showcase coming up?" Melonie asked quietly. She was the quietest of the group. With light brown skin and an array of freckles, she was a bit taller than me and one of my best students.

"You guys are going to do great in the showcase," I said speaking to the whole class. I could see the unsureness in their eyes. "You've all been practicing hard and putting in the work."

They had a summer showcase in a few days and with the recent quitting of two of our studios' choreographers, it was normal to be nervous.

"We're going to go over the routine a few times today and fix any mistakes," I said tapping my pointe shoe against the floor. "You guys need to really take my corrections today," I said firmly.

They each nodded their heads and I sighed, already knowing it was going to be a long day.

"What about you Miss Luna?" Kacey asked. She was the queen of all things drama-related. I never saw her without getting bombarded about something someone told her. "Do you think WDC is ready for the first competition next week?"

I smiled lightly. "I think we'll do our best as we've always done," I said vaguely.

The stress of next week's competition was eating away at me much more than I thought it would.

We only had six days left. How did things move so quickly?

"What's Jackson Nova like?" Kacey asked.

Everyone visibly got excited and started talking to each other.

"He's sooooo cute."

"I think I saw him yesterday. He's huge."