It Ends With Us

Chapter 7: Practice Makes Perfect

Aliyah

February 18, 2010

Today is the day I go to my ballet class, my mom woke me up really early this morning. She dropped me off so now it was time for me to begin my lessons. My ballet teacher Ms. Briar, has been helping me a lot in having to dance a little better since we had an upcoming show tonight. "Practice makes perfect!" is what Ms. Briar always says to us. I've told my Mom about it so many times out of excitement, she told me that her and Dad were excited as well and that they couldn't wait to see my dance. Aaron however was always annoyed, only because I wouldn't shut up about it.

I went over the lesson with Ms. Briar along with the other kids, we redid every step from the dance until we had it all memorized. I seemed to be getting the hang of ballet, I imagined my Mom and Dad's faces when they see me on stage tonight . I love ballet, I always loved to perform in front of everyone and having to try new dances every Wednesday and Friday. It always helped me stay in a good mood. As we finished the lesson, me along with the others took a short break. I walked over to my backpack to get my water bottle. I hear a telephone go off in my left ear.

Ring Ring...

Ms. Briar walked over to the phone and picks it up, "Hello? Oh hey there Mrs. Monroy is everything ok? Yes Aliyah just finished her dance lesson for now, we're on a short break right now-", she pauses. Her face turns into worry. "Yes, I understand. I am really sorry, I'll let Aliyah know your on your way to pick her up", she hangs up. Ms. Briar turns around to look at me, her eyes filling with tears. She walks over and hugs me.

"Aliyah sweetie, your Mom is on her way to pick you up. I'm afraid you won't be able to dance for the show tonight", she says. "I'm so sorry sweetheart"

What? But Mom and Dad were looking forward to seeing me dance.

"But the dance, I practiced so much", I say. Ms. Briar breaks out of the hug.

"I'm afraid your Mom has some news to tell you"

News? But what happened?

I see a red car pull up in the drive way outside the ballet class, Mom. She gets off the car, from outside I can see her eyes were red like she had been crying. She opens the doors and enters the building, her mouth begins twitching as she saw me. I run to her, embracing her hug.

"We have to go pick your brother up from Brian's house ok?", she says, touching one of my two braids.

"What happened? Why are you crying?", I say, beginning to worry.

Mom stays quiet, she tries to force a smile to hide whatever she was feeling.

"It's your Dad"

Present Time

"Hey Aliyah wake up!", I rise up from my bed to hear Aaron yelling in my ear.

"What?", I say tiredly.

"Trevor wants to talk to us about our schedules"

Yesterday, when Me,  Aaron, and Brian played Uno with Louis and the others, Brian had won the game. Most of us were relieved considering it took almost three hours of playing. It was a complicated game, Aaron had a whole deck of cards by the end of it which I found funny. Today was the day we'd all get our schedules to see what jobs we'd be given. I don't know what this community has in store for us three, but I just hope it's not anything I have to worry about.

We make it outside the school doors where we see Trevor and two other soldiers waiting beside him.

"Yo Trevor", Brians calls over, waving his arm.