The Ballerina Inside

Chapter One

When I was two my parents gave me a gift, that I would now say was the best gift ever. A pair of ballet slippers. I remember never taking them off and that included when I went to daycare, when I went to bed and when I bathed. Those slippers never came off. I would put up the biggest tantrums they had ever seen, even if they came to close to them. My ballet shoes had become my pride and joy. So my parents put me in ballet, although they did have to buy new ballet shoes. I remember my first day. I was so excited. That was the beginning of my life. Dance had become a close friend when times got tough or when I needed space. It was there when my father died of lung cancer when I was seven and my brother was four. It was there when my mom went through depression. It was there when my mother had to go through chemotherapy and lost all of her hair but it was also there when she beat the cancer and lived. I hadn't just done Ballet but I had learned Jazz, Contemporary, Tap, Hip -Hop, Modern, Cha - Cha, Ballroom, Salsa and more. Dance had always been there.

Now I'm seventeen almost eighteen and still happy with dance just like the first day I went. Everyone in the studio had become like a second family. There was Shannon who was like my twin even though she was black. Our story behind it was I was either bleached at birth or she was in the sun too long. Anyway, then there were Olive and Damien Mills. They were faternal twins but they always thought the same things or completed each others sentences. Which was sometimes weird because Olive was a girl and Damien was a boy. Next was Autumn who was the straight forward quiet one in the group. Last was little Terra who was the adorable one. She always had a kind smile and a sweet laugh for everyone. Our dance instructor, Ms. Veron, was our mom away from our homes. None of us went to school together so for me I didn't have friends at my school, which was fine with me because as soon as I left I went home and grabbed my dance shoes and rushed to the dance studio. Where I could be happy and free. Where I could be me.

School was normally the last place I wanted to be. Don't get me wrong I wasn't a bad student and it wasn't like my brother ignored me when he saw me in the hall but when none of your friends go to the same school as you you kinda don't want to be there. It's like when your best friend is sick and you wanna be anywhere but school because they're not there. That's me at school but everyday. Then there's people like Heather Bright, who by the way isn't all that bright. She's Captain of the Cheerleading Team and Eric Jones' girlfriend whose Star Quarterback and Captain of the Football Team. A match made in heaven, right.? Not so much. I was thinking morw so a match made in hell. You could smell their open relationship a hundred miles away. They were considered the "IT" couple.

Heather decided your social standing. If you weren't a Cheerleader or Football player that already knocked you down half in her eyes. Next was if you were puny, wore glasses or braces or in her words "ugly". I fell at a five in her eyes don't let it be unknown she didn't like me. My brother was an eight. He was on the football team but he was a Freshman. Yeah, I didn't see the logic in it either.

Erick followed anything Heather said. In my eyes he was spineless because some of the things she said were absolutely ridiculous. Like, if you wore anything similar to her on the same day, didn't matter if you were popular or not, you were knocked down on the social ladder. The only person who was allowed to wear anything similar to her was Erick. And he went right along with it. Like I said, spineless.

Another thing that didn't sit well with Miss Prissy Pants? If she knew you were sleeping with her boyfriend. She didn't care that it happened. No the problem only happened once you made it well known you slept with her boyfriend. No logic, right?

Anyway, the main reason why Miss Prissy Pants didn't like me? I scuffed her shoe on the first day of Freshman year. Yeah, she holds a grudge well. After that day she never once looked at me without a nasty glance, dirty sneer or glare. Not that I cared. The hatred was mutual. I never liked people who judged others by their appearance and she did it all the time. So I kept my distance. Except, the one time she tried to trip me and I shoved her. I almost hit her if the principal hadn't of stopped me. And I would have had a week of suspension but my mom's a lawyer. Enough said. We're not friends if you haven't guessed.