His Tiny Dancer [COMPLETED]

V

~Tuesday, January 4th~

Leaving history, I'm ready for an uneventful homeroom with a bunch of people that I feel completely indifferent about. Even though I've been stuck with the same people for all four years of high school, I've managed to make no lasting friendships with anyone. The group of girls who I thought I would become friendly with ended up all being mean in their own individual ways, so I've isolated myself from them. Homeroom only lasts ten minutes anyway.

As I walk down the hallway, I approach Olivia's homeroom. Normally I pause to talk to her on my way to my homeroom, but today I notice that someone else has already taken my place. Instead I lean against the lockers a couple yards away from them, so it's not obvious that I'm eavesdropping on Cameron and Olivia's conversation.

"Well, I better head off to homeroom. Mr Lynch already has my head on a plate as it is," I catch Cameron saying.

"Alright, I'll see you around," Olivia responds while I can see her cheeks darkening from here.

"See ya," Cameron says before walking down the hallway. I immediately take my opportunity to talk to Olivia.

"You two are talking a lot, huh?" I ask with a smirk.

"Oh shut up," Olivia says, letting her hair fall in front of her face.

"Seriously though, you need to be careful. You know what he's like." Like most of the jocks in our year, Cameron and Noah are both players. I don't think Cameron has settled with a girl for more than a week in years, and I get the feeling that Olivia wouldn't be much different. Noah had a relationship with one of the richer girls in our grade, Jessica, for a couple months, but they haven't been together since junior year. Notice how I said "relationship" instead of "dating." No one ever saw them talking to each other, they were just glued to each other in the hallways - and sometimes even in the classrooms. This isn't surprising given both of their's reputations, Jessica isn't much of a saint either. But people can do what they want, that's none of my business.

Jessica's black hair and dark eyes pair with a curvy figure to make a gorgeous girl. However, unlike most movies and novels, she's not very mean. Of course I could be wrong, but since I have never talked to her and she has never talked to me, I don't have anything against her. She sticks with her crowd and I stick with mine, so who am I to make an opinion out of her?

Jessica and Noah broke it off at the end of junior year, and since then Noah has been - to popular knowledge - single. Every once in awhile a girl comes to school one morning claiming she slept with him the last night, but no one ever knows if she is believable or not. Noah sure never talks about it.

Olivia has been put under the common trance; she believes that Cameron will change his ways for her and that they'll get married one day, have 2.5 children, and live in a house in the suburbs. But sometimes the American Dream just isn't possible.

Forget it, if American literature has taught me anything, it's that the American Dream is completely impractical, unattainable, and hopeless.

"I know, I know. But I'm telling you Theresa, he's different with me. He's nice and funny and - I think he really likes me."

"I just don't want him to break your heart like I think he will."

"Speaking of heartbreakers," Olivia says looking over my shoulder. I turn to see what she is talking about and immediately find Noah and Jessica sucking each other's faces off. Gross. I visibly cringe, my nose crinkling up and mouth forming a frown. Just before I plan to turn back to Olivia and remark on how disgusting it is, one of Noah's eyes opens and trains straight on me.

Okay, cringe. Not only is he making out with a girl in the middle of a busy high school hallway, but he opened his eye and looked at me while he was doing it. I quickly look away, not sure if looking for much longer will make me throw up or not.

"First of all, that's disgusting. Second, since when are they together again?" I say in a whisper so no one else will hear our gossiping.

"First of all," Olivia starts, mimicking me, "they're probably not actually together. Second, you're totally jealous," Olivia states with a smug smile.

"Where on earth did you get that idea from?" I say, horrified.

"He's been giving you plenty of attention for the past two days, and now he goes and kisses his ex in front of you," Olivia says like it's an obvious fact.

"Olivia, I don't like him. He's a stubborn, ignorant jerk and there's no way I'm going to purposefully waste my time with him if I don't have to."

"If you say so..." Olivia says with a playful smile.

"Oh come on Olivia, how could I possibly like him. There's literally no way." Even though I know what I'm saying is true and honest, I can't help but feel my cheeks heating up at the attention, likely helping Olivia with her hypothesis.

"I can think of some reasons. For starters, he's very attractive, and don't even try to deny that."

"Olivia-"

"The dark hair, light eyes, great bone structure, and of course there's his height and build."

"Oh my god, please stop," I plea. By this point I know my whole face is red, and this fact is making me even more embarrassed. I can't even imagine if someone overheard her talking like this.

"Oh you so like him," she says with an evil smile.

"Can we talk about anything else now?"

"Fine. Let's talk about your favorite subject then, how's dance going?"

"Well, last night was our first day back from winter break so class felt a little bit harder than normal but I managed to stay in shape. I'm really just worried about auditions now. I want Giselle so bad, more than I wanted Clara three years ago. I don't think being able to act is going to get me the part this time though, Giselle is so much more technical. There are so many more solos and so much more partnering. Even if I do get it, I'm not sure I'd be able to do it. On top of that I have auditions for summer programs which could lead to auditions or invitations into professional companies, which is a whole other level of stressful."

"I bet you'll get the role. You're a beautiful dancer Theresa. Of course, this is coming from someone who knows almost nothing about what you're supposed to be doing, but you look good doing it. Take it all one step at a time. Focus on each audition as it comes and then worry about the next one afterwards."

"Thanks Olivia, that's really helpful." Olivia has come to all of my performances since we became good friends, so she actually kind of knows what she's talking about. "How's tennis going for you?"

"Pretty good. Tryouts aren't for another month or two, so I'm not too stressed yet." While I have dance, Olivia has tennis. She's been on the school's varsity team since freshman year, and this year as a senior she is lined up to be number one on the team. Even offseason, practice takes up a lot of her afterschool time. "This conversation is boring, let's talk more about you and Noah. It's funny to see you so flustered."

"Oh please no," I say grimacing.

"So has he-" Olivia is cut off by the warning bell. I let out a sigh of relief, slightly exaggerating to make it obvious to her that I was dreading the conversation.

"Saved by the bell," I say with a shrug and a smile. "I'll see you at lunch," I say as I begin to walk off.

"We'll finish this conversation later!" She calls to me as I leave, and I simply shake my head in response as I continue to walk towards my homeroom.

~~~~~

Written 7/22/17, Published 8/24/17
Last Friday was Nutcracker auditions and the cast list goes up tomorrow so I'm FREAKING OUT but I'll tell you what I got next Sunday when I update. That's pretty much all I have to say.

Thank you for reading!!!