Together

Learn To Do It

Well, this update is a few days overdue, and I'm sincerely sorry about that! Life has been crazy... I hope you like it now though. It's time to get some drama going! Comment and vote if you wish, but please don't kill me x (you might have to save that for a few chapters from now.... ;)....)
-ab

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October 13, 2025

Harper

"Alright, that was good, Harper. Take five," Luke tells me, after I finish running through 'Journey To The Past.'

I nod, running over to my water bottle and taking a swig of water.

Luke and Sienna, our dance captain here at Anastasia, share a look. "Shall we run through 'Paris Holds The Key' next?" Sienna asks.

I gulp. I've been struggling with that number for quite some time, now. It's the heaviest number, choreography-wise, for me, in the whole show.

"I suppose," I say. Sienna walks over to me.

"You've got this, Harper."

The two of us have been working extensively on this number, during breaks and sometimes after rehearsal, for the last week. Sienna and I have become fairly close friends throughout the process, which is nice. She is supportive of me, whereas Luke... well, he seems to be getting a bit frustrated with the situation. He knows how hard I'm working, but it doesn't seem to be good enough for him.

Patrick doesn't know about any of this, and I'm hoping that he won't need to know. It's going to be an issue that just goes away, right?

Maybe this will be my day. Maybe I'll run it through perfectly, and all of my hard work will have paid off.

That quickly proves to be wrong, as I find myself nearly tripping over my own two feet.

"Hold up," Sienna calls. "Harper, love, you're making this choreography much harder than it is. It's a simple Charleston step."

I sigh with defeat.

"You had this down on Friday," she reminds me.

"I think it's the arms," I admit.

"You don't have to do the arms, remember?" Luke snaps. "We have been over this, Harper."

I bite my lip. "I'm sorry."

"Everybody, take five. Harper, Sienna, please come here."

I walk over to him.

"You two are still working together, right?"

"Yes sir," I reply. "I'm trying so hard, I really am."

Luke's face softens for just a moment. "I know that you are, and I really appreciate that. Listen, Harper, you're going to make an amazing Anya. Your voice is exactly what we need in this role. That's why it breaks my heart to tell you that if you can't get this choreography down by Friday, we are going to have to ask another girl to step into the role."

"What?" I gasp, instantly feeling tears forming in my eyes.

"I'm sorry, Harper, but you have a standby, and you have a swing. Both of them are very capable of playing this part, as well as many other girls out there. We auditioned many others, and we picked you over them, but really, a handful of them could have played this role as well."

"Please sir, just, give me a chance. I can learn the choreography, I really can. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time with it, but Sienna and I are working so hard, and-"

"Harper, I told you. Nothing is definite. You have until Friday to prove to me that you're capable of doing this. As soon as you show me that, then we can move on with the show, start chunking things together, and start fitting you for costumes. Until you have all of your scenes mastered, we can't do any of that. All of your scenes. Including 'Paris.' Do you understand?"

I let out a sigh of defeat. "Yes, sir."

"Good. Keep working hard. I'm going to run through 'My Petersburg' with Toby, then 'Land of Yesterday' and 'Prologue.' Can you and Sienna go to another rehearsal room and keep working? We will run through 'Paris' again before the end of the day."

"Okay," I reply, grabbing my things and allowing Sienna to lead me into another, smaller space.

I dump my bag down once we are there, and Sienna looks at me. "Alright, girly, let's just break this thing down really slowly. You heard what he said. You have until Friday. That's five whole days. I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure that you get this choreography down to a science by then."

"Thank you so much," I tell her. "I knew that this song would be hard, but I had no idea that it would be this hard."

"Everyone has different challenges in roles," Sienna tells me. "We had a Dimitri once who could just barely hit some of his high notes, and poor Maria had to spend so much time with him, doing range expansion activities and such, becuase she knew he was capable of it. Just like I know that you're capable of this dance."

I smile at her.

"Do you have any questions specifically, or do you just want to start from the beginning?"

"Can we just go over the whole thing?"

"Perfect," she tells me, then begins to demonstrate my steps, chunking them into sixteen counts.

"Now you try," she tells me, after the first sixteen count.

I do as I'm told.

"Good. Now me."

I watch.

"Now you."

I dance.

It goes on like this for a little while, and by the time that we make it through, I'm not feeling bad about it. I seem to be able to handle it in small chunks like this.

"Let's go over the Charleston again, and then we can try to run it through with just counts," Sienna suggests. I nod, knowing that it is a trouble spot for me.

When it is as slow as Sienna and I are running it, I really don't have many problems with it. It's not until we put the music with it that I start fumbling around again.

"I'll tell you what," Sienna suggests. "Take off your character shoes real quick, and try this barefoot. I just want to see if it would change anything."

I do so, and to my amazement, it gets a little bit easier.

"You've never done real dancing in heels before, have you," Sienna laughs.

"No," I admit. "Honestly, I haven't spent a lot of time in heels in general. I'm tall enough as is."

She laughs. "I honestly think that's part of the problem. I'm going to ask Luke if you can run this thing through barefoot, just for the next day or two. You and I can work on the whole 'heels' situation here, in private."