Porcelain

37

"Why?" She narrowed her eyes curiously.

"Because," Erik turned and looked at her fully. "You stand out from the others." He paused and frowned lightly. "There's always going to be one person someone will pay more attention to when there's a group dancing in front of them."

"I am that one person?"

"You are and your sister are." Erik nodded, "I questioned her about allowing you both to do your own piece. But then Eleanor went and...the thought of trying to pair you with another dancer didn't bode well with me."

Fleurette raised an eyebrow at him. "It didn't bode well with you?"

Erik nodded slowly, "I do not mean it in a horrid way. I do not think you realise how good you are. Now admittedly I have to say dancing is a grey area for me, I do not know as much about it as I do with music." He paused and looked from the organ to her. "But you are a very good dancer. More than good, making the duet into a solo seemed like the most logical thing to do. Of course no one would question my words."

"...You are the reason why I'm doing a solo?" Fleurette summed it up simply, Erik nodded. She put a hand to her chin in thought. She grinned at him, "Thank you, Erik!" Fleurette exclaimed lightly and threw her arms around his neck and held him close to herself.

Erik looked around a little bemused but wrapped an arm around her nonetheless. "You're welcome." He paused, "How did you come to figure out I was behind it?"

"Actually Meg and I both came to the same decision at the same time." Fleurette said honestly while leaning away from him.

——

Fleurette nodded and every so often and smiled. Eleanor and Felix were sitting in front of her both talking about a million miles an hour about their week away. "Right," Fleurette said slowly, in all honesty she had absolutely no clue what had been spoken. So she just answered with the first word which came to mind. Just so happened the first word she replied with may have been the right one because Eleanor continued talking. Felix nodded and the two were more like having their own conversation than a conversation which involved three people. "I have to get back," Fleurette pointed over her shoulder and stood up slowly. "I'm needed in the wardrobe department. They have my costume and they need me to try it on."

Eleanor looked up at her and smiled widely. "I am so looking forward to seeing the show."

"You are attending?"

"Little flower!" Eleanor exclaimed while clasping her hands on her shoulders and shaking her slightly. Fleurette's head rocked to and fro lightly, "Of course we'd attend the opening night. Like we would miss your first ever solo performance."

First ever, Fleurette pondered over those two words. Admittedly as happy as she was with having a solo it still made her feel a little sick. There would obviously be no one to fall back on if she went wrong. Her eyes widened slightly and then her mind just pondered over all the possible mistakes she could do.

"Fleurette, are you all right?" Eleanor asked worriedly while popping into her sister's line of vision.

Blinking slowly a few times Fleurette looked up and nodded. "Just...well...tired."

Eleanor went blank faced and crossed her arms. "Your upset sleeping patterns have returned?"

"No, no nothing like that." Fleurette waved her hands in defence.

Eleanor didn't look bought by her words, but she accepted them nonetheless. Letting out a slow sigh and pinching the bridge of her nose, she leaned against Felix when he put an arm around her shoulders. "How has your week been?" Eleanor questioned, she had got caught up in embracing her little sister and not letting go, and also talking nonstop about their trip. Then there was the moment where Eleanor decided to give Fleurette a present from where they'd been.

Fleurette stopped edging away and smiled sheepishly. "Fine. Boring in fact, nothing unusual. Just lots of rehearsing, I'm tired from all the rehearsing. In fact I have to get back to it."

"You said you were needed at the wardrobe department." Eleanor narrowed her eyes. "What aren't you telling me?"

"I saved a little girl from drowning by diving into a murky pond. Now excuse me, I really must go. It is brilliant to hear you had a nice trip...thank you for the present although I was not expecting to receive one." Fleurette smiled and turned tail and ran off just before Eleanor was about to comment on her words. "See you both later!" Fleurette waved while skilfully weaving her way past the stage hands and disappeared from her sisters view.

It wasn't too long later that Fleurette found herself keeping arms outstretched while the two bustling women took to stitching and pinning the costume she was in. She had briefly looked down at herself to note that it was in the style of a romantic tutu. The skirt stopped about mid-shin and was varied in colours, light pastel colours from green to blue, there was even hints of purple in there too. The sleeves, what there was of them, were netted green and were elasticated so they were more or less permanently fixed in place around her arms. The top was coloured much like the skirt, but around her waist was a belt. This belt was made out of fake flowers, Fleurette liked this costume. The colours, the style. So far she could not find fault with it. Being ushered to sit down she frowned however when her hair started to get pulled this way and that.

"Excuse me, but what are you doing?" Fleurette asked truly confused. "I thought I was here for just a fitting."

"You need to test it out love," the elder of the two women said while tying her hair up. "The costume isn't just the dress." She spoke simply while attaching numerous amount of clips into her hair. The clips had flowers on them, these flowers were the same as the ones on the belt.

"But I do not have my shoes with me." Fleurette said while crossing her arms, her arms got tapped out of the way by the other woman. Fleurette raised an eyebrow when the sleeves of the dress were getting altered. "Of course," Fleurette took the shoes out of the woman's grasp once she finished playing with her hair and putting clips into it. Turning them over Fleurette sighed, they were new shoes. This was now the only fault with her costume. She had a day to try and break these in while getting used to dancing in this dress, which suddenly felt a little restricting now that the other woman had tightened the straps. "They're green," Fleurette said a little dumbly. The ballet shoes she was holding were a light green, it matched the green in her dress perfectly.

The two women laughed and ushered her out of the room. Fleurette frowned and shuffled down the corridor, standing in the wings she watched the dance group have their dress rehearsal. The outfits they were all wearing did not vary that much to hers. Hers was green and varied in different pastels, and theirs were white and varied in off whites and light blues. Managing to slip her new shoes on and bending down to tie the ribbons up, when she stood up straight again Madame Giry was waving a hand in her direction.

Rolling her eyes and taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Fleurette walked onto the stage. This technically would be the first time she had done the solo in front of a crowd bigger than one person. It would also be the first time Fleurette had done it in new shoes and her outfit for the show, but her bringing up those two things was just to the point of picking holes.

——

Reedited: 19/Jan/2022