Royal Academy Diaries I

The Plain Ballerina ⚜ Ch. 10

The ballet classes were doing their final practice run-through of Le Corsaire, and Svetlana thought they put on a good performance. To everyone's surprise when they finished, several young men cheered from the audience.

Svetlana saw reddish brown hair among them and knew that Zivko had managed to get some of his jock friends to come watch. As soon as she could, she went over to them and was bombarded with praise.

"Hey, it's Ziv's girl! Good job!"

"Hey, nice going!"

"That takes some serious athletics to do what you just did."

She grinned and pointed to the last boy. "I like this one." Zivko was quiet as he pulled her close. "What?" she asked.

"You're not into that guy playing le corsaire are you?"

Her eyes widened. "What? No! He's handsome, sure, but he's one of the Royal Alliance Ballet members. He's just filling in." She playfully hit his shoulder. "There's acting in ballet too."

The prince smiled and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, I knew that." He then pulled her aside, and lowered his voice a little. "Hey, listen, I um, I want you to meet my family."

She was shocked. "You... Your royal family? I-I couldn't."

"They'll love you," he assured her. "My father has to stay, but the others are coming down. They want to watch you dance while they're here."

"Do they really?" she asked, nervous but suddenly excited about the prospect.

"Yes," he smiled, bringing her hand to his lips. "I want to show you off to everyone."

Blushing, she finally sighed. "Okay."

He lit up a little. "Yes? Great!" The prince kissed her cheek, then looked back to his friends. "Come on gents, let's get to football before it's too dar- Wait, where's Callan?" He and Svetlana looked over to see him talking to some of the dancers. "Callan, leave the girls alone," Zivko called, and his friend kissed Liliana's hand before hurrying back to the others.

Svetlana couldn't help but laugh.

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That night before the opening performance, the dancers welcomed the spectators as they walked in. Svetlana's roommate Vittoria and Zahleh came to see the ballet, and her heart pounded as she waited for Zivko and his family.

"Good evening, thank you for coming," she said for the fiftieth time, this time to a gentleman and his wife. Behind them, she saw reddish brown hair and freckles - and it wasn't Zivko. It was a man about fifteen years older. With him was a distinguished woman with a red streak in her silver hair, and two little girls around ten.

Someone suddenly came behind her and put their hands over her eyes. "Guess who?"

Svetlana chuckled and took his hands, blushing as he kissed her cheek. "Hello."

Still behind her and holding her hands, Zivko nodded to the four people with his same eyes. "Lana, I'd like to introduce my family. The Queen of Serbia - my mother, Rodavan Krtolica - the crown prince, and his daughters Venna and Emelia - Millie."

Svetlana curtseyed as he came around to stand beside her. "It's a pleasure, your majesties."

Zivko then took her hand. "Mother, Rodavan, this is Baroness Svetlana Karadjordjevic of The Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the sweetest, most talented girl I've ever met," he introduced proudly.

"It's a pleasure, Baroness. My son has spoken of little else since he met you," the Queen said with a grin.

Svetlana blushed, and he squeezed her hand. "Oh... I-"

Lia tapped her shoulder. "Sorry to interrupt, but they want us backstage now."

"Oh, thank you." Curtseying again, she said, "Please excuse me."

"Break a leg," Zivko told her, kissing her cheek.

She hurried to join the others, and stretched with them. A few minutes later when the expensive gold curtain raised, she was ready to dance her heart out.

And she did. The premier performance went smoothly, and received a standing ovation.

After the curtain closed, her heart again began pounding as she went to go talk more with Zivko's family. The thought that he had wanted so much to introduce her to his family made her blush even as she went down into the auditorium to find them.

Before she got too far, Master Ashton, the head of the King's Alliance Royal Ballet Company stopped her. "Wonderful performance, Miss Karadjordjevic. You dance all of your roles remarkably well. Tell me, why didn't you audition for Pharaoh's Daughter? I'd have liked to see you at least as the lady in waiting."

After processing that he had learned and remembered her name, her mind jumped to how she'd thought she wasn't good or pretty enough. "I needed a to gain more confidence," she replied honestly.

He nodded. "Well, perhaps you and Miss Claire Hudson can battle over who should be the unofficial Prima next year."

She nodded wordlessly, hardly believing her ears. Nor would she believe what happened next.

"My lady," a young woman in her early thirties said, all but dragging a girl behind her. "I want to apologize on behalf of my sister Pernelle. We... lost our mother late last year, and I think Pelle lashed out in insecurity. But that's no excuse for how she's behaved, and I hear you've taken the brunt of it."

With a not so subtle nudge, Pernelle hung her head. "I'm sorry," she muttered.

Svetlana waited until the girl met her eye. "I forgive you," she said, just as quietly. She watched Pernelle take a breath before they walked off.

"Baroness!"

"Svetlana!"

She looked down as Zivko's nieces rushed up to her, each carrying a bouquet of beautiful yellow flowers - one with roses, the other with daisies.

"You were so lovely!" Venna gushed.

"Absolutely amazing," Millie added emphatically.

"Oh girls, these are beautiful. Thank you so much," she smiled. As the girls chattered on, Zivko slowly approached the happy scene.

"Is Uncle Zivko your Prince Charming?" Venna suddenly asked.

He put an arm around Svetlana's shoulders. "You know, these two are actually very particular about who they like. The fact that they're fawning over you is a very good judge of character."

As he kissed her cheek, she grinned to the girls. "I'm glad you think so." This was going to be her favourite love story to play yet.

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Thank you for reading and voting on the third installment of the Royal Academy Diaries series!
Keep reading to find out what secrets the Andorra resident Prince Charming has.
You can read Claire's story (the first year prodigy) in book 2.