song: at my worse- pink sweats!
"see that pose? excellent. now, everyone, remember to continue practicing, or else you won't be getting credit in the class. thank you for the performance, you're such a gem aren't you george! alright, as some of you may know from rumors circulating, yes, the yard in the back which was closed off is finally finished. for, football!" sir hendrey announced with a false excitement anyone could see through. football, a sport that seemingly rivaled even the ideology of ballet, one was a sport, the other was an art form. simple. soft murmurs were breaking out, some complaining about the unnecessary expansion of the course. george secretly agreed, football didn't fit with any of the main curricula that were emphasized at the university.
a hand raised out of the dancers, george didn't know her name but he could tell she was one of the more inexperienced dancers. it made sense she was simply taking the course and had not been on the official team because everyone knew you weren't expected to ask questions unless they were about the ballet performance. the 'chit-chat' talk should be reserved for after class, well, sir hendrey was a bit more lenient in that aspect he supposes. but god if the madam were here, she would've gotten the absolute living organs yelled out of her. yes, organs. "what is it?" sir hendrey gestured with a hand. "sir, why? i thought it was going to be a garden or something...i didn't think we even offer football for the last few years the ballet team has been here." the rest of the dancers were silent, almost afraid of an angry outburst from the old man. "well, we didn't. this is new, the sports department is starting with football since madam esmée's relative, the principal of kingston university will be helping our school with certain funds." offhandedly, he continued to ramble. "even though we don't really need any more money, it'd be some sort of odd project ordeal. the board wants to test out the addition of a sports department. think about it like this, royal swan university, home to the best ballerinas and ballerinos along with athletes! isn't that a way to climb the pyramid against our rivaling schools?" george closed his eyes and rolled him, it annoyed him. was ballet not as qualified as a sport as it was an art form? it could be both! but some lame ball couldn't be an art form, ballet dancers shouldn't have to put up with some 'sport' tainting their school's name.
"alright, stop. class is finished, we will continue our practices per usual next week since i won't be here tomorrow. goodbye my little swans." with the bow from both parties, they were dismissed. george went to change into his regular clothes, he had been dancing for years yet he couldn't get used to the feeling of his body without his ballet wear. it was such a big part of his life, from dancing in ballet classes outside of school, rushing to finish practice, and doing school work whenever he could to attending one of the most rigorous universities. it was his identity, which sometimes made him question who was george? he was a swan, a pretty one he'd like to say. he felt gorgeous on that stage, he would remain in it as long as his legs let him. even if it meant it would kill him in the end, he would swim in that lake till the end of his days. he had a reputation, he didn't before.
outside of class, george often wore white paired with paler colourations, with the help of his specialized colour contacts because no way was george going to pair some horrendous neon with whatever was going on in his other wardrobe pieces. a pair of slightly oversized denim with a sweater vest with a white collared shirt. maybe even wear a heavily ironed suit for the award shows, a pair of nice shoes so clean you could've seen your own reflection perhaps. either way, george dressed for the occasion, a huge difference to the george who fumbled during his class presentations in high school.
over summer break, his mother had passed and left him with the simple words filled with love. father remarried some rich woman, george hated them for it, he was disgusted with her and his own dad. father was never in his life, to begin with, they met at the funeral. not exactly ideal, george was surprised he even attended to be fair, he was then introduced to his stepmother who ended up being the daughter of a parliament member. how lovely, an inattentive father with a stepmother that viewed him as a waste of space was the perfect combination life decided to give him.
bowing slightly before his fellow peers, he left the changing rooms with a smaller duffle bag and headed for his locker. out of his peripheral vision, he saw a group of large and especially loud unknown faces. surrounding students turned his heads at the ruckus, it had been the vice-principal, sir william, who was showing them around it seemed to no avail because barely anyone was paying attention. george didn't know how he'd ever manage to deal with such students, it was simple to listen when one was speaking. embarrassing, really, for young adults to behave like this when a higher-up was addressing them.
he met eyes with a few of the students, he made sure to avert his eyes as quickly as possible, he didn't have time for this and god knows what could happen if he had been late to the one class he was possibly failing. it was elective, not too difficult but his poor grades had been a result of the way miss amelia graded. the quizzes and tests were simple, common sense really, cooking supplies to recipes. but those didn't compare to the actual course, every month or so, they had to submit their cooking experiences with photos and videos. it sounded easy, just take a few photos doing some simple food, or so he thought before picking the course. it was specific courses and there was hardly a rubric to go by, no balance, no guideline, he wanted it. additionally, it was not exactly ideal considering how george had to study for his other classes while balancing his hours-worth of ballet practice in and outside of the class.
with an eye-roll, he pushed open the door to be met with a whiff of sweet caramel and freshly-cut apples filling the room. they had been on the unit of various flavors and the science behind the components of them, not too difficult but god knows what awaits miss amelia and her creative projects. once during spring, they had to build a sculpture out of chocolate to which george and his partner failed miserably because apparently, an animal between the lines of a dog to a horse didn't compare to the statues of aphrodite, zeus, and other gods. they did end up coming to the conclusion that the very theme was surrounding mythology, so it was safe to say george and his partner didn't listen. miss amelia was heavily disappointed at the other guy while george got some sort of free pass because "oh you ballet dancers, always so busy, it must've stressed you out darling. make sure to practice less and cook some more to catch up george!!" george gave out a weak smile while his partner looked like he wanted to choke him.
there weren't any assigned seats really, george usually sat in the middle roll or front due to his terrible vision. luckily, he switched to contacts before university, so it didn't matter that he was a little further back today. "class, today we shall-" a knock. miss amelia had soft brown curls, oval-shaped eyes, and thin eyebrows. she was strict but was always lenient towards the ballet dancers because rumor has it that she was once a ballerina during high school but quit due to a major injury, now she simply finds love in floral dresses and baking. she dried off excess water on her apron before opening the door to be met with sir william's striking blue eyes. george found him a bit off-putting but he was never unnecessarily rude so he was probably just acting professional. miss amelia and sir william greeted each other quickly before a group of people entered the room. they were tall and kept jabbing at one another, which was a dead giveaway that they were probably the same people who were making noise at the hallways earlier.
"so, as some of you may have heard, we do have a sports department now. what you may not know though is that the students have already been preparing their dorms and attendance as of today. these are the students who will be joining you miss amelia." a sound of small claps surrounded the room, george looked around slowly, some students seemed interested while others didn't seem to care at all. george was the latter. "quiet down kids, introductions will have to come tomorrow, for now, find some seats so i can start this lesson!" the students dispersed into the seats in a slow-motion, most headed for the back. the university had provided the cooking class with a set of long, black marbled surfaces and sets of seats that were attached to the floor. it was arranged like sets of stairs heading downward like a waterfall of students staring down at the teacher; miss amelia in this case.
there were cooking materials and sinks and stoves located in another room down the hall near the far right-wing of the university. it was a smaller room but it was open to the cooking class in case certain students needed immediate access to a kitchen. the regular dorms and apartments surrounding the area usually had a workable kitchen for most of miss amelia's course but the one at the university was better for larger projects. george prayed for no one to seat next to him, in a spur of luck, nobody did. or so he thought, the continuous joking pairs were shoving around one another and one's back pretty much slammed into george's face. the entire class turned around, miss amelia looked up from her attendance sheet to see a blond boy with soft freckles decorating his face on the floor, rubbing his head while his friends were letting out giggles. george held his head, squinting his eyes until he saw spots of white, he grabbed his materials and shifted over to the seat on the left, closer to the window. george seemed to carry some of the bad luck from high school since it had been autumn which was supposed to have weaker sunlight, however, the sun decided to come back out from the clouds before.
"dude, i'm so sorry for th-" he stopped mid-sentence and stared. "students, calm down, stop making a ruckus. i won't tolerate any more jokes like this, just seat down. i'm dying to get to class before the bell." and with that, she continued on with her lesson. the students quietly ignored the situation and begun taking notes. the guy's friends gestured for him to seat with them further back but he ignored them. he sat in george's original seat, "what an arse." george mumbled. normally, he would've let it out but didn't this nuisance have anything better to do than cause disruption, have some manners at least. "look, i'm genuinely so sorry. i didn't mean to do that. will you forgive me?" george turned and saw a pair of puppy-dog eyes, he had emerald eyes surrounded with a mist of pale blue. he had messy, not exactly curled but maybe a bit wavy dirty blonde hair. some strands fell onto his nose bridge where a faint scar laid. the freckles were like constellations as if there were individual stars that heavens bestowed upon him and him perfectly. "by the way, i'm clay, and you?"