I actually loved dancing, I really enjoyed it. It was so much fun having the large open space to myself and being able to dance however I wished without worrying about bumping into others too.
It's been two weeks since Lydia started to teach me. Everyday, even if it was for less than half an hour, she taught me. I filmed, danced and did karate and none of them were a struggle to do. Sure, I could get tired and sometimes one of the things can be challenging, I didn't complain about doing any of them. Life was good at the moment.
'You really do look elegant.' Thomas said, nodding after I showed a group of people how my lyrical dance was going. 'Hardly believable that you hadn't danced properly till recently.'
'Why thank you.' I smiled widely.
'When're gonna start using the ballet shoes?' He asked, tilting his head to the side. He did this automatically when he asked questions.
'After this.' I said excitedly.
'I was gonna ask if you're keen or not, but I guess I don't need to anymore.' He laughed.
'Nope!' I smiled, popping the "p". But then, I realised that I hadn't seen Lydia at all today.
Then Arthur came up to us with a woman walking behind him. She looked like she was around her late fifties or early sixties and had a hard expression on her face.
'Hey Sakura. So Lydia got asked to do a performance with the LA Phil - yeah impressive hey,' he laughed at my expression. 'and, you know, she accepted. And the practise starts today for about a month, but it had a clash in her schedule with your lesson time. And yes, she has to practise every day as well.
'Good news is, Paula here agreed to work with you. She's extremely experienced in the styles that you're learning so I think it'll be a good opportunity for you. You don't mind that, do you?'
'No, of course not.' I smiled, but slightly with nervousness. The expression she had made me slightly uncomfortable.
'That's great.' Arthur smiled. 'I'll leave you two to it then.'
'Thanks Arthur.' I said and he left. Then I looked at Paula with a slight smile then, suddenly, she snapped, 'Well what're you waiting for? Take me to this studio of yours.'
'Oh - I - um - yes - of course.' I didn't not exactly expect this reaction from her. 'This way.'
I caught eyes with Thomas before I left with Paula. He had an eyebrow raised at her and then mouthed the words 'Good luck' to me.
'Thanks.' I mouthed back and turned back around to lead Paula out of the studio, towards the dance studio.
'Apparently you still haven't started using pointe shoes?' Paula said to me coldly as soon as the door of the dance studio was closed.
'No...' I said in a quiet voice. 'But Lydia was going start teaching me today...'
She sighed in a way that suggested she was annoyed, making me nervous even more.
'Well hurry up and stretch. We've got work to do.'
Obeying silently, I began stretching and warmed up, especially my ankles. I had a feeling I wasn't going to like her way of teaching and wanted to prevent any injuries what so ever.
'Put these on.' Paula tossed me a pair of pointe shoes, which were my size.
'Now?'
'When else do you expect?'
Biting my lips and my chest feeling right, I looked inside to see small pads inside each one.
'What're these?'
'Honestly, do you have any knowledge about these?'
'Like I said -'
'Oh whatever. You're probably just going to make excuses.' Paula rolled her eyes at me. At this point, I had this urge to punch her in the face.
But I kept that down as best as I could.
'Those are toe pads.' She said in a bored voice. 'Now put those on.'
Glaring at her back, I hastily put them on my feet.
'Hold on to that bar, get to first position and when I say "up", go up. On your toes yes.' Sh sighed the last words when she saw me open my mouth.
'You expect me to go straight up -'
'Oh don't you give me that attitude! Now do as I say!'
Forcing myself not to roll my eyes at her, I walked (or waddled) to the bar and held on to it with my right hand. As soon as I got into first position, Paula said, 'And up!'
I panicked from the sudden order, and without taking caution I went straight up on my toes, but going too far: both of my ankles bent forward, and I felt and heard both of them crack.
I fell to the ground and clutched both my feet, wincing.
'What was that? Get up! Do it again!'
'My feet -'
'That's nothing! Up! Now!'
Scrambling back up to my feet again but gasping from the pain, I clutched onto the bar with both hands.
'And up!'
I cried out in pain as soon as I went on my toes again; I immediately went back down to my feet. I was about to sit back down because of the pain but Paula stormed up to me and yanked me back up.
'Eight counts! And stop being a wuss! And up!'
Tears welling up in my eyes, I shakily obeyed. Paula then crouched down and, without warning, seized my ankles where it hurt the most and jerked it forwards, saying my feet were not straight enough.
I cried out louder this time and started to sob as I clung onto the bars with dear life as Paula forced my toes to stay on the ground.
After what seemed like a very long eight counts, she suddenly let go of my ankles. The force of landing back down sent up a huge wave of pain up my ankles. 'Argh!' I winced loudly, tears drenching my face.
'Stop crying like a baby!' Paula shrieked, her nostrils flaring.
She continued to force me to go up on my toes, and not just my ankles but my toes were screaming in agony; I felt like that.
After fifteen minutes of hell and pain and agony, Paula almost shoved me to the ground. 'I had enough!'
She turned around and, seizing her bag, stormed out of the studio, leaving me sitting on the floor hopelessly.
Choking and sobbing loudly, I immediately threw off my shoes. I stared at both of my feet with blurred eyes. They were both ridiculously swollen, especially by the ankles, and had turned in a shade of sickening purple.
I slowly touched both my feet with shaking hands, but even the slightest pressure sent pain through my body. I continued to cry on the ground in the middle of the echoing room when I started to hear fast footsteps out in the corridor.
'Sakura? Why did – what happened to you?' I looked up to see Thomas with a panicked expression. Then he saw my ankles. 'Goodness... They're bright purple.'
'I know...' I was too much in pain to be sarcastic. Then Arthur came in, followed by Naomi.
Arthur paused for a split second, staring at my feet. 'Are you okay?' I shook my head honestly, my body shaking and continuing to choke. 'Do you feel sick?' Seeing me nod again, he rushed out of the room.
'It's okay... He probably went to call the ambulance.' Thomas said reassuringly, gently rubbing my back. I nodded.
Surely enough, Arthur came back with four ambulance officers following closely behind him.
'We've got you Sakura, we've got you...' One of them said as they put my right arm around their shoulders and another took my left.
'Does this hurt?' The third officer asked me, lifting my right leg up ever so slightly by the calf. I winced and nodded at the same time. 'Okay...' Then she turned to the last officer. 'Bring the bed down.'
Once the bed thing was on the ground next to me, the officer controlling the bed said to me, 'It's going to hurt a little, but only for a short moment okay?' Then, making sure that the third officer was holding my leg securely, she said, 'One... two... three!'
Even though I was expecting it, I winced at the further pain.
'Lay down, lay down...' The officer to the right of my head said to me gently as they elevated the bed and pushed it towards the exit hurriedly. I silently obeyed, resting my head on the small pillow. Naomi and Thomas followed closely while Arthur quickly ran off to inform the assistant director about the situation.
'We'll take her to Cedars-Sinai.' The officer on my left said, mostly to Naomi and probably Thomas.
Two officers, Naomi and Thomas climbed into the back of the ambulance with me still on the bed while the other two went on at the front.
'Hurry!' Thomas called out and a moment later, Arthur climbed on and we were off towards the hospital.
Tom's POV
When my phone screen flashed to show that Naomi was calling me, I was surprised and confused at the same time: she never called me.
'Hello?' I answered.
'Tom? Are you free at the moment?' She said into her phone desperately. I could hear the sound of sirens in the background.
'Yeah...?' I said, now with a worried tone. 'What happened?'
'She – Sakura – at least fractures her ankles. Both of them.'
It took me a moment for me to take that in. 'Which hospital?'
'Cedars-Sinai.'
'Okay.' I breathed. 'I'll be right there.'
I ended the call and quickly told Pierre, the director of 'From the Rough', about the situation and asked if I could go get out right now. The answer was an immediate yes.
It took me a bit longer than I thought and wished to arrive at Cedars-Sinai. By the time I went to her room, all the operation was finished and she sat there with both of her legs in casts. She stared at her feet in front of her blankly, with Naomi, Thomas and another man sitting on the opposite side of the room from me, by the large windows. They all sat there rather awkwardly.
At first er brown eyes were dark as night and with no emotion what so ever. But when she looked up to meet my eyes, it seemed as though her floodgates to her emotion burst open: letting out a large sob she burst into tears, outstretching both of her arms towards me.
I silently stepped in and embraced her, allowing her to cry into my shoulder as loudly and uncontrollably as she wished.
The last time I saw her cry like this was when Kazunari came in for few hours while filming the Order of the Phoenix.
A/N
Just incase you were all wondering, "When's this going to have a proper climax?" or something like that, I'm planning on writing about ten or so (maybe a bit more less, maybe a bit more, I don't know) more chapters sooo yeah!
But thank you all so so much for continuing to read this story! Much appreciated x