The next night I walk into the kitchen carefully. I had spent all day in my room and I dared to be brave by venturing out into the wild of my house. I also had some certain questions that needed to be answered and I was weary about if my father could answer them. I didn't want to accuse him. That wouldn't be fair, plus, it would only cause problems in the long run. Firstly, i peer into the room.
There sat my father, sitting at the kitchen island, scooping up his cereal before shoving it in his possibly loud mouth. I walk in and make my way to the cereal sitting out.
"Hey, sweetie. Did you have a good day?" He asked curiously. My eyes narrow in on him as he looks over some form for work.
"Possibly." I say, drawling out my answer. My dad chuckles in response.
"Well what does that mean?" He asks all amused. I silently pour my cereal and milk and I glower at him.
"It depends on how you answer my question." I finally respond. He puts down his paper and gives me an expectant look. When I don't ask, he broadens the look.
"Well, what's your question?" He asks. I place my bowl in front of me as I take a seat next to him.
"Did you tell Paige I was going to be at the studio yesterday?" I ask, gaging for his reaction. His skin gets a little paler and the stiffness in his shoulders is noticeable.
"Maybe." Be answers curtly after a few minutes.
"Dad." I groan. He immediately moves his hands up in surrender.
"Look, look. I'm sorry, ok? I knew you had been getting back into dancing and I didn't think it would hurt to contact her and get your lessons back up." He explained, getting out of his chair and cleaning up after himself.
"But there's a reason I didn't want to contact her yet." I try and explain but he doesn't seem to be understanding me.
"Oh! I think she's there now." Dad said, his voice showing genuine surprise as he looked down at his watch.
"You scheduled a lesson without telling me?!" I shout, leaving my cereal untouched and running to my room.
"Sorry, hunny!" I hear my dads faint yell.
I hurry, trying to get all my dance stuff on before I go so I don't have to stop in the lockeroom. About half way through getting ready, someone knocks on my door. I quickly make myself decent.
"Come in." I say, hoping it wasn't someone I didn't want to see. But to my luck, it was Miranda!
"Hey, uh... what are you doing?" Miranda asks as she sees me struggling to get everything situated.
"Dad... scheduled a class... I didn't know..! Gotta hurry." I respond between my breaths. I knew how to control my breathing when I tried. I was in too big a hurry to rush right now. Miranda laughed at me lightly.
"Oh, ok. Well, I was just wondering if you wanted to go to the club with me and my friends, but it seems your busy." She explained distractedly as she watched me move around and about. My head jerks up to meet her amused gaze.
"Oh, really? Well, I can try and come," I say, grabbing my bag and leading her to the door as we both had to go. "Text me the address and maybe I can meet you there." I offer. Miranda smiles and nods as we start to separate, our cars being in different spots.
"Ok, cool. Hopefully we'll see you there." Miranda nods once again before getting in her car and driving off. I barley think of it before I get in my dads car and drive over to the studio.
Once there, I rush right into the studio. I open the door, nod my head to Madame and throw my bag against the wall. Slightly out of breath, I take first position and wait in the middle of the room for her instruction.
"And why were you late?" Madame asked, sounding eerily calm.
"I wasn't aware we had a class today, Madame." I respond. She merely sighs. She stands from her seat and drags it over in front of me. She then sits down. I stay in first position. Eventually, she looks up at me in confusion.
"Well, go on, get a chair," She orders as if I should've known. I comply regardless. I take a chair and I sit in front of her. We wait silently for a few moments. "... Dance, is an important art. It takes much dedication and-"
"I know all this, Madame." I try and reason with her. I knew the suddenly leave was going to show up eventually.
"Don't, Interrupt me," She says in a shrill voice. I wince and shut my mouth immediately. She clears her throat and continues. "It takes dedication and repetition. Loosing weeks of practice has obviously set you back much more than I feared. You're turns we're absolutely dreadful." She insults me, her face twisting in distaste. I clench my fists tightly, sucking in a deep breath.
"I deserve to have a life outside of dance, Madame." I say in response. Her eyes harden as she looks at me.
"You May have a life when you are not dancing. You may not have a life when you should be dancing! You are working to build a career, not a hobby, Madelaine." Madame scolds.
"I don't know if I even want to make ballet my career." I say, my voice rising in volume. Madame instantly looks appalled and offended.
"I have not spent eight years of my life working tirelessly to build you up into a fine ballerina, all for you to throw it away!" She shouts.
"If this is what being a ballerina is like, I don't want to be one! I'm 16, Madame. I need a life! I finally have friends and I want to spend time with them! Ballet can not take up my entire day, every day. I need breaks. I took a well-deserved break- and my turns were perfectly fine!" I then burst out, words spewing from my mouth that I couldn't even stop. I throw my chair back as I sit up. I move to pick up my bag before looking back at her. I'm not ashamed to admit that I regret saying all I said to her. But it couldn't be taken back. "I know you have no idea what it means to have people in your life who care about you, but I'm not going to loose mine because you're bitter about how your life turned out!" I shout at her.
I start making my way to the door. I hear the quickened thud of her cane as she walked to catch up to me.
"Now you wait just own minute!" She shrieks. Once she's close enough, I gracefully spin out and kick her cane from out of her hand. I land, facing her, watching as she stumbles for a moment before gaining some balance. I start walking backwards towards the door.
"I'm not gonna be here forever." I say simply before turning around and walking out the door. I can hear her shouts through the hall but I ignore them.
I shake my head, trying to clear all running thoughts out. I refuse to hole myself up like her and become her spinster side-kick... I just couldn't let myself end up like her. I get into the car and knock my head back against the seat. I didn't know what to do, or where I needed to go.
Suddenly getting the idea, I take my phone out of my pocket and check the address for the club. Putting it into the GPS, I start making my way, reminding myself to change into the clothes I brought just in case I could've made it.
As I get there and park, I text Miranda that I'm outside. Within a few minutes she shows up at the door, whispering in the bodyguards ear. The guy nods and she smiles back at him. She leaves his side and heads over to me.
"Hey, Madi!" Miranda cheers, bringing me into a a hug.
"Hey, Miranda! Are you a little drunk already?" I ask curiously, not thinking she could be so quick. She takes a step back from me with a giggle.
"Maybe a little," She giggles again. "Come on, lets go do some shots!" She shouts in the street. I laugh and follow her into the club, the bodyguard letting me in no problem. Miranda leads me to the bar where all her friends from before are waiting. "Guys, this is Madi, we met her before remember?" Miranda slurs. All the girls wave and say hello. Well, almost.
"Yeah, we remember." That Trinity girl says snootily.
"Shots!" Miranda shouts. All the girls cheer.
After a few shots, I feel myself getting a little tipsy. During the time of drinking, guys had been coming by and asking for dances with some of Miranda's friends. Only some of us were left. To my surprise, a guy came up to me.
"Want to dance?" He tried to yell over the music. I furrowed my brows and tried to look closer at his lips.
"What?" I also tried to shout. This time, instead of shouting, the man leant down and talked in my ear.
"Would you like to dance?" He asks calmly. I move my head a bit back and look at him. I don't look at him for long before I agree. The guy leads me to the floor and we end up dancing right next to Miranda. She looks over and sends me a wink before she starts pointing and showing me the guy she found.
That night, I let myself forget everything. I didn't have a single troubling thought. Whether it was the guys I danced with, the drinks I drank, or just being able to freely dance. I didn't have any worries.