The Ultra Violets by Sophie Bell

Author:Sophie Bell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-02-04T05:00:00+00:00

One got a skirt covered with grease stains, like she’d showered with a slice of pizza instead of soap. The other one Iris made over with the design of a dented minivan. Because Iris knew the prince would only ever drive one of those sports cars with flames painted on the sides.

Then Iris scattered the scarf that the stepsisters had been fighting over with a pattern of crawling spiders. When they saw the creepy-crawlies, the stepsister ballerinas screamed like opera sopranos, blowing out the lightbulbs all the way up in the starburst chandeliers, and flung the scarf into the orchestra pit. It landed on the conductor’s baton. As he waved his arm out to lead the musicians, they saw all the spiders swinging from the stick and they started to scream, too. In harmony. Cymbals clanged and sousaphones squawked; oboes moaned “Oh no!” and French horns swore “Sacré bleu!” One courageous cellist leaped to his feet to sword-fight the spider-baton using his bow.

With confusing costumes and no music, the dancers didn’t know what to do with themselves. They came to a halt on the stage, standing around like they were waiting for a bus, not performing a ballet. The audience began to murmur that this was the most avant-garde spectacle they had ever seen. The dancers had switched roles, and now they weren’t even dancing!

But someone was about to dance.

To dance her sass off.

Someone in the front row of the balcony who had been fidgeting in her seat since the start of the ballet.

Scarlet leaped to her feet. Jumped on top of the balcony railing like it was a balance beam. And sprung over the orchestra seats to land in the center of the stage. She looked out at the shocked audience. It was so quiet, you could have heard a flower bloom. To silence, she started to perform Cinderella’s solo from Act Two, even though the company had barely begun Act One.

“Just dance,” Scarlet panted as she pranced. “Gonna be okay, da-da-doo-doo, just dance . . .”

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