The Complete 3-Book Bundle: Love You, Hate You / I Forgot to Tell You / You're So Sweet by Charis Marsh

Author:Charis Marsh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2014-02-12T05:00:00+00:00

Taylor bobbed up and down in the wings, both nervous and excited. She could hear the students in the audience, closer than a regular theatre and louder. She’d found that she had to do her solo with bare feet instead of pointe shoes because the floor of the stage was not made for pointe work, to say the least. It was so slippery that Taylor had almost put rosin on her bare feet before deciding not to experiment. She could hear the principal, Mr. Grant, talking at great length about how McKinley Secondary School was a much better school than any other school in Vancouver, and how Super Achievers was one of the reasons why McKinley was so much better.

“And the next talented McKinley student I have great pleasure in presenting,” she heard Mr. Grant say; “is a grade nine in intensive dance training at the Vancouver International Ballet academy. Taylor Audley, performing her contemporary piece ‘All I Ever Wanted.’ Let’s hear a round of applause for Taylor, everyone.”

Taylor heard her music began to play, and winced. She was supposed to start on. Her CD had been labelled with ‘Starts on.’ Why were they doing this to her? “Starts on” meant that they were supposed to start the music once she was on the stage and ready, not still waiting in the wings. Had they even bothered to look at the CD?

“Just a moment everybody,” she could hear Mr. Grant say into the microphone as the music turned off.

A teacher came up to Taylor, and she quickly explained what was wrong.

“Let’s try again, everybody. Taylor Audley.”

Taylor took a breath, and then walked on, slowly, confidently, trying to take her time. She’d told everyone that she’d gotten a contemporary teacher outside of the academy to do her solo, but in truth Julian had choreographed it. She’d promised him that she’d do his choreography if she liked it, and she really liked this solo. He’d originally choreographed it for himself, but it worked well as a girl’s solo, too. Taylor looked out into the audience and saw Julian sitting with Tristan and Alexandra in the second row. Julian was sitting forward, twisting his hands nervously on his lap like somehow it was him about to go on stage, not Taylor. Which in a way was true, but only Julian and Taylor knew that. She met his eyes, trying to tell him that it was all good. The music began to play, and Taylor forgot about Julian, about herself, about not messing up, and began to dance.

It was odd dancing on this stage. Taylor felt almost like she was dancing in the studio, everyone was so close. The lights were blinding, though; she didn’t know what the tech club thought they were doing. As she chained in diagonal, she noticed that there was a spotlight following her. She stepped into a penche, kicked herself into a handstand, rolled out into a dramatic huddle of pain, flicked up in a sudden motion, and ran into one of the highest jetés she had ever done on stage.

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