Читать книгу Ballet School Confidential: The Complete 3-Book Bundle - Charis Marsh - Страница 11

Kaitlyn Wardle

Really happy to be having RAD class again tomorrow!!

Kaitlyn tucked her essay into her bag, the mark facing in so no one could see it.

“Bus pass?” the driver asked, stopping her. She blushed, got it out, and made her way to the back of the bus. No one else from the academy was on the bus. Weird, she thought. I didn’t think I was catching the later bus. Kaitlyn looked out the window and saw Michael and Chloe come flying down the street to the bus. The driver opened the doors again and waited for them.

“Where’s everybody else?” Kaitlyn asked when they’d sat down next to her. “Are we catching a different bus?”

“No, they all got a ride with Anna,” Chloe said as she unpacked her lunch.

“Her mom picked her up from school today,” Michael elaborated. “I guess they just didn’t have enough seats for you. Yum, can I have one?” he asked Chloe as she got out her baby carrots. She held the bag out to him. “Aren’t you eating any lunch, Kaitlyn?”

“I’m not hungry,” Kaitlyn said, turning and looking out the window.

“Are you sure?” asked Chloe and held out her bag of carrots. “You can have some of these if you want.”

“We’re just concerned about you,” Michael added.

“I’m fine,” Kaitlyn answered sharply, sending them a look that was scary enough to shut them up. “We have RAD class today right?”

“Yeah, we’ve got Mrs. Mallard,” Michael answered. “You’ve had her before, right?”

“Yeah. She’s coached me on all of my exams. I think she’s going to put me through my Solo Seal this year. “

“Wow, you’re doing that really young,” said Michael. “Even Leonie didn’t do it when she was that young.”

“I know,” Kaitlyn said with a smug little giggle. She pulled out a Ziploc bag of trail mix.

“Oh, so you are eating lunch,” Chloe said with an exaggerated tone of relief. Kaitlyn glared at her.

Kaitlyn got off the bus and moved quickly toward the academy, putting enough distance between herself and Michael and Chloe that no one could accuse her of being with them.

Everyone was sitting in the hallway eating and stretching. Tristan was munching on a sandwich, chewing exaggeratedly, facing one of the security cameras. “Look at me! I’m eating bread!” he told the camera, pointing at the sandwich in his hands and opening his mouth wide. “I think I might have a Coke next!” Alexandra, Delilah, Grace, and Jessica giggled at him. They kept their lunches out of sight of the security camera, though.

“Where’s Angela?” Jessica asked.

“I dunno,” Delilah said and shrugged.

“Who cares?” Anna asked, laughing. “I wish she’d just go away and never come back!”

“She looks like a horse, but ugly and fat!” Alexandra chimed in.

“No, she looks more like a groundhog,” Grace said.

“I think she’s half and half,” Tristan said, turning his attention away from the camera. “The size of a horse, and the brain and body type of a wart hog.”

“Nice,” Anna said, laughing. Kaitlyn nervously walked past them, trying not to attract their attention. But she couldn’t escape Anna’s notice. “Oh, look who finally got here.”

“Yep,” said Kaitlyn, giving her a sweet smile. She went to get changed, quickly, before they could say anything else.

When she came upstairs again, everyone was still sitting in the same place. There was no free floor space, but there was a free chair so she took it. Keiko came upstairs just as Kaitlyn sat down. She rose out of her chair, hoping to go sit with Keiko, but she went to sit on the stairs with a bunch of the lower level students. Kaitlyn sat down again then immediately shot to her feet with a shriek. Delilah had slipped her pasta onto the seat, and Kaitlyn had sat right on it.

“Why did you do that?” Everybody started to laugh as they got a good view of Kaitlyn’s sauce-covered butt.

“Oh, my God, you like just ruined my lunch! Now what am I supposed to eat?” Delilah feigned outrage.

“Yeah, you should totally buy her a new lunch,” Tristan piped up, trying not to snigger. “That was really mean of you to ruin her lunch.”

Kaitlyn burst into tears and ran downstairs, and a fresh wave of smothered laughter followed her.

“What’s her problem?” Alexandra said.

“So sensitive,” Grace said, shaking her head sorrowfully.

Fortunately Kaitlyn had an extra uniform bodysuit and tights in her locker She couldn’t stop crying as she changed into them. What right does Delilah have to make fun of me? She tried to calm down and stop the tears. Only the mental image of what her face must look like enabled her to stop bawling, and she slowly started to breathe normally. She felt her face to try and judge exactly how puffy it had gotten. Taking deep breaths, she gathered her courage to leave the bathroom stall and checked the crack between the door and the wall. Luckily no one was there. She went to the mirror and attempted to make her face look normal with liberal amounts of cold water and toilet paper. As soon as she felt she looked as good as she was going to be able to look, she forced herself to walk out.

The RAD Advanced II class was the highest level offered as a group class, so it was always packed. Kaitlyn got upstairs just as everyone was filing into the studio. She didn’t feel up for the usual race and slide for a good spot at the barre, so she resigned herself to a spot at the back.

“Oh, Kaitlyn!” trilled Mrs. Mallard as she turned and saw her. “It’s always such a pleasure to have you in class, my dear. Are you excited to learn the Solo Seal work?” She lowered her voice to a stage whisper. “I think you’ll really enjoy it. It’s quite different from the previous syllabus work, much more focused on musicality and performance. Of course, the technical work is quite challenging, but I’m quite confident that you will be more than capable in that area. I was discussing it with Mrs. Demidovski just the other day, and we both agreed that you were quite up to the challenge.”

“Yes, I’m really excited,” Kaitlyn said, trying to sound enthusiastic while realizing that everyone else in the room was completely silent and focused on them.

“You come right up to the front, dear,” Mrs. Mallard said, grabbing her by the arm and taking her to the centre barre. She had her stand her in front of Anna and Grace and across from Alexandra and Tristan. Kaitlyn gulped.

“Now class, Kaitlyn’s already done this work and taken her exam. She’s done quite well, in fact.” She squeezed Kaitlyn’s arm fondly. “So, since the rest of you haven’t learned the Advanced II syllabus yet, I’ll have Kaitlyn demonstrate each exercise once, and then the rest of you will give it a go. Any questions? No? All right then, why don’t we begin. Pliés please, Kaitlyn dear.”

The rest of the class watched with disgust as Kaitlyn performed the pliés. RAD required highly exaggerated artistry in the higher levels, but halfway through the exercise Kaitlyn turned her head to do a port de bras and caught a glimpse of the others’ expressions, which ranged from amusement to utter disgust (the last one belonging to Anna). She immediately blanked out her face, closed her mouth tightly, and managed to finish the exercise without making a choreographic mistake. As the last notes from the piano died away, Taylor held up her hand to stifle her laugh.

“Well, that was just lovely, wasn’t it?” Mrs. Mallard demanded of the class. “Kaitlyn, that was technically gorgeous, and I loved your grasp of the artistry of the exercise in the beginning. But halfway through, you lost it a bit. I want you to work on keeping that emotional involvement all the way through. Don’t get too focused on the technical aspects of the exercise.” Kaitlyn nodded, keeping her eyes down.

“All right, now why don’t all of you give it a try? Kaitlyn, dear, do it again will you, so they have someone to copy? Thank you, dear.”

After they finished the barre exercises, Mrs. Mallard turned to Tristan, Kageki, and Jonathon, and, with a small angry nod, said, “Well, I see you haven’t remembered a thing I tried to teach you last year. You obviously don’t learn anything correctly in your other classes, and you don’t seem to care. If you don’t want a career, by all means, ignore me. You can leave and just take Mr. Yu’s class. I’m sure he’ll get you prepared to join a company. You know, Tristan,” she walked over to him and gave him a tight smile. “You were actually improving last year. I had hopes that you were actually maturing. Evidently not.

“You know Andrew Lu,” she said, putting her finger on her chin and reminiscing. “Now Andrew Lu, he always paid such attention to detail. I remember he would even take extra RAD classes that weren’t even his level, just so he could make sure he had the basics completely down, especially when he was preparing for the Solo Seal. And you know, he got his Solo Seal Award. All that hard work, it paid off. Now he’s dancing with the Royal Ballet in England. And mark my words, it’s not the tricks and the show off steps that got him there, it’s that clean training, that attention to detail.”

George snorted from behind the piano. “I remember when Andy was here. He always came late, and you were always yelling at him for practising his pirouettes when he was supposed to be working on some adage exercise or something.”

“George!” Mrs. Mallard interrupted. “I am trying to provide them with a positive role model! There are enough negative role models in this school without adding Andrew into the mix. And he did receive his Solo Seal, anyway. Let’s continue.”

After they’d finished the second adage, she walked up to Alexandra. The rest of the class anxiously moved out of her sightlines. “Alexandra, I am absolutely fed up.” Alexandra swallowed hard and leaned back as far as she could. “Every year I tell you, you have potential. But if you are going to persist in slopping about and doing everything your own way, then I simply cannot help you. Every time, every time, I tell you that your legs are simply too high. Your hips are all over the place. You have no control, and it’s just ugly. That’s all there is to it. Now, just look at Grace, or Keiko. They both keep their legs far lower than you, but it’s clean! And that’s what matters, Alexandra. Not height.”

Alexandra stood, chin firmly up and lips pressed tightly together. Mrs. Mallard went on, as if they could read her mind, “And you know what? That is why you got bronze.” Alexandra looked up, hopeful that Mrs. Mallard might actually say something nice. “Yes. You need technique, good, solid technique and placement to get gold. With only tricks and high extensions, bronze is all you’ll get. Leonie had clean technique, that’s why she got gold. Alexandra, you just have to use your brain and dance with more physicality.”

Mrs. Mallard finally turned around, and Alexandra glared at her back with as much venom as she could muster. “All right, let’s move on to centre practice. Kaitlyn, dear, please show the class the first port de bras?”

As usual, Mrs. Mallard let them out 15 minutes late. They all skidded into the rehearsal room. Mr. Demidovski was at the front of the room giving a speech, but he paused as they came in to stare at them. “So glad you could join us,” Mr. Moretti, who was standing next to Mr. Demidovski, said sarcastically. Mr. Demidovski’s face creased in annoyance.

“Sorry, Mrs. Mallard kept us late. RAD class,” Tristan explained.

“Next time, don’t be late,” Mr. Demidovski said. “The rehearsal, the preparation, it is very important.” He gestured his arms towards them all grandly and said, “The Vancouver International Ballet Academy … we are all friends. We all love each other. We are all a happy family.”

At this Kageki put his arm around Tristan. “My brother!”

Tristan laughed and put his arm around Julian. “Yeah, we all heart each other.”

Julian pulled away from Tristan and grabbed his water bottle.

“Yes, we all love each other,” Mr. Demidovski continued. “Mr. Demidovski, Mrs. Demidovski, we both give you the love, the passion. That is why we rent the Vancouver Centre for you, to give you the chance to perform on this world-class stage. We spend much money to give you this chance, this opportunity.

“In return, we expect, we want, you to give us your heart. You must do your best, eh? Mr. Demidovski give you 100 percent, you must give me 210 percent! It must be this way. Many people come to this performance, many rich people, many ballet people. Mr. Demidovski wants to give them a good show, eh? If no good feet, nice line, Mr. Demidovski is embarrassed. You must be thin, long line. There’s only a week until the show, must be perfect. Mr. Demidovski give you the beautiful costumes, you must make them look good. Take care of the physical, eh? Lots of vegetable, some yogurt. No sugar, no cake … after the show Mr. Demidovski doesn’t care what you do, but before the show you must take care. Also the technique, must work in the class. Apple must look like apple, orange must look like orange, no look like potato, no look like …” Mr. Demidovski paused, momentarily at loss for words. “… melon. When the ballet people come, they must have a good show! They must want to see you dance more. In the intermission, we do not want the audience to go get wine, we want them to stay, talk, wonder what will happen next. You must be good so they forget about the wine!”

“Is he saying that we will be responsible for turning the audience into alcoholics if we are hideous?” Alexandra whispered to Grace.

“Yep, pretty much. The sight of fat is proven to turn people into raging alcoholics!”

“So … anorexics are the same as AA?”

Kaitlyn giggled before she could stop herself. She didn’t want them to know that she’d been listening. Grace and Alexandra immediately bent their heads together and whispered something inaudible, then giggled loudly. Kaitlyn blushed; they were obviously talking about her.

“Mr. Demidovski wants to be proud when he shows everyone his academy. If the show is no good, they will say that the academy is no good, and Mr. Demidovski will be ashamed. I will dig myself a grave.” Mr. Demidovski looked around at them to make sure that they understood the gravity of this statement. “Mr. Demidovski will dig himself a grave because he is so ashamed.

“Must work!” he said in a vague attempt to summarize his speech. “Anyone else have anything to say?” he asked the other teachers. “Questions?” he asked the students.

“‘Trepak’ will rehearse first, and then ‘Mirliton,’” Mr. Moretti announced. “The rest of you may go.” Kaitlyn got up, glad not to be rehearsing for once. She walked into the hall and sat down to pull off her pointe shoes.

“I just don’t know what to do after dinner,” one of the younger students was complaining nearby. “Like, I’m fine all day, and then wham, I start eating. I’m trying not to eat anything after five o’clock, but then I keep going to get stuff.”

“Like what?” one of the other girls asked.

“Well, we have this fruit bowl in the living room….” There was a collective groan of understanding.

“Did you know that a banana has just as many carbs as a cup of rice?”

“What? You’re kidding, right? Great. It’s just so hard to stay up and study without something to munch on.”

“What I do is, I make some ice. And then I break it up, so it’s all in little chips. It actually works. You’re munching on something, but there aren’t any calories.”

“That’s an awesome idea! I need something to occupy me. Days off are the worst, all I seem to do is eat.”

“Do you know what’s great for days off? A lettuce smoothie. You can throw in ice and celery too, but make it mostly lettuce. It’s great, it really fills you up.”

“Uh, no offence, but that sounds kinda gross.”

“Actually, I think I want to try it. Do you want to make one with me when you come over on Sunday?”

Kaitlyn got up and left. She wondered if the whole ice chips thing would actually work. It was worth a try, anyway. She wrapped her hands around her waist as she walked downstairs, trying to feel how far apart her fingertips were from joining in the back.

Downstairs, Jessica was taking orders for the next Yumiko shipment. Kaitlyn knelt down to gaze at the brochure. The sample fabrics were so pretty. Taylor was sitting cross-legged, hogging the signup sheet and the brochures. “I like the Alex one,” she was telling Keiko. “I’m not sure about the colours, yet, though.”

“Wow, how many bodysuits are you ordering?” Kaitlyn asked as she looked at the paper with everyone’s orders on it.

“Um … five so far,” Taylor said, giggling. “My mom said no more than five, but they are so pretty!”

“They do look gorgeous,” Angela said with a sigh. “But I really can’t afford any right now.” Everyone except Jessica ignored her.

“Aren’t your parents kind of rich?” Jessica asked.

“Well, sort of, But they don’t approve of spending money on bodysuits when we can only wear them for rehearsals.”

Kaitlyn looked wistfully at the colours. She was pretty sure that her mom was going to get her one for Christmas, but she really wished she had it to wear right now. The colours were so bright and rich compared to the academy uniforms.

She wandered off to get changed, choosing not to torture herself over bodysuits she’d have to wait for. She went to the mirror and began undoing her bun, the long coil making one big curl as she took out the pins. She debated whether to risk taking the ponytail out or not. She was getting a serious headache. She pulled out the elastics, but her hair stayed in position thanks to the gel. Kaitlyn sighed and wetted her brush, starting to attack her hair in an attempt to make it look normal.

“I hate hair bumps,” Chloe said, stacking her stuff on the other side of the sink.

Kaitlyn winced at her voice. She couldn’t handle bright, happy people at the moment, especially ones that were half her size.

“Geez, stop taking up the entire counter!” Anna said in an annoyed tone as she came up behind them.

“Oh, sorry!” Chloe blushed as she moved her things over.

“Oh, that’s okay, I didn’t know it was your stuff. You can keep it there if you want.”

Kaitlyn’s stomach clenched, and she hurried to gather up her stuff. As she left the changing room, she paused to look at a photograph of Leonie Camden. My arabesque is way higher, Kaitlyn thought, pain flitting across her features. But Leonie is skinnier and so pretty with that soft little face. She shook her head violently in an attempt to clear it. She quickly looked around to see if anybody had been watching her. Relieved, she saw only general program parents and their kids. Before she made it to the door, a little girl came up to her and showed off her runs on demi-pointe.