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Kaitlyn Wardle

OMG, so excited, going to the Vancouver International Ballet Academy, top level, on full scholarship!!!

Kaitlyn sighed impatiently, fiddling with the straps on her bag. Today was her first day at the globally renowned Vancouver International Ballet Academy, and her mom was taking forever to park. Cecilia Wardle had insisted on coming in to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Demidovski about “what they could expect in the following year,” but Kaitlyn was dreading walking into the academy with her mother.

“Mom, I’m on full scholarship,” Kaitlyn tried to argue, yet again. “I don’t think they’re going to not cast me. And I’m fourteen! You don’t need to come in.”

“Kaitlyn, last year you were Sugarplum Fairy,” Cecilia’s tone was firm. “Mr. and Mrs. Demidovski promised they would make sure that you were challenged if you came to the academy, and I am going to make sure that that happens.”

“Okay, okay,” Kaitlyn groaned. “I’m just kind of nervous about going to the academy. Everybody is super skinny here.”

“Well, you can be, too, Kaitlyn, if you just worked at it. And don’t forget that nobody here has technique like you, or a resume like yours.” Kaitlyn smiled to herself. She might want to lose ten — no twenty — pounds, but her technique was untouchable. Why, yesterday she had done nine pirouettes on pointe! Anybody who thought they could beat her was depending on “artistry.” She pulled down the visor mirror and adjusted a few pins in her bun. It was a perfect flat circle, and her lucky pink ribbon lay flat against the bun, the bow perfectly centred.

“Kaitlyn, come on,” Cecilia said impatiently as she waited outside the car.

As they walked into the academy, Kaitlyn let herself fall behind her mother. The entrance led directly into a hallway. Kaitlyn and Cecilia paused there, looking around for someone to ask where to go. The whole of one side of the hallway was covered in mirrors. It was more than most people could do not to walk down the hallway staring at their reflections. The mirrors changed every few feet, distorting your reflection with each step, so you were never really sure what you actually looked like.

Gabriel, the office manager, suddenly appeared beside them, giving Kaitlyn a little start. He gestured at her mother, “Come, come, Mr. and Mrs. Demidovski are waiting!”

Kaitlyn liked him. He was a rather large, good-natured man with a tendency to disappear if you were looking for him. He’d sometimes pretend that he didn’t speak English if he didn’t like what you were saying. It rather hard to believe, though, since he was from Vancouver, but he did not seem to think it fair that the rest of the staff at the academy had that option and he did not.

Gabriel ushered Cecilia into the office and shooed Kaitlyn on her way before he closed the door. Kaitlyn shrugged, squared her shoulders, took a deep breath, and continued down the stairs and to the changing rooms. She had been to summers at the academy before, so she knew the way. The fluorescent lighting in the changing rooms hadn’t gotten any less abrasive since the last time she’d been here. Kaitlyn walked into the bathroom. It’s definitely gotten worse in here, she thought. She smiled at the girls doing their hair by the mirror. “So, which bathroom works?”

“Oh my God, it’s Kaitlyn!” Taylor screamed and ran over to hug Kaitlyn enthusiastically.

Kaitlyn laughed, her eyebrows raised. “Taylor, tone down the excitement, hon.”

Taylor hugged her again. “But, Kaitlyn, I’m sooooo happy that you’ve finally come to the academy! We are totally going to have so much fun together! This year is going to be awesome!”

“Uh huh …” drawled Kaitlyn, wanting to give Taylor a set down. At that moment, though, she glanced up and saw Anna staring down at her, her eyebrows raised and a smirk on her face. At five foot eight, Anna was six inches taller than Kaitlyn and a lot skinnier. Kaitlyn turned to Taylor. “Right, this year is going to be so much fun!” she said mockingly and went to change, fuming. Anna is so annoying, Kaitlyn thought. She is good at ballet, but not nearly as good as me, and she’s older! Just because she’s gorgeous and seriously rich, she thinks she can do whatever she likes.

Kaitlyn came out and looked in the mirror. Front, check. Profile, yuck. The academy’s uniforms had been specially ordered, and they’d obviously gotten a good deal: the uniforms continued straight from the back to the butt, creating a pocket of air where there should have been a waist. Kaitlyn sighed just as Taylor came out of the stall.

“You need a hip alignment belt, Kaitlyn, everyone has one. I’d loan you mine, but I’m, like, so tiny! Sorry!” she giggled.

“Okay, Taylor,” Kaitlyn said, rolling her eyes. She went upstairs, finding it difficult to navigate through the bodies sprawled all over them. Some of the Japanese students were huddled at the top of the stairs. Kaitlyn stopped to see what they were doing.

“Ahh, ah, eti!” yelled the Japanese boy in the centre of the group.

One of the Japanese girls told him to “Be quiet, Kageki!” For some reason, this caused them all to start giggling, talking even faster than before. Kaitlyn laughed: they were trying to pluck his eyebrows. She continued to the entrance, where the schedule was. Oh my God! Why are they still here? They are like twenty-one! She thought, looking at the two girls in front of the board.

Sophia was ranting about the schedule, pacing back in forth in front of it, arms flailing dramatically. “They can’t just say, ‘rehearsal nine to nine on Sunday!’ It’s three months before the show. What if we have lives? What if we have plans? Do they think they own us? What is wrong with them?!”

Ella yawned, looking down at her nails with exaggerated interest. They were three shades of pink with blue tips, and silver designs all over them, with rhinestones to complete the effect. “It’s the academy,” she said, yawning again. She looked in the mirror to see what she looked like yawning, then tried it again, this time attempting to do it with pouted lips. “When have they ever been organized? They don’t believe in lives.”

“Excuse me,” Kaitlyn said, trying to see the schedule between the two of them.

“Oh, it’s you,” Sophia said. “When did you come?”

“Why are you staring at me?” Ella asked in her intensely practised otherworldly voice. She held up her hand and looked at Kaitlyn through her fingers.

“I just want to … see … the schedule,” said Kaitlyn, holding her ground.

“God, don’t make such a fuss over it!” Sophia said, moving slightly away. Sophia turned to Ella. “Do you believe some people? Like, what’s her problem? Some people are just so rude!”

“I know,” Ella said with a world-weary sigh, as she floated down the hall after Sophia.

Kaitlyn went into Studio A, chose a spot at the front, and self-consciously sat down to warm up. Kaitlyn was naturally flexible (well, she was double jointed pretty much everywhere), so she felt that she didn’t really have to stretch. She built muscles easily, and kept them. But this created bulky muscles. Instead of stretching, Kaitlyn flopped into the middle splits and covertly looked around the room, watching everyone else as they stretched and talked.

Jessica was standing off to the side, across from Kaitlyn, staring at the mirror. Turning to profile, she took off her warm-up shirt and tried to stick her spine out as far as she could. Straightening up and frowning slightly, she pulled her warm-up pants below her butt, and then looked at profile again. Turning around and peering over her shoulder, she stared at her butt from the back. Next, Jessica took her pants all the way off, and stood first in the skinny mirror, then in the fat mirror, and then one leg in both to compare. She went and stood next to Taylor, who was the skinniest person in the class. Taylor was facing front, so she looked front too, comparing their reflections. She was wider, so she went to the back of the class and put her warm-ups away, sulking. A couple seconds later, Jessica marched back to the front and took a spot at the front of the barre, in front of Mao. She stood there, experimenting with sucking her pelvis and stomach in and out.

Kaitlyn flopped onto her stomach still in the splits, giving her an excuse to hide her laughter. She’d met Jessica at a master class before, but hadn’t gotten a chance to appreciate just how messed she was.

Delilah was sitting on the floor stretching with Tristan, both of them giggling quietly about someone. Mr. Moretti walked in, disturbing Kaitlyn’s observation as he called, “Everyone, the barre, now. Boys, bring the centre barres out.” He frowned, looking around him. “Where is George?”

“Having a smoke!” Delilah called out.

“Coming, coming, no need to make a big fuss,” George said, as he sat down at the piano, shuffling his notes, and taking a quick gulp of his coffee.

“Yes, I suppose it does not matter if the class starts on time … or indeed if we start at all, does it, George?” asked Mr. Moretti, raising his eyebrows.

“Well now, I wouldn’t say that. Why don’t we just get started now?” George refused to rise to the bait.

“Yes, why don’t we do that,” replied Mr. Moretti smoothly. “Everyone, are you cold? Surely not. Take off your pants and sweaters, how do you expect me to see what your hipses are doing with all those clothes on?”

“I cringe every time he says ‘hipses,’” Sophia whispered to Ella.

“Everyone, same pliés as always. Oh, congratulations, De-Li-Lah! How far along?” Mr. Moretti bent down to pat her stomach. Delilah blushed and pulled her stomach in more.

The door opened and Anna slipped in. “Sorry, Mr. Moretti, I was just talking to Mr. Demidovski.”

“Of course, Anna, of course. Take your spot.” said Mr. Moretti, frowning.

“Somebody looks pissed,” giggled Anna as she slipped in between Tristan and Delilah, commanding her, “Delilah, move up.” Delilah did, forcing Mao to work on an angle, and Jessica to work at 45 degree extensions every time she went to the back. The door opened again, and Mrs. Demidovski came in.

“Everyone! Excuse me, Mr. um … yes. Everyone! Meeting after first class, no pointe class today,” she said. “Continue,” she added before walking out of the room.

“Thank you, Mrs. Demidovski,” Mr. Moretti pasted a smile on his face and bowed slightly. “Everyone, next class I expect pointe shoes from the beginning. For me, this must be so. For the other teachers, I do not care what they do. Tendues, please. Mao, can you demonstrate the exercise for the class?”

Mao began doing the exercise while counting aloud, “One, two, three, four, five, shix …”

“Shix? What is shix?” asked Mr. Moretti, while the class giggled. Mao looked up at him fearfully and pointed her foot more. When that didn’t work she turned out her leg more, and began doing tendues with exaggerated roll through. “All right, six,” relented Mr. Moretti.

At three o’clock, George began fidgeting. He stacked his notes twice, pretending to organize them. Finally, he stood up and turned around to look at the clock behind him. He gave an exaggerated start of surprise, and turned back to Mr. Moretti. “Hey man, you know this class ends at three?”

Mr. Moretti turned to stare at him. “If you want to leave, George, I’m not stopping you. Feel free to go if you want.”

George raised his eyebrows, returning his stare. “Uh, no, that’s okay … I’m just saying … it’s three.”

“I believe I say when this class is finished, George. That’s my job. But if you want to leave, I’m not stopping you. We can use a CD player. At a least a CD player does not talk.”

Angela obviously thought this was hilarious. As Mr. Moretti passed by her, she reached out and put her hand on his shoulder, and said, “Good one!” in a stage whisper.

Mr. Moretti froze. Kaitlyn held her breath as Mr. Moretti turned around and glared at Angela. “I am not your friend,” he enunciated slowly. He turned away from her and gave a shudder of revulsion. With obvious effort, he recovered himself and began to lead another exercise to the class. George made himself small behind the piano, doing his best impression of a CD player.

After class, Kaitlyn turned to Taylor. “What’s the meeting about?”

Jonathon must have overheard, because he laughed. He was from Montana and it was his third year. “Oh, it’ll pretty good … um, a bit of ‘this year is going to be different,’ a bit of ‘we do everything for the student’ from Mr. Demidovski, some random shit, and then we clap.”

“Sounds fun….” said Kaitlyn, sarcastically. She looked at him more interestedly as he turned away. Jonathon definitely wasn’t a stellar dancer, but he looked pretty strong.… Yes, she’d try to get a pas with him for competition this year. She stepped up beside him so he looked at her. “So, how do you like it in Canada?” she asked, suddenly friendly. “You look like you could have gotten into some of the big schools like SFB, what made you come here?”

“Oh, I like Canada, so I decided to come to Vancouver,” he said easily, not noticing any flattery. “You’re pretty good yourself,” he added as an afterthought.

“Thanks,” said Kaitlyn smiling. “Dumbass,” she thought to herself. Did he actually think he was as good as her? They all went into Studio A and waited.

Angela turned to Kaitlyn. “Where are you from?” she asked brightly.

“Oh, here. Van-city.” said Kaitlyn, bored.

“Oh. I’m from England and Australia, but I was born here.” said Angela. Kaitlyn showed no signs of asking her to elaborate, but she continued anyway. “My Papa,” at this Kaitlyn raised her eyebrows in disbelief. Papa? Happy at having engaged Kaitlyn’s interest, she thought, Angela gained more enthusiasm for her subject. “My Papa is a diplomat, so we all move around quite a lot. But I just love ballet so much, it is my life.”

I think I’m going to puke, Kaitlyn thought.

“So my Mama and Papa promised I could come here by myself.”

“Oh. You mean you homestay? Most people here do. Which homestay do you stay at?” said Kaitlyn.

“Oh, I don’t homestay! I stay with some family members, but they are not very welcoming …” she said, trying to look pitiful.

“Oh.” said Kaitlyn, not terribly impressed. At that moment the Demidovskis finally came in and Angela shut up, trying to sit up extremely straight and putting a “good student” expression on her face. Kaitlyn looked at her in disbelief.

“Wow, pathetic much,” she whispered to Tristan, who had scooted to sit beside her.

“No kidding,” he said. “As if the Demidovskis would even look at her. Did you see her in class today?”

“No, how was she?” giggled Kaitlyn. “I mean the Mr. Moretti thing was pretty impressive, but I never actually saw her dance.”

“She dances like an obese, deaf person doing hip hop,” whispered Tristan. They quickly pulled apart as Mr. Demidovski entered the studio. Mr. Demidovski walked slowly to the front of the room and stood there until the room was completely silent. “My students,” he began. Mrs. Demidovski started to cough, and Mr. Demidovski turned to glare at her. “Mrs. Demidovski, I am speaking,” he said firmly.

“Sorry,” said Mrs. Demidovski, not looking terribly sorry, as she sat down. “Kageki, bring me water please.”

“My students,” continued Mr. Demidovski. “Welcome. Welcome to my school. Welcome the new students!” Everyone clapped obediently. “We have much of the great dancers from my academy. They are at the Royal Ballet! The top companies in the States! They are in Asia! They dance everywhere! That is because … they receive the very great training at my school. Always, I give to the students, everything is for the students. Mr. Demidovski gives the sweat, he gives the heart! I give you the inspiration. But for the inspiration, you must give me more! I give you 55 percent the inspiration, the love, the feeling. You must give me … 110 percent! The students are from all over the world, we have many of the overseas students, from Japan, Australia, China, England, Brazil, Russia. Everyone clap for the overseas students!”

“Mr. Demidovski! You forget the States,” Mrs. Demidovski interrupted.

“It is my very great wish, my dream, that you all become great dancers. But this is up to you. The teacher cannot do it for you. The teachers at my academy, they sweat, they give you the love, the inspiration, the work, but they cannot do it all for you. You, you must work hard, you must take care of the physical, make straight, strong, the long, thin line. My students, you must respect all of the teachers, be nice to all of them. I want my students to be more down-to-the-earth. Mr. Demidovski knows that you want to do this. Thank you my students, you give me the love, I love you all. Everyone at my academy, we give the love to each other.” Everyone clapped.

“Okay, finish. Everyone, go home!” said Mr. Demidovski.

The younger class went running out of the classroom, glad to be free, except two of them.

“Hello,” said a small boy, about eleven. He was smiling at Kaitlyn.

“Uh, hey,” she answered, raising her eyebrows in surprise. She recognized him from competition, but there was no way she was going to let him know that.

“My name’s Michael. I’ve been going to the academy for a while now,” he spoke with the air of someone offering very confidential information. “This is my friend, Chloe. We’re also partners for competition. We’re going to win, because everyone else sucks in the junior pas category this year. But I just wanted to say we both think that you’re amazing, and my mother wanted me to tell you that she’s very happy that you decided to go to the academy. She thinks you will bring up the standard of the school. And I just wanted to say, if you notice anything in my dancing that you could correct, please tell me.” Michael widened his eyes as far as possible.

“Oh, for sure!” said Kaitlyn. “I’m sure that you and Chloe will do great at comp this year. My mom said you did well last year.”

“Thanks!” said Michael. Chloe smiled at her and then followed Michael out. Kaitlyn smiled to herself. The little ones knew to suck up to her, that was a good sign. Her mom would be pleased to hear about that. As she went downstairs, Kaitlyn smelled the lost and found box. What on earth is in there? The smell was disgusting. She started digging to find out.

“Hey, watcha doing?” asked Delilah.

“Trying to find out what’s stinking up the whole basement!” Kaitlyn replied. Delilah bent down to help.

“Whooee, it does stink in here. Oh, look, a brand new pair of pointe shoes! Keiko, aren’t these yours? They’re sewn folded over instead of burned.… Oh, and these are your warm-ups, Jessica …” As Delilah passed out the discoveries, Kaitlyn reached in and pulled out a bag.

“Omigod!” she screamed. “It’s a bag of rotting Duan’s takeout! Eww! There’s another bag of it and an apple!”

“I think there might actually be a janitor!” Delilah said in mock surprise. “We thought there wasn’t, but somebody must have put those bags in the lost and found.” Kaitlyn grimaced in disgust and hurried to the bathroom to wash her hands. Anna was going through Taylor’s stash of junk food, trying to find something partially healthy, while Taylor stood nervously by watching her.

“How come you have that much junk in your locker?” Kaitlyn asked.

“Well, I, like, always forget to have breakfast and pack a lunch, and I always need to eat before dance, and my mom gets so mad when I eat junk, so I store it in my locker and I eat it here where she can’t find it. Honestly, she is such a control freak, but I won’t tell her where my locker is. I always tell her I need to get home right away to do homework when she asks where it is.” Taylor stood up and walked straight into the wall. “OMG, I just, like, raped the wall! My boobs totally violated that wall!” Taylor said, giggling as she went into the bathroom.

“Wow, somebody’s had too many energy drinks,” Kaitlyn said as she left the changing room to go home, muscles aching.

“Hey, you bussing?” asked a boy from her class who’d been sitting out because of his ankle.

“No, my mom’s coming to pick me up, but I have to wait for a little bit,” replied Kaitlyn. “I’m Kaitlyn, by the way.”

“Julian,” he answered. “I’m new here.”

“Me too,” smiled Kaitlyn. “Are you from Van-city?”

“Um, no, I’m sort of from the Island.” he answered. “But I’ve been living in Toronto for the last year with my stepdad. I just moved back to B.C. to go to the academy. I’m homestaying with Mr. Yu. It’s totally cool, but the food sucks majorly. I’m going to McKinley Secondary for my half-day academics. Where do you go?”

“Oh, I go to McKinley too, but my mom picked me up and drove me here because it was the first day. I’m going to bus tomorrow, though.”

“That’s cool. See you tomorrow then. Konbanwa!” he said, grinning.

“What does that mean?”

“‘Good evening.’ Keiko, my homestay sister, taught me some Japanese last night. I’m the only person there who likes speaking English, and Leon speaks Spanish, Keiko and Mao like Japanese, and the Yus like Mandarin, so it’s kind of lonely at the dinner table,” he said, pouting.

Kaitlyn laughed. “I can totally picture that. I’m glad my parents live here.”

“Oh no!” Julian said in exaggerated horror. “Home-staying totally rocks. I mean, you get to live with a bunch of other teenagers, leave school way early to dance, and the Yus don’t care what you do with your free time as long as you tell them when you don’t need dinner.”

Cecilia was coming down the hall quickly, gesturing at Kaitlyn to get up. “Come on, Kaitlyn, let’s go.”

“Kay, bye then,” laughed Kaitlyn.

“Bye,” Julian smiled. He swung his long body out of the chair and sauntered down the hall, plugging in his iPod earbuds as he went.

As Kaitlyn and Cecilia walked to the car, Kaitlyn felt a little burst of happiness spread through her body. Her first day at the academy was over, and it hadn’t been so bad. Julian seemed sweet, and Taylor would be easy to boss around. Anna was the only one who had got more corrections from Mr. Moretti, and her corrections were mostly of the “how many times do I have to tell you?” variety, so Kaitlyn felt confident that she would pass her soon.

As soon as they got in the car, Cecilia asked, “Well? How was it?”

“Fine. Mr. Moretti likes me, I think, and Taylor’s trying to be friends with me, so I have someone to talk to.”

“Yes, well, Kaitlyn, you can’t rely on just Taylor. You’re going to have to make some friends who are actually good dancers. What about Anna? Does she still not like you?”

Kaitlyn sighed. “Yeah, and she’s totally one of the Demidovskis’ favourites. She was even late for class today because she was talking to Mr. Demidovski. But I’m better than her. It’s just her body type. Oh, and Michael and Chloe came up to me today. Michael said that his mom said that I was going to bring up the standard of the academy, and asked me to give him corrections.“

“Well that’s great, Kaitlyn! If Michael’s mom said that, it means everyone already knows that the Demidovskis like you. I’m very pleased by that. And don’t worry, sweetie. You’re the best they have right now. Anna is nothing, neither is Taylor. Did you happen to hear if Alexandra has made the finals at Genee? ”

“No, Mom, I was a little busy!” Kaitlyn snapped.

“Okay, sweetie, calm down. You just need some sleep. What do you want for dinner? A salad? Do you want to stop by Whole Foods?”

“I’d rather eat some pasta,” Kaitlyn muttered under her breath, then added aloud, “Sure mom, whatever. Just hurry up, please. I need to cover my books and write 500 words on ‘what I want to accomplish in socials this year,’ tonight.”

Kaitlyn went to her room and flopped on the bed. To Tylenol or not to Tylenol, that is the question, she thought grumpily. Coming back to dance after the break between summer intensives and school-year classes was always annoying, but Kaitlyn just hadn’t been able to force herself to take drop-in classes at Harbour during the two week break. She reached over and logged on to her laptop. As she signed on to MSN she grimaced. I’m going to have to change my email before anyone at the academy adds me! Ballerina_babee@live.ca isn’t very original.

She started her homework—“Oh, forget it,” she said out loud. How am I supposed to concentrate on my homework when all I can think about is the academy? She logged on to Facebook. Ten friend requests. Kaitlyn giggled. Obviously she had danced well today.

Taylor’s chat box popped up, “Hey!”

Kaitlyn groaned. She didn’t want to talk to Taylor right now, but it would probably be diplomatic if she pretended they were BFFs for now.

The alarm started blasting, and Kaitlyn quickly turned it off. She had been awake for a couple of minutes anyway. She always did that the first week of school. As she got dressed, she felt happy and excited. She lost a pound yesterday, and she hadn’t even been that hungry. She loved adrenalin: it usually had that affect on her. Maybe I can lose two pounds today! She looked at herself in the mirror. I look pretty good. I might not be able to dress as expensively as Anna, but I do look younger. And really, she thought, isn’t that more important for dance, anyway?

When she got downstairs, Cecilia already had her breakfast ready: a bowl of porridge and fat-free yogurt sitting on the table with her bagged lunch.

“Your dad’s going to drive you today, Kaitlyn,” Cecilia said. “Were you talking to Taylor last night?”

“Yes, why?”

“Oh, I was on your Facebook, and her status said she was looking forward to her birthday party.…”

“Yeah, she invited me to it last night. It’s going to be at a restaurant downtown on the twentieth,” said Kaitlyn, putting some sugar and milk on her porridge.

“We’ll get you a new dress for it then. Have a good day. Remember to get to the front of the class and keep Mr. Moretti correcting you, he’s doing most of the casting for The Nutcracker this year. Mr. Demidovski told me that he’s thinking of you as Clara, but if you impress Mr. Moretti you might get Sugarplum.”

“Okay, okay, Mom! Geez!” Kaitlyn went to find her dad, who was on the computer, finishing up an email. “Dad, we have to go, like, now.”

“All right Kaitlyn, go wait in the car. I’ll be there in a sec,” Jeff Wardle said, still typing. Sighing, Kaitlyn went to wait.

As they drove to McKinley, Jeff asked how her first day at the academy had been.

“It was good.”

“Did you like the teachers?” Jeff asked as he turned onto Granville and nearly ran over a homeless man who was racing across the street.

“Dad!” laughed Kaitlyn. “No one likes ballet teachers, they’re all crazy.”

“Okay, but did you learn anything?”

“Um, the one I had yesterday was okay,” said Kaitlyn, as they pulled into the school parking lot. “He’s Italian, so he doesn’t teach Balanchine. I like that.”

“Okay, have a good day. Good luck!” Jeff said as Kaitlyn left the car.

“Thanks, I’ll need it!”

After school everyone met up at the bus stop to go to the academy.

“Hey, ’sup? How was school?” asked Julian, smiling at Kaitlyn. He seemed rather relieved to see her.

Delilah turned to Kaitlyn; “Don’t you think he would make a good drag queen?” she pointed at Julian. “I mean, he has such awesome hair!”

“I can see,” Kageki said, grinning.

“How do you even know what a drag queen is?” said Anna. “Who taught you that word?”

“Tristan,” Kageki was laughing. “He taught me so many good words I want to use, but he says I can’t use. Like …”

“Shh!” Julian laughed as he covered Kageki’s mouth. Kaitlyn just stood there laughing at Kageki. He looked so funny with his ultra-fashionable haircut. There were different chunks of hair going every which way: some parts perfectly straight, others in corkscrew curls. The affect was accentuated by the fact that his hair was dyed red.

“What are you laughing at?” asked Anna, suddenly turning to Kaitlyn.

“Nothing!” said Kaitlyn, too surprised to think of a good come back. Just at that moment, the bus drove up and they got on.

“Aren’t you kids leaving school a little early?” the bus driver asked, raising his eyebrows.

“No, we’re in the Super Achievers Program,” said Delilah, smiling sweetly up at him.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“It’s for sports and arts. We get to leave at 11:30 every day to go to dance, and we get fine arts and P.E credits for it,” said Anna, looking at him as if he was an idiot.

“Oh, all right,” he said, looking sorry he’d asked. “School’s sure different from when I was there,” he muttered to himself.

“God, isn’t Taylor the most retarded person on the planet?’ Anna said as they sat down, staring straight at Kaitlyn.

Kaitlyn tried to ignore her. FML, she thought.

Everyone had sat down on the back benches, but there were no more seats there, so Kaitlyn either had to stand the whole ride and look like a desperate idiot, or sit in one of the forward-facing benches and turn around the whole ride. She picked sitting in the forward-facing benches.

“Oh, Jonathon told me that Alexandra has made finals, and is … is going? Sorry, coming, back in two days,” said Kageki.

“That’s awesome she made it to finals!” Kaitlyn said. “The Demidovskis must be really happy.”

“Oh, I doubt they know,” laughed Delilah.

“Wouldn’t Alexandra have phoned them?” Kaitlyn asked.

“God, why?” said Delilah. “She doesn’t owe them anything.”

“I think she should have phoned them,” said Angela, who was sitting quietly in the corner. “After all, they let her go to the Genee.”

“Let her?” snorted Anna. “You mean they ‘let’ her go try to win something for them, so they could have more students come to the ‘globally renowned Vancouver International Ballet Academy,’ while they didn’t lift a finger to help her prepare?”

“They did give her some privates…” Angela blushed and sank lower into her seat.

“Yeah, for like a hundred bucks an hour after she begged. And they showed up late for them,” Delilah chimed in, probably hoping to get on Anna’s good side. Anna just looked annoyed. She didn’t need help to squash Angela.

Kaitlyn turned on her iPod and faced front, glad that she didn’t get a seat in the back. Now she had an excuse to zone out. She daydreamed, half-listening to the conversation behind her, mostly to make sure it wasn’t about her, through the sounds of the Thriving Ivory. She could see herself winning gold at Prix de Lausanne and going to the Royal Ballet. Anna would be so jealous and would have to suck up to her, couldn’t get a job anywhere. And she was dating a boy in the company who was perfect, and so strong and nice. In her daydream, she was so happy that she just didn’t need to eat, so she had a perfect body type, she even grew a couple of inches.… Kaitlyn sighed happily and escaped reality for the rest of the ride to the academy.