Читать книгу Ballet School Confidential: The Complete 3-Book Bundle - Charis Marsh - Страница 4

Taylor Audley

I’m Sooooo hapy that my bff Kaitlyn has come to the acadimy, and that my b-day party is soon!!!! Exited for Nut auditshions!

Taylor woke up feeling surprisingly rested. She tried to remember why. I’m sure it’s Wednesday, not Sunday. Am I sick and forgot? I don’t feel sick … She stumbled into the kitchen, head rushing.

“Mom, why am I still here?” she asked, falling into a chair.

“You have Nutcracker auditions today, Taylor. And you were up so late talking to that nice boy from your school. What’s his name…? Brandon,” Charlize Petrenko said. “I wanted to make sure you had enough sleep.”

“Oh,” said Taylor, “I didn’t know that they were today.”

“I told you Taylor,” Charlize sounded annoyed. “Oopsies,” she giggled, spilling milk on the table. “I told you last night. You never remember anything. Do you want a meal replacement shake?” She took one for herself.

“No!” said Taylor, averting her eyes. Meal replacement shakes always made her feel sick in the morning.

“Well, do you want some cereal then? There’s some Rice Krispies.”

“Do we have any Froot Loops, Mom?”

“Yes, but don’t put any sugar on them, Taylor, they have enough sugar as it is,” Charlize sighed. “Oh, and Taylor, your dad wants you to call him. He wants to know if you’re going to stay with him for Christmas.”

“How should I know?” asked Taylor, pouring a cup of cereal in a bowl, carefully adding five heaping tablespoons of white sugar and some milk. She eyed the bowl suspiciously. It still didn’t look very appetizing. She added some spray whipping cream and some red sprinkles which happened to be in her bathrobe.

“Taylor.… Oh, why do I even try?” Charlize groaned, throwing her hands in the air. Taylor ignored her and started eating the sprinkles off the whipping cream.

“Ta-aylor! I can’t believe you just ate the whipping cream off the cereal!”

“The cereal was soggy! I can’t eat it when it’s mushy!”

“Whatever, we have to go now. You have your audition.”

As Charlize drove Taylor to the academy, she kept up a steady stream of advice: “Remember to smile at all the teachers today, and do your hair nicely. Most of what people think when they see people dance is what they look like. Put some lipstick or gloss on, you look washed out. I told you to get to sleep last night!”

“Mom, geez, shut up already! And it’s not all about what I look like you know, it’s about other stuff, too, like technique!” Taylor said angrily. Charlize continued as if she hadn’t heard her.

“Don’t eat the junk you usually do. It just makes you more ADD. You should wear your red bodysuit so you stand out. And please remember that Kaitlyn is not your friend, she wants a good part just as much as you do, and her mother stops at nothing to make sure she gets it.” She pulled out her wallet as they reached a red light. “Here’s twenty-five dollars for the audition and a twenty for dinner and lunch. I really mean it, Taylor, you need to concentrate and try to get a good part. Did you know that Kaitlyn is on full scholarship? If you would just improve a little faster, Taylor, I know you could do it. And you have to, Honey, because you sure aren’t going to make it to university.” Taylor turned the car music on as loud as she could without going deaf, and pretended she couldn’t hear her mother telling her to turn it down.

When her mother finally turned the music down, Taylor said, “I don’t know what is wrong with you, I do work as hard as I can, and Kaitlyn is just a suck-up. I hate her smile. And I’m not going to wear the red bodysuit, it makes my boobs look too big. I left it at home, anyway.”

“Oh, Taylor, you forgot your red bodysuit?”

“No, I am just not going to friggin’ wear it! I’m going to wear my blue one. I like that one.”

“Okay, Taylor. I’m just trying to help!” Charlize said as they pulled up beside the academy.

“Well, stop it!” said Taylor as she got out of the car.

“Wait, I’m coming in! I want to talk to Cecilia.”

“Who?” said Taylor.

“Kaitlyn’s mother.”

“Oh, great,” Taylor grimaced.

“Did you remember to invite Kaitlyn to your birthday party?”

“Yes, Mom!” answered Taylor.

“Oh, and Taylor, do you know if Alexandra going to be back for casting today?”

“I. Don’t. Know,” Taylor stalked off. As she walked into the academy, Keiko came excitedly up to her.

“Tay-chan, guess what?! Alexandra got bronze at Genee!”

“Wow, that’s sweet!” said Taylor excitedly. “Is she back yet?”

“Hai,” said Keiko. “She’s downstairs changing. She’s super skinny right now. Like, bone, bone, bone.”

“Oh, good for her,” said Taylor.

Keiko grimaced. “No, not like good, good skinny, you know? Like, not so good, I don’t think it is nice. But is useful to get bronze! Come downstairs with me to get changed.”

“Okay,” said Taylor smiling. “Are we auditioning with the youth company, or is it just level A and B?” Taylor whispered as they walked down the hallway.

“I think … I think company, too,” Keiko whispered back. “Because they are all here still, and they have no more class today.”

“Who do you think will get Sugarplum?” continued Taylor, as they went downstairs. “Oh, and where were you yesterday?!”

“I was at home. I had jetlag still,” said Keiko. “I think maybe Alexandra, but also maybe Grace? Because the Demidovskis really like Grace. But I like Alexandra is better, I think she is a better dancer. And maybe Anna for something, but I don’t know what.” They got changed, and Taylor drank a ROCKSTAR. Taylor walked into Studio A. F, she thought. Tristan’s taken my favourite spot on barre again.

“Hey, Gaylor, ’sup?” Tristan called across the room. Everyone started giggling.

“You’re almost too gay to function,” she said, trying not to cry.

“Oh, quoting Mean Girls? Were you in that?” he laughed.

Delilah started laughing even harder, “Didn’t you know? She was the stupid blonde one.”

Taylor went to the back barre, forcing herself to giggle, and said, “It’s not nice to make fun of me just ’cause I’m blonde!” Keiko was at the back barre too. “Hey, Keiko. O-genki desuka?”

“Hai, genki desu,” replied Keiko smiling. “Your Japanese is improving!” Keiko frowned as Kaitlyn walked in. “Who is that?”

“Kaitlyn,” whispered Taylor. “She’s really good. She wins, like, everything and she gets hundreds in her exams.”

“Oh.” Keiko didn’t look very happy. “Well, she does not have a good body type.”

“No, I know, “said Taylor, agreeing happily. “Who do we have for warm-up class?”

“Mr. Yu,” answered Angela from behind them.

“Oh, great,” said Keiko to Taylor, ignoring Angela. “I haven’t had a Mr. Yu class for a while.”

Mr. Yu came in and scowled at the class. Standing in the doorway, he slowly scanned the room. His eyes rested on Taylor. “Where is your uniform?”

“S-s-sorry,” stuttered Taylor. “I thought, because, like we don’t have to wear a uniform for the audition, that, maybe … we didn’t have to wear uniform for class.…” Her voice got quieter and quieter until nobody but Keiko could hear the last few words.

“Wazzat you say?” demanded Mr. Yu, cupping his hand around his ear.

Anna called out, “She said that she thought we didn’t have to wear uniform today because we don’t have to for the audition class.”

Mr. Yu gestured at Anna to shut up, saying, “Can she speak English? She doesn’t look Japanese. Does she need a translator maybe? Come on, speak.”

Taylor tried again. “I thought we didn’t need to wear uniform today.…”

“What’s that?!” said Mr. Yu, raising his eyebrows in disbelief. “Is this class?”

“Yes, but …” Taylor tried to shrink into the barre.

“No but! Is this class?”

“Yes.”

“Look around,” said Mr. Yu, gesturing around the room. “You see anyone else not wear uniform?”

“No,” whispered Taylor.

“What did you say?” asked Mr. Yu. “No, right? Everyone have the little VIBA on hip?” he said, poking Keiko’s hip where the academy’s logo was embroidered on her bodysuit. “Don’t even need to read, just look. Oh, white spot? Must be VIBA, right?” Taylor nodded. Suddenly his smile disappeared and he looked furious. “Next time, no uniform, no class. I will kick you out. Understand?” Without waiting for an answer he began to lead class.

The class collectively began to breathe again, those around Taylor staring at her with alternating expressions of pity and disgust.

“And into, hu, ha, phu, ba, ba, chuuuu … pah! Ba, into …” Mr. Yu called out the counts for each exercise in his own peculiar way while banging the Nutcracker Prince’s prop sword in time to the music to make more noise. George gritted his teeth and tried to block him out by hitting the keys louder. WHAP! “Into…!” bellowed Mr. Yu, hitting Julian on his leg with the sword while he was in arabesque. Julian grimaced in pain and squared his hips. “Okay, barre finish. Now stretch,” said Mr. Yu, finally. He went out for a smoke.

Taylor sat on the ground and rolled into the middle splits. Julian came over and slid into the side splits next to her. “Hey, you okay?” he asked. “That dude is kinda intense.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s just Mr. Yu, he’s like that,” Taylor was trying not to cry. Angela came and sat down beside them.

“Taylor, how come you didn’t just wear your uniform?” she asked in a fake-friendly tone. “It says in the rule book to always wear the uniform for class,” she added condescendingly. Taylor said nothing.

Julian stared at her like she was crazy. “Wow, you’re really rude, you know that? Why don’t you F off?”

“I was trying to make her feel better!” said Angela, moving away horrified. Taylor started laughing.

“That was good,” she turned to Julian. “Thanks! She’s, like, always a bitch to me.”

“No problem,” he said “Anyway, she is so bad! I couldn’t stop laughing at her yesterday while I was sitting out. And she thinks she’s really good!” Tristan came over and sat next to Julian. Delilah followed him, and Taylor quickly got up and left.

“Did you just tell Angela to F off?” he asked, grinning at Julian.

“Ah, yeah. But she was being really rude.” he started to try to justify himself.

“Hey, no, that’s cool!” Tristan said, “I’ve totally wanted to do that since she came, just couldn’t find an excuse.”

“I gave you loads!” complained Delilah.

“So,” said Tristan, ignoring Delilah, “we were wondering if you’d been to Harbour Dance yet?”

“No, what’s that?” asked Julian.

“It’s this dance place. It’s really cool. They have drop-in classes running all day, every day, and all types, and you just pay per class. It’s really awesome for contemporary and hip hop and stuff. It’s not like they have any good contemporary at the academy. You should totally come with us some day.”

“I’d like that,” smiled Julian.

“Right, see you then, Jules,” said Tristan. At that moment Mr. Yu came back, looking distinctly calmer from the smoke.

“The more you smoke, the more you jump,” he told Alexandra, who was sitting off to the side with a stomach ache, as he walked in. “Everyone, centre,” he called out.

“I’m nervous,” Taylor whispered to Kaitlyn as they waited for the auditions.

“Why?” asked Kaitlyn, snorting. “It’s not like we dance, right? Delilah said that we just stand in order of height and they pick.”

“Yes, but, like, I’m not like really nervous. I just want to do well,” said Taylor, quickly editing.

“Right,” Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. Mr. and Mrs. Demidovski came in, and everyone slowly quieted down.

Mr. Demidovski was wearing black dress pants, a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a black vest, black dress shoes, and a green cloak with a multicoloured plaid lining. On top of all this, he had added a gold scarf.

“I like your scarf, Mr. Demidovski,” Tristan said, grinning.

“Thank you,” Mr. Demidovski inclined his head toward Tristan and bowed slightly. “And how are you?”

“Good, sir,” Tristan bit his finger to keep himself from laughing out loud.

“Okay, everyone line up, smallest to tallest,” yelled Mr. Yu.

Mr. Moretti stood to one side watching the proceedings balefully. He sighed, and then walked to the front where Mrs. Demidovski, Mrs. Castillo, and Mrs. Mallard were already sitting. Mr. Damon, the artistic director of the youth company, was also there. After due consideration, Mr. Moretti sat down next to Mr. Damon, evidently judging him to be the lesser of the evils. Mr. Demidovski walked to the front of the room and surveyed his students proudly.

“Today … today we have the audition,” he announced proudly. “We have auditions for The Nutcracker. My academy, it is going to perform The Nutcracker for the Christmas show. Today, we pick the parts of Clara and Sugarplum. Everyone, I do not want you to cry. I do not want you tell your parents that it is not fair. Mr. Demidovski is a very fair man, everyone says that. Everyone. All the parts are important. All take work; all are important for a beautiful show. Mr. Yu, would you like to say anything to the students?” Mr. Yu shook his head. He was standing next to Tristan with his hands in his pockets, waiting impatiently. When Mr. Demidovski turned away from Mr. Yu, Tristan gave a snort of smothered laughter, and Mr. Yu hit him on the ear. “All right, we start!” announced Mr. Demidovski. “Everybody stand tallest to smallest? Okay.” He turned to Mrs. Demidovski and whispered in Russian.

“Yes, Alexandra is here,” said Mrs. Demidovski loudly in English.

Alexandra rolled her eyes. “Good thing he knows what I look like, hey?” she whispered to Grace. Grace gave a small smile and kept her eyes facing front.

“Grace, come front,” said Mr. Yu.

“Okay, so she’s first cast Sugarplum.” Taylor whispered to Keiko, keeping her eyes on Mr. Yu.

“So if they know what we’re cast as, we get called up front?” Julian whispered to Tristan.

“No.” replied Tristan. “Principals get called front, solos and good corps to the side, and losers to the back. Pretty simple, really. They don’t even tell you what you got until rehearsals next week. Not that they have to, we know.”

“Aiko, Kaitlyn … Anna … Michael …” continued Mr. Yu. Taylor’s stomach dropped. Not Kaitlyn! She just got here, does she have to get Clara? It had to be Clara! She’s the only one short enough to dance Clara. At least they aren’t using the professional company members this year.

Mr. Demidovski called Mr. Yu over and they had a quickly whispered discussion. “Okay, Alexandra!” called Mr. Yu, not making any pretence of being happy about it. “Julie!” Julian got up as everyone in the room laughed nervously. “And Tristan, Kageki, Jonathon. Are we using Dmitri?” he asked Mr. Damon, who nodded.

“Okay,” Mr. Yu said, suddenly speeding up, running through the lists of names as he sent them to the sides and back. “Okay, finish.” He went and crouched down beside Mr. Demidovski. “Good?”

“Yes. Thank you, Mr. Yu. Everyone, you may go. Rehearsal on Saturday. Look on the board. If anyone’s name wasn’t called, go talk to Gabriel in the office.” Everyone clapped and filed silently out of the room, except Taylor who was chattering excitedly to Keiko.

“Keiko, I’m so happy!” she said, grabbing onto Keiko’s arm as they walked out. “This is the first year I’m not in like Russian or Arabian, or something stupid. Do you think I’m in Snow? Or Waltz of Flowers? I’m so happy.”

“That’s good,” said Keiko as they went downstairs. She didn’t look terribly happy herself. “I wonder what Chloe got,” she said as they walked into the washroom. “She can’t be Clara, she’s too young! But she can’t be anything else either.”

Anna joined in, “Yeah, I know, it’s stupid. At first I thought Kaitlyn got Clara, but then they called up Chloe. Maybe they’re double cast? But Chloe would look better as Clara, her body type is better.” said Anna thoughtfully.

“Yes, she would look better,” said Keiko. “Yes, maybe it would be good, and she would look nice with Michael as Fritz.”

“Yes,” Anna agreed. They went to join the lineup for the washroom stalls, having reached their verdict.

“Hey, Taylor, what did you get?” Kaitlyn asked condescendingly as they opened their lockers. Taylor deflated.

“Um, I’m not sure…” she said unhappily. “I think probably, like, Waltz of Flowers or Snow? I’m not really sure.”

“Oh, yeah, I liked those parts,” laughed Kaitlyn. “I was both two years ago for second cast, it was fun. But I was Clara for first cast, so I couldn’t do both. Last year I was Sugarplum, though, so I didn’t have time to do Waltz and Snow as well. You’ll like it, it’s lots of fun!” she laughed. Taylor didn’t say anything; she just went and got dressed. She felt sick.

As Taylor walked down the hall to leave, Mrs. Demidovski stopped her. “Taylor!” she said. “Come into office, Mrs. Demidovski wants to talk to you.”

Taylor followed her into the office apprehensively. It was empty except for Gabriel, who was doing paperwork and eating Smarties.

“Come, come, sit down. Your mother, she phoned Mrs. Demidosvksi. She said that you want to take RAD Advanced One exam this spring.”

“Yes,” said Taylor, wishing that she was anywhere but that office.

“Mrs. Demidovski think you are not ready. I think maybe get stronger, need more muscle. Body good,” she grabbed Taylor’s arm and wrapped her fingers around Taylor’s wrist to check how much they crossed over. “But you need more strength. You need to work harder. If ‘push,’ push; if ‘straight,’ straight.”

“Okay,” said Taylor, wanting to leave. Mrs. Demidovski looked at her over her glass of water.

“So, you will take the exam next year?” she asked, her eyes amused.

“I would … I mean, I would really like, to you know, take the exam this year.” Taylor said, pleading.

“If you take the exam, you must take privates. Arrange it with Gabriel tomorrow, talk to your mother tomorrow.”

“Okay!” Taylor was relieved. She got up to leave.

“Good girl,” said Mrs. Demidovski, smiling up at her. “Much improve. Don’t worry.” Taylor smiled back and left happily.

As she went to catch the bus to the SkyTrain, Taylor noticed that Delilah, Tristan, and Julian were already there waiting. She quickly turned back before they saw her. She decided to take the next bus and walked over to Duan’s to get a bubble tea. She waited patiently to order. Duan’s was a wonderful world of white flour, liquid sugar, and suspicious meat, and they made the sweetest all-fruit bubble tea in Vancouver. Taylor ordered the mango and papaya milk tea with pearls, and watched as Mrs. Duan ladled the liquid sugar in. She carefully selected her straw (hot pink today, I think), which was extra large to let the pearls through, and checked which cartoon character was on the plastic covering before she stuck her straw through it. It was some sort of cross between a skunk and a monkey. She drank her bubble tea slowly, feeling happier as she drank. A bubble tea always made her feel better.

As Taylor walked slowly back to the bus stop, a druggie started calling to her. “Hey you! Hey you, you look single! Come here!” Taylor broke into a run and reached the bus stop before she had intended to. She checked her bubble tea; none had spilled. As the bus pulled up, she entered through the rear doors, just in case the bus driver decided to enforce the no-eating-or-drinking policy. Taking out her iPod, she relaxed into her seat, drowning out the sounds of the boy sitting next to her talking on his cell with “Ur So Gay” by Katy Perry. She couldn’t help it, every time she listened to the lyrics, “You’re so gay and you don’t even like boys,” she had to giggle. Getting bored, she decided to call Kaitlyn as she got off the bus. Kaitlyn probably hadn’t meant to be mean about casting, she convinced herself. It was just that she was always cast in good roles, because she was so good. She got Kaitlyn’s answering machine, and decided to leave her a message.

“Hey.… So I’m about to get on the SkyTrain. And I decided to phone you, because I am, like, sooooo bored. Are you going to be at school tomorrow? Well, yeah, you probably will, because, like, why wouldn’t you be?” Taylor looked around her and stage whispered, “Okay, so I am feeling a little grossed out right now. There is this person, and she is like huge. I really wish you were here with me to see! So, anyway, I really hope you can come to my party on Friday. It’s going to be lots of fun. Remember to wear a dress, we are all going to take so many pictures, it’ll be awesome. So, the SkyTrain is coming in now, you can probably hear it!” Taylor giggled, “So I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye, love you!” Taylor hung up and got on the SkyTrain, having completely forgotten both Mr. Yu’s rant and that Kaitlyn had been cast ahead of her. The academy always seemed unreal to Taylor once she had left the building.

Walking into her house, Taylor suddenly felt less exuberant. She remembered that she had hidden a tube of ready-made icing in her room. Squirting some into her mouth, she then stuffed the tube back into a pair of folded socks. She felt better. “Mom, I’m home!” she called out.

“Oh, hi, baby. How was it?” Charlize came into her room and sat on the bed.

“Um …” said Taylor, quickly searching her brain for what “it” was. “Oh! It was good. I think I got Waltz or Snow, I was put on the side and was one of the first called.”

“That’s good.” Charlize sounded relieved. “What did Kaitlyn get?”

“Um, I think Clara,” said Taylor quietly.

Charlize just sighed.

“Mom!” said Taylor angrily. “Look, Waltz or Snow is really good, okay? Can you just leave it, please? Why do you always have to do this?” She was trying not to cry.

“Taylor, I’m not saying —” Charlize started, but Taylor ran out of the room and went and sat on the stairs until her mom had left her room.

Back in her room, Taylor logged onto her laptop. There’s something I wanted to do … Oh, add that new boy! What was his name? She checked her newsfeed on Facebook. Tristan had just added a Julian Reese. Right, that’s him. She clicked on friend request. Just then, her little sister, Alison, came to the door.

“Hey,” she said, fidgeting.

“What are you doing?” Alison had something hidden behind her back. “Alison, if you don’t want to say anything get out of here. I’m busy.” Alison came in and sat down.

“Look at this, “she said proudly. From behind her back she produced a test paper. She walked in and sat down on the bed next to Taylor. “See: 100 percent!”

“Oh … good job,” Taylor said unenthusiastically. Seeing Alison’s face fall, she added, “That’s really great! I can’t believe you got perfect on a math test, that’s, like, awesome, Ali.” Alison smiled proudly.

As Taylor got into bed and took her sleeping pill, she thought about her party. She wondered if she would get a chance to invite Julian (Jules, she remembered) to the party. He seemed really nice. I wonder if he was straight. She frowned slightly as she fell asleep, worrying about Tristan and Delilah. Maybe they won’t like Jules, she thought hopefully.