Читать книгу Ballet School Confidential: The Complete 3-Book Bundle - Charis Marsh - Страница 8

Taylor Audley

Yay, Halloween!

Taylor walked to the bus slowly. She’d skipped math class. She hadn’t wanted to, because now she had to explain it to her mom and get her to write a note, but if she had gone she’d have failed her test, for sure. And if she failed that test, she’d fail first term. Maybe I can say I had a stomach-ache, she thought. No, then I’d have to miss Halloween tonight. She sighed.

She turned to walk up to Kerrisdale Boulevard, not wanting to get to the academy too early. I’ll have to tell her that I would’ve failed, she decided miserably. Then she can decide what to do. It wasn’t my fault, it was because rehearsals went on so long yesterday! She debated where to go and decided on Starbucks. She shivered as she started walking; it was pouring rain, and it was all dripping down her back. She’d forgotten to bring an umbrella, as usual.

As she sat down with her pumpkin spice frappuccino, she sneezed violently. Great, now I’m getting a cold. When she finally got on the bus, she felt a bit more optimistic. The rain was getting warmer, and the clouds were starting to clear up.

Her cellphone started ringing as soon as she’d sat down. She checked her display; it was her mom. She groaned.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Hello, Taylor. Where are you?”

“Um, on the bus to the academy? Where else would I be?” Taylor said, anxiously doing up her bag. She’d left it undone, and now all her papers were wet.

“I don’t know, Taylor. Where would you be? I just got a call from your counsellor; he said that you didn’t show up for math class today. He also said that you were supposed to have a test that determined whether or not you passed math this term.” Her voice had gotten progressively shriller as she got more hysterical. Taylor quickly turned down the volume on her cell and debated hanging up. No, she decided. Mom won’t let me go out tonight if I hang up.

“Mom, I wasn’t going to pass the test.”

“Taylor!” Charlize screeched. “I am not doing this! If you had shown up, you would have gotten some grade, and you might have had a prayer of passing math for the year. As it is …”

“I don’t have a prayer?” Taylor asked innocently. Her mother became completely incomprehensible, so Taylor hung up. She dried off her earphones and turned on The Plain White T’s. They were usually too calm for her, but today she needed calm. She bit her lip nervously as she thought about class today. It was Mrs. Castillo, and the last time Taylor had had class with her … well, it hadn’t been fun. Mrs. Castillo had told the whole class that Taylor had the perfect body type for ballet, but no brain. The whole class had bullied her for weeks afterwards. It was going better so far this year though. When the graduating class left last year, so had many of the scariest people in the school. It had also helped that she had been cast so much better this year. Taylor took some red sprinkles out of her bag and absentmindedly shook some into her mouth.

Inside the academy, Taylor checked the schedule. It hadn’t changed. They still had Mrs. Castillo. She went downstairs to get changed, dripping water all the way.

Taylor bent backwards over the barre, cracking her back. She heard everyone laughing and quickly swung up again. Too fast! She slumped against the barre, dizzy. When she could see again, she looked up. There was Leon in his Halloween costume. He was wearing small, black stretch shorts over top of fishnet tights, black ballet shoes, and a pink tank top. On top of this, he was wearing bunny ears, a large, red bunny nose, and was carrying a cat o’nine tails. Kageki ran over and got Anna to take a picture of him gazing adoringly into Leon’s eyes with one leg wrapped around his hip, and then another of him kissing Leon’s bunny nose.

Taylor got an idea. She quickly ran downstairs and rummaged through her bag. She pulled out her Barbie crown, and changed into her pink bodysuit and white wrap skirt. She eyed her reflection in the mirror approvingly, and ran upstairs. No one seemed to notice as she slowly opened the door. Everyone was too busy admiring Jonathon’s costume to worry about hers. He was wearing uniform, but he had drawn obscene things all over his shirt, and was wearing sunglasses and earrings.

Mrs. Castillo came into the studio with a huge smile, her shawl floating behind her. Everyone snapped to attention. “Class! We start!” She frowned as she looked around the studio. “Ah, Halloween, yes? The trick or treat?” Everyone nodded. “Everyone to the barre. Okay.” She began to lead the barre exercises, demonstrating each exercise dramatically.

As Mrs. Castillo was demonstrating the grand battements exercise, she caught Tristan looking at his butt in the mirror. “Tristan! Do not keep looking in the mirror! There are maybe one hundred perfect bodies in the world; you got one.” Tristan turned away from the mirror, both pleased and embarrassed.

Taylor’s crown started slipping when began doing the pirouette combination. Mrs. Castillo grabbed her arm and led her to the side. “Taylor! You wear too much jewellery. Crown today? Perhaps crown and necklace tomorrow? What the day after? Take off now!” Taylor quickly took off the crown, noticing that Mrs. Castillo hadn’t made Leon take off his ears or nose.

After everyone had gone across the room, Mrs. Castillo worked on the boy’s grande allegro while the girls were putting on their pointe shoes. Julian suddenly stopped, and asked to go get some ice. He’d turned on his ankle the wrong way.

Mrs. Castillo nodded absently, working on Tristan’s tour en l’aire. “And push!” She was standing behind him, pushing his left shoulder as soon as he left the ground. “You must always land in fifth, not second!” Tristan came down off balance. Taylor tested her foot in her pointe shoes, wincing as soon as she put weight on it. Her Achilles was inflamed, again. She watched Mrs. Castillo nervously, trying to judge the right time to go ask if she could sit down.

“Are you going to sit out because of your ankle?” Keiko asked Taylor. Taylor nodded. “Okay, let’s go ask together then. My knee’s really hurting me.”

“Mrs. Castillo, may I sit down because of my knee?” Keiko asked.

“Yes, yes, of course, Keiko. And what do you want?” Mrs. Castillo asked Taylor.

“Ah … my ankle?” Taylor pointed at the ankle in question.

Mrs. Castillo sighed. “Again, this ankle? All right, sit down, but do some exercise by yourself. Do back, do stomach, work.” She gestured Taylor to the side impatiently and turned back to the class. “Adage! One two, three four, breathe … and draw up leg. Up, up, no up hip and unfold — no drop! Hold, and rise. Coupé pas de bourée, pirouette en dedans … three at least please! You are the advanced students now, yes? Coupé, ronds de jambe, and fondue … hold. Hold back attitude! Tristan, knee up! And fondue deeper, leg higher — yes!” Mrs. Castillo continued to call out exercises, then had the class mark it out to music.

At the end of class, Mrs. Castillo called the class over to her, having them make a semi-circle so she could give them a lecture. “Class, you must take care of your feet, your body. The choreographer is the artist, you are the brush, and your body, it is your paper. The feeling, the artistry is the paint, but you need the paper for the paint to be beautiful. Good, high-quality brush. And must be thin, strong paper. If you want to be the dancer, and have fat, you are fooling yourself. I don’t care if you lie to your friends, your boyfriend, that is okay. But don’t lie to yourself, don’t cheat yourself, that is very stupid, eh? Do you understand me, Delilah? You know, if you don’t drink water, lose maybe three pounds. Okay, finish!”

As everyone got changed, Taylor phoned her mom. “Mom, am I going home before I go out tonight? Or are we, like, going to dinner or something first? I need to know if I should get changed into my costume here.”

Her mom sighed. “Taylor, I’m not even sure if I should let you go tonight. I can’t believe you skipped that math test.”

“Mom, I have to go. Everyone’s going tonight.”

“I know you have to go. I’m just not sure that I should be letting you. Taylor, you need to at least graduate from high school. Your counsellor has been unbelievably understanding by letting you stay in the super achievers program despite your grades, but you have to try. He wanted me to get you a tutor, but …”

“Mom, I don’t have time for a tutor.”

“I know, that’s what I told him. I’ll let you go tonight, but you really have to try harder, okay? I’ve got to go.”

Taylor hung up, trying not to cry. And I still don’t know whether I should get changed into my costume or not! she thought. She sat there for a minute and listened to everyone talk about Halloween. She forced herself to stand and opened her locker, taking out a ROCKSTAR and a packet of sour gummy worms. Biting the top off of a worm, she sat back down, avoiding the pile of used toe tape beside her. Gross! She sneezed. The academy always had a weird smell from a mixture of tea tree oil, Tiger Balm, Chinese medicine, mould, and old costumes. Taylor had the feeling that she was allergic to it. She sneezed again and reached for a Kleenex.

“Bless you!” Keiko said. She sat down beside Taylor. “What are you dressing as tonight?”

“Same as for class. A Barbie princess. But I have a dress and stuff, too.”

“I am dressing as butterfly.”

“Cool!” said Taylor, gulping some of her ROCKSTAR.

“Quick, quick!” Kageki said, as he came thundering down the stairs. “Come upstairs! The third floor toilet is overflowing. It’s coming through the ceiling!” Everybody ran upstairs.

The water was coming through the ceiling and pouring down the sliding door at the academy’s side entrance, creating a waterfall. An enormous waterfall. “I didn’t know the upstairs toilet had so much water!” Taylor shouted over the water.

“It was the one that just kept flushing. You know, the one that the little kids thought Moaning Myrtle lived in?” Kageki said. “So now they can’t stop it from flooding!”

Outside, passersby stopped to look through the sliding doors, gazing at the waterfall in amazement. Julian grinned and waved at them.

Gabriel came bustling along, saying “Go, go! The plumber is coming, don’t worry.” He waved the people in the street away from the sliding door and shooed the students back downstairs.

“Alison, turn down that music!” Charlize said. She turned into Grandview Park. “Do you see your friends, Taylor?”

“No, but they’re taking the bus. I’ll call Keiko, though.” Taylor hung up almost as soon as the phone connected. “Mom, they’re right behind us!”

“Is Keiko the one in the butterfly costume?”

“Yes! Bye!” Taylor called over her shoulder as she ran out to meet them.

“Hey, Taylor!” said Keiko. “Are we going to go trick or treating first?”

“Nah, why don’t we skip it?” Taylor said, seeing the expression on Delilah’s face.

“Oh, yeah sure,” Keiko said.

“Oh, look!” Delilah said excitedly as they heard music starting up. “The parade is starting.” They pushed to the front of the crowd, murmuring apologies.

“There’s the boys and the rest,” Taylor said, looking across the street. Delilah waved at them, but they either didn’t see her or didn’t want to acknowledge that they had seen her. The drums started, and the crowd got quieter. People came running into the clear area and then stopped, gyrating fire rings around their hips.

“Cool!” Taylor exclaimed as one of the dancers tossed her hoop into the air, still burning, and then caught it. They stayed there watching the parade until most of the stilt walkers had gone by.

“Let’s move over there,” Keiko said, pointing to a clear place in the park with some benches, just a little ways away. “I really want to sit down.”

“Me too,” Taylor said, so they all drifted over to the benches.

“Want some?” a man on a blanket asked, holding up a bag.

Taylor jumped. She hadn’t noticed him in the darkness. “No, thank you,” she answered, giggling. He shrugged and they kept walking.

They sat down on the benches just as the fireworks began to start.

“Where did that guy on the blanket go?” Delilah asked. “He’s disappeared.”

Taylor scanned the crowd. “Oh, there he is,” she said, looking across the street. “He’s just getting into his car.”

“Oh,” Delilah said, bored.

They went back watching the fireworks, until Taylor said, “Hey, look! I guess that wasn’t blanket guy’s car.”

Two policemen had come over, and the man was walking backwards. They could hear the police calling him back, but instead he picked up a plastic sword that someone had lost, and began running for the street — right behind Taylor!

“Go, go,” Delilah yelled, laughing.

Taylor giggled. He made such a funny sight running towards them carrying that ridiculous sword. “Look, that guy over there is filming it,” Taylor said.

The police came running after the man. One of them took a gadget out of his belt. Suddenly, the man fell right in front of them, twitching spastically. Taylor screamed. Delilah and Jessica ran to the man, along with the rest of the crowd. Taylor followed the girls. They were standing by the man, who was no longer moving. It looked like half the crowd was dialling 911. The police tried to get through, but the crowd kept pushing them back. Taylor started crying hysterically.

“Why won’t anyone let the police through?” she shouted. “He needs help!”

“Honey, that’s why we aren’t letting those bastards at him,” a woman said. “They tasered him.”

“No, it’s an overdose or something!” Taylor sobbed. “The police wouldn’t do that!”

“Then why are they doing that?” the woman asked her, pointing at the policemen. They were arguing with a man at the side, and they snatched his cellphone. “He was filming it on his cell,” the woman explained. “But it’s okay, sweetie. It just makes them look more guilty. Half the crowd was filming that, and they can’t delete all of it. Won’t save that poor SOB though.”

Just then, the ambulances came screeching in. The attendants had to fight their way through the crowd to reach the man. The boys and Anna, Grace, and Alexandra fought their way through the crowd towards Taylor and the girls.

“Omigod, did you guys see that happen?” Anna asked them. Taylor just became more hysterical.

“The police!” she sobbed. “And then … down! He just had a sword! I thought it was drugs.”

Keiko put an arm around Taylor and led her back to the bench. The rest followed, in shock.

“I just can’t believe that our police did that,” Grace said. “What do they think they are, American?”

“Hey!” said Jonathon. “That was definitely your police who did it this time.”

“Do you have your cell?” Keiko asked Taylor. Taylor didn’t answer. She was still sobbing and incoherent. Keiko lifted Taylor’s arm and searched through her jacket pockets. She found it and called Charlize. Jessica tried to give Taylor a Kleenex, but Taylor hit her away, burying her head in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably.

“Your mom is coming soon,” Keiko told Taylor, patting her on the shoulder. Everybody else started phoning, too.

“We can drop you off at Mr. Yu’s,” Alexandra told Julian. “And you. At your home,” she added to Tristan.

“There’s Charlize,” Keiko said with relief. Everyone looked up, happy to see a familiar adult.

“I was just coming to pick Taylor up anyway,” Charlize said as she reached them, out of breath. “What happened? Oh, Taylor! Are you hurt?”

Taylor ignored her, still crying.

“Someone was shot … I mean tasered,” said Keiko. “Not Taylor. This other guy … it was the police, it happened right next to us.”

“Oh, baby,” Charlize said, hugging Taylor. “Sweetie, please stop crying.”

“She hasn’t stopped crying since it happened,” said Delilah.

“Oh no! She’s probably in shock,” Charlize said. “I’ll have to take her to emergency for a tranquilizer.” She coaxed Taylor along to the car and buckled her in her seat.