Perform H.S

Chapter 1

I'm Tracy, a world famous dancer known for my signature pirouettes. I always add a couple moves in between and at the ends that everyone seemed to fall in love with when I first performed them. That wasn't what made me famous though, my father was a famous actor and my mother was a famous singer which in turn made me popular. My dancing just added to my popularity even more. Everyone says I'm lucky, lucky to be famous, lucky to be able to dance as well as I do, lucky to know many celebrities, lucky to be happy. Am I though? After the nonstop training and practice that only seems to be multiplying, joining my parents strenuous meetings, taking blow after blow of new instructions or new criticism that always seemed to be driven from a place of malice. I wasn't lucky nor was I happy. Do I enjoy being famous? No. But do I enjoy dancing? Yes, so I must compromise.

This month, I was on a diet, don't get me wrong, I'm always on a diet but usually it's less intense. Breakfast was supposed to be eggs with bacon, lunch was fish and dinner was some type of meat with veggies. Do I even bother though? No. I always broke my diet but not with junk food or anything, I understand the reason I have a diet in the first place, to get the right protein and basically lose weight. My dance teacher says you can't be a dancer if you're overweight.

Bullshit.

I have a diet for the protein and to lose weight for myself, not for anyone else. I could see a bit of fat when I looked down, it didn't matter how much, but it had to be gone by next week. Next week was the International Dancing Championship, that was something I had to pass in order to be on the team. Not only that, I had to prove to my parents I was actually worth something. No, I didn't really care what they thought, but I did care about the consequences coming from them if I didn't.

I had eggs for breakfast today with a glass of milk. I was planning on skipping lunch and having a small salad for dinner. Call this whatever you like but I knew what I was doing. At the moment it was noon, I was at the gym exercising, like I said I need to get back in shape. There was paparazzi outside waiting for me, asking questions about my upcoming competition, I ignored them keeping my head down as I entered the building. I began with weights, I held each weight which were each 30 pounds and began doing reps. After about 15 minutes I moved on to the bar to the side to do pull ups. I made 14 reps before dropping down into push-ups, I made 7 push-ups before jumping up to the bar above my head again. I repeated the process till I was tired. I sat at the small bench at the back of the large room, I did notice, though, a curly headed, green eyed boy at the other end of the room sending firm, strong punches at the bag in front of him.

He didn't seem to notice me, so I continued to stare at his strong, yet handsome figure. My parents would die if they knew I found someone handsome, they wanted me single forever, but like I said before I could care less what they say now. They already changed my life for the worse by making decisions for me, they weren't going to do that again. I stopped staring to take a drink of water before I heard more paparazzi behind the door. They couldn't get in right? The gym had security.

That's when a loud bang was heard and paparazzi came rushing in. Shit. I quickly grabbed my belongings, stuffing them into my handbag before attempting to make my to the dance room which was across the hall to the right. The handful of paparazzi surprisingly split their way in half. Half went to the boy who was boxing across the room. I didn't recognize him, was he famous too? I mean this is LA, many celebrities and actors live here. The other half made their way towards me at a fast pace, they crowded around my small figure asking millions of questions I couldn't understand, but one stuck out like a sore thumb. "Is your sister being gone not mean anything to you?" What did he mean my sister being gone? I saw her yesterday, she stopped by to have coffee with me. I had already stopped in my tracks, more questions were being asked about Ria, they never asked questions about her. I turned around facing the paps who were taking as many photos as they could, I couldn't stop the question from leaving my mouth, "What about my sister?" "Do you know something I don't?" "What do you mean gone?"

They went silent, looking to each other shocked I didn't know what they were talking about, one of them spoke up softly, "Tracy, your sister was found dead this morning, she was in a car accident." My mouth dropped in shock as I tried to process the information, this could be fake. Fake news as always is probably all it is. I laughed nervously hoping everything to be a misunderstanding, the paps stayed silent, they never did that. I was frozen in shock, before I quickly turned around and sifted through my handbag again grabbing my phone before making a call to my sister praying in desperation that she'd answer. My lips trembled as I heard the beep and her voice informing me she wasn't at the phone at the time. I looked through my contacts for Mom, she would know if anything happened, before I made the call though, I rushed out the door of the large room to a random room in the hallway before turning around and clicking the call button.

She answered on the third ring, she was sniffling.
Mom never cried she thought being strong meant not showing vulnerability, but I believed being strong meant showing vulnerability. "Mom, what's wrong?" I asked quickly "what happened?" "Where's Ria?"
She sniffed once more before answering me "I was going to call you but Dad was really upset, I had to calm him down a bit." She paused, "Ria's dead, honey, she got into an accident this morning."
I couldn't find a way to respond to that so I hung up. I just saw her yesterday, how could this happen? Ria was the most loving of everyone in my family, she was the one I would go to when I had insecurities or when something would go wrong on stage I or whatever. I told her everything and she did what no one else ever did, she kept it a secret. She kept everything between us, she'd give me advice and comfort me in a way no one else could. She was the only one who could help me through my regular panic attacks.

And she was gone.

Tears dribbled down my cheeks as I tried to process everything that just happened. I needed to go. The room was closing in on me and following close behind was my mind.

I wiped my tears away and pushed the door open, at the end of the hall I saw the man I was staring at before, the famous guy I didn't know. He looked my way as I walked down the hall in the doors direction, which had to be in his direction as well. I didn't reach him yet but I knew I wouldn't have a chance to as the paps seemed to have come to their senses and follow me again. "What do you think?" "How do you feel knowing you weren't there when she died?" Many more questions echoed through the room clearly as I tried to keep my tears in. He's right. I wasn't there for her. I looked down , taking a pair of sunglasses from my bag and slipping them on. My jaw was clenched and my lips were pursed as I was determined that the tears couldn't flow yet.

I failed though, again. A tear leaked through my waterline and dribbled down my cheek once again. I didn't make a move to wipe it away as I just let the tears flow my face contorted into pure agony. I kept my head down passing the other famous guy who was probably extremely confused at why I had paps following me as well and why I was basically sobbing in the middle of the hallway of a gym. I didn't care though, I made my way out the building and towards my car. I made my way towards moms house so I could speak with her and find out what exactly happened.