How Can I Keep Dancing? [ON HOLD]

How Can I Keep Dancing? ~~~ Chapter 6 ~~~

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~CHAPTER SIX~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monday was ballet practice again. I was rehearsing with Will, who was the Prince in our story. Mr. Meade stood to the side, listening to the pianist play our melody, while watching us skeptically, criticizing us where he thought needed improvement. About ten minutes before our scheduled time to finish, he dismisses Will. He also asks me to meet him in his office, which I assumed was Miss Dawn’s previous office.

I change quickly out of my dancing clothes and then walk towards the office. I knock and almost immediately, I hear Mr. Meade telling me to come in. I do as he says and close the door behind me, taking a seat across from him.

“Miss Rhodes,” he begins. “I hear you’ve been with this company for more than ten years.”

“Nearly all my life, sir.”

“Please, call me James. ‘Sir’ makes me sound so old. I’m barely a day past thirty,” he chuckles to himself. “Anyway. I also hear that this is your first major production that you’re the lead performer of.”

I nod.

“Young, I must say. Almost too young.”

I thought it true as well, but Miss Dawn had assured me that she thought I was up for it. I wondered where he was going with this.

He pauses for a moment before continuing. “I’m just going to have to ask a few questions about you, if you don’t mind.”

“Okay.” I say.

“What’s your family situation like at home?”

I frown, “Uh, well, my father is a businessman, and he is always traveling, and my mother takes care of the household.”

“Do you have any siblings?”

“Only a brother. Edmund, whose five.”

“Very good. Are you close with your mother?”

“Not so much as my father and I.”

“Why is that?”

“Well, I guess I seem to understand my father more.”

He nods, but seems to think this unfortunate. “What’s your father like?”

I think for only a moment. “Well, he’s quite the charmer. And he always knows how to make somebody smile.”

“And your mother?”

“She loves him dearly. But she doesn’t have the same warmth as he does.”

“I hear that it is your mother that forced you into this company.”

“Well, I wanted to go, but my mother is quite…prominent in having her own way done.”

“So you prefer not to dance?”

I frown again. “No…that’s not it. I love dancing. It’s just that my mother doesn’t give me much freedom.”

He gives a little grunt as he looks down at his desk. Then with a sigh, he stands up from his chair. “Charlotte,” he says as he circles around to the front of his desk. “Here’s the thing…” he sits down on the rim of the desk, crossing his legs over and folding his arms on his chest.

I was a bit thrown off by the informality of my name, but I tried to not let it deter me.

“I watch you dance, and I can see why Miss Dawn likes you. You have a way of showing that innocence and vulnerability of the White Swan that some others don’t have. But there is something missing. A spark. Dancing the Black Swan would require an intense amount of seduction on your part, but because you’re dancing the White Swan, I need the complete opposite.”