5th Street

Chapter 19: soap box

As we walked up to the man checking our tickets he stops me and smiles "oh my god, you're Natasha Charles!" He said. "that I am." I said smiling.

"Didn't you work here a few years ago until that guy pushed you off the stage?" I cringed as he said that.

"That I did... I'm sorry I'm not comfortable talking about that." he nodded "i understand well there are a lot of dancers here that it's their first night and they are really big fans of your work." I blushed.

"I was wondering if you could come backstage and maybe say something to them to calm their nerves?" I looked to kian and Sam.
"Do it come on!" Kian said "You're a celebrity to these guys do it!" Sam laughed.

"I'll reserve a seat for you with your friends." concluded the guy. "well... why not." I smiled. He smiled too and opened the backstage door for me.

He spoke to the backstage manager and told him who I was and what I was going to do.

The manager couldn't stop smiling "oh come child come! You've left a rather larger impression on all these people! A mere historically model when you were here!" He rushed me to the young dancers/actors/ singers.

"We were starting to think you had fallen off the edge of the earth. But we saw your were active on our website so of course me knew you still loved to dance!" He finally stopped me infront of a large box.

All of the dancers/actors/singers stopped in awe and smiled at me. "Kids this is Natasha Charles. You may have seen her picture on the halls and website. She's one of our prized dancers, even though she doesn't dance with us anymore. She will be saying a few words before you go on. Well the spotlight is on you miss Natasha."

I smiled and looked at all of them. They were waiting for the words to roll out of my mouth as slick as oil. I remember how I use to be in their shoes... Nervous I was going to mess up... But also excited about going out there. I had that feeling before every performance.

I began with "well before I go on with a big speech any one have any questions?" Hands rose faster than an ocean wave. "when did you know you loved to preform?" Said one girl "when I was 6 and my parents got me a boombox, I would mimic the dancers on tv. And when I was 9 I found a Shakespeare book of Romero and Juliet. When I was 12 I preformed it for the school as the role Juliet herself. And a few months later my parents enrolled me in dance classes and I stumbled into a singing class." they all awed.

"What's your favorite part of dancing?" Said a boy. "The thrill." I smiled "of going on that stage and going in as elegantly as possible. Making it seem like I just woke up and could dance perfectly... when I spent long hours in the studio for months learning dances and plays and singing. I was always busy." they all smiled

"If you make it seem like you're so good then why'd they fire you?" Said a girl in a ballerina outfit. "excuse me but I wasn't fired." I said with an angry smile.

"Really then why'd they call me in to take your place?" That was her! The girl that replaced me! "I wasn't fired! I was had broken bones and couldn't preform!" Everyone gasped.

"My partner dropped me! What was I suppose to do?" I said. "you were suppose to be a good dancer! Good dancers don't get hurt bitch!" I was quite.

"Well then. Listen up!" I stood on the box "when you dance a two person dance you have to be able to trust your partner! You have to trust yourself! You have to put in the work to go to the studio and practice, you have to be able to with stand being mad fun of your passion, to go through months with blisters on your heels trying to be better than every girl in your class! Let that pain burn so widely that it grows into determination and love for what you do!
And if some stuck up bitch tells you any different... you know she didn't work her ass off like you did. Because she wouldn't be trying to bring you down if she didn't know you were the best.
Go out there and dance your hearts out!" I said they all clapped and that girl disappeared behind the curtains.

"I'll be cheering for all of you!" I said before waving hearing their clapping. I went to find kian and Sam. Sam put his arm around me and said "wipe those tears. You're home."

The lights dimmed and his words ran through my mind. I wiped my tears and saw... I am home...