Watch Me

Chapter 2

Eight in the morning, like always. She stretches every morning in the second-floor dance studio. She always gets here before everyone else because she doesn't think she's good enough. I don't know why they keep overlooking her for lead parts. She's wonderful. She's perfect. She's so graceful, so soft. She has the most amazing smile. She is the only one on stage even while the whole company dances with her. Why is it I'm the only one to see these things? Her long legs stretched across the bar...it makes me want to cry at how amazing she is. Just watching her makes me smile. Soon, I'll tell her how much she means to me, very soon...

After stretching in the second-floor studio, Zoe made her way downstairs to the main rehearsal hall. Everyone else had just begun stretching as she dropped her bag off to the side and joined them. She looked around the room, trying to see if Davis was right about a new company member. She sighed inwardly as she didn't spot any new faces. She walked over to Natalie and Sarah.

"So, has anyone heard anything?" Zoe asked.

"I haven't seen anyone new. Davis and his lying ass," Natalie said as she turned towards the bar. Sarah and Zoe laughed. Davis walked over and threw his arm around Zoe.

"What's up ladies?" he asked as he watched Sarah stretch on the bar.

"We were just talking about you." Zoe looked at him before she lightly slapped him on the shoulder.

"What did I do?" he asked as he threw up his arms in a mock surrender.

"I don't see anyone new."

"Maybe he's running late."

Just then, Anna and Robert Brightbrooke entered the rehearsal hall with Jesse Michaels right behind them. They owned and operated the company for the past 20 years. Anna was a shorter woman in her late 40's, her light brown hair cut into a sharp bob angling her face and covered the business part of it while her husband Robert and Jesse did all of the choreography for every performance. Jesse had jet black hair and bright blue eyes. He was a member of The Brightbrooke Dance Company up until 3 years ago when he retired and began to assist with the company's choreography.

"Ok, everyone gather around," Anna said. All of the dancers on stage stepped forward. "The showcase was a raging success. We actually found a few new donors, so congratulations to all of you for your hard work." She smiled at everyone as Robert stepped forward.

"That doesn't mean you can all slack off now. We have a performance scheduled for 6 weeks from now. We'll be holding the auditions for it today. It's a collaboration between both Jesse and I, so this will be very different from what you're used to." Jesse smiled at Robert before he continued. "And speaking of things you're not used to, we have a new male dancer joining our company." He looked around the room and shook his head. "Who apparently didn't make it on time, so we'll introduce him later..."

The doors to the rehearsal hall flung open. Everyone turned to see who was coming in. Jesse laughed. "Speak of the devil and the devil appears. Everyone, this is our newest company member Colton Burke. Colton, welcome to The Brightbrooke Dance Company."

"Sorry I'm late." He turned and faced everyone quickly with a smile and a small wave as he went to put his bag down off to the side, the baseball hat he wore covering his eyes.

"Just make sure it doesn't happen again Colton," Robert said as he turned his attention back towards the rest of the group. "As I was saying, we'll put up the audition times for everyone after warmup class today and that will be the only class we do. I would suggest you practice your audition pieces today. I'll see you all in half an hour." Anna, Robert and Jesse all left the rehearsal hall, leaving the group to finish warming up.