Ballet Shoes: Next Gen

VIII

This seems like an every chapter thing now but character pronouns: Nico (sun/sunself) , Kane (he/him) , Albertina (she/her) , Eleanor (ne/nem) , Sophia (they/she) , Mistress Keisha (she/her)

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Third Person's P.O.V.

The first month after graduation was filled with audition after audition. By mid-July, Kenny felt like he should've eliminated a couple more ballet companies from that lengthy list before committing to this. In hindsight, six was definitely too many considering the entire process of joining a ballet company on more than just a season by season contract. Six rounds of preliminary auditions followed by several more rounds of actual auditions and callbacks was a lot to go through in such a short period of time. Kenny was definitely feeling the repercussions of that.

A groan left Kenny's lips as his phone dinged twice from his nightstand. He elected to ignore it in favour of not agitating his right ankle before the athletic wrap needed to be changed. A sprained ankle, no matter how minor, is no joke! Kenny's phone four more times before he sighed and gave in. He carefully pushed himself up on his elbows and shimmed into a sitting up position. Hissing as his injured foot shifted off of the pillows being used for elevation.

"Someone better be dying," Kenny thought as he retrieved his phone.

He put in his passcode and glanced at the notification panel. He'd just received six emails but couldn't see exactly from who due to the size of the preview. As such, Kenny clicked on the bulk notification and waited for his email to load up. He nearly dropped his phone as he caught sight of what was in his inbox. It was emails from the six ballet companies he'd been auditioning for the past two months. From skimming the subjects of each email, Kenny determined they regarding whether or not he got accepted into the company or not.

"Are you okay mini muffin?" Kai asked as she poked her head in.

Instead of responding, Kenny just flipped his phone so that the screen was facing his mother. Kai squinted at the small words before her eyes widened. A huge smile forming on her face.

"Oh my god!" she exclaimed as she went further into the room, gently sitting next to her son on the bed and reelevating his injured foot on the forgotten pillows,  "Open them!"

Kenny fumbled with his phone momentarily as he clicked on each email. His happiness as well as nervousness increasing as he read each one. Kenny got accepted into all six companies. All of them also offered a one year contract instead of a traditional seasonal one. They were serious about having him join their company and hopefully extend the contract after the first year.

"What did they say?" Kai asked.

"I got a job offer from all of them," Kenny replied.

Kai shouted in glee and resisted the urge to jump up and down. She didn't want to disturb Kenny's sprained ankle after all. Instead, she settled for wrapping her arms around her son and giving him a tight squeeze. Kenny lightly laughed and returned her hug the best that he could.

"What's all the yelling about?" Gwennie asked as she appeared in the doorway, holding an ice pack over her left eye.

"What happened to your eye Little Warrior?" Kai asked, protectiveness evident in her tone.

"A plumber in training thought it would be fun to sabotage Gwennie in their group exercise," Ben answered for his daughter, "And don't worry, xe has already been dealt with."

"Good."

"Now actually, what's the commotion about?" Ben asked.

"I'm going to be a professional ballet dancer by next week," Kenny answered.