" Point those toes, Lilly." Mrs. Heir walked along the stage examining each of the ten girls while they all practiced their routines for Act 1. Mrs. Heir ran a strict but strong class; an ex professional ballerina herself, she knew what she wanted and how she and the girls would achieve it. Although the girls were only in their mid teenage years they were capable enough to preform with the senior classes. Thanks to Mrs. Heir of course.
" Oh come on, Nina. You can do better than that. I wanna see that knee straightened, too." It was only a week until opening night. Their performance of The Nutcracker would be the first in The Maritimes since Mrs. Heir herself played Clara at the young age of fifteen and was on her way to stardom. Now, she watched as her own Clara fell out of a turn.
" Julia! What was that?" she walked over to the seventeen year old girl. Mrs. Heir pulled her aside while the others continued their routine.
" I'm sorry Mrs. H."
" What's gotten into you lately?" she reflected on her last four times of seeing her lazy turns. Julia touched the side of her black bun.
" I haven't been feeling very well lately-"
" What? Julia opening night is in six days."
Mrs. Heir lectured Julia and the girls took their break. The room was busy, although every seat was empty. People with props and bags ran around preparing for the big day. Even with many busy bodies in the theatre, nobody seemed to notice Willow Fanning leaning against a spot light at the top of the theatre.
Nobody could see her and see was happy with that considering she was most definitely not supposed to be there. Really it was ancient, she'd only gone up there because a mouse was chasing her. Maybe it was a rat, she didn't care. It was an excuse to climb up the the ladder outside the ally way and get into the theatre.
She watched in awe as their break ended and the music started up again. She knew Julia from school, she had a lot of friends and was considered "popular". Julia was two years older than Willow was and probably wouldn't know who she was if Julia wasn't dating her cousin. She'd noticed Julia was packing up her stuff while the others twirled.
Just as she heard Mrs. Heir say something she noticed the door handle jiggling. The keyhole began to turn as she jumped under a prop 10 feet away from the door.
She held her breath as two bald men entered the room. They had every type of costumes you could imagine on a cart they both rolled in.
" Where do we put this? " one asked the other. The taller man pointed to the supply closet as he rolled it closer.
" Wait," the shorter one picked up a costume from the top of the pile. Willow tried not to make a sound as she moved slightly so she could see. The man held the most beautiful dress she'd ever seen. It was a slightly off white dress, with a tiny pink ribbon around the waist line that tied into a bow. The puffed long sleeves and the lacing of the same pink used in the ribbon tied it all together. At the very bottom Willow noticed small dark pink designs of which she couldn't make out.
" Didn't Rachelle say this was to be thrown out?"
" When'd she say that?" the tall one asked.
" Like five minutes ago, don't you ever pay attention?" the taller man scoffed while he put the rest of the costumes in the closet.
" Why are we throwing it out anyways? Isn't it the main dress in the dance thing?"
" Yes, but apparently it doesn't fit the girl who plays Clara anymore so it's useless."
" Why doesn't it fit anymore?"
" I don't know, Jared. It's Christmas season maybe she just ate too many chocolates." he hissed closing the closet door and throwing the dress onto a table beside the window.
" Maybe she's pregnant." the taller man followed him.
" You're sick, you know that? That's teenage girl, Jared." he slapped the top of his head.
" You know the statics of teenage pregnancy have been going up recently." he said in a matter of factly voice. The shorter one rolled his eyes and walked out of the room, not noticing Willow.
