𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥 - 𝐫. 𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐝 (DISCONTINUED)

𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨

"Five minutes till showtime. Places everyone. Places." The stage manager called over the speakers.

Lahela stood backstage, unconsciously stretching every part of her body over and over again. It was the first show of the season and the nerves were through the roof. They would be performing Swan Lake  for the next three weeks before moving onto Sleeping Beauty and closing the season with Giselle. She rolled through her pointe shoes at one of the barres they had set up backstage.

Her partner Sergei was practicing his jumps over in the corner. The pressure on her shoulders was high, she was opening the season as Odette and everyone had their expectations for her to meet. She hadn't even realized Sergi was putting his hand on her shoulders.

"Lahela, you have to calm down." He rubbed her shoulders soothingly.

She turned around to face him. "Everyone is expecting the best performance from me. I want them to be proud of me."

"There goes your people pleasing complex again. You have to dance for yourself and only yourself. If you keep dancing for others, you will have no joy for the art anymore." Sergei had always been wise, he knew the right things to say. Lahela had tried it but she was pretty sure it came out super unsympathetic. Never tried it again after that.

"Lahela, curtains are going up in one minute." She looked over at Sergei.

"Wish me luck." She gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Merde, Lahela." He nodded and she ran to her wing.

She was led to the tree where she had to appear in her swan form and waited. The music started and she heard movement across the stage. Bryce who was playing Rothbart was in his full prosthetic get up.

The other dancers who were supposed to be them entered the tree. They heard their cue and he pulled her out onto the stage. She did an extension and he lifted her up into the air. She pirouetted around him and began her bourees as the lights began fading to darkness.

That was the easy part.

They exited the stage and the next scene began. She got to rest for a little while. She drank sips of water and took off her pointe shoes to let her feet breath, before she had some nearly nonstop dancing. A stage manager came in after nearly 30 minutes telling her it was three minutes until she had to be on sage again. She  put her pointe shoes back on. She made it to her wing and waited patiently as she watched Sergei dance across the stage. She heard her cue and ran onstage dropping into her beginning pose. There was applause from the audience again and the music began again.

Lahela stepped into and arabesque and held it before gliding into a cambré back, her arms moving around her artistically. When Sergei was standing in front of  her and she began acting frightened and whirled across the stage frantically, but still controlling her movement. She whipped into and attitude and Sergi caught her waist, he promenaded her around and she extended it out. Her arms fluttered around her as she boureed around the stage before running off Sergi behind her.

The corps de ballet swans entered the stage and began their part, the pair waited for their cue again. Sergei ran back on at his cue and she knew she would be shortly after. The beginning of the section went in a blur, they were coming upon one of the hardest sections. Sergei lifted Lahela over his head as she arched over him, they did the first one perfectly, then the second one was just as good as the first. Then they prepared for the third one, she wasn't sure how it had happened, but one second she was in the air the next she was falling to the ground. Lahela landed hard, straight on her left knee. Pain was a raging fire throughout her knee, tears welling in her eyes. Sergei helped her up, she couldn't put weight on her leg.

"Just use your right leg." He whispered in her ear and she did just that.

She did her final panché and Sergei helped her run off the stage. The music for the four swans started and everyone was in a tizzy backstage. Lahela collapsed to the ground clutching her leg, it hurt so badly. She sobbed silently on the floor, a mess.

"Grab Melissa she has to go on, hurry!" Madam Beaufort whisper-yelled.

"Lahela honey, you can't dance for the rest of the show. We are getting you an ambulance right now but, honey we need you to calm down.  Selenov, get ready to dance."

She was ushered into a corner and was stripped of the tutu and given her own leotard. It felt like they had stripped her of everything she was worth. All of the time, money, blood, sweat and tears she had put into this had been taken away in a matter of seconds. She felt like a nobody.

Lahela was taken away in an ambulance, she sat alone at the ER. No one was there for her, she just waited. They called her name and she was taken in for X-rays.

"Well Miss. Ikeda. You have shattered your patella. You will need a full reconstruction and plenty of rest."

The first question she had spilled from her mouth, "Will I dance again?"

"We can't be sure. You will have to go through extensive physical therapy to make sure you can walk on that leg again. Even after that it will have moments of weakness." Lahela' s head dropped. "I'll leave you to think."

The doctor left the room and she broke down into tears again. The doctor had told her in the most roundabout way possible that she would never dance again. She cried for the dream her younger self had for her, she was watching it go down the drain. Lahela Ikeda was the one who was always smiling, laughing and lighting up every room. Her light had burnt out.

Three months later

"We are going to try walking today Lahela." Dr. Jacobson said and put away the equipment they had previously been using.

She had used her crutches and made her way over to the double barres and put all of her weight into them as Dr. Jacobson took off her massive brace.

"Okay we'll take it easy. Take a step onto that left leg for me." He coaxed.

Lahela began bearing weight on the leg. She was standing on it. 'Great take another step for me." She did that too. She was walking again. She decided to take one more step, but her leg began to crumble. 'That's okay. You took two steps today." Lahela just felt angry as he strapped up her brace again.

"It's been three months why haven't I made more progress?" She asked frustrated.

"Lahela, your knee was reconstructed you cannot just expect everything to go back to normal in a matter of months. Things as big as this take time to heal and get better. Forcing it to do things it's not ready for will put unwanted stress on it."

Lahela huffed, she didn't know what to do anymore. She was a jobless dancer, with a pre-med degree and no money. She was in a tough spot. She thanked Dr. Jacobson and go into her car and just sat there. She pondered on what she could do. The only thing she could think of was taking out a loan and getting her medical doctorate. It was always a back up plan for her, she just never imagined she would actually have to use her back up. She scrolled through differ t college application forms and made her final decision.

She decided it was time to go back to school.