Karimov Dance Project

Chapter 5: From Mud to Castles; Zhou Ling

Tern was a place with either pouring rain or dry weather for weeks. Now it was the first. Thank god for the cap above the bench.

James hated Tern. It was a miserable tiny town with old-fashioned people, where everyone knew each other, gossip spread faster than lightning and more often than not it was the jealousy driven, bashing type of gossip. One that has the tendency to ruin reputations. James remembered well what happened when Alex was on TV for the first time. Yes, before that Lily would get a lot of hate from fellow mothers for sending her stepson away, but that was to her face. Now that Alex appears on TV regularly, everybody is so nice to his stepmother, and never tell a bad thing about her. To her face, that is.

James tried to convince himself that it won't happen to his parents, that nobody will blame an occupied working pair with four children for sending their eldest son away to an elite dance school where he has a good chance at a better future, but who was he kidding? Though he had to admit, it didn't look like his parents cared about that. It wasn't even a problem talking them into letting him go. Straight away James' mother promised his room to Sarah, one of the triplets, and started thinking about which suitcase to give him.

Of course it wasn't so easy for Maddy, but it was much less complicated than it has been with Alex. Their father was absolutely okay with his stepdaughter's carrier in dance, and both parents knew Sofiya and Azamat quite well by now, so they could trust them with their second child. Also, Lily's reputation could hardly get even worse.

So today, on Tuesday 10th October, instead of being in boring classes, Maddy, James and Aidar where sitting at the nearly empty bus station. After the auditions were over, Aidar came to fetch them. It was quite unnecessary because both Maddy and James came to 'Twirling Terrace' nearly every weekend on their own in the last few years. But then Maddy and Lily overheard Sofiya Mikhailovna telling her son on the phone, "Don't look so proud. I gave you two of our oldest kids not because I trust you to look after them, but because I trust them not to lose you."

Now, Aidar was sitting the end of the bench, eyes stuck to his phone and fingers tapping away. Judging by his dreamy look, he was texting Zhou Ling.

James' eyes trailed over to Maddy, a bright blob in between the sad grey station and the sad grey sky. She was wearing her favourite knitted pastel-rainbow coloured cardigan, white jeans with little hearts and a black T-shirt with a tabby cat he customed for her. He drew the same tabby on multiple other items of clothing, some for Maddy and Lizzie, some for himself, but most for Alex. James' brain lingered a bit on the meaning of the cat before forcing himself back to reality.

Maddy was knitting peacefully with headphones in her ears, which usually signalised she was listening to some audiobook.

A car passed by and splashed all of them in with mud. Aidar's makeup started smudging. Maddy looked with a horrified expression at her cardigan, which now turned brown. James was not even going to look down to see what happened to his favourite shoes.

God, he was definitely not going to miss Tern.

James was sketching. He had a long, pleasant three hour journey in an empty bus ahead of him. Usually they would take the normal bus to Earlwood, but today they were sitting on a bus with a huge Karimov logo on both sides. With no one snooping around and trying to see what he was doing, James could both sketch or read peacefully.

Soon he will be riding in this bus every weekend, but he doubts he will ever get used to it. The bus was huge, with comfy seats and a wide corridor, as well as a TV you could see from very part of the bus.

He and Maddy were half-watching, half-listening to a wild life program while she knit and he drew, Aidar was at the back of the bus trying to fix the disaster on his face and FaceTiming Zhou Ling in the process. James turned to the window just in time to see the 'You Are Leaving Tern. Farewell, Come Back Soon!' sign outside. He grinned. "I will come back, but luckily not so soon," the curly boy thought, "A whole month of not seeing grey buildings and grey skies. Maybe even more, if I convince mum to visit instead of going myself."