I stared into the mirror raising my leg up by my ear with ease as I raised myself onto my toes. I felt the shoes begin to crack and splinter under me and I quickly lowered myself onto the hard ground and raced to the closet that contained practically all my childhood memories. I grabbed a new pair of pointe shoes and began to bend and twist them, trying to break them in without wearing them.
I should explain. I’m a professional company dancer for Russian. I was born in London, England but moved to Russia when I realized there were better schools there when I was about six. Dancing was the only thing I truly loved more than anything in the world.
I pressed the play button on the stereo and the slow and graceful music began drifting from the speakers. I got into my first position and began the first section of Sleeping Beauty which was the show my company was doing for the next tour around all of Europe. I continued the steps without Josh, my partner who was dancing as the prince as the door of the studio creaked open.
“Alli-cat! Keep on your leotard and pointe shoes! I am taking you somewhere tonight!” I heard a voice that belonged to my best friend Laura shouted. I winced in surprise of her volume and dropped to the ground.
“Where are we going?” I asked, my voice it’s usual quiet volume.
“To an audition!” She squealed. Huh?
“No! I can’t go to an audition! I have Sleeping Beauty! Our tour starts in two months and I haven’t even memorized the whole dance!” I yelled, freezing in my spot. I felt terrified. I couldn’t just leave the company! No matter how much I hated the Russian company I was apart of, I couldn’t just leave.
“Sweetheart. You hate the company! Just come to the audition, if you get the gig, you’ll have a reason to leave. You could even come back to the company if you wanted to! Anyways, the entire thing you’re trying out for is ballet dancing; it’s your specialty!” Protested Laura, grabbing me and dragging me to her sports car.
“If my pointe shoes are ruined, I’ll kill you,” I threatened. You aren’t meant to run across pavement in pointe shoes! It ruins the silk and dirties the leather on the bottom!
“I’ll buy you a new pair!” Laura replied, twisting the key and we were off down the bumpy road of Moscow, Russia to god knows where.
“Where are we, Laura Alexandria DeFay?” I questioned my best friend. I only used her full name when I was furious with her.
“One Direction background dancer auditions!” She squealed. “I was already hired as their guitar player,” she announced, proudly. She’s always been musically talented.
“Why are we here? I have absolutely no chance of making it! I’m going to suck compared to everyone else here!”
“Don’t psyche yourself out. Besides, most of these girls are American and we all know Russia dominates with ballet,” She scoffed, before shoving me off in the direction of the squeals of teenage girls I could probably hear from miles away and following me as my still pointe shoe clad feet stalked down the hallway as we got closer to the sour scent of teenage desperation.
“I can not believe I’m doing this,” I muttered, my hand resting against the door.
“And you’re going to get it. They’re choosing five girls and you will be one of them!” Laura yelled, shoving me inside before I could protest. I went stumbling through the double doors, causing what must’ve been hundreds of girls to stare at me while I stood there awkwardly. Talk about an entrance. I thought before walking over to an empty spot, free of anyone else.
“Did you see her shoes?” I heard a girl whisper, her voice rude and stuck up sounding. “I know, right!” Went another. There were more after that but those were far more rude in my opinion.
“Girls! We are going to get ready with the auditions. Since there are over four hundred of you and this space is insanely large so you will all be auditioning at once. I want one hundred percent focus on the moves. If your name is called out at all during the audition over the microphone, that means you are eliminated and you must leave. In the end, there will be 5 dancers,” the person who was running the auditions, Anna, announced over the chatter. I shot up and scurried over to the gigantic stage, standing in the second row surrounded by bottle blondes who were wearing mass amounts of makeup. I hope they sweat it all off and break up... I thought bitterly as they giggled. I pulled my red hair into a ponytail and peered around the tall, model like girls while Anna showed us the routine to the song “Give Me Love” by Ed Sheeran which happens to be a very slow song.
The music faded out and I looked around, noting that almost all the bottle blondes were gone and it was mostly girls who looked like they knew how to dance well around.
“Now, since there are only ten girls, I have invited all five of the boys to do a dance with you in groups of five. The first group is Anansa, Allison, Jamie, Tara, and Lana. Boys, enter! You will be dancing a waltz to Moments,” Anna said in her commanding and loud voice. We walked to the middle of the stage as the other five girls walked off and the five boys whom were idolized by millions of boys and girls all around the globe walked in. I looked them over and I could see them confidently checking out the other four girls in my group, trying to choose who to dance with based on their looks. Typical cookie cutter pop-stars. Judging girls by their bodies and faces. While I had drifted off into my angry thoughts, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up and saw a curly haired boy with green eyes staring at me.
“And you are?” I questioned. He looked shocked at my question and stood staring at me.
“I’m Harry. Harry Styles,” he said, confusion evident in his deep voice.
“Mmm,” I mumbled, uninterested. “Well, do you know how to waltz?”
“Yes! We learned a while ago!” He protested loudly. I nodded and he quickly put his hands on the small of my back and grasping my other hand as I did the same to him when the music slowly began. We danced in time to the music, Harry dancing shockingly well and rarely messing up.
“Hopefully you make it,” he whispered in my ear, his voice flirtatious and seemingly hinting towards something.
“You’re repugnant,” I mumbled back, my distaste for him growing larger by the minute.
I sat spread apart in the row of seats with Anansa, Jamie, Tara, and Lana watching the last five girls go whos’ names I had learned were Hanna, Lindsey, Kara, Brittany, and Jackie.
“Well, it was a very tough decision,” the blonde one said, his voice bright and chirpy.
“But we managed to choose five girls who have the potential to go on tour with us for the next year. The girls are Lindsey,” the puppy dog looking boy continued.
“Lana,” continued the darker skinned boy.
“Tara,” chirped the boy who’s name I believed was Louis.
“Jackie,” the blonde one said, his voice sounding regretful and Jackie lept up and hugged him tightly after squealing and he cringed.
“And lastly... Our final girl going on tour with us is...” Harry began. May as well go home. They’re obviously bringing Hanna. “Allison.” My jaw dropped and I saw Harry snicker at my expression.
“Later, you’ll be emailed by our managers all the information for the tour,” cheered the puppy dog looking one.
