All The Faith In The World

Chapter 14: "I want to spin like her."

Faith's P.O.V

It's been a week and a half since the accident, and a week since I came home in a wheelchair. I started on crutches since I have to go to school next week and I didn't want to be any more of an outcast than I already was.

Mom still hasn't come home, but I'm fine with that. Connor said she called one day and said she was staying with a friend because she wanted a 'break' for a little while. So, grandma and grandpa have been coming over more and more to help us out. They said 'While you two are obviously perfectly capable to care for Faith, we will just be helping with meals and things until your mom comes home.'

One day, when I was sitting in my wheelchair, watching Dance Moms, I thought about Mrs. Kathy's dance studio and how I haven't been there in weeks. Noah was in the kitchen, working on homework when I asked him,"Can you drive me somewhere?"

He looked up from his calculus. "Depends where you want to go."

"I need to go to the studio," I said. He looked up, smiled, and then he closed his books.

"You want to stay in that?" he asked about my wheelchair as he grabbed his keys and opened the door. I shrugged.

"Yeah, for now," I said. We got in the car and drove to the studio. I got more and more nervous as we drove.

9 years ago..............

"Come on, Faith, don't be scared. This is how you get to spin like the girl you saw on the television screen," my dad said, pulling my 7 year old arm into the light pink studio. It was my first day of dance class. I had told my parents I wanted to be a dancer when I they were flipping through the channels and a girl with blonde hair was doing perfect spins. One after another after another. Like a clock.

"I wanna spin like her," I said, pointing to the screen. I looked back to my dad, who was sitting on the couch drinking a beer. He looked at the screen and then back at me.

"We'll talk about it," he said, taking another sip from his bottle. I ran to Noah's room, that was at the time all decked out in soccer gear and posters of his favorite players.

"I'm gonna spin like the yellow haired girl on the screen," I said. He was texting his friend, so he put his phone down and looked at me.

"Cool," he nodded and went back to his phone. He just recently got it, so he was pretty addicted to it.

Now here I stood, in front of the pink studio on south street, ready to learn how to spin. We walked in together and a lady sitting behind the counter looked at me and smiled.

"Are you Faith?" she asked. I nodded my head. She talked to my dad for a bit about signing up and what to expect, then she took me back to a purple door that said 'pre-team' on it. I walked inside and looked around. The class hasn't started yet, so I put down my bag and walked over to a group of girls in the corner. They had brown, blonde, and black hair with the same leotards I had on. They waved over to me when they saw me.

"You're Faith, right? I'm Clara, and this is Cora and Madelyn," the brown haired girl with pale skin said. She pointed to the blonde girl and the black haired girl when she spoke. I immediately liked them. I sat down and we started talking about school and our favorite color and what we liked. Before we knew it, class started. An older lady with really light blonde hair walked into the room.

"Okay, girls, let's get stretching," she said. She turned on an up beat song and came around to help us stretch. It hurt as we got more into it, but she said that it would get easier when I came to more classes.

"Now, let's start with some work on the barre," she said next. We all walked over to the barre' and did some fancy foot work with cool french names. We twisted our feet and we bent our knees and did basically, whatever she said. I looked at the gold, digital clock on the wall and it said 7:30 P.M. The class ended at 8:00, so I didn't think we would get to spinning today. The last part of class, we started to learn how to do a pirouette, which is a spin, but, we ran out of time and said we would do it next time.

I grabbed my bag and found Clara, Cora, and Madelyn. They gave me their phone numbers, so I could call them from my home phone, and then we went into the waiting room. Connor and Noah and dad were waiting for me, because they wanted to get ice cream afterward, and we drove home, with ice cream in our hands. Clara, Cora, and Madelyn talked everyday on the phone. We had sleepovers and we went to competitions together, when we finally made it to the team. At one of our sleepovers, after dance, we were playing truth or dare, and Madelyn made Clara tell us who she thought was cute.

"Noah," she said, giggling.

"Faith's brother, Noah?" Cora asked. Clara giggled again and nodded her head. That was the first time one of my friends had a crush on one of my brothers. It didn't matter, I knew we were always going to be best friends.

Present day...............

I sat in my wheelchair looking inside the doors at Mrs. Kathy's ballet school.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come in?" Noah asked. I nodded and told him I would be out in a minute and went inside the cool building. I still had my cast on my wrist and the gauze on my knees. I looked at the girl at the desk, Piper, one of our choreographers.

"Faith!" she cried when she saw me. She came around to hug me and I hugged her back. "We watched the news story. How are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm getting better," I said. She didn't look like she believed me, but she took me to the team room, where class had already started. I looked at the cubby's on the wall. Clara, Cora, Madelyn, and I had cubby's in a row, but mine was bare and dusty. She opened the door to the team room and everyone stopped when they saw me. I wondered if they had seen the news story too?

"FAITH!!" Clara, Cora, and Madelyn cried when they saw me. They all ran over to hug me and pulled me into the room. Mrs. Kathy came up next.

"Oh, Faith, how are you? I've missed you," she said, hugging me.

"I've really missed you all too. And of course, dancing," I said. I heard Angela in the corner make a noise like she didn't want me back. Mrs. Kathy nodded her head.

"I understand dear. How long until recovery?" she asked.

"Well, I started on crutches earlier this week, but the doctor had said to wait a few weeks after I could fully walk again and to do any physical activities," I said. She looked sad.

"Well, then unfortunately, you can't come with us to the first competition. But, if everything goes well and you feel up to it, the second one sounds like it will be in the right time frame," she said. I smiled.

I don't know what I would do if I could never dance again. I figured I should let her get back to her class. I said my goodbyes to everyone and met Noah out by the car.

"How did it go?" he asked, helping me into the car.

"Good! I am still on the team and she said I could come to the second competition when I get better," I said, still beaming.

"Well, that's good. I got a call from Connor, he said he's working a double tonight at the diner and he needs help, so I have to go in. But, grandma and grandpa will be at the house," he started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.

"That's fine," I said. They had been taking more and more shifts to pay the bills and for just some extra money on the side. Grandma and grandpa have been helping with the bills as well, since they live in a retirement home, which is nice. We have been able to relax more, since then.

"Noah?"

"Yeah?"

"I just want you to know that Clara used to have a crush on you," I said. He laughed.

"You just now remembered this?" he asked.

"Yeah, it just hit me," I said, laughing as well.

"Sometimes I wonder how your mind works," he said. We drove into our neighborhood and I got out at the house.

"Now, we should be back in by 8:00," he said. It was around 6:40ish right now, so not that long.

"Okay," I said, "Bye."

"Bye."