THE PROPHECY, zodiac academy

001.

CHAPTER ONE
( ASTRID )

The music she had chosen blasted through her earphones, connected to the old mp3 player clipped onto the strap of her leotard , underneath the thin, grey cropped cardigan she was wearing over it.

The muscles in her arms and legs hurt, were starting to shake as she pushed herself to keep moving, everything she had being expressed as she moved her body with a graceful precision.

She only had around an hour left until she had to pack up and actually do her job before locking up and leaving by 10 . She was a janitor—as pathetic as she felt about it.

But it was a job. A job she couldn't pass up. even if the pay wasn't great, it was something. And her and her sisters needed any penny they could get.
Tory was really the one paying the bills for the their crappy studio apartment, Astrid took care of groceries.

Mrs James had caught Astrid watching her classes around a year ago from across the street.
Saw how she had been trying to squint her eyes to see what the students in her class were learning, trying to replicate the moves on her own.

After the class had ended, the elderly women ran across the street— almost being hit by a car in the process— and caught Astrid before she could make her escape. Invited her inside and asked
why she kept showing up to watch instead of signing up for a class.

Astrid, embarrassingly, told her she didn't have money—adding to the fact she'd never danced in her life besides a few amateur classes that were held free at her old high school— and Mrs James had given her a deal, clean the studio for her after hours and she could join the beginner ballet classes held once a week.
And she was payed—under the table.

of course, Astrid took it. She came to open up to the woman over the past year and considered her, well, her only friend.

Even if she looked horrible while doing it—ballet requires a lot of training and experience she didn't have — it was something that made her feel alive— made her feel like she was dancing on a cloud. Nobody watching ,looking her way. Just her, without a thought in her mind.

She leaped and leaped and leaped, and didn't stop leaping across the room, adding three step turns, moving her arms in a way that made her feel like she was one of those beautiful old statues of goddesses. She didn't stop moving to the music until it came to a close.

Ending with a pirouette and landing in fifth position, she breathed hard, eyes connecting to her own in the mirror. Then they found a man standing by the door, watching her with curious eyes.

She jumped slightly in her spot, rushing to take out her earphones as she stormed over to him. Her guard shooting back up. "Can I help you?" She questioned rudely, walking past him as she exited dance studio to the main area. "We're closed." She stated the obvious. Slipping off her ballet slippers as she sat down on a chair and put her sneakers on.

"I've been looking for you, we need to talk."

Astrid tensed, what the fuck?
Her mind scoured for anyone she could have pissed off, maybe this guy was someone her sister was sleeping with and cut off? because she's sure as hell never seen this man in her life.

She gave him a quick once over.
He was tall, his brown hair pushed back in the kind of careless I've-spent-ages-making-this-look-accidental way that guys with too much time and money on their hands often went for.