𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞

𝟕 | 𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞

Antoinette

I forced my disgust to not show across my face as Emma tightly gripped onto my hands, the two of us beginning to spin on our tipped toes. Across the room a musician played a variant of "The Ocean and the Pearls" on his piano and I tried to force the upbeat melody to calm me.

"Bonne!" Mistress Darya approved, a hint of satisfaction spreading across her pale middle-aged face. [translation: Good]

Duets were simply something that I would rather avoid but always couldn't. I preferred learning my chorography and perfecting my mistakes at my own pace, when you worked with someone else your flaws weighed them down and vice versa. Then she paired me with the worse person ever, Emma had no problem pointing out and unrightfully criticizing every mistake that I made and that only made things worse.

"Transition vers un Jete. Emma towards the front going right and Antoniette going in the opposite direction." Darya instructed, pointing her fingers from left to right. [translation: Transition into a Jete]

Of course, Emma gets front.

Despite my distaste for it, I still flipped around and did a Grand Jeté towards my left. Knowing just how to impress Mistress Darya, a large smile spreads across my lips as I did so. One beat I do a quick Soubresaut and on the next I raised my leg to do a Pas de Chat.

Lucky for me Mistress Darya seemed to have woken up on the right side of the bed this morning and is satisfied by everything that we're doing. I've learned that only when Darya's is impressed is when we get to escape class and go home. From the moment that I stepped inside of the dance studio I've been ready to take my exit, the thought of Micheal surfing my mind more than it should've.

Our conversation from three days ago played through my mind like a broken stereo, or more so his unexplainable anger about the two of us not talking. I'd been under the impression that if someone was mean to you 9/10 it meant that they didn't want to speak to you,

I supposed Micheal beat the odds.

Just as the melody comes to an end Emma and I wrapped our arms around one another, keeping the position until the pianists stopped. The two of us stayed in our positions and kept a smile our on face, waiting for Mistress Darya to give the signal that we can drop.

"Agréable." Mistress Darya's voice signals me to remove my hands from Emma as quickly as I could. The blonde scoffed underneath her breath, giving me a look that could kill. "Next class you're going to start studying the Bluebird and Princess duet with Franco." She spoke in my direction.

"Mistress Darya," I frowned.

"Annie," She responded swiftly, "Nous avons besoin de duos plus habiles." [transition: We need more skillful duets].

Perhaps me doing a duet with Franco would be much better than me doing one with Emma. At least when I made a mistake, he would probably help me correct it instead of shaming me. I allowed a deep sigh to escape from my lips as I made my way over to the brown bar.

"Potrei fare il duetto Padrona Darya." Emma snapped suddenly; blue eyes wide as if Mistress Darya wasn't aware of that. [translation: I could do the duet Mistress Darya}

"You could. But I think that it may be a better fit for Antoniette." Mistress Darya explained dryly.

"How so?" Emma scoffed.

The middle-aged women turned her attention to the corner of the room where a group of boys were sitting. "Franco, Con chi preferiresti fare un duetto?" [translation: Who would you rather do a duet with?]

Both me and Emma's eyes fall on Franco Russo, the top male dancer in our class. The twenty-year-old Italian dancer landed roles for two reasons: His talent and his handsome looks. Light brown hair, piercing brown eyes, and smooth olive toned skin that never failed to glisten underneath the stage lights. When I came to ballet class my main focus was ballet, but I'd be lying if I said that Franco didn't catch my eye at least once a week. I was beginning to think that maybe I just had a strong attraction for Italians....