Irish Dance Camp

Chapter 9

As soon as Carly and I arrived at breakfast the next morning, Julie ran over to me.
"Ciara!" She exclaimed "We have a master class with Michael this morning after drills!"
I had almost forgotten about Michael.
"Uh oh...." I said, and then Marie burst in.
"Julie, why are you so upset about stupid Michael?! You're a world champion, and trust me, the rest of us would love to be in your position! Stop acting like all the bad stuff happens to you!" Marie snapped. Julie looked dumbstruck.
"What are you-"
"Just quit it, alright?!" Marie stomped off.
"I'm sorry, Ciara, I have no idea what's gotten into her..." Julie wiped a tear from her cheek, and I gave her a hug.
"It's not your fault, I think she's just jealous of you," I said. Julie nodded and sniffed.
"It's just hard when everyone expects you to be perfect all the time..."
"I can imagine." I said. Sometimes I felt the same way. My parents and teachers always expected me to win all the local feises because I do so well at majors.
Julie sighed, and then we walked over to our table. I sat with Carly on my left side and Julie on my right.
"Are you alright, Julie?" Carly asked, noticing her distraught face.
Julie nodded hastily, and I quickly whispered to Carly about what happened. She then stood up and walked over to Julie to give her a hug.
Carly was such a compassionate girl, I sometimes forgot how much I loved having her as a friend.
I changed the subject, and as we were talking, Taylor suddenly started laughing.
"Hoping that you can become a world champion by talking to one? Nice try, number 40!" She said.
Julie opened her mouth to protest.
"Just ignore her," I muttered. "It's useless."
Julie shook her head. "Fine, but you've gotta start sticking up for yourself, Ciara. That girl has been bad news since the first feis I saw her at."
Soon enough, we were headed out to drills class. Grace walked up to me, grinning.
"Ciara, I forgot to tell you that when I watched you dance yesterday, you already looked like you've improved a ton!" She said.
"Wow, thanks!" I said.
"You are going to do so well at nationals, I can tell!"
I was starting to feel the pressure for nationals, even though there was still a month left. So many people were telling me I was going to do well, and I just didn't  want to disappoint them...

Our drills class was with Elle that morning and it was much easier than the one from the day before. We each had to do 6 steps of reel and 6 steps of slip jig and then we were finished! But it was time to go to Michael's class...
Michael was super tall and had very clean cut hair. You could tell he meant business.
"Heavies on, girls." He said as we all filed into the room quietly. Why was it all the European instructors called hard shoes 'heavies'?