The Ballerina and the Hip Hop Dancer

7. Sickness and Punishment Pt. 1

I woke up Friday morning with a major headache. I have no idea how I got it but when my alarm went off and I sat up, I felt a massive head rush. Then my head started pounding with pain. I went downstairs and told my mum.

"Mum, I have a massive headache, do we have any aspirin?"

"Are you okay honey? I think we do. Let me check." She said.

She walked over to the counter and dug out some aspirin from the little basket where random stuff is kept. Mum then came back with a glass of water and a tablet. I swallowed it and then walked into the lounge room and laid on the couch. My mother came over to me with a thermometer and took my temperature.

"Oh, honey your temperature is 39 degrees and you look pale as anything." She said.

I started to cough and that's when I felt like I could just sleep all day and not go to dance but, you see, the thing is, I've never missed a dance class in all of my years of training. If I was just even a little bit sick with a minor cold, I'd still go for the whole day and suffer. I have never missed a day of dance and I wasn't about to start.

"Mum, what time is it?" I asked.

"6:30, why?"

"I need to get ready for dance otherwise I'll be late." I said.

I quickly got up but mum stopped me halfway.

"Where do you think you're going?" She asked.

"Upstairs to get ready for dance." I told her.

"No you're not. You have a temperature and a fever. I will not let you go to dance sick."

"But-"

"No. Now get back on that couch and rest. I have to go to work but Damon will be here as usual and I'll make sure he looks after you." Mum said.

"No, I'm fine. Really. See..." I got up and pretended to not feel like I was about to faint.

"No. Sit down and don't go anywhere."

"Ugh!" I groaned and flopped back down on the couch.

She left me there to go to work and I felt completely and utterly bored right now. I was watching tv but there were no interesting shows on at the moment so I gave up. I got up slowly and went upstairs to my room. I walked over to my bookshelf and picked out a book then hopped back in bed and read for a while. I had been reading for about fifteen minutes and my head was still pounding so I put the book away and laid down.

There was no way I was missing dance today. Its Friday today so it wouldn't matter if I was sick because tomorrow is the weekend. I could stay in bed all day and not do anything...but today is the last day of the week and last day of dance until next week so I was going. No one could stop me.

I got out of bed and changed into some sweat pants and a t-shirt, even though I never wear this to training.

I went to the bathroom to fix my hair and when I looked in the mirror I could see how bad I looked. Once I fixed my hair, I applied a small amount of make up just to cover up the fact that I was sick and pale and felt like throwing up. I gathered my ballet, jazz and normal shoes and bag then walked downstairs quietly so Damon wouldn't know I was leaving. When I got downstairs, I saw Damon in the lounge room watching cartoons so I  tip-toed out the door and ran straight to TDA.