My Summer with New York

Welcome to Sandville, USA

Rose's POV:
"I'm going to miss you so much Rosie!" My best friend, Isabelle, said. "I'm going to miss you too! But you know my parents are taking me because I 'need a break' from dance." I sobbed.  My whole senior year has been devoted to each and every dance recital my school put on, and now my parents were forcing me to leave all of my work behind to go to some island for the whole summer.

"The worst part is I can't even visit!" Isabelle cried. Call us emotional, but we hadn't been separated for long since kindergarten.  "My mother wants complete separation from the city!" I griped. Isabelle looked at me with tears in her eyes, and I knew I probably looked the same. "Promise we will talk every single day." She cried. "Oh Isa! Of course I promise!" I said as I hailed a cab.

The cab dropped me off in front of my parent's apartment building shortly after three. My parents were expecting my bag to be ready by six o'clock sharp, and we'd be leaving at five in the morning. I unlocked my door and swiftly stepped inside. My parents had left their coffee mugs in the sink, and they'd expect them to be washed by the time they got off work at five. "Typical." I muttered when I saw the note my mother left:

Rose,
Your father and I will be working until seven tonight. Make sure your bag is packed and there is a roast chicken in the refrigerator for you to cook when you are hungry. See you tonight.
                 ~ Mom.

I rolled my eyes at the word "mom". My mother had always insisted that she was called mother and if anyone tried to call her anything else, they were corrected immediately. My phone began to ring, and the Caller ID said it was my boyfriend, Justin.

"Hey babe how was your day?" He asked when I answered. I smiled even though he couldn't see me; he was always so considerate. "It was perfect until I got home."

"What did Elaine do this time?" He asked. Justin was the only one who could call my mother by her real name. "She wrote this letter saying that my bag needed to be packed, and then she said if I was hungry I could cook some roast chicken. Maybe I wanted actual dinner with them tonight." I complained.

"Rose would you like me to come over, so I can eat your roast chicken with you?" He asked. I smiled at his offer and immediately accepted his offer. "I'll be over in twenty minutes." He told me. "I love you." I said.

"I love you too baby girl."

Curse New York traffic! He could be here sooner, but we had to have so many people live and work here. If we lived out in the country, I knew it wouldn't take long for Justin to get here. I sounded spoiled, I know, but Justin was the only one who knew my family wasn't as perfect as we portrayed. Isabelle just knew the part about them being angry over my choice to go to Juilliard instead of a law school.

I had always loved fine arts since I was a child. My parents, thinking it was a phase I would eventually grow out of, supported me endlessly. From a young age, I had talent; it only seemed to grow as I did. Applying to Juilliard was a whim, and I was sure to apply to other colleges as well, but soon the whim turned into an audition. For my audition, I danced to the song Colors by Halsey; another risk I couldn't believe I had taken. I hadn't heard of anyone ever dancing to alternative for the Juilliard panel; it always seemed to be classical.

When I was accepted, I started to see the disdain on my parents' faces. They wanted me to believe that they were happy, but I could see the disgust in their eyes. Their failure of a daughter; the only Beckett to not go into law. My gramma was ecstatic that I got into the school that I did, and she knew not to attempt to change my mind. "You are a talented girl, Rose." She had told me. "I believe that and so does Juilliard."

For the rest of high school I had been known as the girl who got into the prestigious school. I was no longer Rosie Next Door; I was Rose The Girl Going To Juilliard. Isabelle was going to NYU for her fall semester, and it would be the next time I'd be apart from her.