A Forbidden Finale (Student/Teacher Romance)

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

I didn't even feel good in the pretty dress. I might have looked stunning, but nothing was going to get rid of the stigma of being the only student who'd spent less than ten minutes on stage. I'd seen my parents in the audience, so excited when I first came on. I didn't want to know what their expressions looked like now. I just wanted to leave.

Amber had patted me on the back as we dispersed to change into our Gala clothes and issued a very mocking nice dancing out there. My dancing had been perfect, there'd just been significantly less of it than I'd wanted.

I felt even more awkward in the dress than I thought I would, too. The thought of turning up in a dress way below the standards of everyone else had been embarrassing, but I realised everyone must know someone here had bought me the dress. That was worse.

I hoped no one cared enough about me to try and find out who was funding my wardrobe. I really didn't want to incite any extra hate from Amber. Maybe this had been her plan all along—Leon bought me the dress and she had an excuse to do mean things to me for as long as it made her happy.

Walking into the Gala was painful. Not only because my muscles were sore from all my training, but because it felt like everyone's eyes were on me. They weren't, of course. I doubted anyone even recognised me, but I hung my head and didn't meet anyone's eyes nevertheless.

The urge to run out and never come back was so very tempting.

"Carly!" My mam and dad found me in no time, coming to give me a hug. Their smiles weren't convincing. "You had such a small part."

"Yeah," I scratched the back of my head. "I did."

"Why? You still looked beautiful up there, obviously." She squeezed my shoulder. "But I thought you'd be in it more."

"I may not have been entirely honest with you," I admitted. "Ballet hasn't exactly been going fine." I bounced from side to side on my heels and couldn't look at either of them. This was so mortifying. "I was seriously behind everyone else when I first started, so I got a rubbish role in the performance. I'm catching up, though. I'm a lot better already."

My parents shared a look. It was obviously something they'd considered beforehand. "I see." My mam looked very tempted to hug me, but I was glad she repressed it. Right now we were hovering near a corner and no one had any reason to look twice at us. Well, maybe at the excessive amount of cleavage my mam apparently thought was acceptable, but otherwise we were inconspicuous.

"Are they doing everything they can to help you out, though?" My dad asked with a large frown. "They're a big school with all the resources in the world. They should be able to get you up to scratch in no time. You've got raw talent."

"They have," I assured him, trying to avoid looking for Mr. Langley in the crowd. "I have a personal tutor who has been helping me after hours. That has really helped."

My mam rolled her eyes. "You're already picking up their poshness, pet. If you start saying I am instead of I'm I'mma get worried."

I chuckled. "You really have nothing to worry about," I assured them for the second time. The Geordie accent wasn't even that great, I had no idea why she wanted me to keep it so badly.

"So, who's the tutor? Do we know them?" I wasn't sure how they possibly could have done.

"He's called Mr. Langley." Facing him in lessons after this was going to be so difficult I didn't even want to think about it.