Bloodlines

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Maddie put her leg on top of the ballet bar and stretched over to touch her toes. She felt her muscle stretch, a feeling that she missed in the past three years. Maddie put her leg down as she watched a bunch of dancers run through the routine they were given to audition with. She couldn't believe it was Friday already. Maddie had been practicing her solo for days, not stopping until every movement was perfect.

Maddie recognized every dancer that was here. None of them liked her, mostly because of who she was friends with. They also didn't like her because their old teacher would always make her the center focus instead of the others. They called it favoritism, but it was mostly because she was the shortest dancer on the team. The tallest dancer was almost six feet tall, and she left the team last year.

As Maddie was practicing her turns, she felt all the glares placed upon her. After doing two pirouettes, she stopped and found everybody glaring right at her. Maddie fiddled with her bun and continued to stretch her legs by putting them straight up. Through the mirror, she saw all the girls gasp as an old friend of hers walked through the door. His name was Steven Holt.

Steven was a very tall, well-built guy. He was definitely taller than Luke by at least two inches. He had brown curly hair with really nice eyes. One eye was straight up gold while the other was bright blue. Maddie remembered calling him husky, not just because of his husky voice. She only called him that because he would always call her fun-sized. He was the only guy dancer on the team, and was her only friend on the team.

Their old dance teacher would always put them together to dance. They performed a lot of duets together, and they competed against each other numerous times. Although Maddie would always beat him, he was always behind by one tenth of a point. He was her only competition on the team, mostly because he made her work harder.

"Hey, shorty," Steven teased her. He put his bag down as all the girls stared at him.

"Oh, look whose back, husky." Maddie put her leg down and grabbed the water from her bag. Maddie and Steven began to talk for a little while, until Jaime walked in and called everyone towards the front.

Jaime spoke about the auditions. Each dancer was to perform the same ballet routine and to keep dancing until she turned the music off. Maddie nodded her head as everybody went to the back of the dance studio. Maddie felt anxiety built up in the room, along with the scent of hope and sweat. Maddie was a bit nervous; Maddie hadn't danced ballet in years. It wasn't just something she could bounce back up easily. She had to work for it. Jaime called the first dancer to the front. Maddie watched the dancer walk to the center and went into first position. Maddie began to hear The Entertainer by Scott Joplin as the dancer began to butcher the number.

Maddie looked away from the competition and rehearsed her routine to herself. While Maddie was marking through the number, Steven came up to her. He was laughing right in front of her face, which annoyed her.

"Could you not?" Maddie asked him, rudely.

"I can't," Steven said, while laughing. "You're practicing like you don't know the dance. You're Maddie Mason; you win at every competition you're in!"

"Well, not everyone can get what they want," Maddie said bitterly. She didn't know whether or not Steven understood what she said. Steven was sixteen, so right now his parents were looking for someone to marry him. Maddie honestly could care less about that because she was going to reject every single person her father threw at her. Although she was dating Luke, she wouldn't mind if her father set her up with Steven.