His Little Ballerina- B. Barnes

Chapter 1: Valeriya

Truth is that it was always going to end.

~The Good the Bad and the Dirty, Panic! At the Disco

If looks could kill, Madame B. would have already killed me by now. It's not like I enjoy working tirelessly all day trying to perfect my fuete.

It's always been like this. Always.

It's always been me perfecting one thing after another. Once one skill was perfect, I moved onto the next. It's been like this ever since I was dropped off at the doorsteps of the Red Room eleven years ago.

I've grown up training. Training to be the deadliest enemy of the United States and their allies ever since I can remember. The ballet helps my flexibility and my agility. The extra training with arsenal and gadgetry is during my night hours at the end of the week.

Madame B. oversees all that I do, making sure my skills are at her desired level of perfection. She says she's training me so that I may succeed, but I know she wants me to become something more.

However, if I ever get Madame B. to be proud of me, I will have achieved success and I will be able to die happy.

"Do it again," she said as I finished my routine.

"Yes Madame."

And so I did my routine again.

Tonduè to fifth.

Plié

Begin

Shanaè up

Shanaè down

Calypso

Roll to the floor

Reach

Fan roll

Step up

Double stag

Reach again

Step back

Release

End

The music stopped, and Madame B. looked as if she had been bored by my performance.

"You are dismissed."

And with that, I left the studio, making my way to my dorm which I shared with three other girls.

Anya Chevisk, Nastia Porokev, and Natalia Alianovna Romanoff.

Anya had been waiting for me when I got to our dorm. Nastia was passed out on her bunk and Natalia was filing her nails.

Anya was the youngest, only seventeen years old, so she had the bed closest to the door. No one wanted that bed, since guards patrolled nightly. If a guard passed by the door, the person closest to the door would have to alert the other girls so that we would shut down and pretend we were asleep.

After Anya is Natalia. Natalia is just about nine months younger than me, and she's nineteen, just like me. She's got the bottom bunk on our only bunk bed. I would pity Natalia since she had to sleep under Nastia, but I don't. Natalia and I are considered Madame B's top two students, and she's my competition. I've been trained to not trust anyone, especially Natalia.

Then there's me, who's about to turn twenty in the next coming January. I've got the bed in the back corner a little to the right of our window. It's very comfy and more private than any other bed. It's not the best, but it'll do.

Our oldest is Nastia. She's twenty-two and has the top bunk on the bunk bed in our room. The top bunk is the best bed, since you can hide anything and never get caught. Nastia had first dibs when we all learned we were sharing a dorm in the Red Room together. She knocked out Natalia's tooth for it.

The four of us have grown very close in all our years here. After all our training, we retreat to our dorm and just hang out like normal teenaged girls...or as normal as we think we can get at least. Normal girls aren't trained to be deadly.

Anya pulled me into our small room and shut the door.

"You'll never guess what we heard." She said, all nervous and scared.

Natalia looked up from her nail filling.

"Don't listen to her. She heard some stupid rumor about the graduation ceremony." Natalia remarked, rolling her eyes in the process.

Anya didn't pay attention to Natalia and went on. "Someone told me that they...'sterilize' you... after you graduate... there's a huge surgery and it's really creepy..." She whispered.

I let out a sigh. "Don't let people scare you. I'm sure they wouldn't do that to us." I reassured her.

Anya still didn't seem any more relaxed.

"Just... be careful Val..." She added before going back to her bed and doodling.

Natalia motioned for me to come over to her, so I did, wondering what she had to say.

"You don't think it's true...right?" She asked me, referring to the rumor.

"I don't know, but I don't want Anya getting scared. You know how timid she is." I spoke very softly, praying my friend wasn't hearing any of this.

"But even if it is true... I don't want that."

"No...really?" The sarcasm in my voice seemed not to affect her.

"I'm serious Valeriya. What if they're just using us?" She asked, her voice growing even softer.

"They aren't. Now be quiet and pretend Anya never said a word."