Tempest AUs

Dance Academy; part i.

Kaya Blackwood wasn't exactly sure how she got into ballet. But she was glad she did. As more and more girls quit, since they were no longer being obligated to go by their mothers, Kaya had stuck with it. Weekly practices became daily practices became applying to Jupiter Conservatory in New York City when she was nineteen years old.

It was the hardest dance academy to get into in the country but the Cherokee-Chinese ballerina was determined to be able to call herself a student there. If she had tried out immediately out of high school, she would have had an easier, albeit still near impossible, chance to get in. There were only four slots for dancers her age and of those, just two for ballet.

Things had changed in her eighteenth year and she had quit ballet for several months after the death of her father before realizing that he would not want her to give up so easily. She was still the same girl who had joined a karate class just to learn to punch the boy in her fourth grade class who said ballerinas were weak. And that little girl was going to get into Jupiter Conservatory.

Her audition was set for the March after her senior year of high school, almost exactly a year after her father had died in a freak accident while surfing. Kaya liked to think that this was his way of looking out for her.

The taxi slowed to a stop and Kaya pressed her nose against the window. The building loomed over her. She would have thought that it would have been lost in the hundreds of other immense buildings in New York City, but she had been mistaken. It stood out to her like an elephant at a mouse convention. The conservatory was pristine and modern on the outside, as well as immense in size.

"Thank you!" Kaya said quickly to the balding driver and payed him before scurrying out.

Once she heard his frantic wheels drive away, she took a deep breath and entered the white building. The inside was just as terrifying as the outside, perfect and not a single thing out of place. Expensive decorations were set up along with paintings worth more than her house in California and a front desk with a boy who looked hardly older than she.

The ceiling was high and she could hear faint piano from deep within the building. No doubt were there classes going on and Kaya was itching to join them. To just sprint into the dance room and dance with them
She refrained from doing so 'That's going to be me,' she thought. 'That has to be me.'

Kaya walked, the way all ballerinas do, with her toes slightly out, towards the boy at the front desk. Now close to him, she could read his nametag that told her his name was Matthew.

"Excuse me," her voice cracked, but she held her head high to show confidence.

The boy looked up from his computer and looked her up and down. Kaya wished she could say it was the same way her dance teachers analyzed her form but it certainly was not. It felt like he was trying to figure out what her tan body looked like under her warm up outfit.

"Can I help you?" He asked, his eyes finally meeting her chocolate ones. He leaned forward on the front desk and gave her a sleazy smile. Her perfect image of this academy was already ruined. Which made her feel better and worse.

"I'm Kaya, I have an audition here at 10:00."

Matthew nodded and led her to a dance room where a dozen other dancers were also going to audition with her. Kaya hardly paid any attention to the ballerinas and ballet dancers stretching and chatting. They would only make her more anxious and doubtful of herself. They all looked just as professional as she did. What would make her stand out?

Her attention was caught by an image on the wall closest to the door. A dozen dancers all in sixth position and holding hands before bowing at the end of their show. She first noticed the ballerina in the front and center, she was blonde and probably one of the prettiest girls Kaya had ever seen. She looked confident in the performance she had just given the audience. Kaya noticed the other performers, too. They stood in a V on either side of the blonde ballerina and Kaya's heart ached to be a part of this photograph. She really wanted this.

The dark haired girl noticed that Matthew was still standing in the doorway, obviously letting his gaze roam over the skinny girls in nothing but tights and leotards.

"Uh, thank you," Kaya said, a little snappy to get him to leave. God, how was this boy working here?

Matthew broke his trance and looked back at Kaya. "Good luck," he muttered with a raised brow, like she was just another wannabe ballerina who thought she had what it takes to attend this prestigious conservatory.

"No big deal, just my dream," she muttered sarcastically right back. She didn't expect him to respond and certainly not the way he did.

"Yeah, well, it's not as dreamy as you might think," he said back to her. His face lost the lustful look it just had and suddenly hinted at anger and annoyance.

Kaya was confused by his statement and change in mood but pulled her attention back to the photograph. With Matthew's words ringing in her ears, she started to look at the photograph in a different light.

The blonde girl still beamed but the brunette ballerina beside her looked as if she was doing everything in her power to move as close to the front as possible and possibly push the blonde off the stage while she was at it. A boy on the other side of the main ballerina looked as if he hadn't slept in years. She could see faint bruises beneath most of their tights.

What was this academy hiding?