Rising Star -a Jake Miller Fic-

Rise

ONE YEAR AGO

Sirens. Red and blue lights. Blood dripped down the girls face from a large cut on her forehead. But she wasn't worried about any of that. She wasn't worried about the fact that she could feel the pain radiating through her body. She didn't care that she had felt her back break and her career as a professional dancer could potentially be over before it even began. All she cared about was that one thing that fell from the window....

CASSIE - PRESENT DAY

Have you ever regretted every moment in your life with a burning passion because you no longer had the strength to carry on? That was me. I went from being one of the best dancers in the world, to being nothing, all because of a stupid mistake. A stupid mistake that could have been avoidable. I shook my head as I turned my attention back to the group that were going to compete in a new competition in a month. All we knew was that it was for some fancy singer or something. 

"Stop! Again!" I cried out as I looked at the very messy routine that my dancers were performing for me. The dance was barely going for a minute before I ran a hand through my hair. "Stop! Are you even trying, or are you all just throwing in the towel before the competition even begins?!" I cried out, looking at my dancers. They were frustrated and tired. I knew that. But if we wanted to win this competition, then they needed to go full out. They needed to prove that they wanted this.

"You know what Cassie? Back off!" Joseph, one of the dancers lashed out at me, getting all up in my face and instantly my face hardened and my body tensed, waiting for him to continue. I heard all the sharp intakes of breath and instantly everyone knew that I wasn't going to take this well. "You can't even dance anymore and you're going to stand there and judge us even though we're the ones actually doing more than you ever could. You're a has-been Cassie. Always have been and always will be. You're a nothing, Cassie, admit it," he spat and my face hardened even more. 

"Get. Out," I breathed, my voice cold and unforgiving. I hated it when people brought up the past, especially that part of my past. I knew that I had made a mistake and I paid for that mistake with the one important thing in my life. The looks on everyone's faces knew that Joseph had crossed a very thin line. 

"Cassie..." Kenna, one of my closest friends, and daughter of the owner of Star spoke up, trying to intervene before we all did something we would come to regret, but the look that I shot her made her step back. 

"I'm not going to say this again, Joseph. Get out of my studio," I snapped, my arms coming up to cross over my chest, my eyes narrowing into slits. With a sigh, he complied and moved to the edge of the studio, gathering his things and moving out of the studio. Everyone was really quiet and I hated the silence. It just reminded me of that moment, a year ago. The one time in my past which I never wanted to relive.

"Does anyone else have any problems with me choreographing and teaching you?" I asked, clearly not impressed with Joseph and how he had been acting. Everyone knew that my past was a very sensitive topic for me, although not a lot of people knew what had happened, exactly, but still, it made me nervous when people brought it up. 

Everyone shook their heads and mumbled no under their breaths. 

"Class dismissed," I stated, my voice a lot more calmer than what it had been a few minutes prior. I turned my back on the class and ran my hands through my hair, moving towards the mirrors that lined the wall. As much as I loved teaching, I would have killed to be dancing, but those three words rang through my head like a broken record. 

'Never... Dance... Again...'

Those words had shattered my entire dream in three seconds. It had made me rethink my entire future, because for certain, my dreams of being a professional dancer were over. Nobody understood the pain that I was in now. Nobody would ever understand anything, because they hadn't been put in the position that I had been put in. They said they did, but they really didn't. That's when I had stopped telling people...