Practice Makes Perfect (Completed)

Chapter 5

Anastasia got quite the lecture when she woke up. Not only had she danced on a badly damaged ankle, but had overdosed on a numbing agent she wasn't supposed to have in the first place. If the doctors hadn't stepped in, she might not only have been done with dancing, but done with living.

Or so they said.

Anastasia had been a ballerina for nearly her whole life, and she had seen her peers inject everything from recreational drugs to steroids, and none of them had suffered from anything worse than an upset stomach. Even she herself had just been hyped up on adrenaline from being onstage.

Her coach wasn't taking that argument very well.

"You told me you could dance on it, and I let you go out there? Do you know what kind of position you put me in? What if that dance had ruined your ankle forever?"

"I could dance on it."

"Not without illegally medicating. Do you know what will happen if the association finds out about this?"

"Lidocaine isn't illegal. It's not even on the list of banned substances."

"And how did you get your hands on a powerful prescription injection? Was that legal?"

Anastasia was saved from answering the awkward questions by her mother and father's sudden entrance into the room.

"Oh, darling, are you alright?" Her mother rushed to her side, enveloping her in as much of a hug as she could from the angle.

"I'm fine mom. I'll be off the dance floor for a couple of weeks, but I'll be alright."

"A couple of months." Her coach corrected.

"What about the state meet?" Her dad asked.

"If I won my division, I should have enough to apply for walk on entry. If I won outstanding performer, I'll automatically qualify." Anastasia explained. "Ands there's hardly anyone there to compete against, so I should have a clear shot."

"It thought there were more than 2000 other dancers in the competition." Her mother asked.

"Fine." Anastasia agreed. "There's hardly anyone good to compete against. "

That earned a chuckle from her parents but her coach was still seething. It made her worry a bit what he would tell her parents when they talked to him.

"So coach, how long til she's out of here? Will she make it to the awards ceremony tonight?" Her dad asked.

"Her surgery isn't until Friday."

"Surgery?" Her dad raised an eyebrow. "Ouch."

"They can't possibly plan on keeping her for that long." Her mother argued.

"It would be best for her health if she stayed here, and we figured that with your considerable...funds, that you could make that happen. No final decision has been made."

"And is really like to go to the awards ceremony tonight." Anastasia added.

Her mother looked worried. "We certainly ought to speak with your doctor about it. Come, John, let's go find him."

With that, her parents disappeared from the room.

Almost immediately, Anastasia turned on the coach. "You trying to keep me locked up? The doctor said if he fine as long as I stuck to the chair."

"Which you won't. "

"Whatever." Anastasia suppressed the childish urge to stick her tongue ought at him. "My parents are involved now which means I'll be out in time for the ceremonies."

Her coach shrugged in a manner that implied he still didn't approve of the situation. "Lovely people, by the way. Have we ever met?"

He sounded sarcastic, but Anastasia saw no reason to lie.

"My parents are busy a lot. Just because they don't come to my ballet doesnt make them bad people."

"One would think that they could find time for one of your 200 performances over the last...what, eleven years years?"

"Twelve. I started when I was four. "

"Right. And I've coached since then, without ever speaking to either of them. That seems a bit odd."

"Yeah, well--" Anastasia started to explain, but was again interrupted by her parents entering the room.

"Okay darling, the doctor gave you the all clear to go, as long as you're on time on Friday." Her mother said. "Your father and I have a very important meeting to get to, but the bills are paid and we transferred and extra thousand dollars into your coach's account for the trouble of bringing you here. Enjoy the awards ceremony.

An hour of car rides and arguments with her coach later, Anastasia was doing just that.

"You shouldn't be here. You parents are rewarding bad behavior." Her coach complained.

"Shut up coach, I'm trying to listen."

On stage, beaming toddlers were being handed ribbons, medals and plaques. The ribbons were for participation, which Anastasia found absurd. How could you reward failure like that? Even at a young age, it seemed wrong.

"Anastasia, those kids are ten years younger than you. You won't even be competing against them when you apply to be prima ballerina."

"I care about the next generation. Besides, I heard somewhere that there was a toddler in our division."

"Team dance, right after your second one. I don't think she's in it to win though, look at her."

The coach gestured to a young African American girl sitting at the edge of the row, perched in the lap of a teenager who looked nothing like her. They appeared to be laughing.

"I think the teenager is some sort of supervisor. The prosthetic leg makes me think they're from some sort of buddy up program."

Anastasia nodded. "Right. For like, disabled kids."

"Yeah. Anyways, they aren't gonna win. I hear neither even went on pointe. "

"Well I think it's sweet of them to give it a go. I wanna talk to them."

"You have to stay in the chair, and that's a thin aisle. Maybe after--"

Her coach was interrupted by the applause of the audience. The event host had just announced they were moving to the next age group, and people were more than ready to begin.

Even after that announcement, there were a few groups to go before Anastasia's. In fact, it must have taken nearly an hour for him to get to Anastasia's age group.

"For the 18 and under age group solo dance division, we have three finalists. Annabelle Lugman, Sarah Portor, and Anastasia Lichman. "

Anastasia might have saved if anyone had looked for her, but people were losing interest. At this point, the ceremony was just dragging on, and they weren't in the mood to clap for any more winners.

"The first place dinner for this division was Miss Anastasia Lichman."

Halfhearted applause from the audience did nothing to calm Anastasia's racing heart. She knew she was the best dancer on stage today's but she also knew she needed to have won most outstanding performance to really qualify for States. As it was, she had a chances but with her ankle in such bad shapes the preliminaries would be he'll. She was never nervous in stages but now she couldn't seem to stop her heart from racing.

"We're going to divert from the program order for a moment here, and take a moment to announce our most outstanding performance category before moving on to our group awards."

Good. Anastasia was tired of waiting.

"We had a lot if amazing performers over the last two days, and we've considered a lot of good talent. Hundred of girls out there deserve this award, and we'd love to give it to each if them, but then it would lose its meaning. So this year, with our most outstanding performance medals we are going to honor a performance that truly deserves applauding."

Anastasia held her breath.

"Could you please welcome to the stage Miss Tabitha Itzak and Miss Allison Walker!"