Lovely Fractures

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  Madi pushes her way to the front of the crowd, muscling her way through and takes a long look at the sheet of paper.  

A row of small, neat numbers line the page. A row? After the 30 dancers who tried out? This wasn't looking good.

"One, three, four, seven, eight, nine, eleven, thirteen, fifteen-" Madigan murmurs, pausing abruptly at the number fifteen. Fifteen! That's my number! I made it into Alexandria Ballet School! 

From behind her, she hears feminine shouts, combined with sounds of blatant misery from those who had failed to achieve entrance to the ballet school. A tap on the shoulder startles her out of her reverie, and she spins to face the individual.

"You made it!" Cara shouted, "Congratulations! So did I! And I just wanted to share that with someone who made it as well, because sharing that with someone who didn't would be... well, rude! Anyways, CONGRATULATIONS!"

"Thank you," Madi gushes, feeling tears of excitement prick the corner of her eyes as she clutched her ballet bag to her chest. She couldn't believe that her dreams had become a reality, even though the telling evidence was right in front of her eyes.

"Have you seen Georgia? She didn't make it, and once she realised her number wasn't on the list of those who made it she took off," Cara explained, a sad look crossing her face quickly before it was nudged out by excitement again.

"No," Madi replies, quickly scanning the room. She snaps her attention back to the girl in front of her, who smiles widely at her.

"High five?" Cara asks excitedly, holding her hand up expectantly.

"Um... no thanks," Madi murmurs, muscling her way past the short girl in front of her. If  I high five her, I have to wash my hands another three times, and that takes up time. I'd rather avoid that.

Ash-blonde has reappeared, and stands at the front of the room where a podium rests, next to the African-American man, M. Luca, from earlier.

M. Luca taps on the microphone and the room grows abruptly silent as the short noise echoes through the area.

"In five minutes we will be having a conference with the future dancers of Alexandria Ballet School. Everyone else, if you please, may leave at their leisure." M. Luca steps back from the microphone, and the ambivalent volume of the room rises once again. 

Dancers are making their way towards the exit, or expectantly towards the front of the room, and Madi finds herself swept in the crowd that rushes to leave. She struggles to turn in the tide of people leaving, and three minutes later, manages to plop down next to Cara.

"Hey again!" Madi greets, ignoring that about two minutes prior she refused to high five the girl and walked away from her.

"I can see that we are going to become great friends, you know?" Cara laughs, turning her attention to solidly face Madi.

"I know," Madi answers back, "I keep seeing you everywhere. It's almost like it's meant to be!"

M. Luca has stepped back up to the podium, and the attentions of the small crowd of dancers rotates to attention. A pregnant moment of silence swells over the dancers, tentative and expectant.

A smile washes over M. Luca's face, revealing bright white teeth, "Welcome to Alexandria Ballet School!"

A lone whoop stands out from the silence as the tide of tentative silence turns to excitement.

"I'm just going to go over the sheets that Jessica is passing out." M. Luca says, as Ash-Blonde, Jessica, makes her way to each row and hands out a stack of papers. Madi and Cara each take one, passing the rest down the long row of dancers seated at the front of the room.

Madi glances down at the paper, and begins to read it. Congratulations on making it into Alexandria Ballet School! A few tidbits that all of our new dancers need to know-

"So I will briefly run down the list of things you need to know. Alexandria Ballet School has dorms, so you all will be living here. The move-in for the new dancers is in a week and a half, so that gives you all the time to get the supplies that you need. We supply everything in the rooms, but you may bring personal affects if you wish. You will be split by genders and assigned a roommate."

Madi's head spins with all of the information that she has just become privy to. A week? I need new pointe shoes and leotards and tights. I need a new pair of ballet shoes because my toes peek through whenever I dance. I need... I need... Madi hugs her ballet bag to the front of her, finding some comfort in its presence. 

M. Luca had paused to give everyone a moment to digest this information before he continued. "On this page there is a list of the things that you will be expected to have. To review, for girls the uniform is a black leotard, pink transition tights, and pointe shoes or ballet slippers. The male uniform is a white t-shirt, nylon or spandex dance shorts or pants, black ballet slippers and a dance belt. Bring as many as you think you need, though I remind you that you will be dancing six days a week. Alexandria Ballet School also has academic classes, and in order to continue being an active dancer here, your GPA will need to be above 3.0. You will meet with a counselor some time in the approaching week and half before you move in to decide your classes. After that a list of textbooks that you need will be emailed out to you."

M. Luca glances up, scanning the audience with bright brown eyes. 

"I urge you to re-read the sheet because we have only hit some of the high points, and this page has helpful information for items such as what you may and may not have in your dorm room, the typical freshman schedule, and what and when company tryouts are. You are now free to leave, but I will remain up here to answer questions."

Madigan digs into her black ballet bag, searching for her recently sanitized phone. She pulls out a silver Galaxy S9 and, clambering to her feet, searches through the display to her mother's name on the list of "Recently Contacted". 

"Mom!" Madi exclaims when her mother picks up the phone, "I made it!"

"Congratulations, Madigan! I'm so excited for you" Naomi Doyle answers back, her voice practically sparkling with pride. 

Madi makes her way out of the room, heading towards the exit where she knew her mother lay in wait.

"To imagine- my Madigan is an Alexandrian Ballet School attendee! Oh, I can't believe it! We'll go out for dinner tonight and-"

"Mom, I see you," Madi interrupts as she climbed into the car, swinging her ballet bag into the back seat. 

"Oh!" Naomi says, surprise evident in her facial features. "My lucky girl! I'm so proud of you!"

As Madi and Naomi speed away, all she can think of is that soon she will be back at Alexandria Ballet School to stay. 

A/N: Hi y'all. A bit shorter of a chapter here, apologies for that. Also to clarify, the picture in "Auditions" is what Madigan looks like. Sorry I took so long to update! Read and Comment and Like, please!

- allthetragicthings