The search

The runaway

The music's flowing through my head. My body's moving exactly the way it should. And my mind is focussed only on my dance.

"Dinner's ready in 15 minutes!!"

I abruptly stopped dancing and looked at the clock. I couldn't believe it was already 7 pm. I had been dancing for 3 hours now and even though I was covered in sweat, I couldn't feel any better. I took one last look at the reflection of my sweaty body in the mirror and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower before I went to the dining room. Once I sat at the dining table, I started talking to my mum.

"Uhm, you know, mum ... I was thinking... Maybe I should take a break from dancing for a little while, so that I can hang out with some people from my age, you know like a normal teenager. Uhm, what do you think?"

"Oh darling, why would you say that? Why would you even consider that? After all our hard work, do you really want to throw it all away?"

"Our hard work? You must mean my hard work. And no, I don't want to throw all MY hard work away, and I won't. I just want to know how it is to have a normal live. So why can't I take a vacation on all the dancing stuff?"

"Because you need all the time you have now, your dance career will be over when you're 30 so enjoy it as long as you can."

"Mum, I'm only sixteen, I still have 14 years to enjoy my dance career, but right now I want to enjoy a normal teenage life. Why won't you let me?"

"Because you will have to build up your dance career all over again if you quit now."

"No, I won't have to!! I will just have to start training again after my break. It's not like I'm going to forget all the techniques that I've learned until now! And right now I just want to be a teenager. I won't be able to be that when I'm thirty years old, you know!"

"But why would you have to give up the dancing? Can't you be a normal teenager and dance?"

"No, I don't have time. Every day after dinner, I go to my room to do my homework. After that I go to bed. The next day I go to school till half past 3 and at exactly 4 pm, I start dancing again till 7 pm. At 7.15 pm I eat dinner and after that everything repeats itself. This has been my life for the past 10 years. I dance 3 hours a day on weekdays and 6 in the weekends, contests not included. Occasionally, a dance coach comes to give me some pointers, aside from that, I train alone without any people of my age, because you wanted me to dance at home so I won't lose time with accommodation. As you can see, dancing has been my whole life for as long as I've known. But sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it, you know. Yeah, of course I've won a lot of contests and so... But I'm sixteen years old and I have never had a boyfriend let alone a friend. And I've never even been to a party before, because I always have to dance. And you know what, I don't care if you don't want me to take a break or not. Because no matter what, I will find a way to be a normal teenager."

Without waiting for a reply, I stormed out of the dining room to my bedroom. Once I was there, I started packing my bag. Not knowing where I would run to, but certain that I didn't want to stay home where my mum would never understand me. When I finished packing, I decided to leave a note to my mum.

Dear mum,

I'm going to search for a life that I want to live.

I'll come back once I've found it.

-Luna-

Leaving the note on my pillow, I took one last glance at the room I've had my entire life. Once I had closed my bedroom door, I looked around to be sure my mum didn't see me leaving. When I was sure that the coast was cleared, I sneaked out of the house.

After closing the last door, I just started running as hard as I could, without looking back. I wasn't running in a particular direction, for I had no friends to run to. I was just running to get as far away from home as I could.

After a while, I began to walk, because the running had worn me out. When it started to get dark, I realised that I must have been walking for hours. I also realised that I didn't have a place to sleep. A tear rolled down my face. I realised that I had done something stupid. When I was just about to give up all hopes, I arrived at a little playground for children. As lucky as I was, the playground also had such a little playhouse, so I sort of had found a roof to sleep under.

The next morning when I woke up, my whole body felt sore. After I stretched a little bit, I took place on the swing, to think what I was going to do. Totally emerged in thoughts, I hadn't noticed the boy who had sneaked up on me.

"Hello there, I don't think I've seen you around here before."

Stunned from the sudden realisation that I wasn't alone, I barely dared to look up. But after slowly lifting my head, I stared into two beautiful hazel brown eyes which were partly covered by dirty blond hair. I couldn't help but notice that he was quite handsome. I smiled.

"Hi"