Finding Him and Me

Chapter 40 - Pause. Play.

"Alexa, please play lovers by Anna of the North." Its 8:30 am. I've been awake for half an hour, staying cozed up between my big pile of pillows and warm comforter. Gazing at the colourful tiles on the pelmet running on three sides of the room, the baby flowers on the sheer curtains. The owl on my dresser, the dream catcher with pieces of fibre glass and pom-poms and my big mirror with quotes.

Yesterday morning after Arjun and I went down, we immediately got busy under a ton of work. But that didn't erase a single memory of the time we spent together. There were a few small smiles and looks that we exchanged through the hours and before and after our dance. Shona appreciated the choreography so far and looked forward to more. I didn't get a chance to wear her pointe shoes, because I missed the warm up since I was "practicing" with Arjun. Needless to say I spent much of yesterday at home scribbling my haywire thoughts into my journal and eating.

I hide my face into the pillow at my side, my silky hair tickling my nose and cheeks. The warm fragrance of vanilla fills me and I smile shyly.

See this is what I'm talking about! Casual shy smiles and overthinking and god!! He's messing with me. Or it's just your obsessive nature babe.

I slowly roll out of bed right onto the floor lazily and turn up the volume, switching the song to Capital Letters by Hailee Steinfeld. I brush my teeth , drink water and quickly do my stretches, while the room is still slightly warm. I stress more on holding the jete' at 75 degrees, because that's going to be used a lot on the dance. Then I start pre-point and it's exercises, to strengthen my ankles since my right ankle is weak and in the dance my right side leads. After developes' and grande battments' ; two of the most annoying exercises in the history of ballet apart from frappe' I start squats. In the Malhotra Family, women have a tendency to grow big butts and when you're supposed to have a size zero figure to be a ballerina it isn't exactly a plus point. 30 squats atleast make sure that it won't sag. Subsequently I work on chest, hip and torso rotation. For a small break I do balances with my eyes closed, works great for pirouettes and turns. Lastly 150 counts of cycles with my head and shoulders off the ground to strengthen my core.

After that I'm almost dead for 10 minutes. So I relax on the floor, focusing on my breath. Once I catch it and my heart rate drops to normal I cool down by doing 10 Surya Namaskars and calf stretches. When I'm finally done after an hour I scream and shout in ecstasy. I skip out of my room and eat breakfast with everyone. Gluten free toast with a generous layer of cream cheese topped with apple and rocket. My favourite. I don't forget sprouts, protein is damn important after all and a hot cup of tea with bourbon biscuits. Just four pieces.

I keep my plate in the kitchen and return to kiss my mom when she tells me, "the school sent a message. Your result is coming out day after tomorrow."

"Hm. So?" I ask.

"Nervous?" She prompts even though she know the answer already.

"No." I smile care-freely.

"Good." She smiles and I head for a shower.

The thing is that my school is still open, but I haven't been going, with the ballet rehearsal it's too much. Sana still attends school, but then it's Sana, she never misses school. I on the other hand don't care much. I make sure my attendance percentage is 75% which is the minimum and that's it. I don't go an extra day. So for me, school is just 4 days a week. I take off one day for sure.

It doesn't mean that I don't like going to school, quite the contrary. I love school, I'm just a shamelessly greedy sleeper.

As for exams, well I've been a good student my whole ass life. Top three in class and top fifteen in the standard. I think I'm going to come second in class this term and get a 92% which is more than enough. So no I'm not scared, I'm really happy.