⎼⎼⎼ 𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖋𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 ➵ 𝑏.𝑓.

020

mikki

"alright, so your duet is called suffragette and it's about the women's rights campaigns," abby lectured, settling back in her wheelchair, "it's about you two gaining independence, away from the boys."

another dance about brady, i thought bitterly. this was a little much.

"fan kick, pressley get that foot pointed! firebird, one two three four, turn out those hips, gorgeous turns," abby screamed, pointing out our mistakes.

we ran through the duet several times over. it was a jazz piece, with lots of leaps and turns. it was incredibly fun to be dancing with pressley, who was one of my best friends at the aldc.

"that was pretty good, girls, bring gianina and sarah in," abby ordered.

"yay press!" i cheered as we high-fived. she giggled.

"wish me luck," gia groaned, pushing open the door to studio a. i shot her a sympathetic look. snooki was not a competition piece. sarah followed her, giving us a wave.

"we've got ballet in three minutes," pressley told me. we laced up our pointe shoes and ran to studio, pulling our hair up into a bun as we did. luckily, miss avengard was late, which gave us a few moments to duck into the bathroom and put on ballet tights.

"good afternoon girls," she lisped, walking around to correct our first positions.

"good afternoon miss avengard," the class chorused.

"alright, so we've got a new member of advanced ballet, please welcome berkleigh."

i turned my head slightly to look at the newcomer. she was tall, pale as death and had the prettiest hair i had ever seen. berkleigh nodded smugly to the crowd. i resisted rolling my eyes.

"alright, positions as i say," miss avengard directed, "second, fourth, fifth, first, third, fourth, fifth, fourth, third, sauté, first. good, remember to keep your ribs closed. let's do some jumps!"

"hi," a voice whispered from behind me. i wasn't falling for that. it was a pure crime to be talking during ballet. "i said hi!"

"sshh," i hissed.

"mikki, be quiet," miss avengard snapped. i felt stung. i saw berkleigh, the new girl, shoot a doe-eyed look at me, with the corners of her mouth turned up. these exact people are the reason i want to crush humanity.

i went through the class with a mental fire, all the while trying to ignore the snide comments adhya slid my way. i saw pressley shoot me a few worried looks, but i blocked them out.

"flexibility please ladies! stretch those oversplits," the teacher called. i grabbed my foot and pulled it as far as i could. adhya tried to pull hers toward the barre, but fell over. i felt a vindictive sort of pleasure. mind you, this fight was all silent.

"class dismissed," miss avengard sang. i threw my worn ballet shoes down into my bag as hard as possible.

"you did really well in ballet class," press said uncertainly.

"thanks."

"ok, i'll cut to it. you seemed to really hate that new girl."

"what gave you that idea."

"i don't know?"

"i've never gotten into trouble in ballet class. ever."

"so?"

pressley used to burst into laughter every second minute, making her the (probably) most disruptive student in ballet.

"pressley? mikki! come here, let's run your duet," gianna directed.

"i'm exhausted," pressley hissed.

i laughed.

the duet practice was pretty great. up until the a la seconde turns into side aerial, when we messed up the timing. but after that, it was smooth sailing. we hit each move with precision and we had fun with it. pressley worked so hard to keep up with the dance and i was heaving by the end of it. welcome to my very hard life.

"alright girls, you're dismissed," gianna directed, opening the door for us. we thanked her and made our way back to the den.

my phone buzzed as i braided my hair again.

farrari 🚘
accept | decline

i put brady on speaker so press could hear.

"hey farrari!" i cheered. he groaned.

"shut up mikki. show a man some sympathy!"

"hi brades," press screamed into the phone.

"jeez. is that press?"

"yep!"

"my ear drums have burst."

"how are you?"

"pretty good actually, i love the beach and being back in miami. how are you girls doing."

"abby keeps making little remarks to everyone. if brady was doing that, you'd love it way more. if brady was here, you'd be in his shadow. if brady..." i mimicked abby's voice.

brady gave a laugh. i noticed his voice was way deeper than before.

"it's weird without you here."