My Book: Chapter 1

Hai!! I'm writing a book! Well, I have been for a while. Like a long while. I'm going to show you the first chapter of it! It's quite sad, so for those of you that don't like sad, dramatic stories, I wouldn't read this. So, read it and tell me what you think!! It's not about gyaru or anything like that, so people that aren't into gyaru reading my blog can read this!! It's pretty long and I didn't want it to take over my blog so click read more to, of course, read more!!

here you go:

Chapter 1

     

Now, Lilia Silversmith has been given the opportunity that every young ballerina dreams for, to have a chance at being big; to have their graceful steps and twirls mean something. This is a dream, so it seems, but little do these girls, including Lilia, know the harsh reality of the ballet world. Of course you’re probably thinking, “Working in a ballet company must be an amazing experience; your own vanity stall, new, shiny pointe shoes, beautifully elaborate costumes, day after day of dancing and nothing more. What more could a girl want.” You see, that’s the illusion. Of course for some people this experience can be life changing in a positive way but for others it might be life changing in a, let’s say, slightly negative way. Well for example, there’s Lilia; a sweet, innocent, smart, little ball of radiant light thinking she’s going to become a famous prima ballerina, to travel the world and perform in all the greatest ballets and meet all of the world’s most famous dancers. This is Lilia’s story in this journey many young dancers decide to make. This is her story of growing up and facing cold, raw reality.

      Lilia felt so alive every time she first walked into the Ballet Le Mystique Ballet Company building. The smell of powdered resin and oak wood filled her nose delightfully. She passed dance studio after dance studio, everyone in them working for the same thing she was working for the leading role in one or more of the big ballets that are put on by Ballet Le Mystique, like Giselle in Giselle and Odette in Swan Lake. She was new while so many girls at this company have been here for several years and have such a better chance at succeeding. This isn’t what Lilia really believed. That was what her mother, friends, and old dance instructors believe. Lilia believes she is a wonderful, outstanding dancer that is fresh-faced and willing to put her biggest effort into getting the part she desires and devoting her personal life to dancing. Well, she really is. Lilia does know that she is shy, quiet, and innocent, but she isn’t about to let the personality flaws that made school a living nightmare for her ruin her hopes and dreams at becoming a prima ballerina. She was independent and relied on herself. She never had many friends and she never really thought she needed them. To her dance was a friend; dance was her life. When she woke up in the morning, the first thing she thought of was dance. During the day, dance steps and routines filled her brain. At night she’s lie awake thinking about tomorrows dance class. In her sleep she dreams of dancing on stage in front of four thousand people. Dance seems to control her body like a drug addiction. She admits she is a little bit obsessive over dance, but dance is all she has ever had. I mean her family doesn’t understand what she wants to do with her life. Her only friend, Jesse, acts like Lilia is invisible and hangs out with a group of girls wearing Abercrombie, with straight hair and glossy lips. Lilia could never be one of those girls. She wasn’t ugly. She was very pretty. She could look the part if she tried, but she didn’t act like them. She didn’t giggle constantly or talk all the time and she never could. She was serene. She liked to wear soft ballet warm up clothes and natural makeup to school and she had wavy, light brown hair that she left down except when she was dancing. She was also quiet. So quiet that often, she would go whole school days without talking. Even though she was pretty no one seemed to notice her. They would talk about anything with their friends around her. She saw and heard everything but they never saw or heard her.

      Jesse had been the only person that she could turn to when she needed someone. Jesse liked to help and comfort people. Lilia would come and cry and moan about how she injured herself at dance or how the teacher is too hard on her even thought she works the hardest out of everyone in her ballet class. Lilia stuck to Jesse for the longest time, but when they got into high school they slowly began to drift apart. In their sophomore year is when Jesse started talking to Casey, a tall, tan, blond with everything Abercrombie and the straightest, shiniest hair. Jesse began to ignore Lilia more and more to the point where Lilia would call and Jesse would pick up the phone and hang up so she didn’t have to hear the phone ring over and over, let alone talk to Lilia. At school, Lilia would try to be with Jesse but Jesse would glance over her shoulder, pout her lips a little more and walk fast to catch up to Casey and the rest of her friends. Lilia didn’t take it that hard, however. She had other things to focus on; like schoolwork and dance. She would sit alone in classes and eat alone in the crowded cafeteria. She didn’t mind and nobody seemed to care.

      In Lilia’s junior year of high school, she decided that she had other priorities besides sitting alone and working on maths papers. She had to focus on the thing taking over her body. It seems silly to say that dance told her to quit school and audition for ballet companies in the city, but without dance she wouldn’t have even thought about quitting school. When she told her mother about her plans, her mother was devastated. She reprimanded her about throwing her future away and ruining any opportunity of becoming a successful lawyer like her. Lilia didn’t want to be a lawyer she wanted to dance. She only wanted to dance. Didn’t her mother understand that? Lilia told her that she was going to the city to audition for ballet companies. Her mom just snorted and said, “You’re going to choose a one out of a million dream instead of choosing over a successful, good paying job as a lawyer?” Lilia didn’t care what her mother said. She was used to people saying that a future in dance is virtually impossible. She would tell them of all the famous dancers and their success stories. They would only explain to her that she is not them she is only a little girl and that her plan isn’t practical. But she wasn’t about to let someone crush her dreams like that. She believed that if you want something bad enough and you really work for it, you will get it in due time.

So, she took the metro to the city, got a hotel for a few nights and set out on her way. The first three ballet companies she auditioned for were too boring for her and they wanted someone that was older. She wanted someplace original and classy with people that like different people like herself. That’s when she stumbled upon Ballet Le Mystique. It was a big, artsy building with beautiful posters of ballets and big marble pillars in the lobby. In the audition room, she danced a bit from Cinderella. The judges nodded, wrote on their notepads and called for the next girl to come and audition. Lilia thought she would be told the same thing she was told at all the other companies. While she waited she walked around the lobby, looking at pictures of their best dancers and instructors. One instructor caught her eye. His name was Santé. He was tall, lean, with longish dark hair, and he had chiseled facial features. She blinked and walked along. For some reason it felt as if she had seen Santé in her dreams before. Lilia thought that maybe Santé just had that familiar look that some people had, but Santé was not familiar. He was extraordinary. As she was reading the cast list on one of the ballet posters, her name was called. She didn’t hear it at first.

      “Lilia Silversmith,” said a smooth voice with a hint of some European accent, “I said, Lilia Silversmith?” Lilia looked over her shoulder at the second call of her name. She began to walk towards the audition room. When she walked in the judges weren’t there. Reclined in one of the judge’s chairs was Santé. She stopped in mid step about ten feet away from the table. She stared for a few moments, frozen.

      “Well sit down,” said Santé, “what are you waiting for?” He motioned to a chair that was positioned across from him. She blinked away the freeze in her body and sat down. Santé leaned forward.

      “Hello and welcome. I’m Santé. I’ll be your instructor for now on,” he said, “so, I’d like you to tell me a bit of your dancing background, so I know where you are and how experienced you are.”

Lilia gaped and her heart started to beat fast. Had he just said he was going to be her instructor? She made it? “You mean I made it in?” she asked.

“Well, yeah, the judges said your technique is fantastic and you’re so beautiful when you dance.” Santé said.

“Wow! I mean like wow!” Lilia said smiling. She had made it in. Just like that. I guess the trick is to think you won’t be able to do it and you will. She laughed.

“Yeah. Like wow,” he said laughing with her, “ now you can tell me about your dance background.”

“Okay,” she said still laughing with joy, “well I started when I was five years old and did it until I was thirteen. When pointe week came, I injured my hamstring, so I had to take a break for what I thought would be a few weeks, but it was actually eight months. Eight months without dancing! I had to re-learn the routines I had learned before my injury. I finally began pointe after about three months of practice. I’ve been keeping it up ever since.” She was startled at the way she just told him everything like that. It was like how she used to talk to Jesse about everything.

“So you are very experienced, I see,” he said nodding, “well that’s great. Come on; follow me. We’re going to get you enrolled and get you in a dorm. Well you are away from home, yes?” 

“Yes. Yes I am.” She said and followed Santé out of the audition room back into the lobby. They entered a large office. A lady in her late forties was sitting at a desk at the far end of the office typing away on a laptop. When they walked in she looked up and smiled and motioned for them to come over to the desk.

“ Hello. Welcome to Ballet Le Mystique. I promise you that you’ll have the greatest time of your life working here,” The lady said, “do you have an ID or a birth certificate?”

“Yes I do.” Lilia said handing the lady her driver’s license. The lady looked at it and typed something into her laptop. She handed the ID back to Lilia.

“You’ll be in dorm number 133; on the second floor. Here’s you key.” The lady said handing Lilia a key with a metal keychain of a ballerina in arabesque. She slipped it in the pocket of her pea coat.

“Okay.” Said Lilia.

“Well come one, I’ll show you my studio and you’re stall and I’ll walk you to your dorm,” said Santé, “does that sound good?” Lilia nodded and they walked out of the office and walked down a long hallway with dance studios on each side. They entered one that was empty.

“Is this your studio?” Lilia asked. This studio had a full-length mirror on one wall with a barre and the floors were rosewood. There was an incredibly shiny, white grand piano. There were artistic photographs of dancers all over the walls. She breathed in that wonderful dance studio air.

“It is, yes,” he said, “I had it refurbished during the off-season. You like?”

“Yes, it’s so beautiful,” Lilia said, “how come you got yours refurbished? How come it seems like no one else did?”

“Because I’m the lead instructor. What I want I get. That’s how it works around here. It seems cruel, but the better known you are, the easier it is to get what you want.” He said. She knew this was how a lot of businesses work, but he said it like it was a good thing to do. When it really wasn’t. Lilia thought treating certain people better than the rest is totally unfair. Isn’t it illegal for a boss to favor one employee?

“Oh.” Lilia said quietly. She pretended to be really interested in the pictures on the far right wall.

“Jump,” he said, “come on jump.” Lilia didn’t understand what he meant.

“Just jump up and down once or twice.” He said. Lilia just looked at him questionably, “come on. Don’t you know how to jump? You’re a dancer for goodness sake. Just bend your knees and push yourself off the floor. Make sure you land on your feet though.” Lilia finally understood. He just wanted her to jump. Why? She didn’t know. She arranged herself into first position and did a plié then pushed herself off the floor. Surprisingly, she felt herself bounce up lightly. When she landed the floor bounced a bit. Suspended dance floors. These were vital for a dancer. They prevented injury and abnormalities of the knees, feet, and ankles that formed over time. Only instructors with money could afford suspended floors.

“Nice,” Lilia said, “Are these in every studio?” She wondered if only Santé got suspended floors as another privilege.

“Actually, yes,” he said, “Every studio needs them with the amount of work the dancers do. People would have arthritis of the knees and turned in ankles by the end of the first season.” Lilia nodded. Still she wondered why Santé was privileged. Was it his dancing that made him better from the others? Was it his teaching technique? Or was it because he was more beautiful than the others? Any of those ideas were possible, Lilia thought.

“Let’s show you your dorm,” he said, “right this way, Lilia.” They walked out of the studio and down to the end of the hallway where they entered a door that led to two flights of stairs. They walked up one flight and entered the door on that level. Then they walked down a dark, eerie hallway with burgundy colored carpet and rows of doors on each side. Lowlight pooled around them. They walked to almost the end of the hallway. They stopped in front of a dark wood door with 133 in gold letters on it. He gestured towards the door. Lilia took out her key that the lady in the office had given her. She stuck it in the keyhole and turned it slowly. There was a faint click. Lilia carefully opened the door.

“Well get settled in and get some dinner,” Santé said, “then meet me in my studio at seven o’clock p.m. for practice and conditioning.” With that he turned and walked down the long hallway. Lilia didn’t enter the room until he exited the hallway. She was still stumped by how familiar he looked and how it looked as if he had a faint golden light emanating from his body. It was like a radiant sunray was constantly surrounding him. It must be her overactive imagination, Lilia thought. She entered the room, which smelled of vanilla and some musky perfume. When she walked out of the entrance and into the actual room she noticed a tall, thin girl with pale skin and golden, wavy hair that was down to the middle of her back, in pointe shoes practicing a ballet routine in front of a full-length mirror. She didn’t even seem to notice Lilia was in the room.

“Hi.” Lilia said shyly. The tall girl was in the middle of a pirouette when she saw Lilia. She gasped and fell on her butt. Lilia cringed. Ouch. “Sorry if I startled you.”

“My goodness! You just scared the bloody hell out of me,” The tall girl said, “I didn’t even hear you enter. I guess I was too engrossed in my dancing to hear anything. I’m Carline, but call me Carly. I guess I’m your roommate. Well hello there.” She had a high-pitched British accent. Which was surprising to Lilia. This girl had to be at least five feet ten inches and she had the voice you would expect a four foot eleven inch girl would have. Carly ran her fingers through her golden waves, fluffing it up. She came up onto pointe and back down to flat three times.

“Hello,” Lilia said, “I’m Lilia. Is your instructor Santé?”

“I like that name. Lilia,” Carly said thoughtfully, “I do have Santé. Do you?”

“Yeah I do.” Said Lilia.

“You’re a lucky girl,” Carly said pointing at Lilia, “You get to have the lead instructor with the best studio. Oh, and he is the most fit instructor of them all.”

“I see,” said Lilia, “by fit you mean he has a fit body?”

“Ha. No, no. I mean he is bloody good looking.” said Carly bending over a bit when she said it.

“Oh,” said Lilia, “well I’m glad you’re here. I need a friend to talk to.”

“Oh, okay,” said Carly, “well, I can say you’re my friend, but when auditions for the ballets start, you’re my rival.” Lilia cringed at the way Carly said, “you’re my rival.” It sounded cold and mean like she would make Lilia’s life hell when auditions started. Maybe Carly wasn’t someone she could trust.

      “Okay,” said Lilia quietly, “how long have you been working here?”

      “For two years now.” Carly said, untying the ribbons of her pointe shoes.

      “Oh, that’s cool.” Said Lilia, nodding her head.

      “Well why don’t you put your stuff near that bed,” said Carly pointing toward one of the double twin beds in the dorm, “then we can go get some dinner because, I don’t about you, I am absolutely famished.”

      “Okay,” said Lilia, walking over to the bed, “Oh yeah, I’m really hungry, too.”