Iâm sorry,â said Paige. She gave me a sweet smile, which made her look even more doll-like than usual. Today sheâd pulled two bits of hair out of her tight blonde bun, and they curled around her face. I gave one a playful tug.
âDoesnât matter,â I said. âItâs the off-season. Itâs only meant to be a bit of fun after the main season.â (Which, I might add, my team won.)
Paige said something else but I was concentrating on my ankle, silently willing it to get through this class and not make a fool of me. It didnât feel 100 per cent great, but if I took it easy IÂ should be okay.
âRiley?â asked Paige.
âHuh?â I said.
She gave me a strange look. âAre you okay?â
âYeah, of course,â I said.
âWell, what I was saying,â she continued, âis that after Ellie finishes rehearsal today, she wants to know if we can meet Ash at Groove Train for ice-cream.â
Ellie is in a musical at the moment called Mary Poppins , and they rehearse over in Silver Shoesâ drama studio. Itâs actually just after our exams that theyâll have their opening night.
âOh,â I said. âYeah, sure. Sounds good.â
Thatâs if I didnât put myself in the hospital first.
Chapter Three
Miss Caroline arrived to begin class. I guess I got lucky because our lyrical warm-ups arenât very energetic or cardio-based, like our jazz ones.
Lyrical warm-ups focus on movements that have a natural, flowing feel to them. There are a lot of swings, isolations, contractions and long stretches to get your blood pumping. So I handled those pretty well, keeping asmuch weight as I could off my bad ankle and cheating in some of the stretches.
Although I did notice Paige looking at me a bit suspiciously when I didnât go as far into my lunges as I usually do. She knows I give it my all in class every single time, no matter if itâs warm-up, travelling, or choreography work. I hate doing anything when I know, with less laziness, I could have done better. Ellie is a bit the same, I guess, which is why we get on, even though weâre both so different.
I gave Paige a bright smile like I had no idea why she would think anything was wrong, but even so I hurried over to the corner when it came time for travelling work. I could tell it was on the tip of her tongue to ask if there was something up with my ankle, and I didnât want anyone, not even Paige, to know I was dancing when perhaps I shouldnât be.
It could only last so long, though.
Travelling steps proved my downfall.
I figured out pretty quick that there was no pretending when it came to posé turns and saut de basque jumps. Even simple lyrical travelling steps like a waltz, tombé or pas de bourrée were a struggle. Putting any sort of weight on my ankle became a real problem, and eventually it began to hurt so much that when I was landing jumps and leaps, I started to flinch.
All the time I could feel Paigeâs eyes on me, watching very, very carefully. I couldnât help it, though. I kept pushing. I prided myself on my technical steps and setting an example for the other girls. I felt like a failure if I sat out or started doing the exercises with half my usual energy.
âRiley,â Paige said to me, as I lined up to do my turning jetés. âIs your foot okay? Because you shouldnât be â¦â
I took off then, before she could finish, in case anyone else could hear. But because I was in such a hurry to get away, I mucked up my timing and messed up my preparation for the turn leap.
Then it happened.
I turned, leapt, landed ⦠and it felt like someone had just smashed a branch into my ankle. I stumbled, tried to right myself, half fell and half lowered my body to the floor. Pain flared up my leg from my ankle.
I had a very, very bad feeling that Iâd just made everything a hundred times
Matt Christopher, Stephanie Peters, Daniel Vasconcellos