Free Dance Academy Anywhere but Here by Bruno Bouchet Page B

get a kiss on the forehead and he strides off into the Academy, ticking me off his mental to-do list.
    I’m left outside. What he doesn’t understand is that I didn’t run onstage when I was three to steal the limelight, I ran on out of fear of losing my mother.
    Perhaps I’m not afraid any more.
    When it’s my turn to audition, Dad’s sitting there on the panel with Miss Raine and Ethan. On the desk in front of them is the toy soldier that I’m supposed to dance with. I hate that toy soldier more than anything else in
The Nutcracker.
It’s spent more Christmases with my mother than I have. Ethan hands it to me. It feels cold in my hands, even though every other ballerina in the Academy has danced her heart out with it.
    I take up my position for the start. Ethan presses the CD player and the music starts. I know the music so well. I know the steps perfectly but I don’t move.
    ‘Are you okay?’ Dad asks.
    My heart’s pounding. I’m more nervous than I’ve ever been in any audition.
    ‘Yeah. I think I am,’ I answer.
    Dad’s stunned as I walk up and put the toy soldier back on the table in front of him.
    ‘Thanks everyone. Dad.’ I curtsey to the panel and walk out. No one at the Academy ever walks out of an audition.
    Outside the room I stop for a moment and breathe deeply and slowly. I’ve done it. I’ve jumped off the cliff.
    Where do I want to be? I don’t know but I know it’s anywhere but here.
    My immediate destination is the costume room. I’m assigned costume duty for the production, which means Miss Raine is attempting to drown me in a sea of tulle. I’m thinking for the next production I might try set design, but then Miss Raine hits me with a dose of cold reality.
    ‘Productions are for students of the Academy. I doubt you’ll be here for the next one,’ she says and leaves me to my sequins.
    Later, when I’ve been stuck in the costume room for hours with nothing but sweaty tutus for company, my phone rings. I don’t care who it is, I answer without looking and shout for help.
    ‘Save me! I’m drowning in a sea of tulle.’
    ‘Hey gorgeous. What’s the weather like down there?’ It’s Myles. Last time I heard from him he was heading off to London on tour. I can’t help smiling at the sound of his voice.
    ‘Sunnier than London I guess. But I don’t know, I’m trapped in a room with no windows.’
    ‘You think you could go outside and check for me?’ he asks.
    ‘Sure. If you want to waste an international call talking about the weather.’
    It seems like a weird request but I head for the door. As I open it, he’s standing there.
    ‘I’ve gotta go,’ I say into the phone. ‘Someone at the door.’
    ‘Should I be jealous?’ he grins.
    ‘I don’t know, he’s pretty hot.’
    I throw my arms around him, drag him into the costume room and suddenly I’m pleased that nobody ever comes down here. We’ve got some big-time catching up to do.
    After a while we need to come up for air so we go for a walk along the harbour. I finally pluck up the courage to tell him I walked out of my audition and I might get kicked out of the Academy. He’s brilliant – no wise words, no shock, just a gorgeous warm hug and a fortune cookie to help decide my future. I’ve never been a girl for fairy tales, but Myles is doing a really good interpretation of my kind of knight in shining armour: a really hot guy and great kisser that I can actually talk to. All I need now is to be carried off.
    We sit down to open our cookies.
    I read mine out. ‘The path to happiness begins with a dream.’
    ‘That’s my problem. I don’t remember my dreams,’ he jokes – sort of.
    ‘I do. Fly to Darwin, hire a Kombi. Drive …’
    ‘You’re sixteen,’ Myles interrupts. ‘You don’t drive.’
    ‘It’s a dream. Go with it … Drive around Australia. Stop at every beach, camp out at every music festival.’
    His smile is so intense I need a diversion before I melt completely.
    ‘What does yours