Free Twin Dangers by Megan Atwood

Chapter 1
    Sophie sighed and whispered to Emma: “I wish Trey would do a pas de deux with me outside of class, if you know what I mean.”
    She smiled at her sister, expecting a big laugh. As Sophie’s twin, Emma was obligated to laugh, even if the line wasn’t funny. It was the code. Twins stuck by each other no matter what. Even if that meant laughing at lame jokes.
    And anyway, Sophie had been remarkably restrained on the Trey front lately. Whenever she spoke with Emma, she tried hard to not only talk about him—and that meant something, because Sophie was the talkative twin. Come to think of it, over the last week, Emma had gotten even quieter anytime Sophie talked about Trey. Maybe Sophie had laid it on too thick.
    Still, Emma had to follow the code. She was supposed to put up with her sister, no matter how annoying Sophie got.
    No laugh came from Emma, so Sophie elbowed her.
    â€œWha—?” Emma said. “Oh, yeah. Pas de deux.”
    She continued to take off her pointe shoes, then put on her blue Uggs—Sophie had the pink pair—pulling them up and positioning them perfectly on her legs.
    Sophie slipped off her own pointe shoes and saw Emma sneak a peek at Trey.
    Then she saw Trey sneak a peek at Emma.
    Sophie shook it off.
    The academy was on a break from performing any ballets. They’d just finished Giselle , and things had gone a little wonky—one of Sophie’s best friends had almost died during the performance—so Madame Puant had decided to ease off on performances for a while. Which, in Sophie’s opinion, was a good idea. She had seen her share of weird things happen at the academy, and she needed a break from any sort of intrigue. So she was happy that ballet class consisted of practicing parts from different ballets instead of working so hard toward one performance. The last two weeks, the dancers had been practicing parts from Swan Lake , and every girl in the company got her chance to play the lead, Odette and Odile. Every boy got to play the prince.
    Which meant a lot of pas de deuxes. And Sophie could not wait for her pas de deux with Trey. If the academy were putting on an actual performance, she would have never gotten the chance. The student body was 4–1 girls to guys, so the same guys tended to get the lead roles. And competition among the girls was so intense that Sophie never got the lead. This was the one way she could finally dance with Trey without all the anxiety of an upcoming performance or competition from the other dancers.
    Emma already had danced the pas de deux with him, and Sophie had to admit it had been beautiful. She’d tried hard not to be jealous as they acted out the love between Odette and the prince. And she kept reminding herself that it was fake.
    It was just a dance.
    Sophie reminded herself again that Emma knew how much she liked Trey. And they were twins—there was a code about boys too. Still, she couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy about the looks Trey and Emma were giving each other.
    Emma stood up and shook her legs out. Of the two of them, Emma was the more careful one, the one who always looked before she leapt. She even moved slower—each movement was deliberate and precise, in dancing and in real life. Emma was a good dancer because of this precision, but her lack of spontaneity kept her in the “good” category rather than the “great” category. For Sophie, it was the opposite. She was spontaneous and free with her emotions, but not as good at the technical stuff.
    Sophie tried hard not to roll her eyes at the slowness of Emma’s after-practice routine. But she couldn’t help herself from saying, “We need to hurry up and get breakfast.”
    She looked over at Ophelia, Kayley, and Madeleine, who were looking back at the twins, clearly waiting for the two of them to join the group and head down to the dining hall.
    Without looking at her, Emma said, “You