Love You, Hate You
Chapter One
Kaitlyn Wardle
OMG, so excited, going to the Vancouver International Ballet Academy, top level, on full scholarship!!!
Kaitlyn sighed impatiently, fiddling with the straps on her bag. Today was her first day at the globally renowned Vancouver International Ballet Academy, and her mom was taking forever to park. Cecilia Wardle had insisted on coming in to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Demidovski about “what they could expect in the following year,” but Kaitlyn was dreading walking into the academy with her mother.
“Mom, I’m on full scholarship,” Kaitlyn tried to argue, yet again. “I don’t think they’re going to not cast me. And I’m fourteen! You don’t need to come in.”
“Kaitlyn, last year you were Sugarplum Fairy,” Cecilia’s tone was firm. “Mr. and Mrs. Demidovski promised they would make sure that you were challenged if you came to the academy, and I am going to make sure that that happens.”
“Okay, okay,” Kaitlyn groaned. “I’m just kind of nervous about going to the academy. Everybody is super skinny here.”
“Well, you can be, too, Kaitlyn, if you just worked at it. And don’t forget that nobody here has technique like you, or a resume like yours.” Kaitlyn smiled to herself. She might want to lose ten — no twenty — pounds, but her technique was untouchable. Why, yesterday she had done nine pirouettes on pointe! Anybody who thought they could beat her was depending on “artistry.” She pulled down the visor mirror and adjusted a few pins in her bun. It was a perfect flat circle, and her lucky pink ribbon lay flat against the bun, the bow perfectly centred.
“Kaitlyn, come on,” Cecilia said impatiently as she waited outside the car.
As they walked into the academy, Kaitlyn let herself fall behind her mother. The entrance led directly into a hallway. Kaitlyn and Cecilia paused there, looking around for someone to ask where to go. The whole of one side of the hallway was covered in mirrors. It was more than most people could do not to walk down the hallway staring at their reflections. The mirrors changed every few feet, distorting your reflection with each step, so you were never really sure what you actually looked like.
Gabriel, the office manager, suddenly appeared beside them, giving Kaitlyn a little start. He gestured at her mother, “Come, come, Mr. and Mrs. Demidovski are waiting!”
Kaitlyn liked him. He was a rather large, good-natured man with a tendency to disappear if you were looking for him. He’d sometimes pretend that he didn’t speak English if he didn’t like what you were saying. It rather hard to believe, though, since he was from Vancouver, but he did not seem to think it fair that the rest of the staff at the academy had that option and he did not.
Gabriel ushered Cecilia into the office and shooed Kaitlyn on her way before he closed the door. Kaitlyn shrugged, squared her shoulders, took a deep breath, and continued down the stairs and to the changing rooms. She had been to summers at the academy before, so she knew the way. The fluorescent lighting in the changing rooms hadn’t gotten any less abrasive since the last time she’d been here. Kaitlyn walked into the bathroom. It’s definitely gotten worse in here, she thought. She smiled at the girls doing their hair by the mirror. “So, which bathroom works?”
“Oh my God, it’s Kaitlyn!” Taylor screamed and ran over to hug Kaitlyn enthusiastically.
Kaitlyn laughed, her eyebrows raised. “Taylor, tone down the excitement, hon.”
Taylor hugged her again. “But, Kaitlyn, I’m sooooo happy that you’ve finally come to the academy! We are totally going to have so much fun together! This year is going to be awesome!”
“Uh huh …” drawled Kaitlyn, wanting to give Taylor a set down. At that moment, though, she glanced up and saw Anna staring down at her, her eyebrows raised and a smirk on her face. At five foot eight, Anna was six inches taller than Kaitlyn and a lot skinnier. Kaitlyn turned to Taylor. “Right, this year is going to be so much fun!” she said mockingly and went to change, fuming. Anna is so annoying, Kaitlyn thought. She is good at ballet, but not nearly as good as me, and she’s older! Just because she’s gorgeous and seriously rich, she thinks she can do whatever she likes.
Kaitlyn came out and looked in the mirror. Front, check. Profile, yuck. The academy’s uniforms had been specially ordered, and they’d obviously gotten a good deal: the uniforms continued straight from the back to the butt, creating a pocket of air where there should have been a waist. Kaitlyn sighed just as Taylor came out of the stall.
“You need a hip alignment belt, Kaitlyn, everyone has one. I’d loan you mine, but I’m, like, so tiny! Sorry!” she giggled.
“Okay, Taylor,” Kaitlyn said, rolling her eyes. She went upstairs, finding it difficult to navigate through the bodies sprawled all over them. Some of the Japanese students were huddled at the top of the stairs. Kaitlyn stopped to see what they were doing.
“Ahh, ah, eti!” yelled the Japanese boy in the centre of the group.
One of the Japanese girls told him to “Be quiet, Kageki!” For some reason, this caused them all to start giggling, talking even faster than before. Kaitlyn laughed: they were trying to pluck his eyebrows. She continued to the entrance, where the schedule was. Oh my God! Why are they still here? They are like twenty-one! She thought, looking at the two girls in front of the board.
Sophia was ranting about the schedule, pacing back in forth in front of it, arms flailing dramatically. “They can’t just say, ‘rehearsal nine to nine on Sunday!’ It’s three months before the show. What if we have lives? What if we have plans? Do they think they own us? What is wrong with them?!”
Ella yawned, looking down at her nails with exaggerated interest. They were three shades of pink with blue tips, and silver designs all over them, with rhinestones to complete the effect. “It’s the academy,” she said, yawning again. She looked in the mirror to see what she looked like yawning, then tried it again, this time attempting to do it with pouted lips. “When have they ever been organized? They don’t believe in lives.”
“Excuse me,” Kaitlyn said, trying to see the schedule between the two of them.
“Oh, it’s you,” Sophia said. “When did you come?”
“Why are you staring at me?” Ella asked in her intensely practised otherworldly voice. She held up her hand and looked at Kaitlyn through her fingers.
“I just want to … see … the schedule,” said Kaitlyn, holding her ground.
“God, don’t make such a fuss over it!” Sophia said, moving slightly away. Sophia turned to Ella. “Do you believe some people? Like, what’s her problem? Some people are just so rude!”
“I know,” Ella said with a world-weary sigh, as she floated down the hall after Sophia.
Kaitlyn went into Studio A, chose a spot at the front, and self-consciously sat down to warm up. Kaitlyn was naturally flexible (well, she was double jointed pretty much everywhere), so she felt that she didn’t really have to stretch. She built muscles easily, and kept them. But this created bulky muscles. Instead of stretching, Kaitlyn flopped into the middle splits and covertly looked around the room, watching everyone else as they stretched and talked.
Jessica was standing off to
