she came upstairs again, everyone was still sitting in the same place. There was no free floor space, but there was a free chair so she took it. Keiko came upstairs just as Kaitlyn sat down. She rose out of her chair, hoping to go sit with Keiko, but she went to sit on the stairs with a bunch of the lower level students. Kaitlyn sat down again then immediately shot to her feet with a shriek. Delilah had slipped her pasta onto the seat, and Kaitlyn had sat right on it.
“Why did you do that?” Everybody started to laugh as they got a good view of Kaitlyn’s sauce-covered butt.
“Oh, my God, you like just ruined my lunch! Now what am I supposed to eat?” Delilah feigned outrage.
“Yeah, you should totally buy her a new lunch,” Tristan piped up, trying not to snigger. “That was really mean of you to ruin her lunch.”
Kaitlyn burst into tears and ran downstairs, and a fresh wave of smothered laughter followed her.
“What’s her problem?” Alexandra said.
“So sensitive,” Grace said, shaking her head sorrowfully.
Fortunately Kaitlyn had an extra uniform bodysuit and tights in her locker She couldn’t stop crying as she changed into them. What right does Delilah have to make fun of me? She tried to calm down and stop the tears. Only the mental image of what her face must look like enabled her to stop bawling, and she slowly started to breathe normally. She felt her face to try and judge exactly how puffy it had gotten. Taking deep breaths, she gathered her courage to leave the bathroom stall and checked the crack between the door and the wall. Luckily no one was there. She went to the mirror and attempted to make her face look normal with liberal amounts of cold water and toilet paper. As soon as she felt she looked as good as she was going to be able to look, she forced herself to walk out.
The RAD Advanced II class was the highest level offered as a group class, so it was always packed. Kaitlyn got upstairs just as everyone was filing into the studio. She didn’t feel up for the usual race and slide for a good spot at the barre, so she resigned herself to a spot at the back.
“Oh, Kaitlyn!” trilled Mrs. Mallard as she turned and saw her. “It’s always such a pleasure to have you in class, my dear. Are you excited to learn the Solo Seal work?” She lowered her voice to a stage whisper. “I think you’ll really enjoy it. It’s quite different from the previous syllabus work, much more focused on musicality and performance. Of course, the technical work is quite challenging, but I’m quite confident that you will be more than capable in that area. I was discussing it with Mrs. Demidovski just the other day, and we both agreed that you were quite up to the challenge.”
“Yes, I’m really excited,” Kaitlyn said, trying to sound enthusiastic while realizing that everyone else in the room was completely silent and focused on them.
“You come right up to the front, dear,” Mrs. Mallard said, grabbing her by the arm and taking her to the centre barre. She had her stand her in front of Anna and Grace and across from Alexandra and Tristan. Kaitlyn gulped.
“Now class, Kaitlyn’s already done this work and taken her exam. She’s done quite well, in fact.” She squeezed Kaitlyn’s arm fondly. “So, since the rest of you haven’t learned the Advanced II syllabus yet, I’ll have Kaitlyn demonstrate each exercise once, and then the rest of you will give it a go. Any questions? No? All right then, why don’t we begin. Pliés please, Kaitlyn dear.”
The rest of the class watched with disgust as Kaitlyn performed the pliés. RAD required highly exaggerated artistry in the higher levels, but halfway through the exercise Kaitlyn turned her head to do a port de bras and caught a glimpse of the others’ expressions, which ranged from amusement to utter disgust (the last one belonging to Anna). She immediately blanked out her face, closed her mouth tightly, and managed to finish the exercise without making a choreographic mistake. As the last notes from the piano died away, Taylor held up her hand to stifle her laugh.
“Well, that was just lovely, wasn’t it?” Mrs. Mallard demanded of the class. “Kaitlyn, that was technically gorgeous, and I loved your grasp of the artistry of the exercise in the beginning. But halfway through, you lost it a bit. I want you to work on keeping that emotional involvement all the way through. Don’t get too focused on the technical aspects of the exercise.” Kaitlyn nodded, keeping her eyes down.
“All right, now why don’t all of you give it a try? Kaitlyn, dear, do it again will you, so they have someone to copy? Thank you, dear.”
After they finished the barre exercises, Mrs. Mallard turned to Tristan, Kageki, and Jonathon, and, with a small angry nod, said, “Well, I see you haven’t remembered a thing I tried to teach you last year. You obviously don’t learn anything correctly in your other classes, and you don’t seem to care. If you don’t want a career, by all means, ignore me. You can leave and just take Mr. Yu’s class. I’m sure he’ll get you prepared to join a company. You know, Tristan,” she walked over to him and gave him a tight smile. “You were actually improving last year. I had hopes that you were actually maturing. Evidently not.
“You know Andrew Lu,” she said, putting her finger on her chin and reminiscing. “Now Andrew Lu, he always paid such attention to detail. I remember he would even take extra RAD classes that weren’t even his level, just so he could make sure he had the basics completely down, especially when he was preparing for the Solo Seal. And you know, he got his Solo Seal Award. All that hard work, it paid off. Now he’s dancing with the Royal Ballet in England. And mark my words, it’s not the tricks and the show off steps that got him there, it’s that clean training, that attention to detail.”
George snorted from behind the piano. “I remember when Andy was here. He always came late, and you were always yelling at him for practising his pirouettes when he was supposed to be working on some adage exercise or something.”
“George!” Mrs. Mallard interrupted. “I am trying to provide them with a positive role model! There are enough negative role models in this school without adding Andrew into the mix. And he did receive his Solo Seal, anyway. Let’s continue.”
After they’d finished the second adage, she walked up to Alexandra. The rest of the class anxiously moved out of her sightlines. “Alexandra, I am absolutely fed up.” Alexandra swallowed hard and leaned back as far as she could. “Every year I tell you, you have potential. But if you are going to persist in slopping about and doing everything your own way, then I simply cannot help you. Every time, every time, I tell you that your legs are simply too high. Your hips are all over the place. You have no control, and it’s just ugly. That’s all there is to it. Now, just look at Grace, or Keiko. They both keep their legs far lower than you, but it’s clean! And that’s what matters, Alexandra. Not height.”
Alexandra stood, chin firmly up and lips pressed tightly together. Mrs. Mallard went on, as if they could read her mind, “And you know what? That is why you got bronze.” Alexandra looked up, hopeful that Mrs. Mallard might actually say something nice. “Yes. You need technique, good, solid technique and placement to get gold. With only tricks and high extensions, bronze is all you’ll get. Leonie had clean technique, that’s why she got gold. Alexandra, you just have to use your brain and dance with more physicality.”
Mrs. Mallard finally turned around, and Alexandra glared at her back with as much venom as she could muster. “All right, let’s move on to centre practice. Kaitlyn, dear, please show the class the first port de bras?”
As usual, Mrs. Mallard let them out 15 minutes late. They all skidded into the rehearsal room. Mr. Demidovski was at the front of the room giving a speech, but he paused as they came in to stare at them. “So glad you could join us,” Mr. Moretti, who was standing next
