was pretty impressive, but I never actually saw her dance.”
“She dances like an obese, deaf person doing hip hop,” whispered Tristan. They quickly pulled apart as Mr. Demidovski entered the studio. Mr. Demidovski walked slowly to the front of the room and stood there until the room was completely silent. “My students,” he began. Mrs. Demidovski started to cough, and Mr. Demidovski turned to glare at her. “Mrs. Demidovski, I am speaking,” he said firmly.
“Sorry,” said Mrs. Demidovski, not looking terribly sorry, as she sat down. “Kageki, bring me water please.”
“My students,” continued Mr. Demidovski. “Welcome. Welcome to my school. Welcome the new students!” Everyone clapped obediently. “We have much of the great dancers from my academy. They are at the Royal Ballet! The top companies in the States! They are in Asia! They dance everywhere! That is because … they receive the very great training at my school. Always, I give to the students, everything is for the students. Mr. Demidovski gives the sweat, he gives the heart! I give you the inspiration. But for the inspiration, you must give me more! I give you 55 percent the inspiration, the love, the feeling. You must give me … 110 percent! The students are from all over the world, we have many of the overseas students, from Japan, Australia, China, England, Brazil, Russia. Everyone clap for the overseas students!”
“Mr. Demidovski! You forget the States,” Mrs. Demidovski interrupted.
“It is my very great wish, my dream, that you all become great dancers. But this is up to you. The teacher cannot do it for you. The teachers at my academy, they sweat, they give you the love, the inspiration, the work, but they cannot do it all for you. You, you must work hard, you must take care of the physical, make straight, strong, the long, thin line. My students, you must respect all of the teachers, be nice to all of them. I want my students to be more down-to-the-earth. Mr. Demidovski knows that you want to do this. Thank you my students, you give me the love, I love you all. Everyone at my academy, we give the love to each other.” Everyone clapped.
“Okay, finish. Everyone, go home!” said Mr. Demidovski.
The younger class went running out of the classroom, glad to be free, except two of them.
“Hello,” said a small boy, about eleven. He was smiling at Kaitlyn.
“Uh, hey,” she answered, raising her eyebrows in surprise. She recognized him from competition, but there was no way she was going to let him know that.
“My name’s Michael. I’ve been going to the academy for a while now,” he spoke with the air of someone offering very confidential information. “This is my friend, Chloe. We’re also partners for competition. We’re going to win, because everyone else sucks in the junior pas category this year. But I just wanted to say we both think that you’re amazing, and my mother wanted me to tell you that she’s very happy that you decided to go to the academy. She thinks you will bring up the standard of the school. And I just wanted to say, if you notice anything in my dancing that you could correct, please tell me.” Michael widened his eyes as far as possible.
“Oh, for sure!” said Kaitlyn. “I’m sure that you and Chloe will do great at comp this year. My mom said you did well last year.”
“Thanks!” said Michael. Chloe smiled at her and then followed Michael out. Kaitlyn smiled to herself. The little ones knew to suck up to her, that was a good sign. Her mom would be pleased to hear about that. As she went downstairs, Kaitlyn smelled the lost and found box. What on earth is in there? The smell was disgusting. She started digging to find out.
“Hey, watcha doing?” asked Delilah.
“Trying to find out what’s stinking up the whole basement!” Kaitlyn replied. Delilah bent down to help.
“Whooee, it does stink in here. Oh, look, a brand new pair of pointe shoes! Keiko, aren’t these yours? They’re sewn folded over instead of burned.… Oh, and these are your warm-ups, Jessica …” As Delilah passed out the discoveries, Kaitlyn reached in and pulled out a bag.
“Omigod!” she screamed. “It’s a bag of rotting Duan’s takeout! Eww! There’s another bag of it and an apple!”
“I think there might actually be a janitor!” Delilah said in mock surprise. “We thought there wasn’t, but somebody must have put those bags in the lost and found.” Kaitlyn grimaced in disgust and hurried to the bathroom to wash her hands. Anna was going through Taylor’s stash of junk food, trying to find something partially healthy, while Taylor stood nervously by watching her.
“How come you have that much junk in your locker?” Kaitlyn asked.
“Well, I, like, always forget to have breakfast and pack a lunch, and I always need to eat before dance, and my mom gets so mad when I eat junk, so I store it in my locker and I eat it here where she can’t find it. Honestly, she is such a control freak, but I won’t tell her where my locker is. I always tell her I need to get home right away to do homework when she asks where it is.” Taylor stood up and walked straight into the wall. “OMG, I just, like, raped the wall! My boobs totally violated that wall!” Taylor said, giggling as she went into the bathroom.
“Wow, somebody’s had too many energy drinks,” Kaitlyn said as she left the changing room to go home, muscles aching.
“Hey, you bussing?” asked a boy from her class who’d been sitting out because of his ankle.
“No, my mom’s coming to pick me up, but I have to wait for a little bit,” replied Kaitlyn. “I’m Kaitlyn, by the way.”
“Julian,” he answered. “I’m new here.”
“Me too,” smiled Kaitlyn. “Are you from Van-city?”
“Um, no, I’m sort of from the Island.” he answered. “But I’ve been living in Toronto for the last year with my stepdad. I just moved back to B.C. to go to the academy. I’m homestaying with Mr. Yu. It’s totally cool, but the food sucks majorly. I’m going to McKinley Secondary for my half-day academics. Where do you go?”
“Oh, I go to McKinley too, but my mom picked me up and drove me here because it was the first day. I’m going to bus tomorrow, though.”
“That’s cool. See you tomorrow then. Konbanwa!” he said, grinning.
“What does that mean?”
“‘Good evening.’ Keiko, my homestay sister, taught me some Japanese last night. I’m the only person there who likes speaking English, and Leon speaks Spanish, Keiko and Mao like Japanese, and the Yus like Mandarin, so it’s kind of lonely at the dinner table,” he said, pouting.
Kaitlyn laughed. “I can totally picture that. I’m glad my parents live here.”
“Oh no!” Julian said in exaggerated horror. “Home-staying totally rocks. I mean, you get to live with a bunch of other teenagers, leave school way early to dance, and the Yus don’t care what you do with your free time as long as you tell them when you don’t need dinner.”
Cecilia was coming down the hall quickly, gesturing at Kaitlyn to get up. “Come on, Kaitlyn, let’s go.”
“Kay, bye then,” laughed Kaitlyn.
“Bye,” Julian smiled. He swung his long body out of the chair and sauntered down the hall, plugging in his iPod earbuds as
