time, don’t be late,” Mr. Demidovski said. “The rehearsal, the preparation, it is very important.” He gestured his arms towards them all grandly and said, “The Vancouver International Ballet Academy … we are all friends. We all love each other. We are all a happy family.”
At this Kageki put his arm around Tristan. “My brother!”
Tristan laughed and put his arm around Julian. “Yeah, we all heart each other.”
Julian pulled away from Tristan and grabbed his water bottle.
“Yes, we all love each other,” Mr. Demidovski continued. “Mr. Demidovski, Mrs. Demidovski, we both give you the love, the passion. That is why we rent the Vancouver Centre for you, to give you the chance to perform on this world-class stage. We spend much money to give you this chance, this opportunity.
“In return, we expect, we want, you to give us your heart. You must do your best, eh? Mr. Demidovski give you 100 percent, you must give me 210 percent! It must be this way. Many people come to this performance, many rich people, many ballet people. Mr. Demidovski wants to give them a good show, eh? If no good feet, nice line, Mr. Demidovski is embarrassed. You must be thin, long line. There’s only a week until the show, must be perfect. Mr. Demidovski give you the beautiful costumes, you must make them look good. Take care of the physical, eh? Lots of vegetable, some yogurt. No sugar, no cake … after the show Mr. Demidovski doesn’t care what you do, but before the show you must take care. Also the technique, must work in the class. Apple must look like apple, orange must look like orange, no look like potato, no look like …” Mr. Demidovski paused, momentarily at loss for words. “… melon. When the ballet people come, they must have a good show! They must want to see you dance more. In the intermission, we do not want the audience to go get wine, we want them to stay, talk, wonder what will happen next. You must be good so they forget about the wine!”
“Is he saying that we will be responsible for turning the audience into alcoholics if we are hideous?” Alexandra whispered to Grace.
“Yep, pretty much. The sight of fat is proven to turn people into raging alcoholics!”
“So … anorexics are the same as AA?”
Kaitlyn giggled before she could stop herself. She didn’t want them to know that she’d been listening. Grace and Alexandra immediately bent their heads together and whispered something inaudible, then giggled loudly. Kaitlyn blushed; they were obviously talking about her.
“Mr. Demidovski wants to be proud when he shows everyone his academy. If the show is no good, they will say that the academy is no good, and Mr. Demidovski will be ashamed. I will dig myself a grave.” Mr. Demidovski looked around at them to make sure that they understood the gravity of this statement. “Mr. Demidovski will dig himself a grave because he is so ashamed.
“Must work!” he said in a vague attempt to summarize his speech. “Anyone else have anything to say?” he asked the other teachers. “Questions?” he asked the students.
“‘Trepak’ will rehearse first, and then ‘Mirliton,’” Mr. Moretti announced. “The rest of you may go.” Kaitlyn got up, glad not to be rehearsing for once. She walked into the hall and sat down to pull off her pointe shoes.
“I just don’t know what to do after dinner,” one of the younger students was complaining nearby. “Like, I’m fine all day, and then wham, I start eating. I’m trying not to eat anything after five o’clock, but then I keep going to get stuff.”
“Like what?” one of the other girls asked.
“Well, we have this fruit bowl in the living room….” There was a collective groan of understanding.
“Did you know that a banana has just as many carbs as a cup of rice?”
“What? You’re kidding, right? Great. It’s just so hard to stay up and study without something to munch on.”
“What I do is, I make some ice. And then I break it up, so it’s all in little chips. It actually works. You’re munching on something, but there aren’t any calories.”
“That’s an awesome idea! I need something to occupy me. Days off are the worst, all I seem to do is eat.”
“Do you know what’s great for days off? A lettuce smoothie. You can throw in ice and celery too, but make it mostly lettuce. It’s great, it really fills you up.”
“Uh, no offence, but that sounds kinda gross.”
“Actually, I think I want to try it. Do you want to make one with me when you come over on Sunday?”
Kaitlyn got up and left. She wondered if the whole ice chips thing would actually work. It was worth a try, anyway. She wrapped her hands around her waist as she walked downstairs, trying to feel how far apart her fingertips were from joining in the back.
Downstairs, Jessica was taking orders for the next Yumiko shipment. Kaitlyn knelt down to gaze at the brochure. The sample fabrics were so pretty. Taylor was sitting cross-legged, hogging the signup sheet and the brochures. “I like the Alex one,” she was telling Keiko. “I’m not sure about the colours, yet, though.”
“Wow, how many bodysuits are you ordering?” Kaitlyn asked as she looked at the paper with everyone’s orders on it.
“Um … five so far,” Taylor said, giggling. “My mom said no more than five, but they are so pretty!”
“They do look gorgeous,” Angela said with a sigh. “But I really can’t afford any right now.” Everyone except Jessica ignored her.
“Aren’t your parents kind of rich?” Jessica asked.
“Well, sort of, But they don’t approve of spending money on bodysuits when we can only wear them for rehearsals.”
Kaitlyn looked wistfully at the colours. She was pretty sure that her mom was going to get her one for Christmas, but she really wished she had it to wear right now. The colours were so bright and rich compared to the academy uniforms.
She wandered off to get changed, choosing not to torture herself over bodysuits she’d have to wait for. She went to the mirror and began undoing her bun, the long coil making one big curl as she took out the pins. She debated whether to risk taking the ponytail out or not. She was getting a serious headache. She pulled out the elastics, but her hair stayed in position thanks to the gel. Kaitlyn sighed and wetted her brush, starting to attack her hair in an attempt to make it look normal.
“I hate hair bumps,” Chloe said, stacking her stuff on the other side of the sink.
Kaitlyn winced at her voice. She couldn’t handle bright, happy people at the moment, especially ones that were half her size.
“Geez, stop taking up the entire counter!” Anna said in an annoyed tone as she came up behind them.
“Oh, sorry!” Chloe blushed as she moved her things over.
“Oh, that’s okay, I didn’t know it was your stuff. You can keep it there if you want.”
Kaitlyn’s stomach clenched, and she hurried to gather up her stuff. As she left the changing room, she paused to look at a photograph of Leonie Camden. My arabesque is way higher, Kaitlyn
