sweet, and Taylor would be easy to boss around. Anna was the only one who had got more corrections from Mr. Moretti, and her corrections were mostly of the “how many times do I have to tell you?” variety, so Kaitlyn felt confident that she would pass her soon.
As soon as they got in the car, Cecilia asked, “Well? How was it?”
“Fine. Mr. Moretti likes me, I think, and Taylor’s trying to be friends with me, so I have someone to talk to.”
“Yes, well, Kaitlyn, you can’t rely on just Taylor. You’re going to have to make some friends who are actually good dancers. What about Anna? Does she still not like you?”
Kaitlyn sighed. “Yeah, and she’s totally one of the Demidovskis’ favourites. She was even late for class today because she was talking to Mr. Demidovski. But I’m better than her. It’s just her body type. Oh, and Michael and Chloe came up to me today. Michael said that his mom said that I was going to bring up the standard of the academy, and asked me to give him corrections.“
“Well that’s great, Kaitlyn! If Michael’s mom said that, it means everyone already knows that the Demidovskis like you. I’m very pleased by that. And don’t worry, sweetie. You’re the best they have right now. Anna is nothing, neither is Taylor. Did you happen to hear if Alexandra has made the finals at Genee? ”
“No, Mom, I was a little busy!” Kaitlyn snapped.
“Okay, sweetie, calm down. You just need some sleep. What do you want for dinner? A salad? Do you want to stop by Whole Foods?”
“I’d rather eat some pasta,” Kaitlyn muttered under her breath, then added aloud, “Sure mom, whatever. Just hurry up, please. I need to cover my books and write 500 words on ‘what I want to accomplish in socials this year,’ tonight.”
Kaitlyn went to her room and flopped on the bed. To Tylenol or not to Tylenol, that is the question, she thought grumpily. Coming back to dance after the break between summer intensives and school-year classes was always annoying, but Kaitlyn just hadn’t been able to force herself to take drop-in classes at Harbour during the two week break. She reached over and logged on to her laptop. As she signed on to MSN she grimaced. I’m going to have to change my email before anyone at the academy adds me! [email protected] isn’t very original.
She started her homework—“Oh, forget it,” she said out loud. How am I supposed to concentrate on my homework when all I can think about is the academy? She logged on to Facebook. Ten friend requests. Kaitlyn giggled. Obviously she had danced well today.
Taylor’s chat box popped up, “Hey!”
Kaitlyn groaned. She didn’t want to talk to Taylor right now, but it would probably be diplomatic if she pretended they were BFFs for now.
The alarm started blasting, and Kaitlyn quickly turned it off. She had been awake for a couple of minutes anyway. She always did that the first week of school. As she got dressed, she felt happy and excited. She lost a pound yesterday, and she hadn’t even been that hungry. She loved adrenalin: it usually had that affect on her. Maybe I can lose two pounds today! She looked at herself in the mirror. I look pretty good. I might not be able to dress as expensively as Anna, but I do look younger. And really, she thought, isn’t that more important for dance, anyway?
When she got downstairs, Cecilia already had her breakfast ready: a bowl of porridge and fat-free yogurt sitting on the table with her bagged lunch.
“Your dad’s going to drive you today, Kaitlyn,” Cecilia said. “Were you talking to Taylor last night?”
“Yes, why?”
“Oh, I was on your Facebook, and her status said she was looking forward to her birthday party.…”
“Yeah, she invited me to it last night. It’s going to be at a restaurant downtown on the twentieth,” said Kaitlyn, putting some sugar and milk on her porridge.
“We’ll get you a new dress for it then. Have a good day. Remember to get to the front of the class and keep Mr. Moretti correcting you, he’s doing most of the casting for The Nutcracker this year. Mr. Demidovski told me that he’s thinking of you as Clara, but if you impress Mr. Moretti you might get Sugarplum.”
“Okay, okay, Mom! Geez!” Kaitlyn went to find her dad, who was on the computer, finishing up an email. “Dad, we have to go, like, now.”
“All right Kaitlyn, go wait in the car. I’ll be there in a sec,” Jeff Wardle said, still typing. Sighing, Kaitlyn went to wait.
As they drove to McKinley, Jeff asked how her first day at the academy had been.
“It was good.”
“Did you like the teachers?” Jeff asked as he turned onto Granville and nearly ran over a homeless man who was racing across the street.
“Dad!” laughed Kaitlyn. “No one likes ballet teachers, they’re all crazy.”
“Okay, but did you learn anything?”
“Um, the one I had yesterday was okay,” said Kaitlyn, as they pulled into the school parking lot. “He’s Italian, so he doesn’t teach Balanchine. I like that.”
“Okay, have a good day. Good luck!” Jeff said as Kaitlyn left the car.
“Thanks, I’ll need it!”
After school everyone met up at the bus stop to go to the academy.
“Hey, ’sup? How was school?” asked Julian, smiling at Kaitlyn. He seemed rather relieved to see her.
Delilah turned to Kaitlyn; “Don’t you think he would make a good drag queen?” she pointed at Julian. “I mean, he has such awesome hair!”
“I can see,” Kageki said, grinning.
“How do you even know what a drag queen is?” said Anna. “Who taught you that word?”
“Tristan,” Kageki was laughing. “He taught me so many good words I want to use, but he says I can’t use. Like …”
“Shh!” Julian laughed as he covered Kageki’s mouth. Kaitlyn just stood there laughing at Kageki. He looked so funny with his ultra-fashionable haircut. There were different chunks of hair going every which way: some parts perfectly straight, others in corkscrew curls. The affect was accentuated by the fact that his hair was dyed red.
“What are you laughing at?” asked Anna, suddenly turning to Kaitlyn.
“Nothing!” said Kaitlyn, too surprised to think of a good come back. Just at that moment, the bus drove up and they got on.
“Aren’t you kids leaving school a little early?” the bus driver asked, raising his eyebrows.
“No, we’re in the Super Achievers Program,” said Delilah, smiling sweetly up at him.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“It’s for sports and arts. We get to leave at 11:30 every day to go to dance, and we get fine arts and P.E credits for it,” said Anna, looking at him as if he was an idiot.
“Oh, all
