that’s sweet!” said Taylor excitedly. “Is she back yet?”
“Hai,” said Keiko. “She’s downstairs changing. She’s super skinny right now. Like, bone, bone, bone.”
“Oh, good for her,” said Taylor.
Keiko grimaced. “No, not like good, good skinny, you know? Like, not so good, I don’t think it is nice. But is useful to get bronze! Come downstairs with me to get changed.”
“Okay,” said Taylor smiling. “Are we auditioning with the youth company, or is it just level A and B?” Taylor whispered as they walked down the hallway.
“I think … I think company, too,” Keiko whispered back. “Because they are all here still, and they have no more class today.”
“Who do you think will get Sugarplum?” continued Taylor, as they went downstairs. “Oh, and where were you yesterday?!”
“I was at home. I had jetlag still,” said Keiko. “I think maybe Alexandra, but also maybe Grace? Because the Demidovskis really like Grace. But I like Alexandra is better, I think she is a better dancer. And maybe Anna for something, but I don’t know what.” They got changed, and Taylor drank a ROCKSTAR. Taylor walked into Studio A. F, she thought. Tristan’s taken my favourite spot on barre again.
“Hey, Gaylor, ’sup?” Tristan called across the room. Everyone started giggling.
“You’re almost too gay to function,” she said, trying not to cry.
“Oh, quoting Mean Girls? Were you in that?” he laughed.
Delilah started laughing even harder, “Didn’t you know? She was the stupid blonde one.”
Taylor went to the back barre, forcing herself to giggle, and said, “It’s not nice to make fun of me just ’cause I’m blonde!” Keiko was at the back barre too. “Hey, Keiko. O-genki desuka?”
“Hai, genki desu,” replied Keiko smiling. “Your Japanese is improving!” Keiko frowned as Kaitlyn walked in. “Who is that?”
“Kaitlyn,” whispered Taylor. “She’s really good. She wins, like, everything and she gets hundreds in her exams.”
“Oh.” Keiko didn’t look very happy. “Well, she does not have a good body type.”
“No, I know, “said Taylor, agreeing happily. “Who do we have for warm-up class?”
“Mr. Yu,” answered Angela from behind them.
“Oh, great,” said Keiko to Taylor, ignoring Angela. “I haven’t had a Mr. Yu class for a while.”
Mr. Yu came in and scowled at the class. Standing in the doorway, he slowly scanned the room. His eyes rested on Taylor. “Where is your uniform?”
“S-s-sorry,” stuttered Taylor. “I thought, because, like we don’t have to wear a uniform for the audition, that, maybe … we didn’t have to wear uniform for class.…” Her voice got quieter and quieter until nobody but Keiko could hear the last few words.
“Wazzat you say?” demanded Mr. Yu, cupping his hand around his ear.
Anna called out, “She said that she thought we didn’t have to wear uniform today because we don’t have to for the audition class.”
Mr. Yu gestured at Anna to shut up, saying, “Can she speak English? She doesn’t look Japanese. Does she need a translator maybe? Come on, speak.”
Taylor tried again. “I thought we didn’t need to wear uniform today.…”
“What’s that?!” said Mr. Yu, raising his eyebrows in disbelief. “Is this class?”
“Yes, but …” Taylor tried to shrink into the barre.
“No but! Is this class?”
“Yes.”
“Look around,” said Mr. Yu, gesturing around the room. “You see anyone else not wear uniform?”
“No,” whispered Taylor.
“What did you say?” asked Mr. Yu. “No, right? Everyone have the little VIBA on hip?” he said, poking Keiko’s hip where the academy’s logo was embroidered on her bodysuit. “Don’t even need to read, just look. Oh, white spot? Must be VIBA, right?” Taylor nodded. Suddenly his smile disappeared and he looked furious. “Next time, no uniform, no class. I will kick you out. Understand?” Without waiting for an answer he began to lead class.
The class collectively began to breathe again, those around Taylor staring at her with alternating expressions of pity and disgust.
“And into, hu, ha, phu, ba, ba, chuuuu … pah! Ba, into …” Mr. Yu called out the counts for each exercise in his own peculiar way while banging the Nutcracker Prince’s prop sword in time to the music to make more noise. George gritted his teeth and tried to block him out by hitting the keys louder. WHAP! “Into…!” bellowed Mr. Yu, hitting Julian on his leg with the sword while he was in arabesque. Julian grimaced in pain and squared his hips. “Okay, barre finish. Now stretch,” said Mr. Yu, finally. He went out for a smoke.
Taylor sat on the ground and rolled into the middle splits. Julian came over and slid into the side splits next to her. “Hey, you okay?” he asked. “That dude is kinda intense.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s just Mr. Yu, he’s like that,” Taylor was trying not to cry. Angela came and sat down beside them.
“Taylor, how come you didn’t just wear your uniform?” she asked in a fake-friendly tone. “It says in the rule book to always wear the uniform for class,” she added condescendingly. Taylor said nothing.
Julian stared at her like she was crazy. “Wow, you’re really rude, you know that? Why don’t you F off?”
“I was trying to make her feel better!” said Angela, moving away horrified. Taylor started laughing.
“That was good,” she turned to Julian. “Thanks! She’s, like, always a bitch to me.”
“No problem,” he said “Anyway, she is so bad! I couldn’t stop laughing at her yesterday while I was sitting out. And she thinks she’s really good!” Tristan came over and sat next to Julian. Delilah followed him, and Taylor quickly got up and left.
“Did you just tell Angela to F off?” he asked, grinning at Julian.
“Ah, yeah. But she was being really rude.” he started to try to justify himself.
“Hey, no, that’s cool!” Tristan said, “I’ve totally wanted to do that since she came, just couldn’t find an excuse.”
“I gave you loads!” complained Delilah.
“So,” said Tristan, ignoring Delilah, “we were wondering if you’d been to Harbour Dance yet?”
“No, what’s that?” asked Julian.
“It’s
