Hey guys!
I hope you like this chapter!
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“Wake up Fi-Fi!” Roxy’s cheery voice resounded. “It’s time for ballet!”
“Mfhhhhmm,” I groaned into Kenzie’s shoulder as I threw a pillow at Roxy. “I don’t wanna.”
I felt her grab the comforter and peel it away from my body, effectively waking up the rest of the girls - and boy were they annoyed. No one wanted to sleep on the floor, so we all piled into Roxy's king-sized bed. The girls all huddled me in the middle of the bed for some strange reason, so I was squished between Kenzie and Blair's bodies.
“You have to practice so that you can get a part in Giselle!” Roxy whined as she climbed onto the bed and sat on top of me. "You promised me you’d practice so that you can get a role!”
“I said no such thing!” I exclaimed as I tried to push her off of me but she had her legs tightly locked around my midriff. “I only told you that I’d audition.”
“And in order to do good in your audition, you need to practice,” She groaned as she wrapped her arms around my neck and nuzzled into me. She attached herself onto me like a damn koala bear! “Please Fi-Fi! Don’t make me have to carry you!”
“ROXY, SHUT UP!” Ashley shouted as she tried to push Roxy off of me, but she had a tight grip on me and refused to let go. “It’s 6 A M for Pete’s sake!”
“I’m not shutting up until Fee agrees to come with me to practice.” She said before unwrapping her arms from around my neck and placing them onto the headboard where she proceeded to bang her fists on it like a damn toddler.
“LA LA LA LA!” Roxy loudly sang off-tone. “LA LA I’M A BALLERINA; LA LA LA AND SO IS FI-FI! LA LA LA LA WE’RE BOTH BALLERINAS; LA LA LA LA AND WE’RE GOING GET PARTS IN GISELLE! LA LA LA-”
“ALRIGHT, I'LL COME TO PRACTICE, FUCK!” I suddenly shouted, cutting off her terrible song. I’d had enough of her screechy voice.
“Yay!” Roxy said as she wrapped her arms around my neck again. My face remained stoic as she nuzzled her cheek into mine.
“Praise the Lord!” Blair threw her hands up in relief, “Now the both of you, get out so the rest of us can sleep in peace!”
"AMEN!" Ashley chimed.
“Say no more!” Roxy exclaimed as she climbed off of me and surprisingly pulled me into a sitting position with one yank. How in the hell did she manage to pull me up so quickly? Gosh, Roxy’s much stronger than she looks. “You can get dressed in my bathroom Fee. Remember I packed your ballet clothes at the bottom of your gym bag. I’m going to use the bathroom right across the hall if you need me.”
“Mmm, ok,” I croaked as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and pulled down my tank top which had ridden up.
“Hurry, you have fifteen minutes,” Roxy said before disappearing out of her bedroom door. I waited until I heard the click of the bathroom door closing before plopping back down onto the bed and groaning. The girls laughed at my stalling to get ready and Kenzie gently patted my shoulder.
“I’m sorry Fi-Fi,” Kenzie apologized. “We would help you but, you know how Roxy is; she’s relentless.”
“Yeah I know,” I groaned as I wiped my hand down my face. “Roxy gets what Roxy wants.”
“Don’t worry though, we’ll come to watch you guys practice later,” Blair said pushing her hair out of her eyes.
“That actually just makes me more nervous,” I confessed. “I’m not as good as Roxy is in ballet. In fact, I suck.”
“Come on Fee,” Ashley encouraged. “You can’t be that bad.”
I snorted as I scratched my head. “You’d be surprised. It’s a miracle that Madame Mercier hasn’t kicked me out of the advanced class.”
“If you can make it to the advanced class, then you have to have some sort of skill.” Kenzie tried to motivate me.
I sighed as I rubbed my still tired eyes. “If anything, my skill would be memorization of ballet terminology. I remember new terms and their meanings very quickly.”
“There you go!” Kenzie grinned. “See, I knew you had to have some skill.”
“Does that even count though? What’s the point of knowing something without being able to execute it?”
But the girls didn’t even have time to respond to my question when the door suddenly burst open and Roxy’s half-dressed form stood in the doorway staring at me accusingly. Her attire was certainly comical. The straps of her leotard weren’t fastened so they fell down her shoulders, her pale-pink ballet tights were twisted around her legs, her pointe shoes were untied and half of her hair was in a bun while the other part was left dangling from her ponytail. Her gray eyes narrowed at me while she snapped her fingers in my face.
“Hello, Fee!” She exasperated. “What the hell are you doing? Why aren’t you getting dressed?”
“I’m tired Roxy,” I groaned at her as I dramatically slid from the bed and face planted onto the floor. "Why won't you just leave me be?"
Roxy placed her hands on her hips and glared at my spread body on her carpet. “Fee, I didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice!”
“What are you talking about-AHHHHH! ROXY, LET GO OF ME!” I suddenly screamed as she tightly gripped my ankles and dragged me across the floor.
But she didn’t even bother responding to me. She’s a psychopath! I looked up at the girls for help but they were all giggling at me in amusement - Ashley was even recording a Snapchat!
“YOU ARE ALL TRAITORS!” I screamed at them as Roxy finally managed to pull me into her bathroom. She threw my bag at me, and it hit me square in the face before she angrily stood by the door.
“Get dressed,” She seethed. “Now you have ten minutes!”
Roxy glared at me one last time before slamming the door shut. What the hell is her problem? The back of my thighs was burning from her dragging me across the carpet. Another injury I’ve gotten since I’ve been here.
Well, I couldn't really call the first one an injury, could I? The tea that Roman’s pretty blonde girlfriend had given me made the inside of my mouth burn; although it was delicious. The pain didn’t start right away though, it was about an hour afterward that my mouth had begun to burn, and even my stomach a bit. I didn’t want to say anything because, at that time, she was still sitting in the room and to be honest she kind of scares me; and no one else seemed to be in pain. Although she might’ve tried to poison me because Roman was paying so much attention to me.
Roman.
I let out a sigh as I picked myself off of the floor and scrambled through my bag for my toothbrush. I don’t know what possessed Roman to suddenly sit and talk with me last night. I have to admit though, I was really happy he did; and according to him, we were friends now. But can I really be friends with Roman Knox though? I mean, he’s nine years older than me, why would a twenty-six-year-old man want to be friends with a seventeen-year-old girl unless it was just to get in her pants? But he did seem sincere in his conversation. It wasn’t revolved around sex and he gave the impression that he was genuinely interested in my life.
But do you want to just be friends with him Fee?
I blushed at my own thoughts. It was no surprise that I found myself highly attracted to Roman. What girl wouldn’t be? He was tall, with a toned body and a handsome face. And that smile! Oh God, that smile made me nearly melt in the couch! If I’m being honest, I found myself turned on by how much older he was than me. When he told me my age, my cheeks turned crimson red and I fought to keep myself calm. Thank God I didn’t get wet or else I don’t know what I would’ve done! Imagine trying to explain a sudden wet spot on my shorts?
“I probably would’ve thrown myself out the window,” I mumbled to myself as I brushed my teeth.
Checking the time, I saw that I had about eight more minutes before Roxy came barging in here like the raging bull she is. I hurriedly finished brushing my teeth, applied deodorant and washed my face. I’ll take a bath after practice. Doesn’t make much sense to shower now just to get all sweaty and have to take another shower.
Roxy said that she had packed my ballet clothes for me and I prayed that she didn’t choose something embarrassing. My mom had bought me some ballet clothes before that I absolutely refused to wear. For example, she bought me a sparkly neon purple leotard that looks like something someone would wear on Soul Train! Thankfully though, Roxy had chosen something that wasn’t too bad; a light gray, spaghetti-strapped, low back leotard paired with a white chiffon wrap skirt and white ballet tights. Surprisingly, she’d brought my tan colored pointe shoes rather than the pale pink pair that Madame Mercier forces us to wear. She insisted on the pale pink because she says that it’s a “nude” color, but it’s like she doesn’t realize that she doesn’t only have Caucasian students in her class. Like hello, for a black person, pale pink is not nude!
I managed to throw on the ensemble right before Roxy bust through the bathroom door, this time properly dressed. “Are you dressed, Fee?” She asked just as I began brushing my curls upwards.
“Yeah I just have to lace up my shoes,” I said as looked around for an elastic. “Do you have an extra elastic?”
“Yeah,” She offered one from around your wrist. “Here, I’ll put up your hair for you.”
I snorted as I handed her my brush. “Good luck with my unruly curls.”
“Your hair is really soft,” She said as she began brushing it up into a ponytail. “It’s like you have a billion corkscrews in your head.”
“The natural hair life,” I sighed as I watched Roxy struggle to grasp my curls into a proper ponytail.
“I thought you had to be black to have natural hair?” She asked confused. “You’re mixed.”
“Yeah but I’m more black than white,” I shrugged. “And black and white mixed people don’t have their own distinct race. Most times we look more black than white so we just identify as black.”
“That sounds….kind of confusing,” She scrunched her nose as she once again failed to put my hair into a ponytail. “Ok, you take over, I can’t do this!” I laughed as I took the elastic and brush from her and within ten seconds, threw my hair into a high slicked back ponytail before twisting it into a bun.
“How do you do it?” She asked as I began tying my pointe shoes. “I mean, your hair is gorgeous but I know you must spend a ton of time on it.”
“A ton of money too,” I snorted, “But I’m getting a Brazilian blowout soon for Eden’s wedding. It’ll be much easier to manage when it’s pin straight.”
“Oh,” She pouted a bit as she admired my bun. “I’ll definitely miss the curls, but you should look so cute with straight hair!”
“Haven’t you seen me with straight hair before?” I looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. “I’ve gotten Brazilian blowouts before, I went to ballet with them.”
“Yeah, but I couldn’t really notice it because your hair was always up in a bun.”
I shrugged as I finally managed to lace up my shoes. “Well, you’ll get a good eyeful of it when it’s done because I plan to let my hair flow in the wind.”
“Like Pocahontas?” She grinned as we exited the bathroom to find Ashley, Blair, and Kenzie fast asleep on Roxy’s bed. I giggled at their snoring forms and Blair who was falling halfway off of the bed. “Yes, just like Pocahontas, although these three are more like Sleeping Beauty right now.”
I hurriedly snatched my phone from its charger and followed Roxy out the door where she walked down the corridor towards a flight of stairs that lead into a homemade ballet studio; equipped with wooden floors, mirrors and barre bars.
“Of course you would have your own personal ballet studio.” I snorted as I gently ran my hand over the barre.
“My parents had it set up when they saw how serious I was about ballet,” She explained as she fiddled with a small remote.
Soon enough, loud ballet music that I recognized as The Nutcracker, Op. 71 – Christmas Tree blared from the walls. The sound was incredible! It felt like the music was flowing through my bones.
“You and your Tchaikovsky,” I grinned at Roxy who was currently twirling around like a child to the beautiful music. It was no secret that Tchaikovsky was Roxy's favorite composer, she'd made that known by her preference to dance to his work at ballet, with Waltz of the Flowers being her all time favorite song to dance to. “I would think that you’d be practicing to Adolphe Adam, you know, for Giselle?”
“When rehearsal starts, I’ll be listening to Adam more than I will ever want to in my lifetime,” She said in mock disgust. “Besides, The Nutcracker’s soundtrack just puts you in such an upbeat and cheerful mood, doesn’t it?”
I snorted again as I gently rested my hand on the barre and began performing a series of rises as my warm up exercises. “Yeah, I just feel like break dancing when I hear it.” I sarcastically replied.
Roxy soon joined me on the barre and we continued with rises for another five minutes before doing jumping jacks for another five. We finished our warm up routine with some shoulder, calf, and leg stretches before Roxy switched the music to the livelier, Polichinelles. We practiced as we would in Madame Mercier’s lessons; beginning at the barre before moving to the center of the work for Port de bras and Grand battements. After that, we executed the classic Adagio work before moving on to Allegro work. An entire hour had passed and I hadn’t even realized it! Dancing with just Roxy was much more fun than dancing with the rest of the ballet class. For starters, Roxy’s taste in music was much more energetic than Madame Mercier’s bland and boring choices. And with Roxy, I didn’t feel like I was being judged all the time. Sure she corrected me when I made mistakes, but she didn’t make me feel like an idiot for doing so.
“Your Fouettes are coming on well!” Roxy praised as she watched me perform. “Your form has become a bit stronger since two weeks ago. Just one little thing, watch your traveling; I know that it can be easy to forget about that.”
“Noted,” I grunted as I started another set of fouettes and tried to force my body to remain in one place. Unfortunately, my body still continued to travel no matter how much I tried to suppress it.
“Shit,” I swore in annoyance after my third time fucking up. There’s no way I’ll get a role if I can’t even stop fucking traveling!
“It’s fine, don’t worry Fee,” Roxy reassured. “Traveling is an easy fix, alright. The most important thing is that you’ve got your Fouettes down-packed.”
That statement was supposed to make me feel better, but for some reason, it just made me feel even more annoyed. Why does it sound like she’s mocking me?
“Easy for you to say!” I spat. “You’re a prodigious ballerina!”
Roxy’s eyes widened at my harsh tone and I immediately felt guilty. “Well sorry for trying to help!”
I rubbed my hands over my eyes and sighed. God, what’s wrong with me? Why am I lashing out at Roxy? Here she is trying to help me and I’m acting like a total bitch.
“I’m sorry Roxy,” I apologized. “I’m just…cranky because it’s so early. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
Yeah, maybe I was just cranky; I mean it was only seven in the morning.
“Apology accepted.” She sighed as she held out a bottle of water at me. “Now I know that you turn into a mean troll when you’re woken up early.”
I chuckled as I gingerly accepted the water. “Aren’t most people grumpy in the mornings?” I asked before bringing the bottle to my lips and took a quick sip. But just as I swallowed it, I felt the familiar burning sensation in my mouth. I quickly spat out the water while violently coughing. It’s the same feeling I got when I drank that tea last night.
“FEE, WHAT’S WRONG?” Roxy shouted, alarmed at my sudden coughing fit as she began patting my back.
I’d gotten out all the water that ran down my windpipe but my mouth still felt as if it was on fire. I pursed my lips and swallowed the pain like a champ before nodding my head at her. I’d brushed my teeth, why didn’t my mouth start burning when I rinsed out my mouth with water. But then again, I didn’t feel any pain until after I swallowed the water.
“I’m fine, I just drank too fast,” I said as I clutched my chest. The burning in my mouth was slowly fading, but I wasn’t taking any more chances with this water. I’ll drink some later.
“Are you sure?” Her eyebrows furrowed.
“Yep,” I nodded. “I’m good now.”
Roxy still looked unbelieving of me. “I’m fine Roxy, I swear! Come on, let’s continue with our Allegro work so that we can finish up and I can go back to sleep.” I resumed the music and began working on my pirouettes this time. Deciding to let it go, Roxy followed suit and began dancing alongside me once more.
Before we knew it, another fifteen minutes had flown by and we were still deep into Tchaikovsky. I knew that my movements were becoming sloppy but I didn’t care, I was actually enjoying myself dancing ballet. I never thought I’d say those words.
I felt inspired.
I felt free.
I don’t know what’s happening, but I wide grin took over my face and I let loose; my choreography changing from ballet to more of a contemporary. I noticed that Roxy had stopped what she was doing to observe me, but I didn’t worry about her oncoming criticisms.
The music suddenly switched to Dance of the Little Swans - my guilty pleasure. It was a music piece that I’d always loved, even before I started ballet. It was a favorite of Madame Mercier as well. She often made us practice to the song, as well us forcing us to learn the choreography. Although the dance was a Pas de Quatre, I found myself effortlessly dancing along to music all by myself - I danced this piece quite often, so I was experienced with the choreography.
“Look at you!” Roxy praised. “I’ve never seen you so intense during ballet.”
“Practice makes perfect,” I replied as I pas de chat to my right.
Roxy paused the music before coming to stand beside me and extended her hand. “Come on, let’s dance together.”
I stared apprehensively at her extended palm. It was one thing to dance a Pas de Quatre alone, but with a partner? Roxy noticed my apprehension and rolled her eyes and me before she forcefully grabbed my hand. “Don’t give me that look Fee. You just danced a Pas de Quatre aby yourself, and now you’re afraid to dance a Pas de Deux?”
“It’s easier alone,” I tried to argue, but she wasn’t having it. She readied herself in the starting position and tangled our arms together to resemble a bow tie.
“Come on, it’ll be fun!” She grinned at before restarting the music to the beginning.
I just sighed in defeat as we began dancing the choreography. Thank goodness it wasn’t a long dance. Occasionally when I looked down, I snuck glances at Roxy’s and my feet. Her toes were so much more pointed than mine and her form so strong. I tried to mimic her as best as I could, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get my body to move the way hers did.
I bit down on my lip enviously as we both arabesque to end the dance. Stop it Fee – Roxy is your friend; you shouldn’t be jealous of her.
“Great job!” Roxy squealed as she patted me on the shoulder. “You did awesome!”
I felt tempted to shrug her hand off my shoulder but I just sighed as my head dropped slightly. “Thanks, so did you.”
Roxy’s brows furrowed at me and she frowned as she stared at me in confusion. “Are you alr-”
But her question was cut off by the door suddenly tumbling down and the bodies of Ashley, Blair and Kenzie plummeted into the studio. What the hell?
“Guys, what are you doing?” Roxy infuriated. “You just broke down my door!”
“We’re sorry,” Blair groaned as she painfully stood up. “We came down to watch you guys, but we didn’t want to disturb you because you looked so intense in practicing.”
“And the door broke because…”
“We all were putting our full body weights on it and it just collapsed. “Kenzie shrugged. “Don’t worry though, we’ll get you a new door!”
“One studier than this one,” Ashley chimed.
Roxy sighed as she face-palmed herself. “You guys are so special.”
Blair’s eyes shifted over to me and a wide grin spread over her face. “I thought you said you weren’t good at ballet, Fi-Fi?” She chimed. “I watched you dance just now and you were amazing!”
Was she blind? “M-Me? Amazing at ballet?” I stuttered as I stared wide-eyed at her.
“Yeah, I thought you did a pretty good job,” Ashley piped in.
“Me too,” Kenzie smiled. “You and Roxy were in perfect sync.”
They thought I did good? Were they just saying that to make me feel better or did they actually mean it? “Oh, th-thank you!”
I was so surprised that I barely knew how to respond to them. I mean, I have gotten praised by my family for my ballet skills (or lack of in this case) but they’re my family – they’re always going to tell me I’m doing good job. I guess the girls are similar to them in the instance in that, they too don’t know much about ballet, so of course, it looks like I’m really good at in when I’m actually not.
“I told her that she’s good, but she won’t believe me.” Roxy sighed. “Maybe hearing it from others will give you a bit more confidence.”
I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. “I do have confidence-”
“You don’t,” The four of them choired in unison as they gave me dead-panned expressions.
That hit a nerve. I don’t know why, but I became highly annoyed at them saying that. Yep, I definitely need some more sleep – I’m too cranky!
“Whatever!” I threw my arms up in annoyance before beginning to untie my pointe shoes. “I’m done Roxy, I’m really tired and I want to go back to bed.”
“Fine,” She said as she reached down to untie her shoes as well. “We’ve been at it for a while and you need to sleep because you’re cranky as hell! I don’t like grumpy Africa at all.”
I don’t like grumpy me either.
I quickly managed to pull off the shoes before I reached up and yanked the bun out of my hair to let my curls flow down my back. “Ladies, it has been a pleasure to be in your presence, but I will now bid you all Adieu! Please don’t wake me up again!”
The girls laughed as I practically sprinted out of there. I knew that they probably were gonna come back to bed as well and I wanted to get a good spot in Roxy’s bed before we all squished together. I am not sleeping in the middle this time.
Upon entering the bathroom, I discarded my ballet attire and threw my light blue cloud pajamas back on. I wanted to shower but I was so tired I didn’t think that I’d be able to make it through it. I’ll just take one when I woke up again. Besides, I wasn’t that sweaty since the air-conditioning was on full blast in the ballet studio.
Gathering my curls into a messy ponytail, I dived headfirst into Roxy’s big, fluffy bed and snuggled into her mountain of pink pillows.
Goodnight to me!
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I feel as if Africa has been at Roxy’s house for days lol
I hope I didn’t mess up too much with all the ballet terms. Once again, I have no experience in ballet and I’m just researching everything as I go. Please correct me if I’m doing something wrong.
The next chapter should be up in 3-5 days.
See you guys then! ^_^
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