Passion and Pain (Dancers and Divas) (13 page)

She never bothered getting close to Elena. That decision was already made.

“Let’s go onto
‘
Somebody to Love
’
,
” Ms Lazowski said.

“Frankie, do you want to do the lead for this today? My throat’s sore,” Letitia said.

Frankie almost fell off her seat.

“Yeah, of course.
Thank you, Letitia!” she said gushing.

“That was nice of you, Letitia,” Ms Lazowski said.

Elena coughed loudly. She noticed that Letitia only offered the lead for today. She hoped Frankie wouldn’t be expecting it to continue after that. Obviously it was part of Letitia’s game.

Jay played the introduction and Frankie belted out the song with gusto. She sounded fantastic and the room cheered loudly when her part finished.

“That was marvelous, Frankie, as always,” Ms Lazowski said.

“Yes it was,” Letitia said. “I would be happy to give you some tips later on.”

“Really?
I’d love that.”

Elena wanted to throw up. Get a grip, Frankie.

Letitia saw
Elena
rolling her eyes and smirked.

“Ms Lazowski, how about we do
‘
Halo
’
?”

Ms Lazowski nodded. “Now Elena, I know you struggled with this one but hopefully you’ve been working on it!”

Elena gritted her teeth but said nothing. As the song began, Elena sang her part confidently but stopped towards the end to check the notes.

“Ms. Lazowski, Elena is a bit flat again,” she whispered loudly.

“Actually, I wasn’t singing just then,” Elena replied, but no one was really interested in what she said. Letitia’s word was gospel. Even the teacher was on puppet strings.

“If Letitia can hear that you are out of tune, maybe you should work on it,” Frankie whispered.

“Frankie, I’m standing right next to you and you
know
I didn’t even sing at the end,” Elena said defensively.

“Well, you
should
be singing.”

Elena threw her arms up in exasperation. This was never going to end. She’d had enough. She moved past Frankie and headed outside.

“Elena?” Ms Lazowski called out to her.

“I’m not feeling well.” She eyed Letitia. “And don’t consider me for the competition
choir,
it clashes with my other commitments.”

“As if you were ever going to get in!”
Letitia called out after her.

Elena let the door slam shut behind her and stormed out. She punched the lockers with her fist as she passed by and then flung her bag on a bench outside,
slumping
her body down next to it and banging her head against her bag.

“Hey!” Veronika called out.

“What am I supposed to do? If I quit, she wins. If I stay she wins.”

“Play her at her own game. Prove to her you can sing.”

“I can sing in tune
,
but that’s it. I can’t bring people to their feet like Letitia. I don’t even want to. I just wanted to do this for fun!”

“You could hire a hit man.”

Elena looked at Veronika.

“She’s not going to ease off. She is getting too much pleasure out of messing with your life.”

“Brilliant. I’m screwed. And since when did Frankie
lose all her self-esteem
?”

“What do you mean?”

“She almost kissed Letitia’s feet when she offered her the lead for the day. And then when she offered her singing tips, Frankie looked like she had won the lottery!”

“Well, being asked to ‘borrow’ Letitia’s lead is quite a compliment in that room.”

“What am I going to do?” Veronika shrugged. “Why can’t she just leave me alone?”

Sixteen

It was December and Veronika and Sebastien sat in the warmth of
t
he library, finally working on the short play idea they had.

“There are about eight people in the cast and we are hoping to make the roles fairly equal,” Sebastien said.

“That’s cool,” Veronika replied. “So what’s topical among high school freshmen at a performing arts school?” Veronika said, looking upwards and tapping the pen against her lips.

“Sex, drugs, fame, fortune.
You know the usual stuff.”

“What about dating?”

“Yes,”
Sebastien replied. “We could make it a little satirical and have all these mismatches and unrequited love thing happening.
”

“Oh right,”
Veronika said.
“
It could have a bit of comedy and a bit of drama. Yeah, that could work.”

“You know, I could even make it that you
end
up with Elena in the end.”
Sebastien turned to look at her and smiled. She was nobody’s fool.

“I only meant for the play,” Veronika said her eyes wide, repressing a grin.

“Whatever. If you saw the girls interested in joining in, I’m pretty sure I would be happy ending up with any of them.”

“
Yeah, right
.”

“Elena and I already have main parts in the school production, so we want to make sure that the other guys have bigger parts.”

“Hmmm.
Well, based on my inside information,” Veronika began. “I happen to know that there are two teachers dating.”

Sebastien raised his eyebrows. “How do you find out this stuff,
Roni
?”

“Gossip has a way of landing on my doorstep,” she said with a sigh.
“High school journalism at its best.”

“I got it, I got it! We could have two teachers dating, trying to keep it from the students and one of those teacher’s sons could be trying to keep it from his parents that he is dating a troublemaking senior at the school.”

“Now we’re talking,” Veronika said, typing furiously.
“Plenty of scope for misunderstanding there.
Love in the Cafeteria
. Yes! This could be fun. Your mom won’t get offended, will she?”

“Nah, she’ll think it’s funny. She might be a teacher here, but she’s pretty cool, as long as it’s not a teacher
-
student relationship
—
that’s dangerous territory. No, I think this is going to be perfect for our group!”

Veronika was still typing.

“It’s going to be interesting improvising this in class!” Sebastien said. “Frankie and Leon are in too.”

“I’m not sure Frankie is a sure thing. She’s a little obsessed with Letitia at the moment and it’s making me nervous,” Veronika said. “Leon’s in most my classes. He’s totally reliable. Do you know he’s a straight
-
A student?”

“Ooh, Einstein has some competition.”

Veronika pinched Sebastien’s cheek and got up from her seat. “You speak to Frankie. I don’t have the tact or the patience to deal with her. But make sure if she’s in, she’s in.”

“Yes ma’am,” he said, saluting.

She lightly
cuffed
him across the head, gathered her
iPad
and headed out.

Three weeks before Ch
r
istmas and Elena’s head was bent down over her books
,
her face deep in concentration.

“It’s only midterms, you know,” Sebastien said to her.

“I know, but I still need at least a B average and I’ve been working on my contemporary dance with Anya a lot
,
so I’m a
little
behind.”

“You work too hard. You need time to chill out.”

“You know Seb, you’re pretty smart. With a bit of effort you could easily be getting
As
and Bs.”

“What and destroy my dumb jock reputation. Never! Anyway, I prefer to treat it as an improvisation,” he said as he relaxed back into the chair.

Elena glared at him.

“You know, I think I saw someone I need to speak to. Later.”

Elena waved her hand but kept her face buried in the books. Anya interrupted her an hour later.
“Ready to practice?”

“Sure, let me just finish this off,” she said as she typed the last few sentences of her essay.

“Done!
Let’s go. By the way Anya, are you free to practice over
winter
break?”

“Of course.
It will be perfect timing as well as the auditions are on when we come back.”

“Good!”

Elena followed her to the chang
ing
room and then on to the studio.
They leaped and turned and rolled on and off the floor, repeating the moves over and over again. Within two hours, they were both
drenched in sweat
.

“You’ve improved so much, Elena.”

Elena lay sprawled on the floor face down. “I want to die.”

Anya moved around the studio as if she had merely warmed up.

“How can you not be tired?”

“My body’s used to moving this way. It’s normal. If we were doing hip hop for the last two hours, I would probably feel like you.”

“Feel like a coffee, Anya?”

“Oh, um, OK.”

“I might need some help getting off the floor.”

Anya giggled as she tugged at Elena’s arm but Anya’s grip slipped down her arm and she fell on her butt.

“Bit sweaty
?
OK, shower first and then coffee. Up we g
o
!” Elena said as she lifted herself up with force and toweled herself down.

Feeling refreshed from her shower, Elena walked with Anya down to the local Starbucks.

“So, Anya, what’s up with you? You never told me much about yourself.”

“There’s not that much to tell.”

“It’s only us.”

The waitress came to their table. “Yes?”

“A large apple, carrot and ginger juice for me,” Elena said.

“A hot chocolate with skim milk, please.”

Elena looked at Anya again, imploring her to continue.

“Well, my mother and I left
Russia
when I was ten because my dad was in some sort of trouble. Thankfully my grandmother was here in New York and took us in.”

“Is your dad still there?”

“Yes.”

The waitress came back with their drinks. Elena took a sip and watched Anya’s sad face as she absorbed herself in stirring her hot drink.

“What’s your grandmother like?”

Anya’s face completely changed. Her eyes lit up and she spoke animatedly. “My grandmother is the most amazing woman I have ever met. She’s so strong and dependable and she fully supports by ballet career. She has sent me to the best teachers in America as soon as I arrived!”

“That explains why you
’
re so brilliant!”

“I was home schooled for two years when I got here so that I could catch up on my English. Last year was the first time I went to school in America.”

“Is that why you’re so shy?”

Anya nodded.

“What about your mom?”

“She’s ill a lot. I don’t think she really adjusted to living here. What about you?”

“It’s me and mom at home. She can be annoying sometimes but I really look up to her.”

“Why?”

“She’s a survivor. She got pregnant with me at eighteen and her boyfriend abandoned her. My grandparents disowned her and left her to fend for herself. Yet, she managed to graduate from high school, six months pregnant and living in a shelter.”

“She must have felt very lonely.”
Yeah lonely and scared.
Elena often w
o
ndered how her mom did it. Working full time and looking after a baby without anyone to help her.

“She was lucky when a wealthy lady took her on as a housekeeper and let her look after me at the same time. I still
remember her. Mrs.
Wilzenberg
.”
The most caring person Elena had ever known, spoiling her like no one else had.

“Is your mom still working?” Anya asked.

“Um, yeah,” Elena replied confused. How else would they survive?
“She also started business school part-time when I started school. She finally graduates this year. I don’t know how she did it but I really admire her!”

“I can see where you get your determination from.”

“When I know she’s gone through so much, I never want to disappoint her. She’s the reason I’m at Montacrue. That’s why I want to make sure I make it. She’s worked so hard for me to have a chance.”