The music pulsated all around me, regardless of the fact that is was gentle, soft, classical music guiding my movements. I felt hands on my waist, and then I was lifted into the air. I held my arms out gracefully, to balance myself as well as to make it look, well, good.
As the song ended, the dance slowed, until we were at a standstill in front of the person judging us.
There were the sounds of pencil on paper, and then the pencil was set down and the judge was looking at us critically. I gulped slightly, as did my long time partner, Sora Strife. He grabbed my hand and held it tightly, causing me to blush slightly.
"You two are very good together," the judge began, but you two seem to almost be on different wavelengths, in a way. How long have you two been dancing together?"
"About ten years, ma'am," Sora answered easily.
Oh, that's right. We had been dancing together since we were seven. Time really does fly…
The woman frowned slightly, "Well, my honest opinion is that you guys are great together, but if you guys are going to succeed in this school, if you are accepted, you guys need new partners."
My eyes widened in shock, and I glanced at Sora, and found that he, too, was as shocked as I am.
"B-But…" I began quietly, "We… we have been partners for ten years, ma'am. I can't imagine being anyone else's dance partner…"
She gave us a critical look, "If you guys wish to succeed in any way, shape, or form, I suggest that you think long and hard on whether or not you will continue dancing with each other. That is all."
With that being said, we walked off the stage and out of the room, frowns on our faces.
"Sora… do you really think that we'll stop dancing together?" I asked slowly.
Sora scratched the back of his head, moving some of his spiky brown hair around, "Well… whatever is best, right?"
I was silent for a moment, wondering what he meant, "Y-Yeah… whatever is best…" I answered before looking away.
I felt his strong arms wrap around me, causing me to blush and smile "Don't worry about it, Naminé, no matter what happens, we're still best friends!" and my smile suddenly became a little less bright.
Yeah… I do have a crush on him.
I took a deep breath and turned around in his grip and stared up into his dark blue eyes, "Sora… is that all we are? Best friends?" my eyes became downcast at this, and a blush settled across my face again. This was embarrassing…
He was silent for a second, "Huh? What do you mean, Naminé?"
I sighed, he really was thick, "S-Sora… I-I –!"
"You have got to be kidding me!" came a very sudden, very loud shout that sounded like a boy's voice. The actual shout caused Sora and I to break apart and turn towards a door that was slightly open. Sora began making his way over to it, and he motioned for me to follow. I did, of course.
"I'm sorry, okay? For one thing, it's what my parents want, and it's what I want!" came a biting response, this one coming from what sounded like a girl.
When we peered in, we found too people standing about two feet from each other, both of their arms crossed, and angry looks on both of their faces. Though, why they were there before school had even began for the year was unknown by me.
One person was a girl with long red hair that was tied back into a pony tail and blue eyes not unlike my own, as well as tanned skin. She wore pink sweat pants and a black leotard, as well as dance shoes, not ballet shoes.
The other was a boy with messy blonde hair that was spiked mostly to the side, like he had just gotten out of bed, and a face that resembled Sora's so much that I had to double take to make sure it was actually Sora I was looking at. After I got over the similarity, I glanced at what he was wearing and found baggy black sweat pants and a loose fitting black tank top, as well as boy's dance shoes, once again, not the ballet ones like Sora owned.
They were obviously not a ballet pair.
"To hell with your mom and dad!" the boy yelled, seeming to get angrier and angrier.
And then there was a loud, painful slapping noise that actually made my cheek hurt.
"How dare you say that?" the girl screeched, "Take that back! You cannot disrespect my parents!"
"I can do whatever I want!"
"No you can't! You see? This is what I, and my parents mean! You just go off and do whatever the hell you want! You can't do that! That's not the way it works! If you really want this relationship to work, then you have to listen to me, too!" the girl screamed, tears coming to her eyes.
There was a slight silence, "Don't… don't cry…" the boy reached over and took the girl's face in his hands, and leaned towards her and kissed her gently.
I felt bubbling jealousy in my stomach… I wanted someone to kiss me like that…
The girl seemed to kiss back for a second or two, before pushing at the guy's chest roughly, knocking him to the ground, "No!" the yelled, "No! Just, no! This is yet another problem with you! You're bipolar, for crying out loud! I can't deal with this, I just can't! We're through, as both a couple and a dancing pair!" and with that, she burst into tears ran out, right past us, not acknowledging our presence.
"I'm going to do make sure she's okay, okay?" Sora said before running off, not even making sure I was okay with it.
I stood there for a moment before looking back into the room, seeing the guy just standing there, seething. I just shook my head slowly before walking away, and out of that beautiful building.
It was a full month before I got a letter from the Twilight Town Academy of Fine Arts, and when I received it I ripped it open and simply read the first sentence.
Dear Ms. Naminé Nomura,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to the Twilight Town Academy of Fine Arts…
I nearly screamed after reading this sentence, but, instead, I simply picked up my phone and called my mom and dad, telling them the good news. They were ecstatic, and we shared a long talk about expenses and important stuff like that. When I finally got the chance to hang up, I called Sora immediately. It rang three times before he picked up.
"Hey, Sora here!"
"Sora! It's me, Naminé! I got in!" I said excitedly into the phone, bouncing up and down in my chair.
"That's great, Naminé! I got in, too!" he shouted, and I smiled even brighter, if it were possible.
I giggled slightly, "So, we're going to continue dancing together, right?"
There was a pause on the other side of the phone.
I felt my happiness go down.
"Well… Naminé, I took what the judge said into consideration… and I talked to my dad about it…"
Oh, that's right… Sora only had a dad, Cloud. His mom was never spoken about, so he didn't know squat about her, or whether or not she was alive at all.
"And… well, I kind of already have a new partner…" he finished, a bit awkwardly.
I swallowed the lump in my throat, "Well… th-that's great, Sora!" I faked the excitement, "Wh-who's your new partner?"
There was a slight laugh, "It's that girl we saw the other day at the academy. Her name is Kairi!"
I suddenly felt very, very, very low on self-esteem and confidence, for some reason.
"She's really nice, and when I ran after her, we talked and exchanged phone numbers! She's awesome, Naminé! You guys are so different, but seem so alike! I really like her… I think I might have a crush on her!" he sounded so happy… and yet, I couldn't actually feel happy for him...
I felt tears prick the corners of my eyes, "Th-That's great, Sora! I'm… I'm happy for you! But… I have to go pack, so… I'll see you later, okay?"
"Okay!" he didn't even realize my sadness.
And with that, I hung up, and curled up on my bed and cried quietly.
Only five days after that, I found myself in my new (shared) dorm room. I was unaware of who I was rooming with, except for the fact that her name was Xion, and that she excelled as a violinist, but was not the best, obviously.
The way dorms worked here was that you worked your way up with the years.
If you were good enough to get in, but, for example, were going to get the role of being part of chorus in the first play of the year, then you would share a dorm with three people, and you would receive a gray uniform.
Using a different example, if you were an artist and you got a rating of 2 by the judges, you would have one roommate, and would receive a white uniform. That is where I am right now.
Now, with a different example, if you were first to tenth chair in, say, orchestra (first being the best, and so on) you would have no roommates and would have a black uniform. There were only a select group of people in these dorms, and that is where I hope to be by the end of this year.
As I was putting away my belongings, I heard the door open behind me, and I turned to see who it was. There was a small girl standing there with short black hair and blue eyes, which were like mine, just like Kairi's for some reason, holding a violin case.
I gave a nice, polite greeting, "Hi."
"Hello," she replied, looking awfully shy.
I decided to leave her alone for that moment, due to how she seemed unwilling to talk at the moment, and finished unpacking.
Just as I finished, I got a note from a passing teacher aid that told me to go to the dance room, and to be ready to practice, for some reason.
I simply changed out and started walking over there, wearing a white leotard and light blue tights with my large parka over it, just in case it was to be chilly, as well as my dance bag with me that carried my pointe shoes, normal ballet slippers, and my dance shoes.
I walked across the large campus that still held lush, green, green grass, and into the dance building and into the specified practice room.
When I opened the door, I found a young looking woman standing there; she was talking to that same boy I saw that one day that was only a week and five days ago.
I put my bag gently on the floor and took my parka off, walking slowly over to them.
The woman was somewhat short, with dark brown hair put in a pixie cut and shinning brown eyes. The turned towards me when I walked in and smiled at me.
"Hi! I'm Miss. Kisaragi! You must be Naminé Nomura! It's nice to meet you!" she seemed very… peppy, "This is Roxas, Roxas Gainsborough! He's your new dance partner!"
I stopped walking towards them after that.
Was this woman sane?
"R-Really?" I stuttered, noticing that the boy – Roxas – was wearing a black uniform.
Miss. Kisaragi nodded happily, "Yup! It's not often that we pair people from two separate groups together, but this is the exception! The headmistress deems it expectable, and you two are the only ones without partners! So I will leave you guys to get to know each other and your styles!" she chimed a little too happily.
Right before she walked out she leaned towards Roxas and whispered something in his ear that I didn't quite catch, and I didn't exactly notice. I was too preoccupied with trying to figure out how in the world we were going to mix our styles properly. He looked like a… dirty dancer, and I was a ballet dancer.
Little did I know, what Miss. Kisaragi, also known as Yuffie Kisaragi, said that almost like a challenge for Roxas, or more like a warning…
Wah... I didn't actually mean to write this, but it caught my attention in the recesses of my mind.
What do you guys think of the first chapter? I don't really know if it was good at the least, but I would like to know what you guys think!
Review!