Whoops, my hand slipped.
Prequel to my other story "Would you find a way to say it?" check it out if you haven't :)
It had been the summer that Anzu had left to come to New York, now winter had settled into the city of New York and what a wonderland it had become now that it snowed.
The winter chill stung Anzu's flushed cheeks as she left the warmth of the dance studio, it felt much colder than yesterday as snow began to shower gracefully around the city of New York. She tied her scarf around her neck tighter, white flakes coated her body like a sugar beignet.
The audition to play as the Sugar Plumb Princess for The Nutcracker had cast their role, and it wasn't her.
Anzu had memorized every gesture and hand movement, facial expressions as they were key elements to make her dance moves more graceful. To land the role would give you major showcase credit! Her school has a promising theatrical program that provided opportunities for their students to audition for major Broadway shows and musical companies.
However, Anzu had yet to be picked for a role as the main character, so far she has only danced as one of the background dancing swans in Swan Lake and had done small plays in local theaters in the community center.
It was enough that she made it abroad to a different country to attend school, right?
Wrong.
Anzu needed to push herself more than ever. To just to enter an American dance school was only the beginning. Now came the most difficult part to concentrate and be highly competitive. There were so many elite girls from other countries with the same dream to perform on Broadway, what would make Anzu stand out from the rest?
In order to make something of herself, she needed to step up her game. It didn't matter to her if it wasn't a big Broadway show, although she was definitely going to work herself up the ladder even if it meant practicing rigorously for another six months to prep for one show.
She wouldn't dare go back home a failure!
Her face scrunched up at her silent, pessimistic thoughts. They were a running rampage and dug deep into a spot implanting their seeds of doubt and fear. It wasn't like Anzu to be growing a seed of second thoughts.
To Anzu that was unacceptable!
'Something positive, something positive,' She earnestly struggled with her self-doubt,
'Uh…my fouetté has improved! I had at least performed in one Broadway show! Ugh, I'm still sore from my toes though, and my grand jeté needs a bit more jump.'
Thus she was back to square one.
Anzu continued walking and grumbling to herself.
Classes were over for today as she decided to walk down the city seeing all the wonderful diners and cafes.
Suddenly a neon color flyer stapled on a wooden pole promoting the upcoming show of The Nutcracker, her stomach tied in knots as she scanned the title of the show. She had been practicing nonstop, she perfected in her head every step, every classical tune to match it and not miss a beat and even while she showered and slept.
'What did I do wrong?' she scolded herself.
Her lengths to perfection would go on for hours practicing and even forget to eat but that never was a smart thing to do. She regretted it as a dancer needed every bit of strength to keep up their posture.
Anzu's classmates were something of between cutthroat and snooty, there wasn't anything in between. While Anzu was the cheerful kind, she had been fortunate enough to befriend a friend or two. But they were too eventful as one would be busy looking for auditions out of town and the other would have date nights with her boyfriend now fiancé.
They had complimented how graceful she was and how her movements were on point. However, she needed to work on her facial expressions and balancing holding a certain pose for a solid minute in order to gain endurance.
Though the critiques were not what bothered her, despite the ones that had mentioned how much better she would look if she grew out her brunette hair in order to portray a proper bun style.
She had missed them.
She missed him the most.
Anzu had always counted on her friends to show their utmost support regardless of her doubts devouring her. Of course, she kept contact with them whether it was via email, text, Skype or by phone.
She felt empty knowing she hadn't received a single message today.
She thought to take a mental note to scold each of the boys for not even sneaking in a simple meaningful 'How was your day?'
Though could she really blame them? For one universal reason, they were men. You could keep their attention on you for so long.
Every male specimen all had this dilemma, she thought. Whatever they think or is said to them is written in stone, especially Jounouchi who was constantly distracted by other things!
Anzu snorted.
An image of Jounouchi calling her an idiot for even for feeling the slightest bit of self-pity, though he would know exactly how that feels when it came to dueling.
Honda would likely yell at Jou to take it easy on Anzu. But would also mention for her to keep her chin up and all the supportive words that involved her doing her best and how she would make it work.
And Yugi, he would have…
Anzu suddenly felt her phone vibrate in her coat jacket startling her out of her thoughts.
She groaned to herself dreading that it would be one of the girls from class wondering if she would like to go out for coffee. To Anzu's dismay she never liked coffee, she supposed it was a New Yorker thing.
Anzu's plan for today was to go home, enjoy a hot bath and enjoy a hot chocolate with an American drama film she had purchased. Anzu held tightly to the vibrating phone that still held its place in her coat pocket debating if she should answer or ignore it.
What she wouldn't give to talk to a certain spiky headed gamer and gazed down to take out her cell phone without seeing the caller ID.
"Hello?" Anzu's voice was anything but pleasant. It was hoarse due to the dry, cold air and fully expecting it to be one of her annoyingly girly classmates.
"Anzu, is that you?" Yugi answered.
Her heart fluttered feeling it beat faster than a rushing sonata exhaling a puff of warm breath in the cold air.
Her long chestnut hair escaped from the snug of her scarf as it danced against the chilly gust. Anzu hesitated to react, knowing how she responded the first time as she stifled the urge to cry on the phone to her boyfriend. She had so much she wanted to share with him but she was only a few blocks away from her dorm and didn't want to make a fuss out in the open. So instead she cleared her throat dissipating the pessimistic fog that had been clouding her mind all morning and turned into her cheery self again.
"Yugi! Hi, yes, of course, it's me!" she couldn't help but giggle.
"Heh, right, the shop was really busy today from all the December shopping and I just closed just now. How are you? I tried calling earlier but I guess your phone was turned off. I hope I wasn't interrupting anything." Yugi said.
Anzu smiled through the phone. She knew Yugi would come through, boyfriend or not communication between the two was a must. She took in a deep breath brushing away an incoming tear at the corner of her eyes and gave a quivering smile.
"Not at all! I'm great now that you called!"
Hope you all liked this story!
More one-shots to come! R&R, please!
xoxo - Gabzgirl