If you want to know what the dances are you just need to look them up on youtube, i did do ballet when i was younger, but not anymore so i'm going to try my best with the terminology, if you notice mistakes please correct me, i'm totally open to it. Enjoy!

Merci

I felt the 2 dozen eyes of the beginners class burn a hole in my back right in between my shoulder blades and at times, quite often, my legs. I felt the roving eyes of the 3 dozen from the professional class, I merely ignored them and continued with my routinely exercise, Madam Melancolie would hate me if I didn't do my everyday routine only for the sorry excuse that I was being uncomfortably watched, because that's what this was. Uncomfortable.

Okay, I sighed as I thought to myself, lets start basic. Ronds de Jambe a Terre

Now, Battements Degages

Then, Glissades...the teacher did say that what ever I needed she would provide. I turned my head to see the students dance teacher that was admiring me from afar. My dark chocolate eyes sent the message to her black ones, and with a sweet smile nodded her head and leaned over clicking play on a CD player. I felt the stares become more intense as they watched me, some admiring, others scrutinizing, trying to find a mistake, or waiting for the moment where I epically fail. Not gonna happen. Failure is not an option... I learned that the hard way.

I began my last one, Battement Frappe, as I went through my quick successive steps I heard the soft ohh's and ahh's and some snorts and hushed whispers. I smoothly turned my body around, following the steps my gaze passing over the cheery faces of young children, and the brooding, sulking, envious, stunned, or lust filled faces of teens such as myself. Then with a last few movements I ended my exercise. The little children immediately began to clap with only a few of the adolescents joining in. The beginners all scurried up to me with giddy expressions, gushing over me, I only laughed and smiled with them answering their simple questions while giving novice advice that they easily saw as the most important thing that any one had ever told them. To be a kid again.

"alright kids, alright!" the dance teacher came over clapping her hands getting the small children to go back to their side of the room with the others, relieving me of my kneeling position to stand next to the tall black haired woman next to me. "We need to give Ms. Tenten some room, she is our guest" I smiled

" just call me Tenten, no formalities please" she smiled back

"well...alright then" she turned back to her students "as you can all see, we've brought both our beginners and professionals classes together to share in this wonderful new addition to our dance family!" I smiled at the mention of family, to say that they must all be so close, it sounded nice and warm and comforting. Before, I had no one else except for Madam Melancolie, and she was a cold old woman. The studio was cold, practice was cold, rehearsals were cold, being with her was cold, the only warmth was from the stage lights at my recitals. I'm the queen at that moment, all eyes and hearts are set on me, and that gives me warmth.

"She's kind of out of place if you ask me" I turned at the sound of the voice and saw a girl with brilliant red hair brought up into a tight bun, as was expected, while wearing a purple leotard and nude colored tights and pointe shoes

"Karin! Don't be rude, there's nothing wrong with being different!" I recalled what I had on, it was also a leotard, but mine was black and had a small little skirt on it, it was also sleeveless with two pieces of cloth crossing over my chest connecting together at the nape of my neck. So from the bottom of my shoulder blades up my back was bare, my hair was also up in a tight bun but it wasn't as high up as hers, my tights were also nude but my pointe shoes were black.

"i know I was taught differently from the rest of you, and obviously I will present myself differenlty, but I hope that we can all still get along just fine." I gave the girl a smile and she glared back, but it didn't faze me.

"Um, excuse me?" I turned to see a boy with a forest green shirt, and black ballet pants with matching tights and shoes, his hair was in a strange bowl cut

"yes?"

"what was it like being taught by Madam Melancolie?" I noticed people immediately took interest at the mention of my instructors name, I inwardly flinched, this was something I was afraid they would ask, so I gave my best fake smile and told them a truth, that after a few words became a lie.

"She's intense, that's for sure. Her methods of teaching are very different, but she's an inspiration, someone to really look up to and admire, she's a pleasure to work with" when I finished people gave each other satisfied smiles as I felt my throat go dry. All a lie a filthy polluted lie

! "okay enough questions!" thank you "now, as a little surprise, our older groups have worked on separate dance routines to show to you Tenten, so if our first group would come up." She motioned for them as we went to go sit down on a pair of stools against the mirrored wall in the studio. The first group was a pink haired girl with stunning green eyes in a pink leotard, a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes dressed with an orange shirt and black pants tights and shoes, and a boy with black hair and eyes with the same outfit as the blonde but with a blue shirt.

I watched intently as they did the Dance of the Mirlitons from the Nutcracker, it was interesting how they made it work, they changed the order of their movements, timing things differently, and even though their was only one female they took advantage of that and by placing her in the middle made her the center of attention, her natural beauty making it easy. When they finished I gave an appreciative clap I truly did enjoy their performance, a bit easy in my eyes, but a fun little challenge for them. The next group composed of a blonde girl with icy blue eyes in a baby blue leotard, a boy with black hair that was in a high pony that was dressed the same as the other males but his shirt was black, and an unusually large boy with brown hair and little swirls on his chubby cheeks, his out fit was the same as the other boys but his shirt was red. Once again I was impressed with a group as they did the Russian Dance from the Nutcracker, using the same technique as the last group making the female the center of attention, and using a child for the actual female part in the routine. It was short and sweet and made me smile.

The group after was composed of a girl with midnight blue hair and pearl like lavender eyes, her leotard was also lavender, a boy with short brown hair and red triangles under his eyes, he wore a brown shirt with the same outfit as the others, then there was a boy with black hair, he wore dark round shades on his eyes, where at first I thought he was blind but apparently his eyes are just sensitive to the light, he wore the same outfit as the others but his shirt was beige. They surprisingly pulled off Swan Lakes four little swans, of course they cut it down to three, but it was still a beautiful performance, I was impressed. After them many other groups went and none of them really caught my attention as much as the first few. Many of the others either didn't really care, were too easy, were trying to hard too impress, or to out due, I pitied them, but something caught my attention.

The boy from before hadn't performed yet, and as I watched him I noticed that his friend hadn't either, the boy next to him wore an outfit like the other males but instead his shirt was a pristine white. His long coffee brown hair was in a pony tail at the nape of his neck and he wore some wrappings around his fore head, he was actually very handsome. I suppressed a blush as I discreetly watched him and studied his well chiseled features, for some strange reason, I...i felt drawn to him. It was very unusual, and then I noticed his gaze locked with mine and there was a flash of something in those beautiful pearl orbs of his that I wasn't able to catch as I quickly looked away noticing that every one had performed. Maybe it was the fact that their weren't many cute boys in Romania, but those eyes, they reminded too much of that other girls, they must be related.

I was snapped out of my thoughts as the teacher announced that I would be performing two dances for the class out of the wishes of my own dance teacher. I smiled as I made my way up to the front of the room and positioned myself to begin my first dance. It was the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from the Nutcracker. I began moving my arms appropriately with the music, and soon got lost in my thoughts again as I danced by pure muscle memory, but happy thoughts, ones that helped me dance better, ones that made me glow. I was snapped out of them as I heard the subtle high pitched gasps of the children as I began to do my spins at the end of my dance. They enthusiastically clapped when I had finished but then quickly quieted as I positoned myself for the next one, a little girl sat in the front with long dark hair and pearl eyes like those other two teens, I smiled and winked at her. I watched as her eyes got bigger and sparkled while a large toothy grin came over her face with pink happy cheeks. My smile grew as I began Odettes solo from Swan Lake, the music was soft and I did my best to make my moves fluid and feather like, like a swan. The ending was my favorite and once again I heard the impressed sounds from the younger children.

When I finished the children clapped, yet this time stood. I smiled and got in to first position and then relaxed, the teacher came up to me as I breathed heavily and the clapping quieted

"splendid! Simply splendid! Your teacher would be proud!"

"of course I would" everyone's head except mind turned to look at the new voice that entered

"Madam Melancolie! It's a pleasure to see you! But may I ask, what are you doing here?" I finally looked to see my old teacher give the young one a plastic smile as her cold eyes slid to mine, I clenched my fist but gave her a tight smile back

"why, I just came to give my final goodbyes to my young student, after so many years of bleeding broken toes and sweat and tears it's the least I could do." No one knew how true that statement was, unnecessary blood, sweat, and tears..and abuse. She walked up to me, that plastic mask covering her face and grabbed my hand with cold fingers placing something in it. I felt her nails dig in to my skin painfully, but I didn't flinch.

"you'll need this" was all she told me, she then turned to the other dancers and began to praise and give her thanks to them, all a load of bullshit. I suddenly felt a burning heat on my side, I was being watched, quite intently. I first glanced with my eyes then turned my head completely. It was the boy from before with the long hair and pearl eyes, he was leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest watching me, even when I caught him he didn't look away, we continued watching each other, trying to read one another, when the teacher suddenly called me. I turned to look at her then back at the boy but he had already closed his eyes, I blinked a few times and then brushed it off. I walked up to her as the bell, signifying that class had ended, began to ring. Everyone stood and began to walk out, while children who passed me waved and said good bye. The teacher, Shizune, handed me a plastic package with clothes and a set of keys on top with two sheets of white paper, explaining what everything was for. She soon left herself saying that she had to meet the principal leaving me alone in the dance studio with my old instructor. Great.

We stared at each other just waiting for the other to do something first, but neither of us spoke or moved. Then in the blink of an eye she broke it

"don't forget you idiotic girl, before me you were nothing, now that I am no longer your instructor you will once again become nothing."

"you mean nothing to me, you no longer have any business here so I advise you make your leave" I turned on my heel and began to open the door to exit when she left me with one last message

"remember girl, don't get involved with him." I froze and turned to look at her

"him? Who's him?" a crooked smile came over her lips and then she left leaving a chilling breeze behind her. I shivered and starred at her as she left. What the hell? I shook my head and then made my way to the girls locker room. By now everyone had left and I was alone, good. Before changing I looked down at my tightly clenched hand and opened it revealing a large silver locket, it was oval shaped and was the length of my palm, on the back were initials and a set date

N. T. H.

x

T. S.

6/13/15

I stared at it for awhile, I had no last name, but I did have a middle name and those were my initials, but who was the other? And the date? I shook my head and just quickly put the necklace in my bag. I quickly changed into a pair of skinny jeans, a black tanktop with a red hoodie and black high tops, I pulled out the bobby pins holding my bun and put them in a little red velvet coin purse. My hair fell to my lower back in bouncy curls, I then grabbed my things and left the dance building crossing the school court yard to the girls dorms.

I climbed the stairs to the top floor where at the end of the hall was my room. I entered and I saw that they already got my luggage for me, the room was simple. Black carpet with a queen sized bed with white sheets, there was a wardrobe in front of it with a T.V. On top, in front of me was a large window with a window seat, behind me down the hall to the right was a door for the master bath. To my left was a small closet that when you opened on the door was a full length mirror. It was just enough for a single person. I sighed as I unpacked, and soon enough settled into my new room, I was tired after wards and quickly changed into my pajamas, while I changed I remembered the full length mirror, I promised myself I wouldn't do this today but I just couldn't resist. I stood in front of it in just my underwear and ran my fingers lightly over the red welts and scars on my abdomen, turned around and looked at the ones on my lower back, then the ones on the back of my legs, I sighed. Changing, I then went back to getting everything ready for the next day and setting my alarm clock.

the first chapter is kind of boring, but i think it'll get better review please!