A/N: I'm currently experimenting with a style of writing called a "50 Sentences" challenge – you are given a table of fifty prompts and have to write one sentence to go with each prompt. Naturally, sometimes the grammar gets a bit flimsy, but it's a fun exercise. For 2011, I am writing a series of 50 Sentences challenges (four per month) covering many different fandoms and characters. Since I couldn't find a decent category to put the series in (this really isn't a crossover, so the crossover options are out), I am posting each entry separately in its own fandom. This is the sixth ficlet in the series, and if you'd like to keep track of them, there's an index in my profile listing the titles and fandoms of them all.
Thanks for reading!
To Teach the Stars to Dance
1. Earth
There were so many people, so many people who never knew that the moment they stepped on to the ramps to board the Titanic, their feet would never again touch the ground.
2. Air
Standing here at the bow of the ship with her arms outstretched, the wind in her hair and his hands intertwined with hers, Rose truly felt like she could fly.
3. Fire
Her favourite colour was red, red like her hair, red like her fiery personality (or so she had been told) – but they were always trying to burn that passion out of her.
4. Water
Afterwards, it took her two decades before she swam again, and even then she was never comfortable in water – some fears were too deeply engrained, they were unavoidable.
5. Energy
He spun her around the dance floor and she felt like a wild child.
6. Awaited
She was the only one who knew the truth about the diamond and she intended to keep it that way.
7. Bond
Three days – three days of joy, freedom, love, fear and tragedy – and though some would say it was impossible, she knew she would never know another human being the way she had known Jack Dawson.
8. Gifted
Rose was gifted – gifted in the art of rule breaking and poor behaviour, characteristics Cal intended on stamping out of her.
9. Pursuit
Learning to spit like a man was not deemed a desirable activity in a young woman's afternoon, but Rose had fully enjoyed the rebellion and even the embarrassment that followed.
10. Grasp
She gripped his hand as they sank towards the ocean, swearing under her breath that she would not let go.
11. Raze
Anger burned in her stomach when Cal slapped her, but given the rapidly deteriorating circumstances she remained frozen, unable to react, unable to register the pain, unable to do anything but stare dumbly ahead, the same words going round and round her head: Jack betrayed me?
12. Flood
The torrent burst forward, unleashed upon them like the fury of a watery hell bent on claiming them for its own.
13. Armada
She could picture the guests at the engagement party – the sea of falsely smiling faces, armed to the teeth with guile and jealousy behind a mask of expensive gowns and sparkling jewellery.
14. Avarice
Cal observed his beautiful fiancée and felt pride in what he had managed to achieve – wealth, a name, fortune and a wife, everything a man needed in this world.
15. Outcry
Rose clutched the rails of the ship, cold tears running down her face as she tried to pry her fingers free, give herself to gravity, and take the plunge.
16. Lighten
Eventually, dawn came and she peered at it from under her blanket as if she had never seen the sun before.
17. Conflict
"You're not to see that boy again," her mother said, tugging mercilessly at the cords of her corset, strapping her in like a horseman reining in a disobedient horse.
18. Ameliorate
"See, a little art can brighten up anything," Rose said to Trudy after they had pulled all of the paintings out and scattered them liberally around the suite, much to Cal's disgust.
19. Scars
She buried her loss deep, never speaking of him, insistent on moving forward as she promised – but some wounds could never be forgotten and even decades later, her heart still ached when she remembered.
20. Tea
"I assure you, tea is very proper – you can't just pour it into a cup and drink it!"
21. Avail
The ship was sinking, people were running in every direction, she knew she was going to die – but it was all right… they were together, so it would all be fine, it had to be...
22. Bend
She saw Cal and Jack watching as the boat was lowered towards the water; she saw Cal's smug look, the acceptance on Jack's face (as if he were steeling himself for the worst); and then she acted – she threw herself forward and jumped.
23. War-torn
She collapsed into bed, even though it had been less than an hour since she had left it, her heart hammering from her argument with Cal and feeling more lost and confused than ever.
24. Irenic
She always had to speak carefully around her mother, else risk receiving a sharp lecture intended to make her feel guilty.
25. Elemental
"It's elementary, my dear Rose," Jack said in a horrible false British accent, tipping a hat and putting a borrowed pipe in his mouth in an awful imitation of Sherlock Holmes.
26. Tutor
"Now stand up straight and no one will notice," Molly said, beaming at Jack in his borrowed suit.
27. Discipline
Rose added "never wearing a corset again" to her growing list of things she wanted to try.
28. Adroitness
She wondered how he kept a level head, concentrating on finding a way – any way – of staying alive as long as possible while the world spun out of control around them.
29. Disgraced
He had lost his fiancée to a pauper, he had lost a priceless diamond to said fiancée, and the unsinkable ship had sunk from under him – whether he liked it or not, his world was forever changed and his father would never think well of him again.
30. Honour
There was much gossip among the ladies – how she had been seen walking the third-class deck with a strange man, who had then showed up to the first-class dinner that night – and she found she could care less.
31. Sanctuary
She stood out like a sore thumb below decks, but after a few drinks, the third-class men and women soon forgot about her fine gown and jewellery and she was allowed to be something she never could be above – herself.
32. Battle-line
Rose picked up her drink, Jack picked up his – and then she down hers in one gulp and grinned as he howled with laughter.
33. Scorn
Rose stared at him and finally spoke the words she had been meaning to say for months, years that were no doubt years late: "You unimaginable bastard."
34. White-flag
Rose grasped his hand tightly as they walked slowly down the hall to face her mother and fiancé – despite her trepidation, it was what she needed to do as the current situation was far more important than anything.
35. Breeze
"How can something be so natural for someone and so difficult for someone else?" Rose asked as she frowned at her smudged failed attempt of a drawing as Jack chuckled.
36. Soot
The hem of her white skirt had been edged in soot – soot from a happier, free time when they had run away, laughing, before the iceberg and the water and the cold…
37. Wave
Her first evening on the Titanic, she had leaned against the rails, watching the ocean waves crest, wishing she could be as free as the water below.
38. Earthquake
The whole ship shuddered – and then with an unearthly crack, it tore in half.
39. Healer
She had thought she would never know love – true love – since she became engaged to Cal, but now she knew she was wrong and she was beyond grateful for this second chance.
40. Favour
She had the idea for the portrait after their first kiss – and after their second, she was insistent on finding the nerve to ask him and make her idea reality.
41. Harmony
She ran her hands through his hair and kissed his forehead – in this moment, they were one.
42. Clash
She had to leave – she would die if she stayed – but she couldn't go, no matter how much he begged or pleaded… she couldn't flee to safety when she knew he was still in danger.
43. Moon
"Come Josephine, in my flying machine, going up she goes, up she goes – you know you're really out of tune, right?"
44. Eclipse
She thought her life was over when she had let him go – but she forced herself to keep moving, keep fighting, and truly, when she looked back at it, that had been a beginning.
45. Comet
"If you wish on a shooting star, will it come true?" Rose asked, hanging on to his arm and pointing, childishly, at the sky.
46. Familial
Dawson – she had chosen it, and it was her name now, more so that DeWitt Bukater had ever been.
47. Flow
He had once told her that everything happened for a reason; she wondered whether dying with the Titanic was one of those things.
48. Mastery
The first time he had discovered he could balance at the bow of a ship and catch the wind, the wind had promptly blown him over.
49. Final
She had no money when she arrived in America, but she didn't care – it was what she wanted.
50. Unity
Rose was seventeen years old with her whole life ahead of her – and nothing had felt so right than the moment she made her decision to leave the ship with him.
fin