Emily stepped up onto the first stone step, holding her breath. For a moment, she just looked around at warm Sydney, bustling streets and fluffy clouds overhead, the sun twinkling on the water nearby before she broke into a little happy dance. If seen by a teacher, it might have landed her at the bottom of the Dance List, but the joy in her head and heart was too much to be contained.

"I'm at the Academy!" she squealed, twirling around. A passerby gave her a weird look and Emily covered her freckled face with her hands, giggling away. Finally, composing herself, she blinked her hazel eyes and hopped up the rest of the stairs, her rolling suitcase thumping against the concrete, her honey-red pony-tail slapping her face as it swung around. Finally, she opened the clear doors and rushed inside, looking around at all the students walking, weighted down by luggage.

"Do you need your room assignment?" A woman behind a charcoal-colored granite desk asked her. Emily met the woman's gaze and nodded.

"I'm Emily Turn, from Brisbane," she said politely, rolling over her bag. She straightened her backpack while the woman typed on the computer beside her.

"Room twnety-two," the lady said sweetly. "That's up on the fourth floor of Dorm Building A. Here is your room key." She gently handed over a silver key that was placed on Emily's palm.

"Thanks so much," the new student said, rushing over and finding her way to the Dorm Buildings. The hallways were choked with girls in conversation; bags outside of rooms. Twenty... twenty-one... twenty-two, here it is. Emily put the key in the knob and turned it. Inside, the room had a slanted ceiling and one window with a veiw that stretched to the port. Two beds faced her with a long drawer on the right, shelves on either side and a wardrobe on the left.

A girl was busy taping photographs on the left side of the room- what she'd claimed as hers.

"Uh... hello?" Emily asked, smiling as the girl turned around. She had eyes the color of dark coffee, hair wavy with blonde highlights, and olivey skin. She smiled as well, stretching out a hand.

"Hullo. I'm Marley Saunders," she said.

"Emily Turn," Emily said. She glanced over at the photographs over an orchard, a miniature Marley with a novel, and a family picture that included a young girl, parents, and Marley smiling brightly. "Those are beautiful."

"Thanks," Marley said, looking at the pictures. "My family own an orchard."

"I'm a city girl," Emily blurted. "I've always wanted to go visit the orchards, but we don't go travel often."

Marley smiled brightly. "Maybe you can visit some time."

Emily always hugged her, relief over having an agreable roomate who wouldn't hate her replacing the Academy buzz. "When do we have we to be down at auditions by?"

"Two," Marley said. "Thanks for the reminder."

"No problem," Emily shrugged, putting her things by the right side of the room. Atfer she'd changed in a ballet outfit, she went searching for somewhere to buy a smoothie to calm her nerves. Most people wouldn't want to drink a sweet ice-cream drink before dancing for an audition, but Emily had to have somethng in her stomach. Finally, she found it outside along the walkways, water washing up against the floating sidewalks.

Students were out there, sitting at metal tables, laughing and talking. A counter that served food wa on the left. Emily got in line, waiting behind a girl. "I'm Emily," she told her.

The girl turned to her, smiling. "I'm Elisa." Elisa had a Canadian accent. She also had light red hair that had a slight curl to it, reaching her shoulders. Icy-blue eyes were surrounded by freckles. "Are you in your first year?"

"We'll see," Emily said as the line moved over a step. "I guess after auditions I will be. If I get in."

"Hey, Princess Amelia from Princess Diaries was accident prone, but she shot that arrow through the flaming hoop," Elisa said.

Emily quirked an eyebrow. Where did that come from? "I don't think I'm very great at archery."

Elisa laughed as she got a bottle of water and handed over her the correct amount of money. After Emily got her smoothie, she sipped it, chewing up pieces of kiwi as she made her way to Dance Studio B for the first part of auditions. Her last name was lower on the list, so she wasn't in the first groups but she had to be there for check-in and warm-ups.

On the bilboard of the main hall, three pages were posted, one for each year. Emily scanned the first year list:

YEAR ONE AUDITION SCHEDULE- STUDIO A:

Monday

Ballet, Jazz

Wednesday

Athletic Physicals

Friday

Dance solos

FIRST YEAR APPLICATION REVIEW- OFFICES A-D:

Tuesday

Grade Reviews

Thursday

Interviews

"All students auditioning for First Year, auditions begin in Studio A in five minutes. Please report to Studio A to get your numbers and sign in. Thank you," a voice said over the intercom.

Emily put her now-empty smoothie cup into the trash before running down the halls towards a corridor crowded with students stretching, leg warmers and hair buns as common as words. Marley waved from the wooden bench where was stretching her ankles. "Hey, Emily."

"Hi," Emily responded, going over and bending her arms before curling her toes which were slippered in delicate, baby-pink slippers. "Are you nervous?"

Marley shrugged, blinking her dark eyes. "Not exactly."

Emily nodded, the knots in her stomach chilled from the kiwi smoothie. She bent her ankles andd wrists, trying to focus on something other than if she would get accepted into the Academy or not.

"Students," a woman with auburn hair said as she walked around the corner and into the hall. "Please sign in and we'll assign you your numbers. Elisa Coughlan?"

Elisa got up, smoothed out her powder-pink leotodard and signed a clipboard, getting a square of paper with a 1 on it and four safety pins. Eventually, they called everyone and Emily got the number 13. Eventually, all thirty-three of the aspiring Academy students filed into the studio and stood before a panel of five judges. One was, of course the auburn-haired woman who introduced herself as Mrs. Lassly, the stand-in for Mrs. Raine, the Principal of the school. The second was a grey-bearded man who was a sponsor of the Academy, the other two beside him were teachers, and finally a younger boy with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes.

"You're Ethan!" one of the girls in the three rows of students said. Everyeone turned to face her and her cheeks reddened with embaresssmnet. Ethan grinned, happy at being recognized.

"This is Ethan Karamakov," Mrs. Lassly said. "You might remember his choreography from his Ballet, Agro auriacae." Ethan nodded happily. "Students," Miss Lassly continued. "You will perform a simply ballet dance and then jazz before alphabetical groupings. Mr. Andrews?"

A man, one of the two teachers sitting at the desk got up. "Hello, students."

"Hello," everyone chimed.

"I'm Mr. Andrews and I will be, if you get through auditions, one of you're teachers. Don't be nervous, alright? Now, I'm going to teach you a short dance, and you'll repeat it afterwards. Pay attention- I'm only showing you this choreography once. So, we'll begin in fifth position..."

Thirteen hours later...

"My feet have never hurt this much..." Emily grumbled, putting her pointe shoes on top of the dressar. "You'd think I've never danced ballet before."

Marley wiped her eyes wth a cloth, getting the light eyeshadow off. "Not true. My toes feel crushed."

Emily got up, gingerly stepping on the wood flooring, and walked over to the window. Outside, the silver crescent shone, the lights of Sydney waving goodnight.

Friday

By the end of the week, the studets were tired out from dancing, but exhilirated by the upcoming results. In two hours, they would know who got in and was leaving. Emily bounced up and down, her jump-rope skipping the ground as Marley tossed bread to the seagulls on the water. The sun shone on the docks that surrounded the School, students walking around or eating, running, or just enjoying what could be their last few hours there that year.

"Aaah!" Both roommates looked over and watched a girl almost do a face-plant on the ground if it weren't for sticking an arm out at last minute. Marley got up, running over just before Emily as she girl got up and examined her hands, a little scratched.

"Are you okay?" Marley asked.

"I'm alright," the girl replied, her voice sounding too British to be Australian, and yet too Australian to be British. "I'm Rosie Williams, by the way. You're... Emily and... is it Mara?"

"Marley," the brunette corrected her politely.

Emily watched as Rosie pulled up her wavy hair into a sloppy bun. "Thanks for asking, by the way. I got worriedd for a second- a boy broke his leg during auditions and couldn't stay to dance. Sad."

Emily nodded. "Yeah, that is. He must have been in a differet group than mine."

Two hours later

"The following students, please stand... Heath Winslow... Rosie Williams... Elisa Coughlan... Marley Saunders..." the list went on and as glad as Emily was to hear that Marley, Rosie, and Elisa had all gotten accepted into the Academy, she couldn't help but feel terrified that she didn't.

"Emily Turn."

Emily looked up, and Marley smiled. "Congrats," she whispered.

"Thanks," Emily replied, giddy.

The rest of the list was read and Emily smiled.

The Academy of Dance had just gained twenty-one new students.

HELLO!

So, first chapter is finished!

If you want to see the full list of students that we will focus on, here they are:

Girls:

Emily Turn
Riley Rouge-Cream
Elisa Cosette Coughlan
Rosie Williams
Emma Taylor Williams
Marley Saunders
Juliannna Clemonte
Madeline Sutton
Antonia "Tony" Barrington
Shiloh Lawrence
Clara Victoria Grace
Chelle Harris
Cady Thorne

Boys:

Kiaran Donnelly
Heath Winthrow
Xander Barsukov
Gabriel "Gabe" Barrington

So, yep! Emily Turn is my OC, but I might make more. Anyway, thanks for reading! I hope you liked it!

Thanks!

Remember to know that Jesus love you! You might not know it, or you might not believe it, but our Heavenly Father is Love!

Thanks again! Please review!

~Loveableheart