Pearl peeked her eye through the velvet curtains to see a medium sized crowd bustling with conversation, she saw no sign of her parents nor Garnet, Amethyst or even Rose. That Friday was a huge day for twelve year old, Pearl. This was her first dance recital and the ingredient of excitement mixed perfectly with tension made up a recipe of Pearl's emotions. Pearl would be dancing alongside two other girls, one her age and the other was a year younger. With the absence of her friends, Pearl was in a semi-panicked state, thoughts of doubt filled her head.
"Bwah!"
"Gah!" Pearl exclaimed, jumping. She turned around to see Garnet and Amethyst beside each other, Garnet giving her a blank look. Well, Pearl didn't know what facial expression Garnet had cause her sunglasses had lenses which were so thick it could be impossible to tell her expression at times. Garnet's arms were crossed, and she was wearing a sharp tuxedo while Amethyst was wearing a simple white dress. Formal was never Amethyst's style, Amethyst's clothing wear wouldn't be complete without something mismatching but somehow at the same time looking rather nice on her. Today it was a red and black cap worn backwards. It was a bit torn.
"Ha, gotcha, P!" Amethyst teased. Pearl rolled her eyes at Amethyst's childishness. Although she was only a year younger than them, she could stand to be more a bit more responsible on a night like this.
"Hello, Amethyst, Garnet," Pearl greeted, she then realized they were backstage with her, "What are you two up to down here?"
"What do you think?" Garnet rhetorically asked, her face lighting up, a slight smile shown giving Pearl a comforting feeling. "We came to wish you good luck, though I think we can both agree that you don't really need it," Garnet adjusted her sunglasses.
"Yeah, P, you're like really great at-" Amethyst did air quotes, "-ballet,"
Pearl blushed in embarrassment, "Oh, girls, stop it," Pearl attempted to hide her blush with her hands but it was too late for that.
She looked back at the crowd through the curtains. Still there was no Rose.
"Is Rose with you?" Pearl asked, eyes still towards the crowd, still no sign of Rose.
"She told us she'd be coming later," Garnet responded. "But I wouldn't worry, Rose wouldn't miss it for the world,"
Pearl felt her neck to realize her neck was wet with sweat. Performers couldn't dance on stage looking sweaty, no matter how nervous they were. She then ran off further into backstage.
"Pearl!" Garnet called out confused.
"Excuse me, girls, I'll be here in a second!" She rushed as she ran into the dressing room. Pearl went inside the dressing room, a small room with a counter, mirror, an open closet filled with items and a sink. To her surprise, there was Blue, the most timid and the second oldest of the three ballerinas about to dance, with her face tucked into her knees sitting on the pink rolling chair.
"Blue?" Pearl called, she approached her slowly, Pearl knew Blue heard her but was only ignoring her. She noticed Blue's perfect hair bun that Pearl made for her earlier was ruined and damp. Pearl passed by her and approached to the closet and got her own pink dancing bag. It had a big red rose stitched onto it. She squatted down to the floor to get a fresh peach and blue bar of soap she brought from home to avoid the possibly germ-filled soap they provided in the room.
She went up to the sink with the soap in her hand and turned on both metal knobs at ninety degree angles. She washed her face at least six times, for good measure. Blue didn't move a muscle during it all, the only thing that stopped Pearl from thinking Blue wasn't in trouble was her loud breathing. Pearl put the bar back in her bag and passed by Blue, the only thing that held her back from leaving was Blue's hand grabbing her arm.
"Wait-" Blue's clech grew tighter by each second, alarming Pearl. She turned her head around. Her head was slightly up from before, Pearl could feel the fast vibrations of her body shaking. Blue looked up. Her moist hair was covering up her eyes. A moment of awkward silence came into the air. Pearl decided to make the first move.
"What's wrong, Blue?" she asked in concern and as an attempt cure the awkwardness. Blue didn't respond. Blue was quiet but when Pearl talked to her they could conversate regularly. Tears were running on her face. Now her only true concern was with Pearl.
"Blue, tell me what's wrong," she ordered. She turned her full body towards Blue to wipe the tears from her eyes with her other hand. She then moved her hair from her face for her. Pearl noticed Blue had looked incredibly more beautiful before all the tears ruined her makeup.
Pearl looked towards the floor, "I-I'm s-sc-scared..." she mumbled. Pearl widen her eyes. Of everyone, Blue didn't seem like one to have stage fright, her dancing techniques were flawless and she was obviously Ms. Diamond's favorite. Sure she tended to be quiet and soft-spoken but Pearl thought Blue knew she was a great dancer.
"That's ridiculous!" she scolded.
Blue Pearl's attention was snatched.
"Oh?" she mumbled again.
Pearl took Blue's hands, she felt tense vibes.
"You're the best dancer I've ever seen in my whole life, you won't mess up," Pearl elaborated. Pearl could see Blue blushing and trying to keep herself from smiling, it wasn't too easy since Blue was dark skinned.
"If anything, I wish I was as great as you! I just can't find myself practicing as much," Pearl continued on.
"That's silly," Blue blankly responded. "I don't even like dancing!"
Pearl was in shock once more.
"My dumb mom is making me do it!" Blue muttered. "I never wanted to do this,"
Pearl was shocked, she only told her friends at school this but she too wasn't interested all that much in ballet either, it was really the excitement of Rose seeing her look good was on her mind these days. It's not like she disliked it, she just got more interested in fencing.
"Well, it looks like we have something in common..." Pearl responded catching Blue's interest, she told her why.
Blue chuckled, suddenly the door opened to see Yellow, the youngest of the three.
"Ms. Diamond says we're on in fifteen minutes!" she spat, her face seemed as if it was formed to looked obnoxious in any form of expression, and it matched her personality. She was an outcast of the two. Nobody wanted to deal with her, it's not like they didn't try to, anyway. She felt as if she was too good for them because of her mother's high rank in a big company.
Yellow's glance wasn't even looking at them, until she accidentally found herself looking at Blue's damaged state.
"What's going on here?!" she asked with no empathy but small curiosity which was hard to find mainly because it was blanketed by her bitter yelling. Pearl rolled her eyes at Yellow's presence, and as she was about to respond, Yellow interrupted her.
"Never mind, I'm not going to stage with Blue looking like that to dance with me! I mean, sure she looks bad enough regularly but...this is where I draw the line! I'm not having my first recital ruined by all the attention being hogged by her looks, whatever the problem is, it's no excuse to be looking like this on a day like tonight!"
Pearl rolled her eyes, and she thought she knew Blue was fine too. They both were so used to Yellow's insults, they were like feeling air surround them. They weren't empty, just constant to the point that it's normal and they knew it was only of Yellow's character to insult anyone she meets but her authorities, for she feared of their doings.
She heard sniffling however, and saw tears sliding down on her cheeks. She looked over to Yellow with a frustrated and angry glare. She just got to see Blue's beautiful smile again and here she was back at stage one. She saw Yellow's eyes widen at Blue's crying, then she scowled and leaned toward the door entrance. She looked over to the back of the stage.
"Oh great, this again? So was Blue crying?"
"Maybe, if you left, she'd stop crying. I would cry too if I had to hear your awful voice and look at you for this long," Pearl sternly told her, Yellow, stunned at Pearl's insult, widened her eyes and looked over at Pearl. After a few seconds, she was on her way to the curtains, not entirely over the insult.
"Whatever, just fix her up or something, we need to do something with her, we already have two uglies on the stage, we can't insult the crowd by making one of them uglier,"
Pearl couldn't even. She looked over at Blue, with concern.
"Don't listen to her, you know how she is!" Pearl assured her, giving Pearl nostalgia from the first few times Yellow insulted Blue, when Blue was more affected by her insults to the point to every remark she'd nearly tear up. Now, Pearl would've thought Blue was a simple crybaby and had no shell and would've disliked Blue, but that was a long time ago and good thing Pearl changed Blue to be strong to the point where she'd barely cry. Pearl then saw that Blue didn't cry at all, during the lessons neither the practices. She'd be proud if Blue wasn't so sad.
"Yeah, but she's right! I'm so weak for a dancer and my body looks awkward, I saw myself before!" she snapped, stunning Pearl.
"I look so bad! And no matter how much I try to be better, for the sake of my mother, and no matter what she tells me, I know I'm no good as far as looks go, and I know all my effort will be put to nothing just cause I'll look weird! And the worst thing is I...again, don't even like this...my mother is making me do this," she ranted. Pearl was dumbfounded, Pearl finally realized, Blue must've thought Ms. Diamond's love for her as a ballerina was entirely from the fact that was her mother. But Pearl knew Blue Diamond truly loved Blue. Pearl knew Blue was a great dancer, better than she was. And she knew if Yellow wasn't so proud, she'd probably admit that too.
"Look, Blue, Yellow was right about one thing," she whispered, her attention then drifted off to Blue's hair. Letting her paranoia take over, she led Blue's willing body towards the sink.
"What is it?" Blue asked, with the sadness rising in her tone.
"You do look bad," she turned Blue around to face the other way, she could sense Blue's intensity from the goosebumps on her skin. "But only cause you're acting horrible,". Pearl pulled Blue's hair back and made it into a bun. She then went to her bag and took out her bar of soap. She showed it to her.
"How about you clean yourself up?"
"F-fine..." Blue muttered and did so. After that, Pearl remade Blue's bun. She smiled, Blue looked good again.
"Blue, you look beautiful, I know there can't possibly be anything I can say to prove it to you since it's hard to compare but it's worth it,"
Pearl could see Blue's deep blushing, giving Pearl a signal that Blue was fine. She then decided to address the issue of Blue and ballet in general.
"You know, I don't want to tell you what to do with your life but will you ever tell Ms. Diamond?"
Blue Pearl glanced away at Pearl. She then looked into her eyes, it was awkward for Pearl. Suddenly Blue gave her a hug.
"I-I want to stay with y-you, Pearl, you're my best frrrieeend, and I don't want you to be alone with Yellow," she hugged Pearl tighter but the moment was so awkward, especially now that Pearl brought the subject of staying up. Pearl gently used her hand to push off Blue.
"Yes, about that…"
The door slammed open, it was Yellow, her entrance wasn't much different from before. Same expression.
"Ms. Diamond says it's show time!"
So the girls went backstage directly, after doing a quick rushed greeting to Garnet and Amethyst, Pearl, Yellow, and, Blue went on stage.
Pearl memorized her dance moves perfectly, and performed them as much, her paranoia didn't let her alter it. She couldn't help glancing at Blue's dance style, always exaggerating the choreography given to her to make it her own yet not too much to alter it was truly admirable dancing. And the sad thing about it was that so much heart was put into it and it wasn't even appreciated by Blue. They were performing a dance Ms. Diamond choreographed, she claims it was her best work yet and it needed to be displayed, explaining the sudden performance.
When the dance ended, it was gifted with applause and cheering, the girls bowed and as soon as the curtains closed, Blue ran over to Pearl.
"You looked really beautiful, Pearl!"
Before Pearl had time to react, she felt Blue's hand wrap around her's. Pearl chose to ignore her move and focus on responding to Blue.
"Thanks, you looked great too," she complimented back, Blue gave her a smile, Pearl however, couldn't understand why, she thought Blue hated ballet, suddenly Pearl heard a familiar voice. It was the sound of heaven, it was the sound of Rose Quartz.
"Rose!" Pearl gushed and walked up to her, Rose was a year older than Pearl. She was wearing a blue dress with a white gradient and an blue and purple outline of violets pattern on the bottom of it. Rose smiled back at Pearl.
"You looked so wonderful," Rose complimented. Pearl's cheeks grew into big roses. "and I brought you this," Rose showed Pearl a corsage, Pearl's eyes sparkled and smile beamed with excitement when first viewing the gift, before she reached her hand to accept it, she stopped to look at Rose, how did Rose view this gift, traditionally it was romantic, but Rose and were friends, sadly. Was this the first to step to a happy and long relationship? Either way, although Pearl would've preferred romantic, a sign of close friendship was great.
"Thank you, Rose," Pearl said and accepted the gift with love. It felt so good on her wrist.
"So how did it feel?" Rose asked in curiosity, as she and Pearl walked towards the stage exit, arms locked and all, Blue could hear Pearl talk so much to Rose, never as much as Pearl talked to her. She felt a lump in her throat and she fiddled her fingers for a few minutes in silence, although backstage was still fill with people, nobody even looked at her.
"I guess I'll be leaving now," she angrily muttered to herself, finally getting herself back to Earth. Her thoughts were suddenly filled with Pearl, and how she fenced made her look so pretty and strong, she wanted to be with Pearl, she was the only thing that'd make her happy.
"You're...leaving?" Blue asked confused. Pearl and Blue were putting some things in their dancing bags at the bleachers when Pearl striked up shocking news to Blue
"I've decided to dedicate more time to fencing," Pearl elaborated, "So I need to take time off of ballet,"
Blue gripped her fists, she felt something sink in her stomach, she felt as if tears were about to form but none came out. She held Pearl's shoulders.
"But you're...you, I don't want to be alone, not with Yellow!" she blurted, suddenly tears finally slid down her face. Pearl removed Blue's hands from her shoulders and grasped her wrists.
"Well maybe, you wouldn't have to if you told your mom that you don't like ballet," she told her, a tad annoyed.
"I'm doing this thing for you, Pearl! I-I wanted to be with you, a-and this was the only way I-I c-can talk to you! Why can't you see that?! I told you this plenty of times but you got your head stuck in the clouds about that Rose girl and it's getting on my nerves!" Blue snapped. She almost wanted to hurt Pearl. Her head was hurting and she could feel herself sweating Pearl was stunned but then she snapped back.
"Well, at least I'm not a baby who has to crawl to somebody every time they get their feelings hurt!"
Blue was stunned but she knew it was true. She wanted to cry, but she didn't want to at the same her body didn't seem to get the memo, tears she saw were beginning to form in her eyes, yet she blinked them away.
"Look, Pearl, I'm sorry, you're right, after this class, I'll tell my mom I want to do this with you," she walked over to the balance beam, trying to forget the subject. Her voice was shaky, so she informed Pearl quick but quick enough for Pearl to understand.
"Do what?" Pearl asked and followed her to the balance beam.
"That fencing thing," she answered and she began doing some stretches to prepare for the upcoming class as Ms. Diamond expects her to.
It wasn't too quiet a night in the big streets of Empire City, but then again, it never was. In front of a tall theatre was a big crowd of people, they were separated into two and held back by blue rope barriers. In their hands were cameras/and or headshots. The doors were guarded of course by two men.
When the doors got opened, the crowd went crazy, a woman with short blue hair that could almost covered her eyes alongside a taller one wit was guarded as she walked to her limousine. The smaller one looked at all of the people as she did, their screaming hurted her ears, and their smiles could only bring her down. She looked up at her mother, who was formally waving at the fans which gave her the idea to do so t0o. Once she approached the limousine, a man walked outside of the front driver door and opened the door for the women. They walked inside at and sat inside the smaller woman sighed and leaned against the window as the limousine began driving.