Damaged Birds: A Rewrite Chapter 1, a baby sitters club fanfic

So this is basically a re-write of my story 'Damaged Birds' but [hopefully] written better. Same storyline.

I don't know what the name of the room in a church where all the pews are is called. If someone would tell me that, it would be immensely helpful. Thank you.

I had an entire chapter explaining who Angela is but I don't know where it went.

Some names have been changed.

The play mentioned in Chapter 10 is Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'. You're never supposed to say the name of that play in a theatre, it's bad luck. Even when you perform the play you're supposed to call it 'that Scottish play'.

It was morning, 5 a.m. I was at the ballet studio, in the locker room, stretching. No one else was in the room and few people were in the building. It was still dark outside, and cold. It was cold bc it was fall. Ballet started at 7. Most of the students came in at 6.

The locker room was small, with 3 walls that had tall metal lockers along them, the door in the 4th, a carpeted floor and 2 wooden benches.

It was September, the first month of school. The month synonymous w/ apples, maple syrup, cinnamon, apple cider and fall. Halloween was more than a month away. The students that took classes at the ballet school had our first show of the fall and new school year, dravula, on October 15 and then several on the 28, 29, 30, 31 and November 1. On that very day we started rehearsing for the Nutcracker, our winter show, which we performed November 15, November 30, December 1, December 15, Christmas and December 30.

I wanted a lead part in this year's upcoming performance of Dracula, which meant I had to get to the studio earlier than most of the students to do more stretching, more practicing. If you wanted a lead you had to stretch and rehearse more than the students who didn't and once you got it it meant you put in more rehearsal time. If I didn't get the lead my next choice was one of the women who seduces Johnathon when he's at Dracula's castle. Jonathon is the husband of mina one of the main characters in the story. I had the hair for it, dark and long. This mattered because when id seen the productions that ballet schools and companies had performed the role of mina was always played by a woman w/ long dark hair.

Vanessa my sister was a mystic and had a friend who was a vampire. When id had questions about vampires I asked the friend. This helped me to get into character. Vanessa had always loved the story of Dracula and was determined to one day meet an actual vampire.

I was already dressed in my black leotard, white tights and pink pointe shoes and my long dark hair was up in its bun. I was sitting on the uncomfortable carpeted floor of the dressing room, stretching over my right leg, which was in front of me. Some students chose to stretch in the locker room, some in the studio. Once the ballet teacher entered the studio you knew it was time for class to begin.

Earlier that morning I'd had breakfast, a muffin at 4, before I left for class. I'd grabbed a Luna bar on the way out the front door. At the time everyone in my family had been still asleep. Because the buses didn't start running until 6 a.m. and neither of my parents were awake I'd had to walk to the studio. I often left early for class and came home late.

I switched legs.

Pointe shoes were expensive. The class I took was a pointe class. Because most of us had been taking ballet since we were 4 we went on pointe when we were 13. Due to the fact different teachers had different opinions of when the right time was for a dancer to go on pointe, the students in the class tried to stay with the same ballet school throughout their years of studying ballet.

Each dancer had at least 3 pairs of pointe shoes; one for class, one for rehearsal and one for shows/performances. We had to keep replacing them, and our toe wrappings. Our 'toe wrappings' were various items we wrapped our toes in before putting on our shoes. Some students used lambs wool, some band aids, some surgical tape and some, a combination. The toe wrappings protected our toes from being to hurt.

In a way it was another form of self-destruction in addition to cutting which I knew about. I knew about that because I did it, as did Vanessa, sometimes. I wasn't sure if our 13 year old sister Claire did or not.

13 had been a defining age in my life.

Vanessa was 17. I was 15. At her age, Claire was already a model, which was surprising because most young women her age didn't start modeling untill they were older.

The ballet students usually started class at the barre with plies, ron de jombs, tendus, pointe work and other, then moved to the center after which we traveled across the floor and finished at the barre. It was hard work, tiring, but worth it in the end

One of the girls in the class, Anna Nicole, walked into the locker room.

"Hey Margo," she said when she saw me.

"Hey," I said.

She went over to her tall metal locker.

"How are you?"

"Ok," I replied honestly.

"Oh."

She opened her locker and stuffed her long purple duffel bag in, then sat on the floor next to me and began stretching.

Anna Nicole was pretty; tall, thin with long dark hair and dark eyes. Like me, she had her hair pinned up and was wearing a black leotard, white tights and pointe shoes. She sat down on the floor and started stretching.

Other than the fact that she was in the ballet class I was, I didn't know much about her.

I don't know what the name of the room in a church where all the pews are is called. If someone would tell me that, it would be immensely helpful. Thank you.

I had an entire chapter explaining who Angela is but I don't know where it went.

Some names have been changed.

The play mentioned in Chapter 10 is Shakespeare's Macbeth. You're never supposed to say the name of that play in a theatre, it's bad luck. Even when you perform the play you're supposed to call it 'that Scottish play'. It was morning, 5 a.m. I was at the ballet studio, in the locker room, stretching. Few people were around. It was still dark out, and cold. Ballet started at 7. Most of the students came in at 6.

The locker room was small, with 3 walls that had tall metal lockers along them, the door in the 4th, a carpeted floor and 2 wooden benches.

It was September, the first month of school. The month of apples, maple syrup, cinnamon, apple cider and fall. Halloween was more than a month away. We had a show on October 15 and then several on the 28, 29, 30, 31 and November 1. On that very day we started rehearsing for the Nutcracker, which we performed November 15, November 30, December 1, December 15, Christmas and December 30.

I wanted a lead part in this year's upcoming performance of Dracula, which meant I had to get to the studio earlier than most of the students to do more stretching, more practicing. If I didn't get the lead my next choice was one of the women who seduces Johnathon when he's at Dracula's castle. I had the hair for it, dark and long. Having Vanessa, the mystic, for a sister definitely helped because she loved the story, and had a friend who was a vampire. This helped me to get into character.

I'd had breakfast, a muffin at 4, before I left for class. I'd grabbed a Luna bar on the way out the front door. At the time everyone in my family had been still asleep. Because the buses didn't start running until 6 a.m. and neither of my parents were awake I'd had to walk to the studio

I switched legs.

Pointe shoes were expensive. The class was a pointe class. Because most of us had been taking ballet since we were 4; we went on pointe when we were 13. Because different teachers had different opinions of when the right time was for a dancer to go on pointe, the students in the class tried to stay with the same ballet school throughout their years of studying ballet.

Each dancer had at least 3 pairs of pointe shoes; one for class, one for rehearsal and one for shows. We had to keep replacing them, and our toe wrappings. In a way it was another form of self-destruction. I knew about that because I cut, as did Vanessa, sometimes. I wasn't sure if Claire did or not.

13 was a defining age in my life.

My younger sister Claire was 13 and Vanessa was 17. I was 15. At her age, Claire was already a model, which was surprising because most young women her age didn't start modeling untill they were older.

We usually started class at the barre with plies, ron de jombs, tendus, pointe work and other, then moved to the center after wich we traveled across the floor and finished at the barre. It was hard work, tiring, but worth it in the end