Chapter 1

"Come on, Elsa, hurry!" Giddy, the two sisters chase each down the stairs, running faster and faster to the small park next door to their apartment.

"Anna, slow down!" calls out the elder one, her platinum hair billowing behind her as she tuggs it out of the tight braid that had been giving her a headahce all morning. Her limbre legs moved gracefully as she ran to keep up with her younger sister, whose hand was wrapped firmly around her own.

When they finally reached the park, the pair were hot and sweaty, the mid july sun blazing above their heads, and the once-green grass prickling their bare feet.

"Oh, Elsa, won't you dance for me?" Elsa rolled her eyes.

"It's too hot to dance, Anna."

But her little sister was not to be persuaded. "Oh, please! Please? You're such a beautiful dancer! I wish I could be more like you." Hesistantly, Elsa shook her head again. She didn't want to dance, but she didn't want to dissapoint her sister. "Well, if you won't dance, I will!"

Stiffling a giggle, Elsa pushed up her chin, and in all seriousness, said; "I dare you."

With a smirk on her face, Anna ran to the small park bench in the far corner of the park, and arranged herself neatly next to it, clearly intending to use it as a make shift barre. She stood beautifully, feet nearly perfectly turned out in first position, and her arms poised perfectly in front of her in third. With a small smile, she place on hand on the bench, and prepared herself for what looked like a grand plie. Elsa smiled.

Instead, a steady beat trickled out of her pink lips, hips swishing back and forth, arms thrashing wildy. She chased Elsa around the park, twirling and cartwheeling to her hearts content. Eventually Anna's music slowed to a stop, and she finished her performance with a slightly clumsy, but obviously well rehearsed pirouette.

Clapping wildly, her older sister smiled maniacally, her hair tangled and cheeks red from being chased by her younger sister. Out of breath, the two fell back into the grass, limbs tangling and hands joined. For a few minutes, they were just together, sisters, best friends, soulmates.

"Elsa?" Anna's voice was drowsy; sleepy and quiet.

"Yes, Anna?"

"Will you dance for me now?"

"Yes."

Elsa's movements were quiet, even, and her beauty was cruel. She stood slowly, emotion reaching right to the tips of her fingers, meaning portrayed through everybone in her body; her neck to her calves. She slipped easily into a solo she had choreographed for herself months ago; an adaption of the ugly ducking. But before she could properly begin, a rough hand was on her shoulder, and she could hear the sweet sound of Anna's voice.

"Please, mama? Just one dance?" Elsa opened her eyes.

She instantly regretted it.

Her mother stood before her, dressed impeccably, holding Anna's hand.

"Elsa! What are you out here? You could hurt yourself! The audition is tomorrow, and you must go inside and practice! You forget, Elsa, that it isn't just your career riding on this, but this whole family's reputation and heaven help me if our business is ruined because you can't even support your arms properly!"

Tears threatened, but Elsa held her ground. "Yes, mother, of course. I'll go now." And without so much as a relucatant glance at her sister, she turned on her heel, and ran.

By the time Elsa came downstairs, dinner had gone cold. She could here her mother and Anna talking quietly in the lounge room, and her father typing anxiously in his study. As her tired feet moved slowly down the hall, the voices grew louder, and it wasn't because she was getting closer.

"Please, Mama? Can't I go?" Anna.

"No, Anna. You have dance class that day." Anna sighed audibly.

"Mama, please! I have dance class everyday! And my whole class is going! To the zoo! Mrs Montgomery even said we might see a tiger!" It was Elsa's turn to sigh.

"Well, maybe if you worked harder at your turns, you wouldn't have to take so many classes."

UNfortunately, she wasn't surprised, or even slightly shocked. It wasn't unsual, or even slightly out of the ordinary for for Mrs Arendelle to deny her daughters something, because of dance,

"Elsa. That was simply stunning." The head of the board smiled. Instructors always told her what an incredible a dancer she was. They complimented her technique, her showmanship, her flexibility, even the structure of her feet. But what sort of compliment was that? Who had control over what sort of feet they had?

Uncomfortable, she resisted the urge to tug at her leotard, or to undo her hair from the tight bun that was giving her a headache, or to rip her audition number from her back.

Instead, she smiled charmingly, and sunk into a deep curtsey.

"Thankyou, Madmoieselle. I only had the greatest of teachers." The whole panel smiled at this. Her mother, Eleanor, was a prima ballerina in the New York Ballet, and which her father owned, in addition to the American Ballet Academy. She was practically royalty in the ballet world.

"Yes, I can see that the apple indeed does not fall very far at all from the Arendelle tree. Of course, you must understand that your audition will be based entirely on your performance skills, we cannot grant you any special favours just because you are the daughter of William Arendelle himself!" Elsa smiled politely.

"Of course, Madmoiselle, I look forward to hearing from you." Elsa curtsied again before fleeing from the room.

Once she was tucked safely in a bathroom stall, Elsa let it go. She felt herself collapse, salty tears smudging the makeup her mother had spent so much time perfecting, her frantic hands pulling at her slick hair, the straps of her three hundred dollar leotard falling of her shoulders.

Elsa didn't want this. She didn't want any of it. Her parents had pushed her to breaking point, and that was just to make sure she secured a place at their own ballet school. She wasn't stupid enough to even hope that her parents would lay off during the term. Because she would get in. Of course she would.

And to think, soon it would be Anna in her place, cracking under the pressure. She didn't deserve it. No one did. Especially not her naive younger sister, filled with so much inner sunshine that birds sung to her, the sun shone, and flowers bloomed. There was no way that Anna could survive for a second in a place like this, but she it didn't matter, because there would be no other way to please their parents.

Well, not if Elsa could help it.