Center Stage- Amy Rolland- Chapter One
She saw the large building that had AMERICAN BALLET COMPANY written on it, and underneath that was AMERICAN BALLET THEATER and AMERICAN BALLET ACADAMY. She walked in and registered to audition.
Once the audition was over she waited for Jonathan, Juliette, and the other ballet instructors to tell them who got into the academy. No one had said anything negative to her while she auditioned, only, "Good job dear!" and, "Excellent work!". She waited patiently.
Jonathan announced that several people had gotten in, though everyone did well. She noted some of their names, Charlie, Jody, Eva, Janet, and Kevin. Then Jonathan finally said her name at the end of the list. She could feel herself smile. When everyone left and went outside to hug their parents and friends, Amy pushed her way through the crowd and outside.
This was what she was worried about. She had no one to celebrate the best thing that had ever happened to her in her whole entire life with. She saw the girl she recognized as Janet sitting with the guy she thought was Kevin on the steps outside. They were talking. She cautiously went up to them, but didn't sit down.
"Hey! Shouldn't you guys be celebrating? You just got accepted to ABA!"
They both looked up at her, but only Janet spoke. "Both our families are at home. We don't even really know each other, we just met too. But shouldn't you be celebrating too? You got in, right?"
"Well, yeah. But my family is in Philly, so, you know, I'm just walking around."
"Come sit." Kevin said, patting the spot next to him.
Amy sat and turned to face them. "Hi, I'm Amy Rolland."
"I'm Janet Sparks and this is Kevin…oops, I forgot sorry."
"I'm Kevin Walters." Kevin said, smiling.
"It's nice to met you." Amy said, "Where are you from?"
"I'm from Chicago." Janet said.
"I'm from San Francisco." Kevin said.
"Neat. So, do you know anyone here?" Amy asked.
"Nope." Janet said, "Oh, by the way, you can just both call me Jane, I hate Janet."
"Ok." Amy said.
"Sure thing. And I only know that Charlie Sims guy. His girlfriend dumped him for leaving her to dance ballet. We aren't really friends, but we sort of know each other. That's pretty much it." Kevin said.
"Oh. Well, I don't know any one either." Amy explained.
After a while of talking Kevin said he had to go call some people and Jane said she'd better call her parents as well. Amy thought that that sounded like a good idea, and they all said good-bye. Amy found her car and climbed inside. She lay across the back seat and called her mom from her cell phone.
"Hello? Marianne Rolland speaking. Who's calling please?" Amy's mom answered.
"Mom! Hey, It's me!"
"Oh, hello Amy! How did the ballet audition go?"
"Great! They loved me! I'm in!" Amy said, almost shouting.
"Oh Honey, congratulations!!"
"Thanks Mom. Say, is Rob or Justin there? I want to tell them myself if you don't mind."
"Of course not dear. Hold on, here's Rob."
"Ok." Amy said, and she waited for her step-dad's cheerful voice.
"Hey Kido! How'd it go?" Rob asked, he still called her Kido, even though she was 18 years old.
"Great Rob. Guess what?" Amy teased.
"What? Tell me, I'm dying of suspense." he joked.
"I got in!" Amy shrieked.
"That's great Amy! Just wonderful!"
"Thanks. Oh, hey, I miss you guys."
"You only left last night!"
"I know, but still. Hey, don't tell Justin, ok? I want to tell him, ok?"
"Sure thing Darlin'. You want to talk to him right now?"
"Sure, that'd be great. Thanks Rob, bye!"
"Bye Sweetie, keep in touch!"
"Ok." Amy said, and waited for her brother to take the phone.
"Hey butthead." Justin squeaked into the phone.
"Shut up yourself butthead." Amy teased back.
"Did you get in?"
"Yep." Amy said slowly.
"That's so cool! Now I'll have a famous sister!"
"If you say so freako."
"Shut up! Oh, mom wants to talk to you, bye."
"Bye zit-face." Amy said.
"Honey? We have to go to a dinner party over at Roy's house, ok? We miss you."
"Ok, tell Ronnie I say hi. Oh, oh, and tell him I got in, ok? He said he wanted to know. Wait, don't tell him. I'll call him. Ok? Bye!"
"Bye Sweetie!" Amy's mom said and then they both hung up.
Roy McDougliam owned a bunch of banks in Philadelphia and was incredibly rich, but definatly not stuck-up in anyway. He even lived outside of the city in the suburbs. Ronnie was his 18-year-old son, and Amy's best friend. Ronnie was also Amy's ex-boyfriend. They went out for 2 years when they were 15. When they broke-up, no one could tell except they no longer kissed all the time. They were still best friends, and even closer then before. Leaving Ronnie was the hardest part about leaving Philadelphia for Amy.
She lay still on the back seats for a moment, thinking about Ronnie before dialing his number.
"Hey, Ronnie here." Ronnie's sweet familiar voice said.
"Ronnie!" Amy screeched.
"AMY! Oh my God! How's New York?"
"It's ok. I'm still a little lost though."
"Where are you?"
"I'm in the backseat of my car. It's parked outside of the academy."
"Oh, speaking of, how did it go."
"It was ok." Amy said flatly.
"You didn't get in?" Ronnie asked, sympathetically.
"Well, actually it went great. I'M IN!!!" Amy yelled.
"OH MY GOD!!! CONGRADULATIONS!!! I can't BELIEVE it! That's so exciting! I can't, oh my God, you are way to much!"
Amy laughed and she could tell Ronnie was smiling. She bit her lip to keep from smiling to hard. "I miss you!"
"But you only left last night! How could you miss me already?"
"Well, I don't really. But I know it's been hard already without you, and I just know I'll miss you so damn much this year."
Ronnie laughed. "Well, in that case, I miss you too. But I know you'll have a lot of fun in The Big Apple. You'll make lots of friends, how can you not? And I'll visit."
"Will you really? Seriously? No lie?" Amy asked hopefully.
"Yes. And I'll call, and write, and e-mail too. And I'll even come see the workshop performance you told me about at the end of the year, ok?"
"Sounds great. I can't wait to see you."
"Ok. Look, I have to go, my dad is having a dinner party and I have to go get ready."
"I know, my family is going. Well, bye! Miss you lots."
"You too, bye!"
Amy hung up and sighed. Ronnie was the sweetest guy she had ever met. She wished sometimes that they were still together, as a couple. But she knew that would never happen. They broke up because they both knew that if they fell in love and then broke up, their friendship would be ruined forever. So Amy pushed out her romantic feelings for Ronnie and was there for him as the best friend she knew how to be.
A few days later Amy walked into her doorm room. She saw Jane sitting on one of the beds.
"Oh hey! This is so cool! I can't believe we are living together now!" Amy blurted out.
"I know! It's so cool!" Jane said.
A thin tall girl with red wavy hair walked in. "Hey! I'm Josie. I'm new here."
"Us too." Amy said.
"Great!" Josie said.
"I'm Amy Rolland and this is Jane Sparks."
"Nice to meet you." Jane said.
"Yeah. Which beds do you guys have?" Josie asked.
"I call top bunk!" Amy said.
"I call bottom bunk." Josie said quickly after that.
"Yes! Thank you! I wanted this bed!" Jane said as she patted the single bed she was sitting on.
"Cool! This is great then. Everyone gets what the want." Jane said.
A while later they were all in one of the rehearsal rooms. All the boys walked in and Kevin came over to Amy and Jane. Amy suddenly realized how cute Kevin really was. She saw Charlie- who she also thought was really cute- go over to Jody along with some gay black guy she didn't know.
Charlie came over to her after a few seconds.
"Hi. I'm Charlie and I'm new here." He said, looking into Amy's eyes.
"Uh, hi. I'm new here too. I'm Amy. And this is Jane, Josie, and Kevin."
"Hey. Oh, hey Kevin! Good to see you again." Charlie said.
Kevin nodded and smiled, and then started talking to Josie and Jane. Amy turned back to Charlie.
"So, where are you from?" she asked, though she figured he was probably from San Francisco, like Kevin.
"San Francisco. You?"
Amy smiled. "Philly, uh, Philadelphia."
"Very cool. Hey, maybe we can hang out sometime, ok?"
"Ok." Amy said, getting lost in his eyes.
Jody walked over to them. "Hey Charlie!" she said happily.
"Hey. Uh, Jody, this is Amy. And that's Jane, Josie, and Kevin. Kevin's from San Francisco too."
"Cool. Nice to meet you." she said, smiling at Amy.
Just then, Jonathan walked in and clapped his hands. Everyone scattered away from each other, and the regrouped in a new order to listen to Jonathan.