A/N: Chapter 3 (AT LAST!) You may ask, why update this? Well, this is the one that people (coughSKYLARcough) have been asking me to update! I based the students off of my friends, and if u wanna be and OC student, just leave me a description in your review.

Oh, and New Attitude is actually the name of a dance store I go to.

Five, Six, Seven, Eight…

Chapter 3

"Hello," said the teenage girl at the dance store as Mimi walked in on Saturday, "and welcome to New Attitude. How may I help you?"

"I need some new ballet slippers. And a leotard, and tights, but I can get those myself," Mimi ticked off on her fingers.

The girl smiled and led Mimi to the corner with the shoes. "Now, what kind of ballet shoes did you need?"

Mimi blushed and mumbled, "Something inexpensive."

"Then let's go with these." The girl turned to the shelves and asked Mimi over her shoulder, "What shoe size are you?"

"Six," said Mimi. "I've got small feet."

The girl grabbed a pair of size seven pale pink canvas ballet shoes in a mesh bag. "Try these."

Mimi pulled off one of her black boots, then the other, and pulled on the ballet slippers over her fishnets. The girl pulled the laces tight around Mimi's foot. Even though the strings were pulled tight, the shoes were a little too wide.

The girl sighed. "Down a half size, I think." She handed Mimi a pair of size six-and-a-half shoes. They fit perfectly. "Well that was easy. You need a leotard? What color?"

Mimi shrugged. "I'll just look around."

"Lemme know if you need help, okay?"

"Sure…" Mimi muttered, and she started browsing around. After looking at every single leotard in a size small that the store had, she picked one and discovered… it was too small. Mimi groaned and grabbed a medium to try on. It fit, thank god. Now she just had to choose the color…

"What do you need the leotard for? A class?" The girl popped up behind Mimi.

Mimi jumped. "Yeah. I'm teaching."

The girl looked long and hard at Mimi, surveying everything from skin tone to hair color to bra size (Mimi blushed when she realized that the girl was trying to figure out if Mimi was an A or B cup). "Hot pink," she finally said, thrusting a size medium, long-sleeved, hot pink leotard into Mimi's arms.

"No way!" Mimi hung it up. "I'm getting black," she said, picking a leotard similar to her old one. "Now, tights…" And before the girl could say a word Mimi grabbed the least expensive pair of size small/medium pink convertible dance tights she could find. "That'll be all."

The girl rung up Mimi's purchases. "$46.72," she stated, and Mimi, blushing, handed her a wad of crumpled twenties generously donated by Mark and Joanne. The girl gave Mimi her change, and Mimi ran to meet Joanne, who was in the car, reading as she waited.


Mimi arrived to the toddler class half an hour early. She headed off to the dressing room to change, and on her way in nearly ran into a young woman. She looked to be not much older than Mimi herself. She was tall, slender, and clearly strong. She was wearing a hot pink (Mimi cringed) leotard and white tights. On her feet were pointe shoes. Her blonde hair was pulled into a high ponytail, and freckles dotted the bridge of her nose. Her eyes were a pale blue-green.

"Sorry," said Mimi, getting out of the girl's way.

The girl smiled warmly at Mimi. "No problem. You the new teacher of the pre-ballet class?"

Mimi nodded. "Mimi Marquez."

The blonde held out her hand. "Aina. I'm Pierre's niece. I was teaching the class, aw hell, I was teaching all the classes, until you showed up. Thanks for that. I couldn't handle 12 classes a week. Twelve hours of dancing each week, plus school, plus auditions."

Aina was younger than she looked, Mimi decided. She smiled. "It must've been tough."

She snorted. "You bet. Still is. Once Uncle Pierre trusts you more, he'll let you teach more classes. But he still won't even let me teach any of the jazz classes. You should take one," she added, "they're excellent. But my uncle's really picky about how they're taught."

"So you didn't teach all the classes, then."

"Nope. Almost. But jazz is Pierre's baby. I teach tap, pointe, ballet, musical theater, ect."

"Sounds fun."

"It is. But it's so damn exhausting!" She sighed. "Twelve classes a week, plus I'm in Jazz 4 here, plus I have my senior year of high school to worry about."

Mimi nodded. "That's gotta be hard. But I really need to change…"

"Oh, sorry," said Aina with a laugh. "Go ahead."

Mimi changed, and walked out of the dressing room into chaos. A small, three year old black-haired girl was chasing after a tall four year old boy. The four year old looked terrified. Aina grinned. "The little girl is Tina. The little boy is Frankie. As you can tell, they just love each other. I had them last session. They were a handful."

Mimi gulped. Exactly what she needed.

"I'm gonna get you, Fwankie!" yelled Tina, her dark blue eyes sparkling.

Frankie ran faster, right into Mimi.

"OOOOOOOOOO FWANKIE!!!!!!" called Tina. "You wan into da teachew."

Mimi forced a smile and grabbed Frankie by the shoulders. "Try not to run next time, ok?"

"She started it," he pouted, pointing at Tina. Tina stuck out her tongue.

"I don't care who started it. One of you needs to end it if you wanna go to class."

"But I don't wanna go to class!" Frankie objected, planting his hands on his hips. "My Gramma makes me go. I don't like to dance. I WANNA TO KARATE! HI-YA!" He aimed a wild kick at Tina, which the girl easily dodged. She laughed at him, which enraged Frankie all the more.

"I'm gonna get you someday!" Frankie vowed.

Tina laughed again. "You've been saying that fowevew!"

Aina rubbed Mimi's shoulder. "Here come the rest of them. Good luck. Bueno suerte." Mimi smiled weakly at her. The Catscratch was starting to look like a better place for her.


Friends in order of appearance... Skylar, Amy, and Silvana as Aina, Tina, and Frankie, respectively. Aina is pronounced AWN-ya. Thanks for the pronunciation, Skylar!