Hey guys! This chapter features the some characters submitted for my OC contest! Enjoy!
Logan POV (next morning)
We sat on our orange couch playing video games when there was a knock at the door.
"I've got it!" August said pausing the game and putting down the controller (yes a girl was playing video games and yes she was kicking our sorry butts at it) She opened the door and pushed a cart in filled with covered plates.
"Here! Have a Palm Woods Day." He said sarcastically before storming off down the hall.
"Thank you!" called August, taking a white envelope off the table and stashing it away in her pocket. "So who wants breakfast?"
"Awww! Sweet!" Carlos jumped off the couch as August began revealing what bitters had brought: pancakes, waffles, muffins, pastries, eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, fresh fruit, and assorted beverages.
"I can't believe he actually brought it." James said looking at her in amazement. I was about to ask what was going on; I knew that they were dating but we couldn't hear what Bitters was saying when he came out beside the pool. (yes I admit it! Carlos, Katie, Kendall and I were spying on them!), but before I could respond Kendall called for his family.
"Mom! Katie! Breakfast!" He shouted taking out plates.
"Woah! How'd we get all this?" Katie asked, with a grin plastered on her face, filling a glass of orange juice.
"Let's just say that wasn't being very hospitable towards us and this was just an 'I'm sorry' gift for us."
"Well what are we waiting for? Dig in!" Mama Knight declared as we began to load and over-filled our plates. Slumping down at our seats at the dinning room table asked us what we had planned for that day.
"We... go getta...Aug-...ust an audiseen." Carlos said with a full mouth of waffles topped with strawberries and whipped cream.
"Carlos, your gonna choke! Chew your food first!" I scolded.
"Ever.. heard.. o...mult..e..tazkin?"
"Carlos!" Mama Knight backed me up on that one. Carlos glupped, muttered an apology, and continued, "Were going to get August an audition today for a Cabaret Night."
"All future stars have to have managers, you need one?" Katie asked sliding August her card across the table.
"Um I think I'm okay for now but when I need one I'll let you know, what time is the audition today? I don't want it to clash with my call back."
"Actually its not an audition! I found out that you just sign up online and they email you a song to sing." I clarified.
"Okay." She nodded cutting up her chocolate chip pancakes and drizzling syrup on top of them.
"Hey what time is your call back today August?" James asked as he cut his danish in half.
"At 11 o'clock, do you have rehersal at Rocque Records today?"
"Yeah from 11:30 until around 4 or 5, want a ride over to and from your callback?"
"A ride there would be awesome but I don't know what time its over so I'll call you guys if I need a ride or just take the subway. Well its a little after 9:30 I better get ready." August said rising from her seat and gathering clothes from her suite case.
"You know August, I don't want you too have to sleep on that uncomfortable couch for an entire year, I'll see what I can do to get you a room either in here or in another apartment."
"Thanks Mrs Knight! But to be honest I'd prefer to be in this apartment if its not too much trouble, I mean an apartment all by yourself would get lonely after a while don't you think?
"I completely understand, We'll keep that as a last resort then okay?
A few hours later (august's pov)
I stood nervously in front of the LA Opera House and Theartre gazing up at the building, my hand still covering the spot were James had planted his good by kiss just seconds ago. Taking a deep breathe I opened the glass door and entered. Inside ballerinas were directed in front of a table that was labeled, sign in and then instructed to take a seat in the front of the stage.
I stood behind the line and came up when it was my turn a girl with light brown wavy hair smiled at me.
"Hi," she said, "I'm Sophie Jackson, the director and choreographer want you to fill out these forms so they can get all your information. They'll collect them when you're all set. You can fill it out in the room with the stage? Sorry i don't really know what the actual room is, I just know what the stage is, where the music plays, and were the audience sits."
"Don't worry about it," I reassured her, "I don't either, I'll see you around Sophie." I took a clipboard with the papers on it and a pen
"Bye, um I didn't catch your name!" Sophie giggled nervously.
"August Rocque!" I called before being swept away into the beautiful room next door. I was surrounded by crimson velvet seats that seem to go up and up and up, the kind that aren't very comfortable but you tolerate them because you're so absorbed with what's going on on stage. The stage was huge. A vast black wooden floor that was and classy curtains that rise up and down instead of being dragged from side to side. I walked past rows and rows of chairs before finding a decent spot to sit by the stage.
"Hey is that spot open? I asked a girl who was filling out a form like mine.
"Yeah, take a seat," She said brushing a blonde curl away from her eyes and smiling at me. "Hi I'm Blair Ryans."
"I'm August Rocque, nice to meet you." I grinned back, putting down my dance bag and unfolding into a seat (and I was right! They were itchy and uncomfortable)
"So are you nervous at all for this?" Blair questioned.
"Terrified, but really excited. As clich'e as this sounds, being in this show is my dream."
"Well I don't think it sound clich'e at all because its my dream too to dance at least as a Swan in this show. I can tell we'll be fast friends. So how long have you been dancing on pointe shoes?"
"About three years," I said turning to the form and clicking my pen, "How about you?"
"Six but I've been dancing forever! Is this your first show with the LA Opera House company?"
"Yeah, have you danced here before?"
"This is my second show, I did Sleeping Beauty last spring. I auditioned for another show after that but didn't make the cut. But I'm so happy I got into Swan Lake! I mean there was some pretty hard core competition!"
"So do you know anyone else who dances with the company?"
"There are a couple, hang on a second August... Hey Isabella!" Blair stood up and waved to a girl who had just entered the room, her brown hair with blonde high lights was pulled back into a neat, dance ready bun and a smile on her face."
"Hi Blair-Bear" Isabella called back as she joined us, "Hey I'm August!" I introduced myself.
"Omigosh that's such a pretty name, well as you've probably guessed I'm Isabella."
"August was just asking how many ballets we've done."
"I was in Sleeping Beauty and Giselle." Isabella answered
"Attention dancers! Only five minutes left before we begin, please finish filling out your forms." A woman shouted at us.
"Oh man, I haven't even started!" Isabella said as the 3 of us started scribbling down answers to questions.
SWAN LAKE DANCER CONTACT/INFORMATION
Full Name: August Christine Rocque
Age: 15
Cell Phone Number: (959) 872-6975
Address: Palm Woods Hotel on SunStreet Lane room 2J on the second floor
Pointe Shoe Size: 24 D
Guardians (please write name and number and relationship and list them in preference for calling if emergency comes up):
This is were it gets tough, who would I write? I decided to write down four names instead of usual two:
1) James Diamond (585)216-8852 (boyfriend)
2) Jen Knight (585)776-9484 (guardian)
3)Bruno Rocque (812)154-3212 (father)
4) Gustavo Rocque (585) 996-2802 (uncle)
Then writing on the side I scribbled down a little note: 3 and 4 are last resorts
After finishing the application, Sophie can around and collected everything and handed them to a man up front, who casually glanced through them and set them in a chair. He then climbed onto the stage and cleared his voice in order to get our attention.
"Hello dancers, and good morning! I am Ronald Simons, or just Ron for short," He said flashing us a smile, "And more importantly I am the director for this production of Swan Lake. Already I see some familiar faces," Ron continued looking amung the crowd, "and some new ones." At that moment he seemed to lock his green eyes on me. "And now without further delay, please help me welcome, our choreographer. The talented and beautiful, Miss Fleur Gabriella Piesu." At one a gorgeous woman with long golden locks and cream like skin spun onto the stage towards Ron. Taking her delicate hands he kissed it lightly. Fleur was dressed in a long sleeved black leotard and a long mint green skirt that really brought out her eyes.
"Bonjure darlingz!" She called out in her french accent, "I am veri happee to announze, dat theze ez not just a call back. Congradualationz ballerinas, you hav all been selected to dance with us for thiz seazon." There was a lot of squeeling and cheering as everyone in the audience clapped. "Howeva, although you hav been choosen to dance here, you must dance in front of all of us so we can determine your part. Soon I will teach you a short dance and you are too recite it for us. But first," Fleur suddenly lept off the stage, doing a firebird in the air and landed in a perfect fourth position, "I will show you all around. Follow me, if you please, and Sophie, pleaze collect zee forms again dear, we will need them soon."
"Let's go!" whispered Blair excitedly as we moved out of our row and out of the opera house. In the lobby we followed Fleur down a series of hallways, until we were suddenly on the stage.
"Feast your eyes my ballerinas, soon you will be dancing in this very spot, some of you will be center stage, zee spotlight will be on you! Others will still get there moment to shine too! Now come come girls! There is still much to do to prepare!" We followed Fleur back stage, and behind the wings were several mirrors with pink frames around them and circular light bulbs outlining them as well. Beneath each square mirror was a white desk with three drawers on the left hand side, and each desk was seperated by a black rack for hanging up costumes.
"Now when I call your name, I will put down your form on each dressing station. When I call you please take a seat, and wait patiently for zee next segment of our tour. Now station number one: ahh my assistant chorographer and costume designer, Miss. Grace Marilyn Kelly. Number two: Catherine Alexandra Pierce. Number Three: Paige Lillian Delbrook. Number four: Natalie Rose Sawyer..." The list went on and on as stations filled up I noticed in seemed that behind the stage was an entirely different room and the stations when around half of the wall stopping only to make way for a large psir of silver doors that Fleur mentioned that we would see soon enough.
"Number 19: Breeana Rose Granger. Number 20: August Christine Rocque." Sighing with relief I walked across the room (all the way to stage right!) and took my seat next to a girl with frizzy dark brown curls that came down to her shoulders. "Number 21: ahhh Callie Grace Lobarski so lovely to see you again darling!" A girl with long wavy hair hair pused back in a head band stepped forward it a pair of black pumps. She was wearing a short dress covered with flowers with a pair of black tights that had a pretty lace design on them, and had a sparkly dance bag slung over her shoulder. As perched on the chair next to me she began fix her hair and the pink eye shadow that framed her bright blue eyes.
"Hey your dress is really pretty," I said to her, glancing down towards it. Callie's dress had three ruffles on the bottom and was tighter fitting and strapless at the top. The fabric was covered in multi-colored flowers of every kind. Callie spun around in her chair, crossing her legs as she did, and turned to face me.
"Why would I buy an ugly dress? I know its pretty." She said in a harsh tone and glaring at me.
"I... I..." I stuttered not knowing how to respond, luckily Fleur announced for all of us to follow her. We walked to a pair of silver doors that led to two white hallways that went to the left and to the right. In the middle was yet another pair of silver doors
"Ladies," Fleur said stepping into the center of the hall, "To zee right," Fleur raised one arm gracefully in that direction, "We hav zee men's dressing rooms and showers. Now no one is allowed to go in there except for ze men. Now to zee left," she then rose her other arm, letting the opposite one drop, "We hav zee star's dressing room. Who ever gets zee lead as zee Swan Queen or Queenz will be in here." She opened the wooden door open so we could see that the interior was like. The walls were painted a deep red color, and the floor was made of wood. There was a gold waredrobe and vintage looking couch that had velvet red cushions and a gold frame around it. Next to the the door was a desk that had three mirrors and a small stood. There was a larger mirror in the corner with a pedistal around that and there were framed pictures of ballerinas from all the different ballets were along the walls. Fleur shut the door and lead us to the next room, it was a dance studio. The floors were all made of gleaming wood and about 90% of the wall surface was covered in mirror. One-third of the room had ballet barres and the other half was a vast open space, almost as big as the stage itself. And yet across from the room stood another pair of silver doors.
"We will be in here shortly," announced Fleur, "But first you must change, follow me." We walked through the doors to where an office seemed to be laid out. There was a three way mirror, like the star's dressing room, and several manikins in the back of the room. Along the walls were racks and racks and racks of fabrics, mostly whites, blacks, pinks, and grays (typical ballet colors), but there were also different laces, ribbons, rinestones, glitter, and beads. What caught my eye was at least 30 bags of white feathers and 3 of black.
"This is Grace's office for when she makes your costumes. After we determine parts, you will each be scheduled to have measurements here. Upstairs," she gestured to a tall black spiral staircase, "Is office." Similar to all the other rooms we've toured through, there was another pair of silver doors. We entered a fancy locker room, which was the most colorful room yet. Above the low ceiling was a chandelier, what was covered in black flowers but let gold light pass through. The walls were lite up to be a magnata type color or maybe it was a rich dark pink instead. Along the walls were large plum colored lockers with numbers on each one in an elegant font (Fleur explained that we pick any locker we wanted and that it didn't have to be number that we had been assigned earlier, that would only be for auditions and for our dressing stations) Fleur walked around and showed us a long mirror that stretched along the wall with a table underneath, and then a seperate but conjoined room that was for showering. This room was a neat gray color and there were two rows with showers on either side of the row. Fleur explained that along each was five showers and in the middle was ten but each was cut in half by a tile wall along the middle.
"See how clean each of theze showers are?" She said pulling back each plum curtain that was tied back with a fancy gray tassel, "It is your responsibility when you shower to clean up afterward. Towels and wash clothes are behind zee mirror," She continued walking to it and clicking it open like a door to reveal fluffy looking towels that matched the walls. "Lastly," she said bringing us out of the locker rooms and into a smaller hall, "Out this door is to the parking lot behind the thearter," She leaned back onto the see-through door, "You are to come through here from now on. This door," she pressed on the silver door to her left, "Is another way to office, and this one," she pressed on the other silver door directly across it, "Is a supply closet, in here you will find anything you may need to fix up your shoes and your feet: needles, dental flose because its stronger then thread, extra ribbons, elastics, tap for your feet. Anything you may need except for new pointe and ballet shoes. Now," she said clapping her hands together, "Go back there and get in your ballet attire, black leotards, pink tights, pointe shoes, warm-ups are acceptable! After we will do a few stretches and strength exerises then I will show you a short dance and we will begin zee auditions on stage for the part of the Swan Queen, keep in mind that she plays two parts: Zee white swan who must be sweet, innocent, and graceful, and zee black swan who must have amazing ballet skills, must be edgy, seductive, and hard-core. Now please get moving ballerinas, get going. Our show opens on December 18th at 8 o'clock, sharp!"
Kendall's POV
We all walked out of Rocque Records annoyed, well everyone except for James, who was more then eager too see August. He kept babbling on and on about her every second that we had a break and that Gustavo was out of ear shot. Speaking of Gustavo, I swear he just cannot be satisfied. Today I think we've sounded our best yet and he still wasn't happy. As punishment he would have us do hours of harmonies, and work on new dances. We had finally gotten free by five o'clock. Walking down the stairs leading to the record company James was still talking about his girlfriend. He was talking so fast he sounded like that crazy kid on the internet, Fred.
"She's just so pretty, and amazing! Wow I really hope she did great today and got the part she wanted and that everyone was really really nice to her and that she got the lead. I don't think I could to that, you know dance on pointe shoes, could you guys? I mean Logan's right ballet is hard core and did I tell you all how she totally tricked Bitters into getting us free breakfast? Ha! Too funny! And you know what I really love about her? I like her hair and her eyes and her smile and just everything about her! That time is it? Five o'clock! I wonder if August's done too? August is such a pretty name don't you think? And its fun to say! August! August! August! You'd think it would stand for like Augustine, but its not its just August! I just really really love her, who wouldn't I don't get how Gustavo couldn't! And..."
"James!" I said angrily, "I know you're in love with her but you've gotta relax! do you hear me talking about Jo like that? Or Logan for Camille? Or Carlos for Stephanie or the Jennifers? No you don't! So just chill for a bit will you?"
"Sorry, guys. I've just never felt this way about anyone else."
"Its okay man, just tone it down just a smidget." Carlos said.
"Smidget? Really Carlos?" Logan said rolling his eyes.
"What? Its a creative word!"
"Anyway," James interrupted before the two could start bickering back and forth about pointless things, 'I'm sorry about talking about her, and won't bring her up until I see her next! So... hey look there she is!" Sure enough August was emerging from the subway station by Rocque Records. She was dressed in a navy jacket and was still wearring her leg warmers with her white leggings. Her brown curls was starting to spring out of her not-so-neat-as-a-pin bun, and she looked exhausted, but was beaming and waving at us. James darted over to see her and before he could even say hello she exclaimed, "I got the lead! I'm the Swan Queen!"
"That's great." James said picking her up and kissing her on the lips.
"AHHHHHHHH!" Something that sounded like an angry mama bear roared behind us. A livid and scarlet-skined Gustavo was standing there behind us looking like he was about to kill them.
"Run!" Shouted James grabbing August's hand and weaving her around the oncoming traffic, with her uncle raced after them.
"So... should we help them or just leave them be?" Logan asked as the trio ran further and further down the street towards the Palmwoods.
"We'll help them out later, right now I think I'll get a smoothie, anyone else want one?" I replied.
"Me!" Carlos yelled excitedly raising his hand like student who desperately wanted to answer the question.
"I'll take one!" Logan added.
"Great, lets go."
"And you're sure James and August will be okay?" Logan continued.
"Oh Logan, always worrying, I think they'll be just fine for a while. I mean August is a dancer, so she's fit, James will keep going as long as Gustavo keeps trying to hurt him and so he can protect his girlfriend. And Gustavo isn't one of the skinniest people around so were going him a favor by not breaking it up right now. I bet his doctor will personally thank us! Now I want a strawberry bananna smoothie!" I concluded.
Wow! So definitally the longest chapter yet!
So I have some authors notes:
-more OC's from the contest will be put in soon so if you don't see your character don't panic! she is coming!
-if you haven't already figured it out I'm sort of basing this version of Swan Lake off Black Swan so I take absolutely no credit for anything that might refer to the film. Just to clarify there will be no charcter death or sex in this story.
-Lastly I would like to thank everyone who's been reading, reviewing, and plainly sticking with this story through its ups and downs! In the month of May alone I've gotten 808 total hits and 303 of them were for this story! That's awesome guys thank you so much!
I have a ton of ideas coming up so stay tuned and review!
ps What did you think of the new characters? PM me or review and let me know!