Hey!
FINALLY! Another chapter! I know it took me long enough :) It's just that I've been so busy lately! Swimming, dancing (I'm actually preparing for my first recital ever :D), studying, and I've been learning Russian as well (in preparation of an exchange project that's coming up), so yeah, busy, busy, busy!
Anyway, I have my wonderful Beta, treewitch703, to thank again, for correcting my work, even though she was ill. I hope you'll be healthy again soon!
And, of course, thank you to, my readers and reviewers. You have no idea how much this means to me :)
Enjoy!
Norah was standing back stage, feeling the familiar pre-recital tension work itself up to a fine pitch. It was a good kind of tension, one that made her limbs ache in anticipation, one that made her perform better.
She knew the routine would be as close to perfect as possible: they'd been practicing at least 3 hours a day for the last two weeks, polishing every little detail. The hard work would definitely be worth it; this recital was crucial, one that important people would be watching. Prestigious dance-schools would be scouting out new, promising students, awarding scholarships to the best performers. The expectations were extremely high, but Norah knew that, if nothing went wrong, they'd be able to fulfill those expectations. They'd be amazing.
A few minutes later, she stumbled back into the changing area. She was panting, her lungs aching with each breath, but she really couldn't care less. It had been absolutely perfect. They had gotten the loudest applause she'd ever heard, reassuring her that the spectators felt the same. She just couldn't wipe the huge grin off her face, even though she was sure she looked like a lunatic. She felt like she'd achieved something, like she'd proven to everybody that she was strong, and capable. It was a fantastic feeling.
The girl next to her, Melanie, had doubled over, folding her upper body onto her legs, pressing both of her hands against her heart.
"Dear God," she panted, grinning up at Norah, " I don't think I've ever felt my heart beat this fast. It feels like it's going to jump right out of there any minute now."
Norah just grinned back, nodding her head. She wasn't able to talk just yet, but she knew exactly what Melanie was feeling. She got the idea that every girl who'd just gotten off the stage knew exactly what Melanie was talking about.
Just then, their coach came into the room. He was bouncing up and down as if someone had tied Skippy balls to his shoes, and his maniacal grin told her everything she wanted to know. He was absolutely thrilled.
All the dancers looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to give his critique of the performance. He just beamed right back at them and clapped his hands enthusiastically a couple of times.
"Fantastic!" he exclaimed, with happiness of a toddler who's just found everything he wanted under the Christmas tree. His face fell, and after a moment of silence, he declared: "I swear, if none of you gets a scholarship, I'll eat my own shoes."
Norah let out a husky chuckle, along with all the other girls, as she let her head rest against the wall. They'd done great, and now she could get a drink, sit back and relax to watch the other routines. She planned on taking a long, hot bath when she got home, crawling into bed and not coming out until the sun had set again. It was a nice prospect.
When she had changed out of her performance outfit and into a pair of comfortable sweats and a tank top, she made her way over to the bar and ordered a coke. A quick scan of the room had located her mother, having a nice tête-à-tête at one of the tables with a gentleman Norah had never seen before. The man was tall and skinny, both his hair and his beard looked like they had carefully been groomed into perfection. He was wearing a dark blue suit, which made him look like a business man on his way to some sort of important meeting.
Norah smiled in contentment. Her mother didn't get out much, since she had to work so hard to take care of the two of them. It was nice to see her making new friends, because ever since her father had moved back to England, his home country, Anna hadn't had much of a social life. Being a single mom wasn't easy, but she was doing one hell of a job, and Norah knew she was very lucky, having a mother like hers.
She grabbed her coke off the counter and decided not to interrupt her mom. If anyone deserved to have a good time today, it was Anna, so instead of going over to discuss her performance, she made her way outside. She'd been craving some fresh air after the hot and sweaty back stage area, and she figured that now was the time to go and get it.
She pushed the door open and closed her eyes as she relished the feeling of the cool air on her face. The heat inside had been almost smothering, so the fresh evening breeze was doing wonders.
She opened her eyes again, and let out a frustrated groan as soon as she realized what she was seeing. Even though the alley wasn't lit, their pale skin stood out against the darkness and made it impossible to miss the two men leaning against the wall opposite of her.
Damn.
It had been almost two weeks now since she'd last seen a vampire, or at least, one she knew about, and she couldn't say she'd disliked the change. Of course, she would have liked to see Godric again, and she was still extremely curious about all things vampire, but didn't people always say that curiosity killed the cat? And she was definitely not willing to be killed.
She walked over to the two vampires reluctantly. Vampires meant trouble, and she didn't want to deal with any of that right now.
"Good evening, Norah." Godric's voice was quiet and gentle as always. She made herself smile up at him, even though she knew it wouldn't look very sincere. It wasn't that she didn't like the teenage vampire, because she did, maybe even a little bit more than she ought to. It was just that, whenever he showed up, trouble was always just around the corner. She didn't think Godric would ever come visit her just to have a little chat.
"Hey Godric, Eric" She nodded at both of them.
There was a long and awkward pause. At least, it was awkward to Norah. The vampires seemed perfectly comfortable.
"Errr…" she began. Why was she always the one that had to break the silence? "Not to sound rude or anything, but why are you here? Has something happened?"
Her stomach clenched nervously as she thought about what could have happened. Was her mother still okay? Who was that man she'd been talking to, anyway? What if that had been Alexander? She had needed only half a second to go from a more or less relaxed mood to one of complete panic. Right up until Godric opened his mouth again.
"No, no, no" he said hastily, "nothing has happened. There is nothing wrong." Norah exhaled. Thank God. "We came to see the recital."
Her jaw might have dropped just a little, as she looked at them in pure astonishment.
Why on earth would they do that?
Eric was the one who answered her unspoken question.
"You remember that you promised that coach of yours that we'd come see your recital?" He glared at her, and she looked at him in a way that she hoped could be interpreted as apologetic. Eric just ignored her and continued "Godric thought that we should make sure you didn't break that promise, so…" he spread his hands in front of him, as if he was a magician that had just performed an exceptionally spectacular trick. Tah-dah.
It was obvious that Eric didn't agree with Godric's decision. His voice was literally dripping with sarcasm. Norah rolled her eyes at him and he shot her a guilty grin. Maybe the giant Viking wasn't as bad as he looked after all.
"Your performance was amazing." Godric told her, with a little smile. It was always hard to tell if he really meant what he said, and this time, she was hoping with all her heart that he did.
"Yeah?" she beamed at him, "Thanks, we've been working on it for a long time."
"How long have you been dancing?" It was strange having Godric ask her a personal question, and she couldn't tell if he was actually interested or just being polite. Eric was definitely just bored.
"For as long as I can remember." She had decided that just answering the question would be her best option.
Godric smiled at her "You can tell."
"Thanks."
Eric rolled his eyes dramatically.
"Godric, we should get going now. We have some other matters to attend to right now." Strangely, the way he said that brought to mind the way a child would tell his father that he still had to take him to soccer practice. It reminded her of something she'd wondered about the first time she'd met the two of them.
"Hey, what is your relationship to each other?" The question had left her mouth uncensored, and she bit her lip hard to prevent herself from asking others. It was a bizarre question, and a dumb one at that.
To her relief, they didn't laugh at her. Eric even managed to keep himself from rolling his eyes.
"I was the one who made Eric a vampire, a long time ago."
Before she could even think about asking them how long ago that had been, they were off. Both of them just disappeared into thin air. Again.
"Definitely a vampire trait." She muttered to herself as she pushed open the door, welcoming the warmth she'd been trying to escape a few minutes ago. Now all she had to do was find her mother, and go home. She was aching for a warm bath, she needed to get rid of the nervous tension in her body. Dealing with vampires was never exactly relaxing, especially if someone like Eric decided to tag along.
So, what did you think? Give me your opinion :)
For Norah's feelings during the recital, I just described the thing I feel before and after a swimming competition. I'd like to know if any dancers that might read this feel the same, so let me know!
Next chapter might take a while as well, since I'm still really busy, but I'm going to try my best to write a little bit quicker ;) Can you guess what's going to happen?
X
