Better or Worse?

"Fairest of them all, my ass!"

Apple sighed as she walked by the gaggle of disdainful girls and tried to keep her head held up high. But it wasn't easy. Once again, her roommate's decision to defy destiny was negatively impacting her. This is SO unfair! She thought bitterly. Hadn't her life and story been turned upside down enough by Raven's choices?!

By now the Rebel-Royal conflict was seeping into all sorts of different aspects of student life. Including the auditions for the upcoming spring dance recital. Apple had gotten the starring role and was absolutely thrilled...until the aftermath of Legacy Day reared its ugly head again.

Prior to Raven refusing to sign the Book of Legends, everyone would have simply accepted a White princess getting the lead role in any school production as the status quo. But now more and more people were questioning that status quo. Some of the more vocal Rebels were now declaring that it was high time for someone ELSE to take a turn in the spotlight. Anyone else, really, as long as it wasn't Apple White.

The criticism from the Rebel side was bad enough. But in this case, Apple also had to deal with some of her fellow Royals' ire. The female ballet characters that had auditioned for the leading role were not happy with the casting results. Dancing was an integral part of their stories; why should they allow anyone to infringe on their birthright?! Especially the princess who claimed to be all about fairness and everyone sticking to their allotted roles. How dare she try to stick her little toes into what was rightfully theirs!

So Duchess Swan, Claire Stahlbaum, Claire's Candy Kingdom clique, and some of the more snobbish descendants of the twelve dancing princesses came to an unspoken agreement. They all ganged up against Apple White. Whenever Apple walked by them, they made it a point to flaunt their expertise by pirouetting or arabesquing perfectly. Then they would give her hard looks that plainly said: stick to skipping in the woods, bitch. They would also loudly criticize her technique whenever she was in earshot and comment on just how "fair" her being the star of this show really was.

But after Apple had heard that spiteful Spanish chocolate dancer chortle: "Fairest of them all, my ass!" something inside her snapped. She had had enough of all this insinuation that she didn't deserve this role and that she only had it because of Headmaster Grimm's influence (which, unbeknownst to Apple, was true). And Apple knew that the only way to prove she deserved the best role was to become the best dancer in the cast.

The only was question was: how? Books and DVDs could only take Apple so far. What she needed was a private tutor. She thought about asking her parents to hire one, but quickly dismissed the idea; having a professional come to EAH to teach her would be as good as admitting that she wasn't the best and didn't deserve that lead. And it would just further the idea that she was nothing but a spoiled little rich girl and give the Rebels more to complain about. No, she would have to enlist another student's help, preferably a student who could keep things on the Q.T.

Apple's first pick would have been Justine Dancer, one of the future twelve dancing princesses and a kindhearted fellow Royal. But Justine was one of the dance captains in this production and was far too busy coaching the less experienced members of the ensemble (and nagging the choreographer to make it so everyone in the show could at least have one solo). The rest of the dancing princesses at EAH were either Rebels who completely rejected their dancing legacy or Royals who didn't want Apple trampling all over their destinies.

There were a couple of swan maiden freshman in the cast that were always polite to Apple, but they weren't especially great dancers yet. And they would have never agreed to help her anyway; even though they didn't like Duchess Swan, they were too scared to defy their future queen.

The same thing went for the sweeter characters from the Nutcracker; as much as they would have liked to help, none of them wanted to piss off Claire and her pack of prima ballerinas. Especially Nathan, Apple's leading man and Claire's henpecked boyfriend, who probably would have been the best tutor for Apple after Justine.

As Apple was racking her brains trying to think of other dancing characters that could help her, she suddenly remembered that Sleeping Beauty had once been a ballet. She quickly dashed off to find her best friend and her villaness.

"Sorry Apple, but we dropped the whole ballet part of the story ages ago." Briar told her.

"It was WAY too lame." Faybelle added. Apple groaned aloud in frustration. She was completely out of ideas; who could she turn to now?!

"Did you ask Rotbart?" Faybelle inquired.

Briar's nose wrinkled in disgust. "Why should she ask him?"

Faybelle gave her protagonist an are-you-a-complete-idiot? look. "Because he's a ballet character?" She said dryly.

"He's also an asshole." Briar frowned.

"But he's an asshole who can DANCE." Faybelle pointed out.

"Are you SURE?" Apple asked doubtfully. She remembered Rotbart deliberately not dancing at the Yule Ball.

Faybelle smirked and nodded. "You could do worse." She said airily.

"No you can't." Briar insisted. As far as Briar knew, Rotbart was just a major-pain-in-the-crown who would do nothing but torment her BFFA. "Don't listen to her." Briar told Apple as she glared at her antagonist. "I'll find you a dance tutor." And the social princess immediately whipped out her phone to make some calls.

Faybelle rolled her eyes. "Good luck with THAT." She muttered under her breath. While Briar was on the phone, Faybelle whispered to Apple: "Seriously though, when it comes to dancing, you can't do better than Rotbart. I've seen him, he makes Nathan look like a block of wood."

"Really?!" Apple said in surprise. Nathan Nutcracker was supposed to be the best male dancer in the whole school!

"Really really." The future wicked fairy assured her.

"Then why isn't he in the recital?" Apple wanted to know. Apple couldn't fathom anyone willingly hiding that much talent if they had it.

Faybelle shrugged. "I dunno. Ask him. But he knows it all; ALL those ballet characters do. And he does it better than any of them. Just think about it." Faybelle said as she got up to leave.

"OK..." Apple hesitantly.

Faybelle smirked as she fluttered off. She had nothing to gain or lose by offering Apple genuine advice. But she wouldn't be a proper villainess if she didn't enjoy the idea of of a perfect little princess like Apple being indebted to Rotbart. And dealing with him as a dance teacher.

Later that evening, after Briar had failed to find a suitable dance instructor, Apple found herself dialing Rotbart's number in the privacy of her room while Raven was out. She wasn't sure about not being able to do better in terms of a dance teacher. But she knew she couldn't do worse.