Thumb Rings and Ballet Slippers
Victoria stretched, a sigh escaping her lips as she felt her muscles get suppler. She looked around the room, watching tall and toned frames chattering as they warmed up too and she marvelled at how friendly everyone was being despite knowing that everyone in the room was their competition, the obstacle they had to jump over, the corner they had to avoid. She straightened up and laced up her dance shoes, throwing a wary look at her pointe shoes that she almost forgot this morning. She smiled fondly as she remembered her room mate running down the street in her pyjamas and bed hair, waving the shoes in the air and crying frantically.
"Oi! Toria! Your pointy shoes! YOU FORGOT YOUR POINTY SHOE THINGS!"
She'd been irritating said room mate over the past week by walking around the flat en pointe and randomly falling into the splits in the most inconvenient of places, whenever the younger counter part would complain or look at her indignantly, she'd simply have to answer with 'audition.' She didn't count on someone falling down into the splits right next to her though and suddenly realised how irritating she was probably being, the person stretched long arms and pressed their chest to their leg before drawing in a long breath and sitting up.
"Hello," the person said, smiling a big grin and brushing a hand through wheat coloured hair as Victoria blinked dumbfounded at the interruption. She'd been counting on preparing quietly, she was always shy at auditions and found it odd to converse with people who were hoping for her to fail but this person, a girl with freckles, drew a smile from her and made her nod politely.
"Hello," Victoria responded as the freckled girl began to stretch from side to side, accentuating her small waist.
"This is my first audition for anything like this," the girl confided with a cheeky smile and a shrug, "Everyone seems so big and scary so I thought I'd come to you since you look relatively normal."
"Oh?" Victoria said with a small giggle and the girl ducked her head slightly but showed no further sign of embarrassment.
"I mean, you don't look like you wake up in a tutu. If you get what I mean?"
Victoria gave a quick look around the room again and stifled a smirk when she realised what the newcomer meant. There were a few 'relatively normal' people dotted around the place, talking in little groups as they got ready but the majority were women with strong arms and tight buns or men with surly expressions and perfectly arched eyebrows.
"I get what you mean," Victoria said with a giggle, the girl's grin broadened as she brought her legs out of the splits and crossed them. She looked a little childlike, with a rounded face that didn't match her slim body and brown eyes that crinkled when she grinned. Her wheat hair was tied so half of it was in a cute ponytail on the top of her head and the rest fell just past her shoulders, and she wore a pink leotard that contrasted with everyone else's choice that consisted mainly of black and made Victoria feel a little safer in her white. She extended a hand and grinned as Victoria took it.
"I'm Etcetera," she said, shaking it gently.
"Victoria."
The door opened and silence fell over the room, two men entered with bright grins accompanied by the elegant woman that Victoria had grown to be enchanted with over countless of emails.
Cassandra was not in her regular pencil skirt and shirt but still looked entirely put together in leggings and a crop top that showed her toned stomach off. She turned heads, as usual, and Victoria found that barely anyone paid the two men any attention until one of them coughed and clamoured for everyone to look at them.
"Okay guys! Thanks for attending today, we really appreciate it. As you know, if you're successful at this audition you'll be offered the position of a dancer in the new talent show we're launching in the upcoming year which is going to look great on your show reels. We'll need you all to learn some simple choreography and perform it as a group and then as far as I'm aware there'll be time for you to dance individually to a prepared piece. Everyone understand?"
There was a sea of nodding heads. Victoria felt her chest flutter as the man nodded and started to introduce himself and the two beside him.
"My name is Bill Bailey, but please call me Bill. I'm part of the station's creative organisation team so I'll just be making sure that everything's up to scratch. Next to me is the two creative directors, George, who will be the creative director of the show you'll be working on and Cassandra who foresees all of the creative directors and who'll be assisting George. You'll be dancing for us today. Good luck guys."
Cassandra caught Victoria's eye and gave her a sly wink before sitting next to Bill as George took the floor and began walking the group through the choreography. It was easy enough, Victoria focused and copied the motions with a determined smile as Etcetera danced beside her with a slight uncertainty on her face. She couldn't help her eyes slyly peeking at Cassandra every now and again who, despite her calm demeanour and overall grace, seemed a little off. Her tanned skin had a grey tinge to it, her eyes seemed to water every now and then and she had a hand placed firmly over her torso but she continued to speak to Bill and look over the dancers coolly as she took notes, presumably on them.
After they'd memorised the turns and the kicks, the group of dancers performed to the three people who watched intently and occasionally scribbled notes in their notepads. Victoria looked at them all in the mirror on the wall, dancing in unison with identical grins on their faces, they looked nightmarish. It was all too perfect, all too synchronised. They could be one person right now and she supposed that was why Cassandra started to look apprehensive.
That was until Cassandra whispered quickly to George next to her before running out of the dance studio, clutching her stomach and clasping a hand over her mouth to the sound of George and Bill jeering for them all to ignore her and continue as people watched her unsure expressions.
Cassandra ran to the disabled toilets and slammed the door, not bothering to lock it before feeling sick and whatever else escape her lips and fall into the toilet. She had enough time to stare down at it in disgust before she continued to empty her stomach, feeling tears prick at her eyes and her stomach wrench. She hated being sick, it made her feel pathetic and especially in front of a group of novice dancers who she'd wanted to make a powerful impression on. The music from the dance studio cut out and there was a clamour of footsteps before a loud boom of rap music, Cassandra groaned as she remembered the individual dances and how wistful Victoria had looked when the girl realised she'd be present at the audition. She tried to stand up, ready to sneak in there so not to let the little doll down but felt the floor spin beneath her feet and prompted her to lean over the bowl and vomit again.
The rap music cut out, the small girl with cute plaits that Victoria assumed would be a sweet dancer stopped body popping, gave a delicate bow before swanning over and joining the rest of the group as the room filled with applause. She looked over to the empty space between George and Bill Bailey and felt her throat tighten, she'd felt safer with the familiar face in the room, with Cassandra backing her and she prayed silently that the woman would return before it was her turn.
"Etcetera!" Bill Bailey called out and Victoria felt the sunny girl next to her stiffen and her bright aura falter slightly. Victoria turned and gave her an encouraging smile as she stood slowly and made her way to the centre of the room, passing her prepared CD to Bill Bailey as she did with a little smile.
The music started and Etcetera began to dance. It was bright and breezy and seemed to echo Victoria's overall impression of the girl. Etcetera was a good dancer too although the nervousness of her dance was prominent, but for a first time audition she wasn't doing bad at all. She danced with her arms outstretched and fingers and toes pointed, her legs would shake every now and then but it didn't affect her overall performance. Occasionally, she'd flip and lose her balance but nothing detrimental to the dance and by the time the music died and Etcetera was bowing, Victoria was pretty impressed. Etcetera was more of a contemporary dancer, not so much as the plait girl who was obviously trained in street dance, but in a way that seemed refreshing and light. Her wheat hair ruffled slightly from her back springs and her crazy arm movements, Etcetera took her CD back and sat down next to Victoria with an uneasy smile.
It seemed an age until Victoria was finally called and Cassandra still hadn't come back. She'd laced up her pointe shoes during the previous performance, she blushed as she walked over to Bill Bailey and handed over her own CD before taking the centre. She took a moment to breathe as the music started playing, reminding herself that she'd trained hard enough for this, that this was all she wanted, all she was good at.
Then the music played and she felt as though she was floating. The familiarity of dance, of people watching her as she moved with grace and poise, was refreshing. Piano music played out from nearly blown out speakers and lifted her, it made her steps light and her hand movements elegant. She lifted her head and felt a smile tug at the corners of her lips and she was fully aware of how beautiful she looked. After all, if she felt so beautiful how could she not look it? She felt any anxiety, any worry that she had about making ends meet and paying the bills, about her brother and how he was doing so much better than her, about sweet Jemima and her lack of employment, just melt away. She was five years old and in line for Santa's Grotto again, she was thirteen years old and having her first kiss again, she was on her first date with Plato again.
There was a trill, she did a final twirl before pirouetting and finishing flawlessly, at least it would be flawless if she didn't realise that she had a slightly desperate expression by the end of her performance. The room filled with claps as it did so many times before but Victoria couldn't help but feel pretty special as she took her seat and heard Bill Bailey and George whisper to each other with smiles on their faces.
"Jesus," Etcetera whispered, "Are you sure you weren't born in a tutu?"
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"Didn't she have breakfast?"
Tugger blinked up into the wry smirk of his elder brother, his eyebrow arched in confusion. The blond sniggered before tapping on the other's neck, making Tugger laugh nervously back and pull up his shirt collar a bit more in order to hide the bruise residing there from Quaxo's clumsy lips and teeth. He thanked God that Quaxo was currently out because if the magician had been loitering he wasn't sure if he'd be able to keep composure with his usual Tugger grin.
"Is that why you weren't answering my call the other day?" Munkustrap teased. He'd always found it pretty easy to revert to childishness around his younger brother which included teasing him whenever her found an opportunity and the hickey on his neck served perfectly for that purpose. That wasn't to say he didn't have a sense of humour usually, it was just that he was a little more sensible around other people because it seemed like that was what was expected of him. Being the middle son of a retired High Judge and Bourgeoisie-Lady-About-Town was enough pressure but when the eldest son decided to go off the rails and get involved with organised crime and the youngest became the most irresponsible slut to grace the Earth, Munkustrap took it upon himself to be the sensible college Tutor who visited their recently widowed Father, organised family get-togethers and generally made sure everyone was eating okay.
"It might have been," Tugger said, feigning a coy smile, "What were you calling for anyway?"
Munkustrap felt himself physically pale as he remembered a certain elfin girl in his arms, staining his lips with tea and honey, winding little fingers in his hair. Tugger obviously picked up on this as his eyebrows shot up in surprise and he gave a dry chuckle as he always did when he was feeling uncomfortable.
"You okay there, Straps?" Munkustrap ran a hand through his hair and smiled uncertainly at his younger brother who watched him with those concerned brown eyes that he'd inherited from their Father, the same brown eyes that Munkustrap had always been envious of.
"I'm fine," Munkustrap said, laughing it off as he always did, "It was um.. It was our brother dearest is all."
Tugger rolled his eyes, "Oh?"
Tugger had always been closer to their oldest brother than Munkustrap had because at first Tugger saw him as the 'cool rebellious one', the one that bought him alcohol to go out with while he was under age, the one that taught him to smoke before he quit, the one that forged notes to get him out of P.E lessons. He still had a soft spot for their brother, as he knew Munkustrap did, and he just couldn't get past this idyllic image of his big brother despite all of the reckless things he knew his big brother did.
"Well really it's him and Demeter. As in, they're back together. I think he's already got a key to her house."
"Jesus Christ," Tugger murmured, "Is she legitimately brain dead?"
Munkustrap winced on the absent woman's behalf but Tugger continued with full vigour.
"I mean, Demeter's pretty messed up as it is and God knows he's not right in the head. How can either of them possible think that's a good foundation for a relationship?"
"She was never messed up until he came along," Munkustrap interjected, his indignant tone becoming more apparent with every syllable. Tugger held up his hand and scowled slightly which led his older brother to sigh and run a hand agitatedly through his hair, Tugger never wanted to talk about the downfall of Macavity because it acted as a cruel reminder that it was all very real and the youngest of the three liked to pretend that his family wasn't as dysfunctional as it actually was.
"Bombalurina's going to go crazy," Tugger mumbled after a sufficiently awkward silence, "I'm not sure how Jemima will take it though, she was always a little more understanding."
"She was angry," Munkustrap said cautiously, feeling his chest tighten slightly as Tugger peered at him inquisitively.
"You told her?"
"Yeah, I phoned her up after you," he paused, "It was stupid really... I just needed someone talk to about it and I thought she'd want to know."
"And she was angry?" Tugger asked, confusion etched into every of his warm features and laced into his voice, "We're speaking about the same Jemima, right? Pretty girl, around about the size of a teacup?"
Munkustrap laughed to keep guilt from rising up his throat as he pictured his hands running down the teacup girl's body. He had a sudden urge to come out and admit everything to Tugger, to recount how he'd been so vile as to kiss a girl who was nearly ten years younger than him, the little sister of a woman he was still incredibly in love with. He knew Tugger would understand, he'd probably tell him not to worry so much and laugh about how guilty he was feeling but he couldn't get the words out, couldn't form a coherent sentence about her.
"The very same," Munkustrap replied weakly.
"Did you manage to calm her down?" Tugger said, leaning forward slightly, his interest obviously piqued, "How did you do it?"
"I just went over to hers, we had tea, ate biscuits."
"Tea," Tugger laughed a little, "Do you think that's something she's picked up from Jenny? Everything can be solved with a cup of tea. Nothing else is needed but tea."
((A/N: This is pre' late! I'm sorry, I think I've explained that I'm all caught up in work but I'm sorry anyway! I hope this chapter was okay for you all!))