Chapter One

"…And demi-plié and straight, and demi-plié and straight, now grand plié." Ms. Renyoj rambled on with her thick Russian accent during our barré. It was a company tryout for our annual performance of the Nutcracker. Since it was a company rehearsal, the studio was filled wall to wall with dancers.

The exercises that we were doing were everlastingly sketched into my brain that I could do them in my sleep if I ever had to. Today was a historic day in my very short dance career. Not only was it Nutcracker tryouts it was also my one year anniversary at NYCB, and I couldn't think of a better way to spend my anniversary than being with all of my friends, trying out for Clara. I glanced over at Hannah and Tori and they looked at me at the same time. (Magic always helps when you have to tell your Muggle friends stuff.)

'Boring,' I mouthed while rolling my eyes.
'I know,' Hannah agreed.

'I HAVE TO PEE!!' Tori mouthed pretending to scream.

"Tori Braudaway stop talking at once." Ms. Renyoj shot at Tori giving her a very stern look.

"I'm sorry Ms. Renyoj, it won't happen again." She replied and looked at the ground.

"You bet it won't," Ms. Renyoj replied and turned her back on Tori, it was done.

Hannah and I were quietly snickering at Tori getting in trouble yet again with Ms. Renyoj. Tori glanced at us and shot her tongue at us.

It was finally time for a five minute break to put on our pointe shoes and get water. We had already been in the studio for about two hours and we were all very tired.
"Why am I the one she always yells at?" Tori vented," It is never you two," she pointed at us.

"Go to the bathroom now," Hannah said. "You still have three minutes."

"Three minutes, ha!! That's not long enough. It takes me a minute to get my leotard and tights down."

"Okay, you don't have to tell us how long it takes you to go pee okay?" I shook my head. An idea popped into my head at that exact moment. If Mrs. Renyoj wasn't going to cut class early, I would have to make her do what we wanted. "I'll be right back." I walked to the bathroom; made sure nobody was in it and muttered something under my breath. Knowing it worked I walked back out of the bathroom.

When I got back Mrs. Renyoj came out of the dance studio. "Class, something urgent has come up and I'm afraid I will have to cut your auditions short. I feel that I have enough information to pick the parts for the Nutcracker so this will be the only audition you will have. Now, I hope you have a fun half day off."

"I HAVE to go pee NOW!!" Tori bolted down the hallway and into the bathroom.

Hannah and I laughed and shook our heads. "So… what should we do now that she's called the audition?" Hannah asked.

"How about…" I paused, "… um… we haven't been to Ferra's yet this week. We could talk to Tori and David about it."

"Yum, I like that idea!" David popped up just as I said his name. "Oh and Lily, it's my turn to pay."

"No, that's not fair! You just paid last time!"

"I insist. Besides I'm lucky to have my dad's name and his credit cards so I can just sign them. It's not like he actually cares."

"Whatever," I rolled my eyes.

"What is taking Tori so long?" Hannah asked while slipping her clothes over her black leotard and ballet pink tights.

"Remember it takes her a whole minute to take her clothes off." I reminded Hannah and laughed.

"Hey!! This time it only took me half of a minute!" Tori snuck up on us.

"Oh my gosh Tori!!" Hannah jumped a mile, "you scared the crap out of me!!"

"Come on, let's go," I nagged.

We walked down to the nearest subway station and got on the train that would take us to Little Italy. Right as we walked onto the train a homeless guy walked up to us and said, "Would you please be so kind and give me some of your spare change?"

"I'm sorry; we don't have anything extra at the moment." David led the three of us to four seats and sat down.

"That guy comes up to us every time we come on this train," Hannah trembled, "you think he would have learned by now."

"I feel rather sorry for him," I said, "I mean no home, no food, nobody-" I stopped. My mind instantly went to the guy I tried so hard to forget, James Potter. My relationship had been very strange in our Hogwarts days. The first six years I had hated him, would insult him every possible moment I got. But he would always find time to ask me out, and I never failed to say no. Then seventh year first semester I caught him off guard and finally agreed for him to take me out. That semester was the best one I ever had at Hogwarts. But then during Christmas break, actually on Christmas Day itself, he did something so horrible, so unforgivable that I had to dump him on the spot. I shuttered at what he had done that night… he crushed me. He took my heart out, tore it into little pieces and then stomped on them.

"Lily, are you okay? You seem rather distant." David looked worried for my sake.

"Yea, I'm fine. J-just thinking about what kind of life that homeless guy must have." I stammered and then shivered again.

"He probably chose to live like that Lily, there's nothing you can do about it." Tori tried to make me feel better. If only I could tell the truth on what I was actually talking about instead of having to lie about it all the time. I was actually getting quite tired of lying all of the time.

Tori, Hannah, and David started talking again. They were used to my random spaced out behavior every once in a while. I tried to steer clear of thinking about my Hogwarts days because when I started, I couldn't stop. Yes, I still used magic, but I tried not to think about, or be in contact with, certain people. It just hurt too much to handle. But of course I still kept in touch with my best friend from there, Sarah, and I would go see here time to time. But I tried not to talk to, or about, him.
Before I knew it we were on the streets of Little Italy heading towards Ferra's.

"… I remember when I lived in the city when I was seven, my best friend used to be a homeless person. He lived in Central Park," Hannah said, "It was the best six weeks of my childhood life, and then my mother found out that I was going to see him instead of the play dates she had set up for me."

"Leave it to Hannah to have a homeless person for a best friend," Tori laughed shaking her head, and the subject was dropped.

We walked into Ferra's and sat at our usual table that was always left open for us. It was a small circular table that only fit for people in the back of the restaurant.

"What may I get for you?" The waiter named Aro asked us.

"We would like… two pieces of cheesecake, vanilla gelato, and strawberry gelato please." David ordered us the 'usual'

"And what would you like to drink?" Aro asked.

"Water," I said.

"Water," David said.

"Water," Hannah said.

"Coke," leave it to Tori to always have to be the oddball.
Aro left us to get our order.
"What should we do after we get out of here?" Hannah asked, "I have nothing to do for… the rest of the weekend."

"We could…" I paused because I had no idea.

"I have a great idea!" David interrupted my thinking with his 'great idea,' "We can pack extremely fast and take my dad's jet to Paris for the weekend!"

"Oh my gosh!" Tori exclaimed, "Can we really?!?!"

"Yea, I should call my dad and ask him to get it ready. We haven't used it in forever so he will be glad someone is getting use out of it. Plus Ms. Renyoj stopped classes until Monday so we still have tomorrow, the weekend, and then Monday. If we leave here in like three hours we can probably make it there by ten tonight. So what does everybody think? Everybody in?"

"Well DUHH!!" The three of us yelled. Everyone in the restaurant looked at us like we were complete losers.

"One minor small little miniscule problem. Does anybody know French? I took Spanish in High School." Tori shook her head.

"Bonjour, je m'appelle Lily. J'adore David pour lassire on aller de Paris." I rambled on in French. "Je su juste un peu français."

"Ok well I think we found our translator. Did you take French at your school?" Hannah asked amazed.

"Actually no, we didn't need a language to graduate." I laughed.

"Then how do you know so much of it?" Tori asked.

"I spent a summer in Paris, and when you don't know any of the language that the whole city is speaking you tend to want to catch on quickly." I laughed, "But I haven't spoken a bit of French since then. And it's been a while because that was three years ago, and I haven't been since."

"Okay then it's settled. We will hurry up and eat, then pack, then we're off to Paris." David said. "I will be right back; I should probably call my dad." David walked over to the pay phone.

Just as David left Aro came back with our drinks and desserts. "Here are the two cheesecakes, the gelatos," he said putting them down. "The water, the water, the water, and the coke," when he put down Tori's drink he winked at her then walked off.