Here's the next update like I promised (:
Here we go, come with me,
There's a world out there that we should see,
Take my hand, close your eyes,
With you right here, I'm a rocketeer.
CHAPTER FOUR
The frosted glass doors of the Dawn Art Center slid open as Reid approached them, her silver skirt swishing by her legs. Her champagne-colored blouse gleamed in the sunlight while her tie and blazer sparkled and glimmer. Wearing the stylish, shiny dressy uniforms was certainly a change for Reid. While she had exchanged her entire wardrobe of graphic t-shirts and flared jeans for skirts, tanks and blouses, she'd hadn't entirely gotten used to the feel of wearing a skirt the entire time. She stepped through the entrance and into a spacious room with tall windows that let light shine through and a honey colored wooden floor. Easels with canvases stretched over them and small pots of paint were spread out through the room with rounded stools placed in front of each easel. A few girls had already claimed their easels and Reid stood hesitantly for a few seconds before taking the easel next to a stunning blonde with her sunny gold tresses twisted up in a messy bun and a paintbrush stuck through it.
"Hello," said Reid with a friendly smile at the blonde. The girl looked up and smiled at Reid.
"Hey, I'm Ashley Bell, artist," the girl, Ashley, introduced herself to Reid. Another artist, though Reid. Competition really was going to play a huge part in Alpha Academy wasn't it? Reid slid onto the easel while the painting muse in the center of the room cleared her throat and began to talk.
"Good morning artists, and welcome to your first day in my class and at Alpha Academy," the muse had long chocolate brown hair that was twisted up in French twist and strange dangly earrings dangled from her ears, "My name is Hazel and I'm your painting muse for the duration of your stay at Alpha Academy." She finished her introduction and looked around the class. "Now, would you all please – " she was cut off by the entrance of a student entering the studio.
Reid's heartbeat stuttered slightly as Darwin Brazille walked through the doors and took a seat in front of the easel next to her. She ducked her head slightly to hide her warming cheeks as she sucked in a breath and released it, trying to cool her cheeks. She had always had a mini-celebrity crush on Darwin, the cute, artsy Brazille boy when she had first read of the Brazille Boys in the tabloids. His ah-dorable looks and artistic personality had been an immediately YES for Reid, and now, he was sitting right next to her at Alpha Academy. A wild part of her had a sudden urge to jump up and scream. She still felt a twinge of guilt for breaking up with her boyfriend, Vince, knowing that she wouldn't be able to stand the thought of a long-distance relationship and her celebrity crush was sitting right next to her in an art class!
"Sorry Hazel," Darwin apologized, "My mom wanted to talk to us about something." Hazel nodded and turned her attention back to her class.
"Now, like I was saying before, I want all of you to paint something you thing represents hope. You have forty minutes, go!" she pressed a button on the stopwatch while the girls – and boy – stared at their blank canvases trying to think of something.
Reid ran through her mind images, scenes, people, plants trying to come up with something that would represent hope and not in a totally cliché way. Glancing surreptiously around, she saw Ashley sketching something over her canvas while Darwin regarded his canvas with a thoughtful look on his face while his fingers twirled a paintbrush in a pot of paint, absently mixing some blue and yellow paint. Suddenly, Reid's eyes brightened with inspiration. She snatched up a pencil and began sketching on her canvas before mixing black and white to create several different shades of grey and began to paint a detailed scene on her canvas.
"Time's up!" called Hazel, "Paintbrushes down, heads up. Now who wants to share first?"
Ashley raised a hand tentatively. "I'll go," she offered.
"Excellent, Ashley, now let's see what you have." Hazel smiled encouragingly.
Ashley tilted her easel away from her and towards the rest of the class. Reid looked at Ashely's painting and had to admit it looked incredible. It depicted a scene from the classic Greek myth of Pandora and the Box where evil omens flew out grinning wickedly except for one thing, Hope. She painted Hope in the center of the painting, wearing white robes, a gentle smile and a spotlight focused on the figure. Pandora stood in a gray dress with a look of fear and horror on her face.
"Beautiful, Ashley," Hazel nodded, looking at the painting thoughtfully, "The focus on Hope with the varying shades of white was inventive and the blurred shadows made an overall good effect."
"I really liked how you used the story of that Greek myth," added another girl.
The rest of the class nodded appreciatively and admired Ashley's painting. "Now! What do you have to show us, Reid?" Hazel looked expectantly at Reid who blushed slightly from the attention. Standing up from her stool, she tilted her painting towards the rest of the class. Silence fell for a second before Hazel nodded her head slowly.
"This is one of the most symbolic paintings I'd ever seen, Reid," said Hazel, "It's beautiful."
Reid had mixed over twenty different shades of grey to paint the entire painting, creating a scene of a burnt orchard, all the branches burned and broken while in the center, the focus was on a single giant tree with one solitary white flower blooming on a branch. She had also mixed different shades of white to paint the single flower, spending an entire twenty minutes on the flower alone, creating an effect that made the flower seem to glow in the grey drabness. With the flower as a glowing contrast against the grey shadows of trees, the painting seemed to come alive with the grey shadows emitting out of the painting and the white flower shining serenely in the midst of the shadows. It was one of Reid's best paintings, although she had done this one quickly in the time limit, the raw emotion from the painting just simply made it stand out.
"Whoa, that's good," said Ashley admiringly.
"No," said Darwin in disagreement, "It's great," he grinned at Reid who lit up with happiness.
Standing in the art studio besides her painting with her muse's approval and her peer's admiration, Reid glowed with happiness. Here was where she belonged, where other people appreciated her talent, where people agreed with her, where people knew what and who she was and what she did. She was free from the stereotypes of middle school and ready to shine at Alpha Academy, no matter how cheesy that sounded.
"What about you, Darwin?" Hazel asked. "Show us what you've painted."
Darwin stood up from his easel and Reid relished the opportunity to stare at him without looking like a complete idiot, after all, she was supposed to be paying attention to him while he showed his painting.
He turned his easel towards the class and reveal his painting. He had painted a stormy dark sky with clouds floating ominously ahead with a single ray of sun breaking through the clouds and casting a bright aura through the painting.
Hazel nodded slowly and thoughtfully, "So all of you seem to have chosen a dark background with a single thing that stands out in the center of it. That's one of the most common ways of portraying hope."
"Yeah, because hope means something bright and good in dark times," agreed Reid, boldly stating her opinion and fighting the urge to blush under everyone's gazes.
"Nice observation, Reid," Hazel nodded again. Reid glowed with pride.
"Now, we'll soon be working on watercolors and natural scenery so the next time I see you, I want all of you to have a certain place of Alpha Island in mind and we'll spend the next few weeks on that painting." Hazel instructed.
Reid's eyes lit up in excitement. Watercolors were her specialty. Painting scenery and nature with watercolors was something she had loved since she was little. The bubble of happiness in her grew again, she really did love Alpha Academy.
X-X-X
A few kilometers away from the Dawn Art Center, Alice White stood in the center of Eris Studio in a puffy Victorian-era styled dress that shimmered a light pink color in the faux scene of the Palace of Versailles. In the beginning of class, the drama muse, Rosaline, had given a brief introduction greeting to the girls and had immediately led them to a gigantic closet where they were immediately instructed to put on a gown, image that they were Parisian ladies in the Palace of Versailles during the era of the French Revolution and stay in character for the duration of the class. Rosaline herself would be shouting out new developments in the scene and the girls were to go along with whatever Rosaline said.
Alice had chosen a pale pink dress with a ridiculously tiny waist and gigantic skirt. A slim corset practically suffocated her and she balanced carefully on a pair of the sky-high heels and extensions had been added to her shoulder-length hair which had been braided, twisted and coiffed up into an intricate twist with a hat decorated with ribbons balanced on top of it. All girls had been randomly chosen to play a role and Alice had scored the role of a French princess who was visiting her uncle who was the king. Her name would be Aurore Moreau, or Princess Aurore, as every else was to address her.
"Good afternoon Your Highness, how are you today?" a girl in a ice-blue gown and her blond hair piled up glided up to Alice and curtseyed to her.
"Perfectly fine, Mademoiselle Cristelle," she nodded to the girl, Sabrina Benson – who was currently known Cristelle Chevalier, a daughter of a French lord who was residing at court.
"Have you heard that the Lady Jacqueline has gotten married?" questioned Alice.
"Oh really! Isn't she dreadfully too old?" Sabrina replied in flawless French while her glossy mouth fell open in faux shock.
The girls flitted about, chatting aimlessly in accents as if they really were French nobility with their silk fans, ribboned hats and satin gowns. A hologram of the garden in the Versailles beamed around the studio turning the entire room into a full 3D scene. Rosaline, the muse, stood in the midst of it all, observing the girls, criticizing their facial expressions and correcting them on how to properly use the silk fans.
"Lovely posture, Sabrina," complimented Rosaline, whose gaze slid right past Alice.
Sabrina flashed a smirk at Alice and glided off to prattle on to Delphi Rivera who was currently known as Queen Genevieve or "Your Majesty."
"Quick girls! The king has just been assassinated by the Austrians!" Rosaline commanded.
Alice pulled a horrified and tearful expression on her face as she shook with sobs. Visualizing the time she precious dog had been run over by a car in front of her eyes, she summoned up the horror and devastation as her slim body shook with sobs. Here it was no different. After all, her beloved "uncle" had just been killed. She rushed through the garden and collapsed into an embrace with Marin Perez, who had gotten the role of Princess Émilie, the daughter of the king who had been "assassinated" and Alice's favorite "cousin."
"H-h-how could t-they?" wailed Marin "Princess Émilie" heartbreakingly as she clung on to Alice while they cried together. On the other side of the garden, Delphi "Queen Genevieve" had fainted away and her "ladies-in-waiting", Tammy and Penelope were kneeling and attempting to revive her. Around them, lords and ladies were whispering about the assassination with varying degrees of horror and shock. Alice gathered up her skirts and rushed towards Delphi who had managed to sit up, her hair messed up and her dress stained.
"Oh, Aurore," exclaimed Delphi as Alice approached, "You heard?"
"Mamá!" cried Marin who threw herself into Delphi's arms as "Queen" and "Princess" sobbed together.
"Cut!" shouted Rosaline. "Delphi, you're too dramatic, we want something real something we can sympathize with. Marin, you're talking like a girl from California in a cheap theater production. We are in France! You are a lady with class, with dignity! Alice, what have you been doing the entire day? Your emotion is as far off as Timbukto! We want the Princess Aurore, who's a rich, spoiled, vain girl with an uncle who had just died. She didn't care about her damn uncle, she wanted her father to get the throne. You should be secretly delighted! It should show! Instead, you're acting like Princess Émilie which is the part that Marin is supposed to be!"
Alice flushed with embarrassment as Rosaline shouted at the rest of the girls and silently spared Sabrina from her fury with a slight nod. Alice's marine blue eyes glimmered in anger and envy. Sabrina wasn't even half as good as her! She glared at the blonde who smiled smugly.
"Retake!" commanded Rosaline, "This time, Princess Aurore and Mademosielle Cristelle are conspiring to take down Princess Émilie and take the throne of France. I want a devious, manipulative plotter there, Alice!"
Alice nodded. She gathered up her skirts and glided away from Marin with disdain on her face while Marin assumed the position of a confused and wounded cousin. She swept over to Sabrina "Mademosielle Cristelle" and looked contemptuously and ordered, "Mademosielle Cristelle, yes? Come with me."
Sabrina curtseyed, "Of course, Your Highness and followed Alice obediently with a hint of anger on her face. Alice knew Sabrina hated that Alice had taken the part of a princess while she was stuck as a lowly daughter of a lord.
"What news have there been from Paris?" Alice asked in a stage-whispered to Sabrina.
"Rumors of the Queen's infidelity to the deceased King have been circling around court and rumors have even reached the fact that her lover had ordered the assassination on the king," answered Sabrina conspiratorially.
Alice's eyes gleamed. "Fuel the rumors, I want everyone to be suspicious of the Queen and excommunicate Émilie and the Queen in order for my father to take the throne." Alice's character, the devious Princess Aurore was cousins with the Princess Émilie who would inherit the throne while Aurore would always be destined to be a princess. With the king assassinated, Aurore was in the perfect place to throw suspicion on the queen and Émilie for them to be kicked out of France and for her to take Émilie's place as the new heir of the throne of France.
Alice had originally thought that Marin was better suited for the role of Aurore while Alice seemed more like a typical Émilie but Rosaline overruled that, saying that each actress must be well-rounded no matter what.
"Also, I wish to be introduced to the Prince Antoine at the Fall Banquet tonight," commanded Alice with a wicked smile playing on her ruby-red lips. She ran through the night she and her old best friend, Viola Bruno, had planned to get revenge on the "mean girl", Andrea Wilson for humiliating Alice a few days earlier. She pulled out the same malicious, devious and wicked smile on her face as her eyes gleamed maliciously. Actresses all need different sides to them and the ability to summon up those hidden personalities when need. A awkward, nerdy side. A mean, bitchy side. A devious, wicked side. A sweet, innocent side. A provocative, slutty side. All of the made up the best actresses in the world.
"And cut!" called out Rosaline. "Much better, Marin. Work on reality, Delphi. Excellent job, Sabrina." Rosaline's eyes slid right past Alice who merely stood there. Alice swallowed back the sadness, anger and fury that threatened to overwhelm her and headed towards the changing rooms to take off her ridiculous gown. Back in London, Alice had been the best no matter what. Now, she was simply shoved off to the side. Worst thing was, she had no friends in this class. It was filled with girls competing with each other. Alice had disliked Sabrina the second she walked in. Delphi wasn't much of "friend-material" and Marin had simply brushed Alice off and seemed like the stereotypical "cool and popular" girl as she chatted with a few other girls. Sabrina and Marin were both part of the Beyonce house while Alice knew that Delphi was with the Michelle Obamas.
"Girls! Once you have changed out of the French gowns, please put on the plain cotton dresses. You will all be factory workers during the Industrial Revolution, girls." Rosaline commanded.
Alice suppressed a groan as she slid the cheap, patched cotton dress on with a pair of scuffed brown shoes and headed out to survive another round of Rosaline's shouts and Sabrina's smugness.
X-X-X
The wind whipped Ali's ponytail around her face as she raced Eli around the track. Leaning forward she whispered, "Come on!" encouragingly to Eli. Her boots dug into the stirrups of saddle as Eli's hooves pounded through the Achilles Track. Eli had been Ali's horse and racing partner since she was 12, her father had owned a ranch in Kentucky at bred racing horses there and Ali had always grown up around horses. Her eyes were focused intently on the white strip at the end of the track, urging Eli forward.
A whistle sounded as Ali and Eli shot past the line. "Decent time," Vanessa said crisply while snapping her watch shut. Danielle the jockey muse, training girls to ride horses competitively and pushing them to faster speeds. Ali had the perfect build for a jockey, her slim frame looked perfectly at home on the back of a huge quarter horse. Female jockeys were extremely rare and suffered much doubt and criticism, something that Ali was dying to prove wrong. Ali had been kicking guys' butts while riding ever since she entered her first competition and her top wish was to become the best female jockey in history as well as beat every other jockey in the National American Championships when she was old enough to compete. Female jockeys were rare, a reason why there were only three girls in Ali's riding class.
Ali swung off of Eli and took a sip of water from her bottle of Evian that she set on the edge of the track. Andie and Rachel crossed the line at the same time a few seconds after Ali had finished. So far, none of the other alpha female jockeys had been able to top her time. A slight breeze ruffled her ponytail and Eli's mane. Her copper jodhpurs hugged her legs like an extra layer of skin and her silver tank top shimmered in the morning light.
"You're a really good rider," commented Andie, a girl with her chestnut hair twisted up into a messy bun. She led her horse, Showdown, over to the water trough. Her pure white Arabian horse was extremely rare, a sure sign that Andie was a serious competitive rider and that her parents had money – lots of it.
"Thanks!" answered Ali in slight shock while Andie gave her a smile.
"Good job, girls." Said Vanessa approvingly. Vanessa Campbell was the jockey muse, a woman who gave off the stern "no-nonsense" vibe, compelling Ali to stick to her best behavior and win Danielle's approval. Ali had learned from her aPod that Vanessa had ridden competitively in Australia, becoming the best rider in the country out of all the females and males. That was one of the reasons why Ali looked up to her. She had the skill, fearlessness and determination of an alpha jockey, something that Ali desperately wanted to be.
"Now, I want both you girls to beat that time by at least ten seconds," ordered Vanessa.
"Ten seconds?" Ali gasped in disbelief.
"That's impossible," agreed Rachel, who had pulled her blond curls back into to Heidi-chic braids. Ten seconds was a long time no matter how short it might sound. That would require pushing Ali and Eli's energy to the limit and Vanessa wanted it done now – a feat that might have taken Ali a few weeks to achieve.
"There is no "can't" or "impossible" in an Alpha," chastised Vanessa, "Now, on your horses and start on my whistle."
Ali and Andie exchanged a quick look before climbing onto their horses. Ali place her hands on the reins and swung herself up gracefully. She mastered the ability to mount a horse quickly and gracefully when she was twelve, no matter how big the horse might be.
Danielle's shrill whistle pierced the air as the three horses surged forward. Eli with Ali. Showdown with Andie and Princess with Rachel. Ali, Rachel and Andie started off next to each other, pacing themselves until the nose of Andie's snow-white horse, Showdown, began to inch forward.
"Easy, easy," Ali leaned into Eli and whispered encouragingly into his ear. She nudged him faster, increasing their speed gradually, pulling an inch ahead of Andie and a feat ahead of Rachel. She chanced a quick glance over at Andie while Eli and Showdown were practically nose-to-nose. Andie's eyes were narrowed in fierce concentration as she speeded ahead putting on the final burst at the end. Ali waited a few seconds, gradually increasing Eli's speed before shooting forward and breezed past Andie a full two seconds.
"You shaved off four seconds," stated Vanessa as Ali leaned forward and panted with exertion. "Impressive."
"Andie, you started Showdown too early, wait a few seconds," said Vanessa, "Otherwise, you'd burn Showdown out before reaching the line."
"Rachel, work on your stamina," advised Vanessa, "I'll arrange for a few extra sessions in the Atlanta Gym." She tapped in a few commands into aPod.
"Run a few laps around the track, girls," instructed Vanessa. The girls nodded and swung up on their horses and started off on a steady gallop around the lap. The breeze tousled Ali's ponytail playfully as they raced around the track.
Ever since she was little, Ali had loved riding. She was the girl who was unafraid to approach a huge horse and clambered on fearlessly while other girls hung back. She grew up on the ranch in Kentucky while her home was a paradise for horses. Clean-cut green fields, well-maintained racing tracks and filled with purebred horses. Although Ali had been riding since she was little, she was constantly overshadowed by her older brother, Christian, who also rode competitively. Ali had fallen from a horse a few years ago, making her overprotective father forbid her from riding ever again. Ali knew Christian had been secretly delighted by this, after all Christian would never achieve stardom and his fame unless his more talented little sister was out of the picture. Even though Ali was a full four years younger than Christian, she could still manage to beat his best time. While her father forbid her from racing and her mother wished she would become more girlish and express an interest in makeup and dresses, Ali snuck out countless times to practice with Eli. During the biggest race in Kentucky, Ali had secretly entered herself a beat the entire State and winning first before moving on to the Nationals and winning first place there, too. Her father had been furious with her, yelling at her for days until Ali escaped to Alpha Academy. Her father never believed that Ali had the ambition and potential to be a serious jockey, thinking that her obsessions with horses was just a phase and she wouldn't survive the harsh competition of the life of a female jockey. Well, she was going to prove him wrong.
She was born to be a jockey, no matter what every else said. She loved riding, she loved brushing Eli, she loved the feel of the wind through her hair was she raced and she loved homeliness of the stable and the whinnies of the horses. Being a jockey was something that Ali knew she was going to do, and nothing was going to stop her. Not an overprotective father, a disappointed mother, an envious brother or anything else in the world. Ali was going to become the best female jockey in the world and that was all there is to it. Alpha Academy was just a bridge spanning the distance between training and stardom while providing her with a few ambitious friends along the way and some hot Brazille boys to flirt with.
While she agreed with her bunkmate, Vivian, that the Brazille boys weren't worth getting kicked out of Alpha Academy, they had both agreed that a few harmless winks here and there wouldn't hurt. And besides, they were – as Vivian eloquently put it – "eye-candy". Ali smiled. Coming to Alpha Academy was one of the best things that ever happened to her, and she was going to achieve her goal as a jockey here. She urged Eli forward and continued to speed around the track with that thought in mind.
X-X-X
Vivian Dresden's whirled around on the ice, her new bronze skating dress hugging her figure tightly like an extra skin and showing off all her curves as she spun into a textbook-perfect layback spin. Music played through the rink as skaters spun, twirled, glided and jumped through different routines. Each girl had been given five minutes to choose a song and freestyle skate to it in front of the skating muse, Tori. Tori Carsen had been a singles skater and had won the gold in the Winter Olympics for five consecutive years before quitting the team and coming to Alpha Academy to train a new generation of skating stars. Vivian immediately admired her from her skating talent and business-like attitude. The five minutes were almost up and Vivian ran through a few combos before Tori cut the music abruptly.
"Vivian! Center ice," ordered Tori. Vivian nodded to the muse as she stuck a skate forward and glided smoothly into the center of the rink as the rest of the girls watched.
"What song?" asked Tori.
"Enchanted by Taylor Swift," answered Vivian with a slight smile. The song was a tribute to her Alpha House, Taylor Swift, and she had especially liked this song since it was released.
The first strains of the song floated through the rink as Taylor's clear voice filled the rink.
There I was again tonight,
Forcing laughter, faking smiles,
Same old tired, lonely place,
Vivian remembered the night of Lily Duncan's end-of-the-year party with her friends. She had gone to the formal party in her sparkling silver mini dress along with her besties and had expected an ordinary party as she greeted the elite of Colorado Springs and chatted with other girls. It was like that for all the parties that she went to. She didn't know much girls, seeing how she never went to school with them and the night was mainly composed to meeting new girls and being known as "that skater girl". She struck a pose to begin before stepping into a set of intricate steps and glided around the rink and skated a spread-eagle spin slowly, going with the slow tempo of the beginning. The bronze skating dress glinted in the lighting from the rink as sparkled as Vivian skated gracefully around the rink.
This night is sparkling,
Don't you let it go,
I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home,
I'll spin forever, wondering if you knew,
I was enchanted to meet you.
Memories of meeting sophomore, Luke Duncan – Lily's bother – ran through her mind. He had been something different than anyone else she had met. Being homeschooled and spending her entire life at the rink had given her zero opportunity for any potential relationships with boys and she had spent most of her life crush-less. After all, wasn't focusing on skating the most important thing in her life? She had been shy and blushing when she met him, developing her very first crush at that party. She channeled those emotions through herself as she increased the speed of her skating and leaped up into a triple axel that she perfected a few weeks before leaving Colorado for Alpha Academy. Imagining his smile, his wink and his laugh, Vivian put her entire self into the routine. She spun on her skates, remember how he spun her as they danced and her glossy lips curved up into a secretive smile. She leaped into the air with her legs in a textbook-perfect split midair and skated on.
This is me praying that this was the very first page,
Not where the story line ends,
My thoughts will echo your name until I see you again,
These are the words I held back as I was leaving too soon,
I was enchanted to meet you.
She launched into the main part of her routine and skated with her entire body, jumping into her highest jumps, whirling into her tightest spins and pulling up her arabesque into a perfectly straight 180 degree line. She had danced with Luke that night, spinning around with him, laughing and loosening up for one of the rarest times in her life. She remembered how she felt when the party was over, when she said bye. When she returned to her life of skates and ice and when she left Colorado completely for Alpha Academy. She had fallen in love with Luke for a brief night and it was over no matter how much she wished for it to continue. She skated a final triple toe loop and ended in her ending pose.
A beat of silence fell across the rink as Vivian waited for Tori's opinion.
"Thoughts, girls?"
"She had really good form," offered Suzanne, a blonde girl with her hair pulled up in a tight ponytail and wearing a white pearlescent skating dress, who stood besides Tori.
"Her jumps were good, too," added Dannie, a petite brunette in a silver skating dress and her chocolate brown hair straightened into a glossy blowout that extended an inch past her shoulders.
Tori nodded in agreement, "Yes, her form was fine but it was her style and spirit that I wanted you notice. All of you have come from the top skating schools and academys in the entire world but what Vivian has is her ability to connect with the song, to skate it – not with it. You need to skate the song, not with that song. Feel the music, be the music and skate it."
Her icy blue eyes rested on each girl in particular while a small smile crept up on Vivian's lips.
"Now think over your song girls, part of skating requires that you know the music, it's not just there for decoration. Pick a memory, an event, a moment, a feeling and skate it! Come on, Dannie – you're next."
Vivian skated off the center ice while Dannie skated forward and struck her pose. The first beats of Dannie's music filled the rink as the girls watched and evaluated.
Always been that kind of girl,
That hid my face,
So afraid to tell the world,
What I've got to say.
Vivian watched as Dannie skated while Demi's voice sang out clearly. Her mind wandered around and remembered her first skating performance. She had done her very first solo with the exact same song a few years back when she was still seven. Being out there on the ice alone had almost made Vivian paralyzed with fear but she skated it and hearing the same song again brought back an onslaught on memories. She had come so far, from the time when she was the size of an Oompa Loompa in her hot pink skating dress to now where she stood in a rink at Alpha Academy in her bronze skating dress. Thinking back to Colorado Springs Skating Center brought a strange wave of homesickness to Vivian. Remembering Andie, Meggie and Jamie made Vivian swallow back her homesickness. If she was still in Colorado, Meggie would be going through her excercises with the intensity and focus of a soldier while Andie would be throwing her golden blond waves back and flirting shamelessly with the newest skating instructor and Jamie would be ripping off her pointe shoes and complaining about how red they were. She missed them. She missed the skating girls who had been her only friends since she was four. She missed her mother who pushed to her succeed each and every day. She missed her glamorous sister, Karolyn, who would always comment on the hot hockey players and suggest that Vivian go out on dates with them.
Without her friends and sister besides her, Vivian felt strangely vulnerable in the world of Alpha Academy. She had never been afraid to approach guys, knowing that Andie was always right besides here, winking and smiling at them. She had never been intimated by other, older girls, knowing that no matter what, Meggie, Andie and Jamie would stick with her. Now, with everyone and everything Vivian knew hundreds of miles away, she would have to start over. Sure, she had played the part of the "pretty, cool, unfazed alpha skater" with her bunkmates but she doubted if she was actually going to become close friends with them. After all, they were all competing against each other and the phrase "every man for himself" had crossed Vivian's mind a few times.
But whatever happened, she would always come out on top. That was the way it was always was. Vivian Dresden never lost a competition and this was one competition she was determined to win. She flipped her dark glossy hair over her shoulder as Dannie finished skating and vowed to become the best skater and alpha Shira Brazille had ever seen.
Hey Meggie,
It's me, Vivian. Yeah, I know I can't send this notes to you guys but I'm writing just to keep myself from going crazy here. It's totally weird here, there's all this high-tech stuff and holograms and these girls that invent spaceships to the moon or something. I think that some girl was trying to invent a teleportation pod or something. So I skated today, you wouldn't believe it but the rink was a hundred times cooler and prettier than the rink we skated at during SummerSkate. And I'm rooming with four other girls and guess what? My house just happens to be your favorite singer! Yep, it's Taylor Swift. So far the girls are okay I guess. There's this girl who's like an artist and one of them is Summer Williams, you know that teen pop star singer chick? And there's an actress who's pretty cool, I guess. Alice Something. I think her last name started with a W? Whitney? White? I think that last girl is the coolest so far, her name's Ali and she's a horse girl. She races them like a…..what's the word? Jockey. So right now, I'm just sitting on my bed writing away in that purple notebook you gave me. Remember it? Something about keeping track of my Physics notes. Well, the muse, Ivory is psychic (Yeah, she actually is) so I'm just turning my light off and going to sleep. Day two of life at Alpha Academy is ready to begin. I miss all of you guys like crazy and tell Andie that I'm still betting that she and David are definitely going to Winter Formal together and tell Jamie that she needs to do something about that weird part in her bangs!
Love and hugs from your one and only bestie,
Vivian
So innocent, you can tell by the clothes,
College girl with a 4.0,
Good girl by day,
Damn who would have known?
Reviews are fabulous. Comments, suggestions and questions are all welcome.
Questions: 1) Name the two songs. The one at the beginning of the chapter and the end of the chapter. 2) What is the name of Reid's painting muse? First correct answers will get a short teaser….. (:
Next update: Saturday (Possibly, but if not it's going to be Friday)
-The Lovely Psyche