Dixiewinxwrites12- Thanks so much for the review and all of your support. You've really been awesome. Yes, her insecurities, I am trying to touch on a little. I feel like she's built on insecurity, being in hiding, but I'm hoping to find a place for her to break out, such as if the 'house' decides to sit in one of the watch boxes and see her during practice, and her finally getting over herself and wearing something that the rest of the girls wear (i.e. short shorts and a sports bra or dance bra). I like your page, I'm also in love with horses, but I feel it would be too much to have horses be something else she's really good at. I feel like I've stretched her 'ability?' already…
Guest- thanks for reassuring the fact that it wasn't 'short' it was actually, the shortest of all of the chapters so far, and even with all the beginning and after story commentary like this, it still had less words than every other chapter. Thanks for everyone's continuous support, but if you made an account, I could thank you personally! Haha, kidding. Thanks!
Hope06- thanks so much to start! Yeah, Lauren German went to a performing arts college I think, for dancing. Yep, just looked it up, Orange County High School of the Arts- so a high school- where she trained as a dancer. I thought it would be interesting to bring into her character. I'm so happy you all like this story, it makes me happy!
Anyway, I'm having trouble fitting Antonio into this because he isn't around a lot in the show, but that shouldn't matter because it's my story, and I haven't very well stayed with the plot line in the series. I'll try, but I might hit on the fact that he hasn't been there and bring that in as a conflict.
All of the things I set up as a warning in the first chapter and the summary, will get hit on soon, I mention her 'scarce' weight a lot, but I guess I mean fat content because she's really strong and a really amazing performer and 'gymnast'. I'm going to try to direct you to a few videos to let you get the feel of what she's like. Some of them will be older people, but I want to portray her like… super. And I know not everyone likes that but oh well, suck it. It's my story.
Anyway, this is the longest so far! 3,000+ words without this intro!
Abby took one last, long look at Emily's sisters before a wide, toothy grin splayed itself across her features, "I know who you are!" she said to them, and Shay looked up at her, "Leslie Elizabeth Shay!"
Her face had a quick moment to go bright red before she said three words, "Hello Ms. Abby."
Emily shot confused glances between Shay and her teacher, nervous, confused, dumbstruck looks that could only be explained by one of them. There seemed to be a sort of connection, something Emily couldn't explain. It was tense, the thin line replacing Shay's mouth made that quite obvious. The awkward, half-cheery smile Abby held felt a little creepy, but it seemed like she was expecting something, maybe a different reaction or for the flushed blond woman to say something else besides 'hello' in a sort of angry tone. Neither face the two women wore disappeared, they were plastered, seemingly in cement before Abby decided she might speak.
"How are you?" Abby asked, the smile not fading, her eyebrow twitching slightly though.
Shay nodded, "Good, I'm uh, I'm good. Y-You? You're um, you're good?" she sighed, closed her eyes and inhaled, returning her hands to their pockets, shrugging her shoulders to her ears and looking up to face her former dance teacher.
"Yeah" Abby replied, "I'm doing well, kids on Broadway, Cirque, you know… all the places you could be if you wanted" The look finally wore away, and she shrugged, giving Shay the face and waiting expectantly for an answer.
"Yes, but my decision to stop wasn't made up by my own free mind. You know exactly what happened, and not now, here, nor is ever or anywhere, a place to bring up such a topic to rehash. But now I'm successful, I have purpose, I save lives and I have an amazing family." She bit back, her shoulders dropping from their almost innocent, retreating position and her arms unfolding to cross over her chest in a stance that said, 'I'm not backing down'.
Abby put up her hands in mock surrender, shrugged, and turned back to her dance team. "Haley, sorry babe, but you're kind of a bystander here, you're too young to compete and it would be too many girls"
"I know" Haley responded cheerfully, playing with a pom-pom attached to her dance top.
"Seth, you're my first choice for a male lead in any group number, but we won't need you this week, and I'm sorry about the duet with Emily, but I need her to help teach Tyler, and I need her to branch out." She turned to Emily, "I know you don't want to do the duet with him, I know you don't like him, but we'll keep working and you guys will get it. I need you to succeed, I need you to be able to dance with difficult-to-work-with people, and it's part of the training." Abby finished.
It was Seth's turn to speak up on behalf of Emily, "Yeah, I know Abby, but Tyler is hurting her, he drops her on purpose and her hip and her shoulder is only going to get worse, she can't deal with being out of dance again for too long. You aren't only jeopardizing your name, our name, and everyone's reputation, you are putting her health on the line and that isn't okay." His voice began to grow and he finished with a huff.
He was right, but Emily's sisters were in the room, they didn't know any of this, this was all new and a lot to take in and now they know their baby is being put in pain. Emily, head down at the floor, looked out of the corner of her eye to see Gabriela, face nearly flushed, staring at Emily, now looking very concerned.
Everything was interrupted when a voice filtered through the radio on the paramedic's shoulders, "house fire 2057 Englewood road…" it trailed as the two dashed out of the room, leaving Emily, confused and embarrassed, alone, even though alone is how she wanted it. She didn't want to be watched, especially by her sister, or her partner. They were so in the dark, she was always in the shadow, but when things are thought about, they were all in the shadows that ruled over the earth, the shadows of each other's glory
Twodayslater-twodayslater-twodayslater-twodayslate r-twodayslater-twodayslater-twodayslater
It was fourth period AP Government and Politics when the semi crashed the ambo.
School was a hellhole already. That much was an obvious fact. Being one of two 13 year olds in a sophomore class is a little intimidating; even more so if you live at the bottom of the food chain. Things were difficult; no doubt, being in the top ten of a team of fifty track runners didn't help-it made things worse because no one saw her as one of the best and helping the school. She was a target; Emily Dawson was a petite, underdeveloped preteen who had stolen a role that belonged to a deserving senior. When you add in a skip-to-the-top in the dance classes, being an AP student only added to the teasing that was her living hell.
There was no niche for this tiny girl of 4'3 ½". She hung with the foster kids, the two given up and passed around like a ketchup bottle. Seth wasn't a condiment; they didn't chew him up and spit him out. It's the way the foster care system worked-you were passed around until you were of age or adopted. But he did get adopted; it's the thing people didn't want to see because it gave them less material. Not only did he get adopted, he got to go with his biological sister, whom he cares for with all his might. Alexx however, was unsuccessful with her bid against the foster care system, but she was close to getting out. She loved both Seth and Haley, and did everything she could for them. She loved Emily, frequently being the provider of a ride to and from the dance studio for the two young teens. It was Alexx who dropped Haley off when Gaby and Shay finally met the most successful and hardworking monster of monsters-Abby Miller.
Emily Dawson was a thief in the eyes of Jordan High School. She was a low-life and miserable and high school was exactly the way it was portrayed in the movies and the television shows. Everyone was a bitch; everyone was an annoying, stuck-up, two-faced bitch. The teasing was exactly the way they show in the movies: cruel, unusual, petty, and haughty. The world thinks no high school is like that-they're wrong. But Emily wasn't just a title thief in the eyes of the bitches who come up with the material; she was another kind of thief-one much worse than just stealing a school title. Emily Rose Dawson was a killer, a murderer; she stole the lives of her parents because she was in the backseat at five years old, on the way to her dance recital. Emily didn't even know the meaning of death then; it meant someone went away, she didn't know it meant they had died, they weren't breathing, that they were in the ground. Emily didn't know that it specifically meant that you were put in a box and put six feet in the ground where the animals can't find you and the bugs can't eat you. You simply went away.
Emily gets more grief for pulling a wolf through the school. Everyone knows what she's for. The school literally did an assembly-unnecessary, yes-to explain to the school of the unusual girl that would soon be roaming the halls. The assembly said no more than that she was young and that she and the dog were not to be separated- the dog was there for emergency purposes, due to reasons that cannot be released to the school. But that's when people utilized Google to look up this unsightly mystery soon to be walking the campus and attending classes. That is how the pit-life of Emily Dawson began at Jordan High School, a crash, the media, an assembly, and a search engine.
AP government was an ok class. It was her lowest grade on the brink of a C at 85, and it would either stay that way or get better. It was then that the school got the call. Emily's sisters had been involved in a crash, a bad crash, and they were now on the way to the hospital. They were told to be on the lookout for a large red fire engine and a horde of firemen running through the building to collect this little thing that some saw as more than just a sister and more like a daughter. That call meant keep her on the outside, don't tell her anything, but make sure she's getting ready to leave by the time the engine roared up to the front of the school.
She caught her teacher's weary eyes after the phone rang and he was speaking to the person on the other line, "Yes… oh dear… my goodness… no I won't… let me know… that's fine… thank you…" the call ended and he threw her a look, that she managed to catch as she dropped her pencil to grab the sides of her table to twist and crack her back. She sent him a questioning glance in return, seeing the sorrow building behind a barely-there front. Her breath hitched once, his staring was making her nervous, but she didn't know what was wrong. Basil sensed the tension rising in her owner's chest. She sat up, only making things worse and whined, resting her muzzle on the girl's gray desk. It caught the attention of everyone in the classroom, them all looking up to turn her was at the high pitched distress call that had been made by only one thing in the room. Emily looked to Alexx for help, her eyes a mixture of fear and worry. Alexx's dark brown orbs widened, her hair falling into her face as she mouthed the word "breathe" to Emily.
She managed to calm, her breathing evened out and the wolf flopped back to the floor under her chair. She snuck another nervous glance at Alexx, hoping it would calm her nerves. Alexx looked over at the same time Emily did and mouthed "It's okay" to her before nodding and looking back down at her work to finish. She still wasn't all the way calm, and her teacher wouldn't stop looking up at her, almost as if checking on her every so few seconds. She could feel it. It was in her brain, fire in her stomach, igniting the fuel in her gut that told her something was wrong.
That's when her legs began to ache. That feeling of losing hope and things begin to go south. The jagged scar going down each of her legs began to burn, dull and achy. They were from the surgeries directly after the crash. They used to be prone to infections, which is why they hadn't gone away and the tissue died and remained. Now they ache with the feeling of something bad. Nervous? Achy scars. Sad? Achy scars. Terrified or scared to death? Achy scars. Even with the treatment to make them go away, the ache would never go away, she'd never be confident. She'd never feel ok. She'd never have that.
And then the call came over the intercom, "Could you send Emily Dawson to the front office to sign-HEY!" they heard before it cut off.
-Firemen-firemen-firemen-firemen-firemen-firemen-f iremen-firemen-firemen-firemen-firemen-
Cruz drove with lights and sirens, faster than he needed to, faster, sometimes, than he did when there was an actual fire. But sometimes they already knew that no one was inside a place during a fire. It made him think about how fast he drives-maybe this will be normal speed from now on: faster than before. But this wasn't a fire. This was Emily. Little Emily, little sister, little girl, the baby, the play-thing, the daughter in some cases. He wasn't about to let her agonize over what she didn't know, he couldn't let it happen. He couldn't let it happen that she wasn't there. She'd shoot herself if she wasn't there while Shay and her sister were in the hospital.
"Cruz" Casey called to get his attention, "Turn off the sirens as we get close, especially before turning in so we don't freak her out. There obviously isn't a fire."
"Right lieutenant, got it" he replied over his shoulder, pulling through an abandoned warehouse compound and killing the sirens so they didn't just randomly kill the sirens in the middle of the street. It was also a known shortcut to the school, and there were police there every so often to make sure no one was skipping or selling around in the abandoned parking lots. Cruz pulled into the school parking lot, turned the truck parallel to the front of the building and slammed it into park.
Matt, Kelly, Peter, and Hermann all got out, the only men actually in the truck, and Cruz sat, the truck idling in park because he knew better than to turn it off. When they came barreling back through those doors, he'd definitely get slapped over the head if the truck wasn't in drive and ready to smoke back through the parking lot to get to the hospital. Hermann stayed at the door, waiting for them to get back with the teenager so there was nothing in their paths to stop them from getting to the hospital as fast as they could.
The three firefighters burst through the front door of the school, nearly knocking over a custodian as they did. The door was an extra five pounds per square inch away from being pulled off the hinges when they yanked it open to sign her out. "Casey!" Kelly yelled,"Sign her out, Mills you get Emily, I'll get her stuff" he finished.
"Emily, Emily Dawson" Peter said, almost on the other side of the reception counter he was leaning over. He was anxious. It was his girlfriend in the hospital and her sister that he had to pick up from school and tell the bad news to; this wasn't a fun day so far. At all.
"Room 203, but you can't go up there, wait for her." She said, picking up the phone, "Could you send Emily Dawson to the main office to sign- hey!" she yelled, slamming the phone down as Kelly grabbed Peter by the arm and dragged him out of the office and towards the stairs. They took them two at a time, reaching the top in a matter of seconds, taking off down the hallway and each taking a side to locate the room to run into to retrieve the girl. They found it and nearly took it down.
Emily was standing next to her chair now, her book-bag on it, putting her things neatly in order where they belonged. The door flew open, Alexx stood, Basil barked and Emily's heart nearly stopped. Emily whirled to see her sister's boyfriend already making his way towards her, the lieutenant close behind. They looked determined, they look like they had a mission; they almost looked ready for bloodshed .Kelly grabbed the binder on her desk and shoved it into her bag without saying anything, then a folder, a textbook, extra paper.
Peter grabbed her by the hand, "What's going on?" she screamed, flashing a horrified look at Alexx, who was haphazardly throwing things into her own bag and watching to make sure they didn't accidentally hurt her. Basil growled deep in her throat and almost let an instinctual bark to make them lighten up. It didn't work. They ignored her. They were used to it. Peter pulled Emily through the row of chairs. She struggled to keep up, pull out of his grasp and make it over the bags that were now magically lying in the middle of the aisle. He yanked a little too hard and she toppled over a lacrosse bag, falling harshly to her hip on the tile that made up the floor.
Peter whirled around, face apologetic and squatted to pull her up. Though feeling reluctant, her body betrayed her and let him do it. She didn't want to be a child. She didn't want to be a child when she didn't know what was happening and when there were so many of the bullies watching her intently to see what was going to happen. The teacher could only watch, dumbstruck, as the firefighters pulled his student from the classroom, another one wordlessly following without permission. Instinctively, Emily's thin legs wrapped around Peter's waist, her arms around his neck because it was natural for her to do that when the men were rushing, especially when there was a call.
"What's happening?!" she screamed again, clutching Peter's collar, trying to drown out the laughter of her peers as she acted like a baby in front of them. Her eyes welled with tears, hoping that Alexx's stride would pick up and she would be magically holding Emily's hand, offering up her silent comfort. But instead she went the other way, in the direction of Seth's fourth period class. She was going to get him, get their sister and go wherever Emily was going. Emily knew that, and it calmed her. They nearly tumbled down the stairs, and she didn't have it in her anymore to scream. Her heart began to flutter, her chest began to heave and her breaths began to hitch. The wolf began to whine, both their eyes deepening in color with the fear building in their bodies.
Hermann pushed through the front door as soon as he saw them, holding it for them to storm through at a walk. The first time they'd walked since they heard about the accident and decided to grab Emily. He ran ahead, pulling open the door to the truck for them to clamber into and pulled the door shut as he jumped in.
And then it was lights and sirens and Emily just knew that this couldn't be good.