I Believe in You
Snowstorm xD
From the moment the twins Reagan and Madison were born, they had their lives planned out for them. Both wore matching purple tracksuits. Both were destined to play strong, aggressive sports. Both were supposed to be competitive, powerful.
Both were supposed to be proper Tomas.
Madison had no trouble with the future she had been set up for. She was the stronger twin, the more aggressive and ruthless one. She thought of her sister as a pansy, as Reagan often tried to stay away from violence, opting for half-hearted insults.
Madison was the competitive one. It was known by everyone who knew them. It was always, always Madison first, Reagan second. Swimming competitions, running races, cross countries. It didn't really bother Reagan at first, but when people just forgot about how she was good at sport too, she felt a bit overshadowed.
She didn't really like that feeling all too much, either.
For Reagan, ballet was an escape for the unwanted complications in her life. When she danced, she could just let herself be free and forget about it all.
She'd never tell, but when she was young, Reagan had always thought of becoming a ballet dancer.
She had always become transfixed as she watched the beautiful figures begin their enchanting dance on the television. They were so elegant and graceful that from the moment she'd laid her eyes on them, five-year old Reagan had decided that she wanted to be on a stage like that too.
She wanted to be seen as beautiful, too.
"Reagan! Are you watching this?" scorned Hamilton as he sat heavily on the couch and snatched the remote from Reagan.
"No," the little girl in question denied, wrinkling her nose in an attempt to create a look of disgust. "I was going to switch it, dummy."
"Good. Look at the little prissy dancers prancing around on the stage," Hamilton mocked the ballet dancers, snorting. "It isn't even a sport."
Reagan nodded furiously, until her older brother turned away in satisfaction and switched the channel.
He didn't see her sigh and creep away in disappointment.
Reagan preferred to stay away from her siblings in school. They were known as aggressive bullies and such, which she didn't want to be labeled as at all. So instead of joining them, she stayed alone, glancing longingly at the many groups of friends that sat around the playground.
Until she met Johnny.
Johnny was a little guy with brown hair and bright emerald eyes that twinkled as if he knew something you didn't. He looked like one of those people that were always happy. He was one of those people that were always happy.
"Why are you sitting alone?" he asked when he looked down at the quiet girl nibbling on her sandwich.
"I don't have anyone to sit with," she admitted, after glancing up at the guy, who she decided she liked.
"Come sit with me!" Johnny exclaimed, and held out a hand.
"Really?" Reagan asked, her lips curving upwards in a bright smile.
"Yeah, of course."
And so Reagan reached her hand out and clasped the offered one, walking away with him.
"Do they still hate ballet?" Johnny asked as he kicked around his soccer ball.
They were at school, in lunch, and Reagan was telling him what had happened over the weekend.
"Yeah," Reagan sighed. "I don't know why. They said it's not a real sport. Why isn't it a real sport, Johnny?"
"I don't know," he answered, just as confused as Reagan. "Don't your parents just want you to do what you want?" he asked curiously, dark green eyes blinking adorably.
Reagan shook her head and aimed a kick back at Johnny. "I have to be sporty and train, like the rest of my family."
"Oh."
Johnny and Reagan had drifted apart in their later years.
Reagan had taken to following her other two siblings around, acting like them, talking like them, just being like them in general. Johnny, after accusing his best friend of doing that, had only gotten a shrug in reply.
"You can't just let them control you," he'd insisted. "What about ballet?"
"I'll never become a dancer, Johnny."
"Only because you don't believe it," he'd replied, disappointed in her lack of spirit.
Reagan had once again shrugged in response.
Johnny was the reason Reagan became a dancer in the end.
He'd believed in her, and that was what led her to believe in herself, and stand up to her family, telling them what her real dream was.
Reagan was grateful for that, so much that her gratitude could not be expressed in words. Not by her, anyway. Never by her. She'd thought of approaching him one day to thank him, but she didn't really know where he was since he'd moved, and even so, he probably didn't remember her.
The only thing she had as a reminder of her childhood years with Johnny was a small metal clump.
"Do you like it? It came all the way from China." Johnny declared as he picked up the small metal mammoth from the mantelpiece above the fireplace and passed it to Reagan.
"What is it? Looks like an elephant," Reagan commented as she examined it closely, tracing her finger among the tusks. "Did you go to China?" she asked, puzzled.
"No, silly, it says so on the bottom," he said, turning it over and pointing to the 'MADE IN CHINA' sticker. "And it's a mammoth."
"What's that?" Reagan questioned.
"It's sort of like an elephant. There aren't any of them left in the world now 'cause they're ec-ectink, or something," Johnny said, pronouncing 'extinct' wrongly. "Everyone says they're really scary, but I think they only look it."
"That's like Hammy," Reagan giggled, and Johnny joined in.
"Oh!" Reagan exclaimed as her grip on the mammoth loosened and it fell into the roaring fire.
"I think it's melting," Johnny said in fascination, and they watched as the mammoth got reduced to a little clump. "Come on Rea, let's go to my room."
But Reagan, silly, sentimental Reagan, reached down into the hot flames and picked up the scorching clump, dropping it on the cold, marble floor to cool. I'll pick it up later, she promised herself, and ran off to where Johnny stood impatiently by his room.
"What were you doing?" he asked, opening the door.
"Nothing," Reagan said. "Doesn't matter."
The melody playing from the stereo was beautiful, and Reagan felt peaceful as the silence stretched on, marred only by the music. Closing her eyes, she felt herself relax, and listened intently to the music.
Soon, she opened them and let herself free with the melody, going over the routine playing in her mind, one she had been practicing for so long that the moves came as second nature.
As she danced in her leotard, tutu and ballet shoes, with her hair in a bun exposing her graceful neck and looking like the ballet dancers on television she had wanted so much to be, she felt free.
She felt beautiful.
"You'll come back for me, right? Just before my lesson ends?" his little sister's hand tugged on his sleeve, and her eyes, so much like his, displayed her nervousness.
"Of course, Dana. Don't worry, you'll knock 'em out," he assured her and tousled her hair.
"Do you think I'll ever become a ballerina?" Dana asked, clinging onto his arm.
"Credo in te," Johnny replied. "I believe in you. And if you believe in yourself, too, you bet you can."
After he had dropped her off, he walked down the hallway, past many windows, when his eye caught sight of a girl, around his age, dancing ballet. The recognizable figure moved with the elegance of a swan, confident in her abilities.
Curious, he moved towards the room, pushing the open door a little wider. He watched her dance, enchanted by her grace when the truth of her identity hit him.
"Reagan?"
The dancer froze in her step. "Who is it? I don't need someone to interrupt me a—" As she turned around, her voice faltered and she blinked at the somehow familiar guy standing near the door. When their gazes met, her eyes widened, and a whisper left her lips.
"Johnny..."
*insert ending of choice* ^^
Don't ask me why I just left it at that. It just felt right.
So this is for Syberian Quest's Challenge on The Madrigals Forum, and it was actually written quite some time ago. As in, last year. As in mid-last year. Which explains why it's not so good. Or at all good. I don't even think I wanted to post it back then… But I found it and thought, oh why not?
So here it is. And it's not beta-ed. So I'm sorry if your eyes are burning. ^^ But hey, you can help me improve by reviewing. *nudgenudgewinkwink*
~Snow.