Atlas Grove, once a dancer with dreams of dancing under the stars, now lives petrified in the shadows of abuse. To escape her living nightmare she must keep her head down and work hard, being her senior year this is her last chance to get out. Altho...
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I was just finishing a late-night practice when I saw her.
I'd been the last to leave thinking I'd swing by the studio on the way out, just to...peek my head in. It was a long shot she'd been in here considering she's been awol for the last five days and she's avoided cheer practice and seemingly us all day.
I've been lingering by the door watching her silently. Ethan said he saw her earlier at her locker but she looked really spaced out and ran away when she felt him approaching. All our numbers are blocked from her phone and when I went to talk to someone in the main office about her they looked at me like I was fucking crazy and told me she was sick... but it's more than that... it has to be.
She looks tired and distant. Her small frame looks even tinier, slightly hunched over and unsure of itself. She's working on a new dance... one I've never seen before. Filled with pain and desperation but every time she moves her face scrunches in pain, the movements ever so desperate and raw, it's frightening to see her move in such a way. Her dancing has always been so emotional but this is... unlike anything else. It's unhinged and dangerous. Her blonde hair waves around her face which she's purposely left untied to shield her face.
She doesn't look like my Blondie. All the confidence she's gradually been building up over the past few months is diminished. It's distressing to watch. Her face is drained of its usual rosiness and her eyes look bleak, she doesn't look like my colourful butterfly. There's not even a clip or a bow in her hair. She looks so empty, my chest feels even heavier watching her.
If she's just been sick... why has she been avoiding us all? Because of our... moment?
It's something more.
She walks over to the speaker breathing in short breaths, I watch quietly knowing she's about to run through her full routine and there's a lot you can learn from Atlas when she dances. She wears her emotions on her feet and so far it's been nothing short of upsetting.
She moves into the middle of the room and as the music starts she throws off her hoodie which was covering a majority of her body. She starts to dance and she's flying through the air. Flipping and crashing to the floor with such power but her face is pained and hurt. Her arms stretch out like she's trying to grab something and her body writhes on the floor, it looks beautiful but the intensity of it scares me.
Her turns are picturesque, done with such force she could start a mini hurricane and her acrobatic tricks are flawless, they're in time and tight. Her legs straight and strong. She amazes me every day with what she produces. She is the most beautiful person I've met, hands down. She owns the floor and really does fly through the air like a godamn butterfly.
Her routine comes to the end and she drops to the floor like all her energy has disappeared, curls up in a ball, hunched over her knees. Her hair is all pushed around the front of her face so her back is on full display with only the exception of a sports bra.
