"WHEN THE WORLD AROUND YOU IS BURNING, LOOK AT THE STARS."
Transfer student Minni Lee has a premonition. Not all is right at Newhurst University. Between a hateful blog post and the strange death of campus mean girl, Somin, exists a tangled mystery...
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MINNI HAD GROWN WINGS.
She was flying, light as a feather on air, as she twirled excitedly en pointe around the empty dance studio. The music intertwining with the beat of her heart and the quiet thump of her shoes on the floor.
Here, she could be anything–a mythical being, a young woman pining for her lover from beyond the grave, a loud soul–with just a few careful moves of her arms and legs. In her daily life, she was quiet and small, in the way that society had expected her to be. She did not know how to break out of that box.
For this, she blamed her mother. Yes, her mother, with her unique penchant for manners and tradition. Under her roof, to be a girl and anything other than demure and quiet was to be shameful. The rule was to speak only when spoken to, and listen only where your ears were concerned.
Ballet was Minni's silent rebellion since childhood. With dance, she could speak without words, without permission. She could scream without a voice.
There, in her ballet leotard and pointe shoes, she was more than the flawed daughter or imperfect student. She just was. In the same way the stars just are.
She gave another pirouette in front of the mirror, the echo of her steps syncing with her heartbeat.
It sucked, but the emotional shock from her argument with Kevin had finally enabled her to focus on dance alone. Because to focus on anything else would mean reliving the pain on his face and the whispered reminders of a dancer's life cut short. And who wants that?
As she practiced alone in the dance studio, Dufort's harsh critiques played on repeat until she finally did the number perfectly. She made it through Giselle's hops en pointe, stuck the landing, spun perfectly, and maintained her balance, hands neat and elegant all the while.
She bowed as she settled into the ending pose. If she could manage to keep this up, maybe she could actually be cast as Giselle. Maybe she could prove herself to the world that seemed dead set on shutting her out.
A proud smile split her lips, chest heaving. Her eyes slowly trailed upward from the creases in her ballet shoes to her form in the mirror. She pushed an errant curl that escaped her bun out of her face, vision slowly clearing.
Her smile shattered instantly. The shadows in the hallway were not flat. Slow claps sounded behind her from the darkness, the echo a warning alone.
She spun around quickly, nearly jumping out of her skin.
A face and body came into focus, the glint of pristine teeth lighting up the dark.
