Half of My Heart ✔️

59 | the perfect balance

I carefully drag the eyeliner across the little girl's cheek. "Stay still," I remind her, finishing off the last of her whiskers. "There. Who's next?"

"Thank you!" Eliana says, getting up off the chair and going to sit with the other girls. I look around, seeing fifteen little mice all with perfectly-drawn whiskers and cute little buns. I just spent the last hour making sure they look cute as can be for their dance, I think I'm finally done.

"You all look adorable," I gush, clapping my hands together and looking at them all. We're waiting in a dressing room for our call backstage. "You guys are gonna do great."

I feel a tug on the leg of my full body suit. I'm the cat to their mice, and my costume consists of a black and brown full-body leotard, a black tutu, and black cat ears. I look down to see Nina with her lower lip popping out, looking up at me with sad eyes.

"Ms. Scarlett?"

I kneel down so I'm eye-level with her. "Are you okay, Nina?"

She looks around. "I'm nervous," she whispers. "I'm afraid of forgetting my moves. I don't want everyone to see me."

Her bottom lip starts to wobble, and I pull her into a hug. "You're going to dance perfectly today," I assure her, placing my hands comfortingly on her shoulders. "And if you forget your moves, I'll be right there beside you, and you can just watch me."

She doesn't look convinced. I move a stray hair back into her tiny bun. "You know, when I was six, just like you, I would get nervous too," I admit.

Her eyes widen. "You did?"

I nod. "I did." And honestly, it only made me more nervous to see Dani, who was so much younger than me, not feeling a single ounce of nervousness. "I was scared of forgetting my moves too."

"So what did you do?"

"Don't tell your mom I told you this, but I would imagine everyone in their underwear. That would make me less nervous." She giggles. "Also, when you're on stage, the lights are so bright that you can't even see the audience. So you can just pretend that you're dancing alone. Or in our dance studio."

She smiles. "Really?"

I hug her again, glad that I could make her feel better. "Really." She doesn't want to seem to let go of me, so I eventually have to pry myself out of her tiny arms. "Alright, I'll see you backstage. Kristen's mom will stay here with you all while I go set up the stage for you, okay?"

Nina nods reluctantly then goes to sit back down with the other girls. I give Kristen's mom a rundown of when to bring the girls to the stage wings and how to organize them before I get there. Then I leave the room with my bag to set up the music for their dance.

I walk down the empty backstage hallways of the performing. All the other dancers are tucked inside their own dressing rooms, getting ready, and the teachers don't want any dancers running around when it's not their time, so it's eerily quiet as I make my way to the right wing.

It's chaos back there, with three different dance classes lining up in order. I have to weave my way toward an empty corner to drop my bag. I start searching through it for the CD with the dance music burned onto it, but in the midst of my search, I curse myself when I realize that I left my phone back in the dressing room.