College Relationships

The Very First College Ballet Competition

The more my relationship with Charlotte continued, the more I learned about her. I already knew she was amazing and talented at a lot of stuff, including selling clothes at the clothes shops, cheerleading and doing water sports among them, but the one thing she amazed me the most was her ballet skills.

One of the majors Charlotte was studying at college was ballet. I couldn't go to see her rehearse during the ballet rehearsals and neither could anyone who wasn't a ballet or instructor on the major because the rehearsals were always taken very seriously and couldn't be distracted from them. However, when she rehearsed on her own to keep her skills up, she showed me everything she could do and she always impressed me with her incredible skills. She showed me that she could do all kinds of ballet, including classical ballet, romantic ballet, neoclassical ballet and contemporary ballet. I once tried to help her during a rehearsal of her own, but I really struggled to keep up with it.

I would also see Charlotte do her ballet skills when she did ballet shows with the rest of the ballet students, which was the only way I and other people weren't involved with the ballet major could watch them. Last year, when I was just her friend, she and the ballet students did Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and she played the role of Princess Odette. I've never been into ballet myself, but because Charlotte was a very good friend to me and she was very skilled and passionate about it and because she was a fan of me at the College X Games and she attended every one I did, I felt that I should go and see her do one of her shows. When I did go to see her, I didn't regret it at all because she was very good in it.

This year, the college ballet did another Tchaikovsky classic ballet, The Nutcracker, and this time Charlotte played the role of Clara and she was very good in this one as well. The more she did it, the more I admired her for her skills and dedication to it and the more I felt like she was going to be a great ballet dancer and could have a great ballet career, including joining the American Ballet Theatre or the New York City Ballet and starring in ballet shows and winning ballet competitions among every achievement a great ballet dancer could ever achieve.

Soon, there was a ballet competition that Charlotte had to do. It was called the USA College Ballet Competition. It was the very first one, like the College Water Sports Competition Charlotte and I and our friends did only a few weeks ago, and it was going to take place in a Broadway theatre in New York City. There were about thirty colleges and universities that had been accepted into the competition and Charlotte was chosen to represent Spoonerville College. She had to go alone with her other fellow college ballet dancers because this competition only allowed one ballet student from each college, but that didn't mean I couldn't go to New York and watch and support her. And her parents went too and so did the ballet instructor, Mrs. Turnout.

An hour before the show started, I went to see Charlotte backstage and she was in full costume and she was doing her stretches. Although she was glad that she was chosen to represent Spoonerville College in this very first college ballet competition and that her parents and I were here to support her, she was very nervous and worried. She had done many ballet competitions against other ballet dancers from different colleges and universities before and she had won most of them, but when she did those, she did them with her ballet friends from Spoonerville College. This was the first time she had to take part in a ballet competition all on her own and she kept thinking she couldn't do it. As if that wasn't enough, the other ballet dancers she was competing against came from most expensive and better colleges than Spoonerville. When she saw them stretch and rehearse, she already felt she lost the competition. And even their outfits and makeups looked better than hers. Even though she looked very beautiful in her dark green platter tutu and green ballet slippers, she felt she was a tramp and the other competitors were like goddesses of beauty. And she couldn't get all the judges – who were top ballet critics, instructors from professional ballet schools and former professional ballet dancers, whom I never heard off and I still can't remember their names – out of her head at all.

"Charlotte, you're very nervous, I get it," I said to her. "I get that feeling every time I do the College X Games, the drama shows, the football games and everything, but I just focus on doing them and that's how I get everything. And I know if you focus on this ballet competition, you will do very well.

"I have watched you do ballet ever since you first showed me last year. And I know that you a very beautiful and talented lady. All those other ballet dancers you're going against on stage – I don't know half of ballet as much as you do, but from what I've seen so far, they don't seem to have half as much talent as you do. To my judgement, they think that wearing the most expensive clothes and makeup is all they need to win this thing. But this isn't a beauty competition, it's a ballet one – that requires a lot of skills, which I know you have. So, even if you don't win this competition, you'll still feel good about tonight knowing you gave it your all and that you will have given the audience – all these ballet fans and experts – what they want."

Charlotte started to feel more confident about the competition. "Thanks, Max. Your words really helped me."

"Good. Well, I better go take my seat." I kissed her on the cheek before I headed out. "Break a leg."

"Thanks, Max."

Then I sat in my seat, next to Charlotte's parents. We chatted a lot. They told me how much Charlotte spoke highly of me and I told them that she was a truly special incredible lady and I told them that she spoke highly of them as well. Then Mrs. Turnout took her seat next to us and then the competition began.

The competition started with the classical ballet challenge. When that was over, I could see Charlotte was relieved that she wasn't one of the bottom ten out who lost the challenge and had to leave immediately. Then it was time for the romantic ballet challenge and she managed to stay in the top ten. I could see that she was getting very worried, but she was still focused and doing very well. Then came the neoclassical ballet challenge and Charlotte managed to stay in the top five. Then came the final challenge – the contemporary ballet and Charlotte had to compete against four ballet dancers and they were all very good, but not as good as Charlotte because she beat them all. She won the whole competition and was awarded the platinum medal with a blue ribbon. I couldn't remember which colleges won the gold, silver or bronze medals, but I didn't care. My girlfriend won the very first USA College Ballet Competition and I was so proud of her. And when I went to congratulate her along with her parents and her ballet instructor, she told me that it was my words of motivation before the competition started and me watching her in the auditorium that encouraged her to get through it, as well as her skills and Mrs. Turnout's excellent teaching and her parents' wonderful support.

Then we all went back to the hotel room. Charlotte was exhausted, but not so much to have sex with me – which she insisted, not me – so we did. We didn't have naked sex, we just stayed in our underwear and kissed each other in bed. And the next day, Charlotte and I with her parents explored New York City before we had to go back to Spoonerville College.