𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄́ ─ 𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐛𝐲 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐞

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞

OVER THE COURSE OF A WEEK, MARISSA'S LIFE HAD TURNED COMPLETELY UPSIDEDOWN. So much has happened that she forgotten the most important thing to her: dance.

Today was the day Madame Leblanc would announce the cast for the studio's production of Swan Lake. The journey to the studio was an anxious one with Marissa  wiggling in her bus seat relentlessly. This audition was the entire reason she had gotten into karate. It couldn't have been for nothing.

Marissa was the first student in the studio the day the cast list was going to be released. Anticipation was something that always hung over Marissa's head like an anvil waiting to be dropped. She was practicing her turn in the mirror and every time she whipped her head, the thought of her father ran through her mind.

She decided to keep turning in hopes of clearing her head, which dance always helped with, but her thoughts just would not fade. Her father was the parent who elected to put Marissa into dance classes when she expressed an interest. Her mother said no, as they could not afford it, but her father found the money. It just was not through the proper channels.

When Marissa found out how her dad made his money, she started questioning everything he ever bought for her and her family. The brand-new shoes and dresses that came at sporadic times. The expensive dinners and spur of the moment vacations. He never once told them where the money came from, but they also never asked. When she was younger, she considered it was better to not ask, in fear that everything would go away.

But it didn't matter.

Everything went away anyway. Everything left eventually.

"Good thing to practice." Marissa had to grasp onto the barre when someone walked into the room and startled her. She fell, though graciously, out of her turns which allowed the intruder to laugh in a taunting manner."Although, I don't think it will do you any good."

Ashley Carrington.

Ashley was a tall, lean girl whose red hair fell to her shoulders when not wrapped in ballet bun, which it currently was. She and Marissa did not start off on the right foot. Marissa was the new girl at the company, and everyone knows that the new girl at any ballet company was a threat. Ashley had previously crowned herself as the best dancer in the company and no one dared to take that title.

Until Marissa arrived, of course.

Marissa worked hard and danced her way to the top. After only four months, she was the student all the teachers went to for demonstrations and who everyone chose to lead dances. Since then, Ashley has felt like her role in the company has diminished and damned herself to live in Marissa's shadow. She and Marissa were neck and neck for the Black Swan. Once other students saw them at the audition, they knew there was no chance of them getting the role.

For the last year it's been Ashley v. Marissa and Marissa v. Ashley. They were always one-upping each other, and this Black Swan role would finally catapult one dancer ahead of the other.