Learning to Dance in the Rain, alternate POV

Hi! My name's Halle and I decided to do something different for knightsrachel's Learning to Dance in the Rain contest. Everybody say hello to Evil Katie! All characters and the story idea is from knightsrachel's story, not my own imagination!!!! Hope you enjoy, and go check out Learning to Dance in the Rain :)

KATIE'S POV

The very first day I came back, I had butterflies swirling in my stomach. It turned out that Joffrey wasn't at all what I needed. Mother hadn't been thrilled about my failed audition, of course, but I knew I'd rather dance with my best friend and have fun than hang around with spoiled, back-stabbing ballerina wannabes.

I let out a sigh, pinning my braid in place and pulling the rest of my hair up into a ponytail. I had wanted to surprise Holly, so I didn't text or call her. Besides, my mom had taken my phone before the audition so I could focus on ballet technique. Either way, I knew Holly would be happy about me coming back. I smiled at myself in the mirror, the nervous butterflies turning to excited ones.

The car ride to school was much too long. As we finally pulled up to the building, it seemed like the bell was just about to ring. I quickly threaded my way through the mass of people, picking out Holly's dark hair from the crowd. With a big smile, I approached her table.

I shifted the backpack off of my shoulder, seeing Holly's shocked face.

"That couldn't be Ms. Joffrey Academy," Sophie muttered.

I opened my mouth to contradict her. I didn't want to be a prima ballerina, I just wanted to dance with my best friend! But before I could say much, the bell sounded. My heart dropped as Holly strutted off without so much as a second glance.

Sophie and Ansleigh looked from Holly to me, then trailed after her. I stood, shocked, letting people push past me. Why were they treating me so coldly?

"Hey! Ballerina girl!"

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see a slightly familiar face.

"It's Katie, actually," I said, trying to keep my voice in check. "Don't you go to our studio?"

The girl seemed annoyed. "You mean, don't YOU go to MY studio?"

"I guess," I said, shrugging. I didn't even care that I had to put up with her attitude. "The point is, I know your face. Just not your name."

"Marisol Yates," she said, "And get used to it, because you'll be hearing it a lot in the future. Holly Gardener is a thing of the past. Make way for the new Queen Bee!"

She threw her arms up dramatically, managing to hit some kid in the face.

"Watch it!" He snapped.

"Whatever," she muttered. "Anyways, I am tired of Holly treating her old friends like sloppy seconds. She gets duet partners, decides they're getting too good and might surpass her, then ditches them. Trust me...I was the first partner she ditched. Then you, and now Max. And even worse, she's leading Max on when she obviously doesn't really like him."

Marisol rolled her eyes. "It's ridiculous, really. I've put up with it for years, but she doesn't deserve what she gets."

I cocked my head. "That doesn't sound like Holly. She's been nothing but nice to me in the past."

Marisol let out a sputtering laugh. "Yeah, right. Remember how she treated you in the beginning? You were never really her friend, you know."

My chin trembled a bit. "It was all fake? Our whole friendship?"

Marisol blew a bubble, then popped her gum. "Of course. She's an actress."

I followed Marisol to her locker, listening to what she had to say. My face got paler and paler as I realized she was right. Holly was never really my friend...it was all an act. And the things she had done to Marisol were terrible! How had I ever believed such a deceitful person in the first place?

All the anger bubbled up in me, and suddenly I had a plan. Marisol could help me out. Holly Gardener was NOT winning Nationals, I would make sure of that.

***

If I wasn't such a good actress, none of the plan would have worked out. Just like Holly was pretending to be my friend, I was pretending to be hers. It was torturous at times, but I knew it would all pay off, in the end.

'Deep breaths, Katie,' I told myself.

Our duet was coming up next, but I had Marisol distracting Mrs. Leslie. Just in case.

"We've got this, Katie," Holly said with a smile.

I gave her a worried glance, though that was real. I was just as nervous about my plan as I would have been about the duet. The announcer called our names and I took a deep breath. This was the moment I'd been waiting for.

The music started, and for a second I was dancing like normal. A fleeting thought passed through my mind: if I just stopped my plan here and danced like we had practiced, we would win. Hands-down. It could all be forgotten, the blame placed on Marisol. But then, Marisol was my only real friend, blunt as she was. She wasn't afraid to tell me the truth, unlike the little back-stabber dancing next to me.

Holly leaned back and I waited a second before catching her. I could see in her eyes that I'd frightened her at first, but she still trusted me. I then picked her up in a tilt position, lifting and turning her to the front. It was just as we normally did the lift, but I purposely plopped her down for the landing and took a step forward so that our hands flopped awkwardly in search of each other. She glanced at me sharply, mouthing 'are you okay?'

We danced in sync with each other again, as I didn't want to frighten her too bad. My stomach fluttered nervously in anticipation. Finally, Holly was on the ground and it was my turn to leap. I flew into the air and landed with force...right on Holly's hand. Her eyes went wide with pain and a gasp escaped her lips. I stopped dancing, pretending to feel sorry. She stopped because she could barely move her fingers. I knew she wouldn't leave the stage, though, and she began to turn with floppy fingers. I turned like a top, and cringed a bit at what I was about to do.

Our turn sequence was supposed to be perfectly in sync, but I kept on turning long after Holly stopped. After 5 pirouettes, I began to change up the dance. Holly was confused, marking our original duet with her eyes trained on me.

"Katie!" She whispered frantically, "What are you doing?"

I stopped my improv after a few more counts, breathing hard. For the end of the dance, I did the actual choreography. Not that it mattered, because Holly only picked up on it as we settled into our end pose.

"What was that?" She demanded, as soon as we were offstage.

"I don't know," I moaned, "I couldn't remember, so I just did my own thing."

"That's not how duets work!" She hissed, her eyes flaring with anger.

"Holly, I'm so sorry. I didn't know what to do," I lied smoothly.

This was the part where Marisol came into play. I began to walk, praying everything would work out.

"If you didn't know what to do, you should have followed me!" Holly cried, grabbing my arm.

I turned the corner, bracing myself.

"I know that now, but in the moment I just-"

We both froze. Marisol was standing there in her studio jacket, her arms thrown around the neck of a boy. A boy with a big bulky cast. From my angle, I could see Max awkwardly patting her back, like he didn't know what to do with the girl plastered to him. Holly didn't take the time to see it, though, as her face went pale. She cradled her fingers against her chest, her chin trembling, and ran in the opposite direction.

"Holly!" Max gasped, "Holly, wait!"

He got himself out of Marisol's awkward hug and hobbled after Holly, who was long gone.

"Check and mate," Marisol said with a smile.

I felt my face get pale. "I think I hurt her hand."

Marisol shrugged. "So?"

"There's no way she's doing her solo, with that physical and emotional pain."

Marisol laughed and began to walk past me. "That's the plan."

"Yeah," I agreed, letting her strut away.

I stood there, blinking. We'd beat Holly Gardener. It didn't feel as good as I'd imagined.

***

Alrighty, hope you liked it :)

Kisses,

HalleBallet