School for the Arts II Chloe Lukasiak

Chapter 6 - {Politics}

Suprisingly, the opening night activity went by without much drama. We stayed away from Maddie and Kendall and they stayed away from us. The opening performances were fun! It was a tradition that the seniors performed for their peers. It was cool to see how good I could become in just four short years. My favorite performance was by a girl named Brooke. She was amazing doing so many acrobatic tricks! 

After the performances, Paige and I headed back upstairs from the theater and got ready for bed. We decided it was best to go to bed early tonight, seeing as tomorrow would be a long first day of classes.

"Goodnight Paige!" I called into the dark room.

"Goodnight Chlo!" She called back. 

"See you in the morning!" I said.

"You too!" She answered, "Are you nervo--"

"Oh would you to shut up!" Kendall screamed from the bed across the room. "They'll be a bed check soon and I for one do NOT want to mess up my reputation! Right Maddie?"

"I guess..." Maddie answered, clearly half asleep. 

The next morning, we all woke up at the crack of dawn ready for our first day at The American School for the Arts. I took a look at my schedule and compared it with Paige's. My first academic class was English Honors and then Biology. Tomorrow for academics I had World History Honors and Geometry. 

"We have English Honors and Geometry together!" Paige said excitedly, "And of course all of our dance classes are together!"

The morning was pretty typical. Breakfast, academic classes, study hall, lunch. Nothing would prepare me for the afternoon of dance classes though, nothing at all.

Just for good measure, I arrived to our first dance class, ballet technique fifteen minutes early. I sat in a split in the empty studio with Paige and practiced my port a bras. Then walked in the dream team. Oh, boy. They had all of their hair put up into a bun in the same way. A braid down one side with a white flower off to the same side on the top of the twisty bun. They also all wore the same style of leotard, a plain fronted black one with criss crossed straps in the back. Wait, we aren't allowed to were criss crosses, I thought to myself. Oh, well. Maybe I read wrong.

I finished stretching out just as the teacher Abby Lee Miller arrived to teach ballet technique. 

"Welcome, girls and boys to your very first year at the American School for the Arts Dance Program! We are so excited you are here!" She said in a overly peppy voice. I looked at Paige with a huge grin on my face and she returned an equally large smile.

"Now, let's begin!" She said. "I am going to be giving you places at the barre."

The barres in the studio were along every wall except for the front one, that had the mirrors. A pull out barre had also been placed in the middle of the room. 

"Let's see..." She scanned the room with her eyes, "I want Maddie and Kalani at the head of the side barres. Sophia and Kendall you can head to the front of the middle barre. The rest of you... just find a spot!" 

The music started and we began our plie combination. Ms. Abby walked around the room making corrections. "Very good, Maddie!" "Excellent, Kalani!" "Superb, Sophia!" "It's improving, Kendall!" She didn't say much to the other students except for the occasional "You're doing everything wrong!". I looked across the room. A boy about my height smiled at me. He had dark hair and dark eyes, very mysterious. "It's just politics!" He mouthed to me. I couldn't help but giggle.

We moved on throughout the barre. The cute boy kept mouthing things to me and I kept giggling. Finally, Ms. Abby walked over to me and watched me for a whole combination. 

In the middle of adagio, my strength, she stopped the music. I began to get butterflies in my stomach. Why had she stopped. 

"Class. Take a look at...."

"Chloe"

"Chloe's form and presence. Isn't it lovely? Come stand in front of Kalani here in the front of the room. Right in front of me!" She was beaming.

Kalani, Maddie, Kendall, and Sophia all shot daggers with there eyes at me. Paige gave me a faint smile. The music started up again.

The rest of the night went by in a blur. All I remember was having the time of my life doing the thing I loved. It helped to, that Ms. Abby praised me the whole evening and had me demonstrate often. I couldn't wait for tomorrow! 

{5 votes, 10 read, 2 comments for more! Brooke's solo is in the media section next to the chapter! Where she preforms it is really how I imagine the theater at The American School for the Arts would look, really like casual, low key, artsy, and pretty! Thanks for reading!}