Until We Break (Formerly Wicked, Wild, Wonderful)

Original Edition: Chapter Five

THE NEXT DAY, NAOMI MORGAN WOKE ON HER MOTHER'S WORDS. She got out of bed with its purpose and slipped by Jessica with its pleasure. I am powerful, she thought. While her best friend was quiet, Naomi knew that Jessica was watching her and smiling as she organized her things for the rest of the day. Naomi could practically hear it. And she couldn't help smiling back.

As of recently, Naomi Morgan woke every day at four. It began around the same time that Jessica appeared everywhere and at first, Naomi thought to fight it. She tried pulling the sheets over her head and ignoring her best friend routinely sitting at the edge of her bed. But Jessica did not like to be ignored. She forced Naomi to use her early hours to practice. "You want to get into NYC, right?" she had asked. And she did, Naomi wanted all that and more. So she practised and practised and practised. Today, it felt a little less like torture.

Before the rest of the Morgan family even had a chance to wake, Naomi had done enough rounds in her standing mirror to fill swimming pools with sweat and satisfaction. Exasperated, she let her chemical-drenched hair down and left her room. Jessica followed her down the quiet stairs and to the bathroom where she pulled on the door. But it was locked. Naomi tried it again.

From the inside, it suddenly jerked open. Will was standing in the frame. For only a second, the siblings' eyes caught like a rusted gear and cooled till it was frozen and brittle. But in that second, Naomi almost didn't recognize her brother. There was something unfamiliar in his eye. Fear? She didn't have the chance to recognize it, though before Will brushed past her and ran up the stairs, swiftly turning a corner.

Naomi felt the walls around her grow taller. Jessica pulled open a drawer and handed Naomi a tube of toothpaste. She redirected her preoccupation to what really mattered. She reminded Naomi of her mother's words and told her, "Keep on going, this is your day." A brief smile tilted her mouth as she took the toothpaste.

Keeping that in her mind, Naomi Morgan took a bus all the way to the empty Fox Performing Arts Centre. This early, the stage was still dark and just as the Riverside Choir left it, and the building was oddly peaceful, just as Naomi liked it. The dressing room was solely theirs as she changed, humming the melody to her solo. It was so soothing in fact that, Naomi only noticed that the Riverside air carried a chill when she entered the dance studio.

The musty windows didn't allow much sunlight in just yet and the chips in the walls felt far from each other. It felt as if the space from one wall to the next held more possibility that just one ballet class. Like it held potential. The room only seemed small, Naomi supposed, because of the tacky barre clutching to the wall and the dusty fans screwed to the ceiling.

Jessica took to the middle of the room. "Okay, let's start stretching." Naomi went in front of her. And, as relaxed as her hair, she slid to the hard centre of the dance studio and dedicated her time to the submission of her muscles. She kept her legs straight before her and leaned forward. The pressure in her back uprooted but the nerves set steady. Jessica aided her through it. You are powerful, she told her.

Aspen Letterman was next to arrive at the Fox Performing Arts Centre. She came in with a padded step from her pointe shoes and the slam of the door. Naomi jumped. Aspen rolled her eyes. She made her way to the other side of the room briskly and set down her pink water bottle next to her. Then, like revenge, she grabbed the barre and quickly attacked her stretches. It was assurance and murder. Not a strand of her blonde hair moved out of place, either. Her skinny physique moved with such power that Naomi often wondered if she would snap in two. But, she supposed that was the quality that made her dancing so special. Watching a brittle girl move with so much strength across a huge stage.

However, she wasn't always like that. There was a time when Aspen Letterman couldn't jump because her weight held her back. There were days her size would cost her roles and the other girls had fat insults on their tongues. Then one day, Aspen stepped into the studio and she was thin as a pencil. That day, she became a force to be reckoned with. And everyone in the Riverside Dance Academy forgot all about the plumper Aspen, especially Aspen.