What They Didn't Know

Chapter 4

Bethany's POV

Banging the wooden boxes of my shoes against each other I grimaced hearing how loud the reverberations were. It sounded like I was pounding the floor with them. "You better not be wrecking my stage, Bethany!" Levon bellowed from the back room. "Go outside and hit the pavement with those things!"

Shaking my head at the absurdity, I pursed my lips and pondered his suggestion. "Concrete and pointe shoes do not get along, Levon!" I hollered back. "It'd tear the satin."

"Yeah, well," he replied shortly. "Better your satin than my theatre, Missy."

I stuck my tongue out at Levon's unseeing eyes. Then I used my hands to flex the shanks in my new pointe shoes. "Better your satin than my theatre, Missy," I mimicked to myself, sounding like a nasal chipmunk.

"What was that, Bethany?" Levon asked sarcastically as he approached me silently from behind, making me jump three feet in the air.

"Cripes, Levon!" I shrieked, whipping a hand out to smack him lightly on the shoulder. "You scared the bajeezus out of me. Don't do that!"

"Don't do that!" he mimicked, sounding like a lower-pitched nasal chipmunk, shaking his head and putting a hand to his hip. He stared at me pointedly.

"Touché," I said, grumbling to myself while standing on the boxes of my shoes. I had draped a piece of cloth over them beforehand so they wouldn't get dirty. "Yeah, yeah. No beating up the theatre."

"Mmm-hmm. You may be our prima ballerina, Bethany, but this place is expensive to maintain. Can't have you wrecking it. Go warm up. I'll get your music ready."

I nodded at Levon's retreating form and bent down to remove the cloth and tie my ribbons. Next, I turned to stretch my legs and get into position. Squatting to make sure my tights were in a good place, I shifted my heals up and down. Going from regular standing position to relevé and then down into demi, I then shifted my weight back to stretch out my shoes some more. Standing up, I extended my legs forward, backward and sideways, loosening up my muscles and stretching my arms overhead to warm up.

When the orchestra played through the speakers, I lost myself in the music. Dancing was my life. I had recently secured a place in the Pennsylvania Ballet and would be traveling to Philadelphia this coming May directly after graduation. Majoring in dance and theatre has been a dream come true for me. I couldn't be more excited.

I've been preparing for this moment since I was a little girl. Countless hours had been spent every day so that I was in top form for my audition last semester. When I sailed through it, nervous as a June bug on a flea-bitten hound, I couldn't have been more relieved. Even though I had succeeded in attaining my spot, I still had to continue every day to stay fit and ready. Our college had offered to let me practice my steps each morning before their theatre class took over in the afternoons.

Everything about performing on the stage thrilled me.

I could let go of myself on the stage. Each time I extended my arms and legs I released the built up tension that weighed me down in the real world. When I pointed my toes, I felt the problems of the day flood into the floor beneath me.

I could become who I was meant to be.

No worries.

Just me, my pointe shoes and the wide open space to get lost in.

My talent was a much-appreciate gift; a true blessing I was grateful for each and every day.