The moment Aurora stepped into the institute, she rushed into the dressing room and changed before hitting one of the empty classrooms. When Mozart's 'Fur Elise' came up on the music box, she moved into a resting position and closed her eyes, inhaling softly through her nose.

She counted slowly, from ten backwards. It was a mantra she did each time before dancing, something her ballet master taught her. When she reached one, her eyes snapped open,


And then she danced.

Aurora moved with passion, all the pent-up anger that had been brewing inside her chest, she pushed into her steps. Her toes glided and bounced from the hardwood but she never stopped. As the song drew to an end, she did a fouetté continuously until it ended. Her heart thumped loudly, each heavy breath expelled through her nose,

Someone clapped loudly, breaking the quietness. She looked towards the source of the noise and her brows furrowed when she caught sight of the blonde grinning brightly at her,


"That was absolutely fantastic," Louisa gushed, clapping as she advanced into the room, "How did you do that?"

Aurora cocked a brow at the girl, walking to kill the music before facing her. "I just did." She responded simply and crouched to grab her bag, shuffling around it until she found what she was looking for.


Louisa's expression was awed, her bright blue eyes were wide, "Now I see why you became prima ballerina at the academy. Your talent is unmatched."

She paused. Her fingers that were previously screwing the cap of her water bottle froze midair. "Talent? You think talent brought me this far?"

"Yes, I mean, look at you!" Louisa motioned to her entire frame, "It's like you were born to dance."

Aurora squeezed the small metal cap between her fist, irritation flaring in her chest. She hated this when everyone thought that mere 'talent' got her this far. No one knew the long hard nights she had to practice each step so she wouldn't forget them or how rigid her diet was so she could maintain this weight. Who she was. The achievements she'd gotten weren't talent,

No, it was all sheer hard work and pain.

Louisa's eyes went wide in fear when she threw her head back and laughed. She laughed for what felt like a minute before it reduced to soft giggles,

"You know what's funny?" She asked making the blonde cock her head to the side, "I honestly thought you would know better."

"What?"

"Stand en pointe," She waved her question off and took a large gulp from the can in her hold, "After all, I did offer to teach you an arabesque."


*.........*


The rest of the day went as Aurora envisioned it would. She danced and danced and lounged around with her friends before they went to lunch and then back to the institute. After that, they didn't do anything much other than watch the junior students prepare for their upcoming Nutcracker dance. This year, they decided to do something special and incorporated two people from the senior students to dance the protagonist from Swan Lake. It was obvious who the female lead was, the problem was finding a suitable male lead. The professors were stuck between Mason Finley and James Arthur.

"I do not want to dance with James," Aurora declared, her eyes accessing the teenagers dancing on the stage, "He's a swanky prick."

Mason chuckled, taking a sip from the smoothie in his hold, "You can say that again."

"I can't believe he volunteered for the spot!" Natasha grumbled, shaking her head from side to side, "He clearly announced that he would rather die than dance with you." She said, referring to Aurora who shrugged.

Aurora sighed, eyes still glued on the stage, "Maybe that changed."

"Or maybe he wants to make a fool of you." Aurora's and Mason's heads whipped to face Natasha. "No, think of it. Those trio has never wanted anything to do with us, Aurora in particular and suddenly, he wants to dance with you? Sound pretty fishy to me." She popped a gum making Aurora jump slightly.

That couldn't be true. Yeah, the trio had a strong dislike for her and her friends but they wouldn't go that far to destroy her reputation... would they?

Mason scoffed, waving his hand around, "That doesn't make sense. James is a prick, yeah but he wouldn't do that to Aurora. He knows how important dancing is to her."

"I'm just saying, I wouldn't put it past him though." Natasha shrugged and jumped to her feet, "I'm beat, don't you guys wanna go home?"

"Now that you mention it, I'm kind of tired as well." Mason rose to his feet, clamping a hand over his mouth to stifle a yawn, "And I have an early day tomorrow."

Aurora frowned, tilting her head to the side as she too rose, "What do you mean? Classes are cancelled for tomorrow, remember?"

"I have a match with James, Monroe is going to select the best dancer for the lead role."

"Fuck, Monroe is the one judging?" Aurora ran a hand through her wavy locks.

Mason nodded and Natasha puffed out a deep breath, "That's messed up."

She shook her head and grabbed Mason's hand, "You have to get that position. You cannot let James take that spot, you can't let him dance with me." She was practically pleading at this point, but she didn't care. It wasn't like she thought James was capable of sabotaging her, she just didn't like the boy.

"Fine," Mason sighed, shrugging her hand off, "I wasn't going to let him win anyway."

"Great!" Natasha clapped, throwing her arms over their shoulders, "Now let's go home and rest our feet. My legs are killing me."

They chuckled and moved out of the theatre. When they got out, they bade each other goodbye and exchanged kisses on their cheeks. She watched as they walked in the direction of the garage and felt wistful. Ever since she turned eighteen, her biggest wish was to own a car and drive herself but her mother being paranoid about not wanting her to get into an accident insisted that she got a driver to take her everywhere.

Aurora hated the idea. Her mother practically controlled her entire life and the one thing she had control of was snatched away as well. She sighed and took out her phone, it was strange that Calvin wasn't here yet and he hadn't called either.

The dial rang a couple of times before he picked up, "Hello ma'am."

"Oh, hey Calvin. Why aren't you here yet?" She questioned, shuffling from one foot to the other. "How long will it take you to drive down?"

There was rustling on the other end of the line for a while before he finally responded, "Uh, I'm sorry ma'am but your father told me that Sir Evan was going to get you home."

A choked sound escaped her throat and she coughed rapidly, "W-what do you mean by that?"

"I'm unavailable right now but you could call your brother. He's the one who'll bring you back home."

Aurora's eyes were so wide, she almost thought they were going to pop out. Why on earth would her father do something as ludicrous as that!?

"Okay," She said with barely restrained fury, "I understand. I'll call him." She hung up the phone and began scrolling through her contact list in search of Evan's number.

When she got hold of it, she dialled it immediately. He picked up on the second ring,

"I'm surprised you have my number."

Her nostrils flared at the smug tone in his voice, "I'm surprised you saved mine."

His deep chuckle filtered into her ear and she sighed deeply, rubbing a palm on her forehead, "Look, I don't know what bullshit you're trying to pull but stop it."

He made a clicking sound with his mouth which only served to irritate her further, "Ah, I see your driver has called you. But just so you know, I had no hand in this. It was all Dad's idea."

She scoffed, switching the phone to her other ear, "Like I believe you. Forget about that, you have to come pick me up now."

"Oh, I don't think that's gonna work out."

Aurora blanched, "WHAT?"

Evan sighed and she imagined him dragging a palm down his face, "Work was hectic today and it still is. I think I'll be here a long time, you could come through. It's just a few blocks away-"

She hung up the phone before he could say another word. He had to be kidding her!

Work was hectic?

He was going to be there a long time!

She glared at the screen of her phone as if that would change anything. It was already past five now and her mother would be livid if she stayed out longer. There was only one option left,

She scrolled through her phone, the digits glared back at her and then she hit dial.