Chapter 11

Back in her room, Kayley couldn’t catch her breath.

She’d thought that Emma deserved to have an accident. And then she did.

She shook her head. But that was crazy to think she could make people have accidents. And anyway, the shoes were supposed to give Kayley good luck, not make other people have bad luck.

Unless maybe she couldn’t have one without the other.

She took out her sushi slippers and peered in at the shoes. She took one out and stroked it.

It looked harmless enough. The shoe’s design was just beautiful, and once again, Kayley felt mesmerized. She reached her hand into the second sushi slipper.

Then she jumped a mile high when a knock came at the door.

Quickly, she stuffed the one shoe back in her slipper as a voice carried through. It was the maintenance man.

“Room search. Open up.”

Too paranoid to put the sushi slippers away, Kayley had an epiphany: she would wear the slippers with the shoes in them. She shoved her feet in the plush slippers, amazed that everything fit. She scooted along the floor and opened the door.

Madame stood with Bert and said, “A quick look through your room, Kayley. You may stay here while Bert searches.”

Suddenly Kayley had a thought: he had seen her looking at the shoes. For the second time that night, her heart began to race.

She hoped she was as forgettable to him as he was to her.

He showed no signs of recognition as he began searching her room. She sat down on the bed and bounced her knee.

Madame stood by her. As Bert searched her shoes, Kayley felt ecstatic that she’d put the slippers on. Bert was practically tossing the rest of her footwear in the air—if he’d done that with her slippers, the pointe shoes would have surely flown out.

She looked down at her slippers and noticed the tip of a ribbon sticking out of the back of her slipper. When Madame spoke in her ear, she jumped yet again.

“I’ve been very impressed with your dancing as of late, Kayley. I see you took our talk to heart.”

All Kayley could do was nod her head. She tried hard not to look down at her feet so that Madame wouldn’t either.

Madame continued as Kayley started chewing on her fingernails. “All it took was a little extra effort on your part. It’s good to see the fire back in your eyes.”

She patted Kayley’s shoulder, and Kayley shuddered so much that Madame drew her hand away as if she’d touched a hot stove.

Madame narrowed her eyes. “Are you OK, Kayley?”

Kayley nodded. “Yes, just tired.”

Madame scrutinized her face. “Yes, you seem like it. You have dark circles under your eyes. When Bert’s finished here, you should go right to bed.”

Bert stood up. “I’m done here. No shoes here.”

Kayley had a hard time not sighing with relief. She put one sushi slipper over the ribbon poking out and said, with real feeling, “Yes, I think I will go right to bed.”

Madame nodded and walked out with Bert. “Remember, you have class tomorrow! And it seems as though everyone is getting hurt.” She frowned, then turned back to Kayley. “Be careful tomorrow. We seem to be having a rash of bad luck.”

When the door shut, Kayley dropped back in her bed. That was close. She was suddenly so tired she could barely keep her eyes open. But when she tried to sleep, nightmares of falling ballerinas kept her tossing and turning.

At morning class the next day, Kayley was almost an hour early. She’d gotten no sleep and although she could feel the weariness in her bones, the events of the past two days had made her so anxious that she welcomed the thought of dance practice.

After her warm-up, around five thirty, Ophelia stormed into the room.

“I thought I’d find you here.” She crossed her arms across her chest. “What. Is. Going. On. With. You?”

Kayley stopped her turning. “What is going on with you?” she shot back, suddenly feeling the weeks of isolation. What had happened to the two of them?

“Me?” Ophelia said. “You’re the one acting all strange! You stop trying at class, you don’t care about anything … and then all of a sudden you stop talking to everyone and become this über-dancer!”

Kayley shot daggers with her eyes. “Jealous, much? And anyway, I’m surprised you even noticed, with your head so far up Madeleine’s—”

“Yeah, right. I think you’re the jealous one. Madeleine hasn’t been acting like a freak. You were supposed to be my best friend, but you disappeared.”

Kayley heard real disappointment in Ophelia’s voice. A pang of longing shot through her. She did miss her best friend.

But then Ophelia’s eyes hardened. “Anyway, like you could ever compare to me as a dancer.”

Only Ophelia would say something like that. But instead of the rueful amusement Kayley normally would have felt, she felt rage.

She was twice the dancer Ophelia was now.

Madeleine walked in and seemed to see the sparks between Kayley and Ophelia.

“Guys?” she said timidly.

Kayley turned on her. “What.”

Ophelia began to shout: “You are being such a b—”

Before Ophelia could finish, Madame walked in, along with most of the company. Practice commenced.

Kayley couldn’t stop thinking about Ophelia’s rude comments. When it was time for Ophelia’s solo as Cinderella, Kayley stared at her with unrestrained hate.

Ophelia turned around and around in a quadruple pirouette, then performed a complicated series of movements that even Kayley couldn’t take her eyes off of. But she kept thinking that maybe she could even be Cinderella if Ophelia were out of the picture. Then Kayley’s parents would finally be proud of her. And Ophelia would get what she deserved.

As Kayley had the last thought, Ophelia landed a grand jeté. Her knee gave out beneath her and she collapsed to the floor.

The popping of the knee snapped Kayley out of her trance. This was the third time she’d had such vicious thoughts and the third time something happened about them.

Whatever else was going on, Kayley knew one thing: The shoes were causing bad luck all around her. Without asking to be excused, she ran to her room.