Chapter Four

‘Hello, my name’s Paige Montreal, I’m ten years old, and my favourite style of dance is lyrical.’

I thought about it a bit more.

‘Actually, it’s ballet.’

If I was going to audition for a ballet masterclass, I’d better say my favourite style was ballet!

I looked at myself in the mirror of the drama studio at Silver Shoes – a small blonde scaredy-cat. And I was only practising for the audition. It wasn’t even the real thing.

I stood up straighter. I tried to hold my head in the confident way that Riley did. I pretended to hold a barre, bent my legs into plié position, and raised my arms into port de bras.

But I had big dark circles under my eyes. And my shoulders had a tired slope to them. My legs wouldn’t maintain turn-out either.

Riley poked her head around the door. ‘Paige?’

I jumped. ‘Oh, hi,’ I said. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Looking for you,’ said Riley. ‘Class is about to start. What are you doing?’

‘Trying to be like you,’ I said.

‘What?’ she asked, taking a step inside.

‘Nothing,’ I said.

‘You okay?’

Riley came and stood next to me. Her hair was messy, like she’d been running around outside for two hours. Mine was back in its usual too-tight bun, tied with a new pink ribbon.

She tried to smooth her hair down and then gave up. ‘Who cares,’ she said, when she saw me looking. ‘I dance with my feet, not my hair.’

Our ballet teacher, Ms McGlone, likes us to look very prim and proper in class. That means exactly the right colour leotard, no ripped tights, clean slippers and tidy hair. I’m too scared to look anything but perfect. Ms McGlone is tough!

But Riley doesn’t always follow the rules. A few weeks ago she forgot her tights and Ms McGlone said she couldn’t take class.

Riley just shrugged and walked out as if she didn’t care. I would have died!

‘I saw Ellie out there,’ said Riley. ‘She’s here for some musical theatre thing.’

‘Oh,’ was all I could say.

Ellie had ignored me at school. We usually do everything together. But at lunchtime, when we were with our group of friends, the only time she looked at me was to roll her eyes when I said I didn’t feel like playing chasings with the boys.

What I really wanted to do was go to the library and take a nap. It was only Monday, but I already felt like it was the end of the week.

‘You really okay?’ Riley asked again. ‘You look kind of … dead.’

‘I’m a bit tired,’ I said. ‘Yesterday Mum made me practise an audition piece for that ballet masterclass at Dance Art. Are you going?’

Dance Art Academy is Silver Shoes’ rival dance school. It’s a big, rich school with about a million students – they often win at competitions and eisteddfods.

Mum says that even with their fancy reputation she would never send me there because I wouldn’t get the quality attention I get at Silver Shoes. Also, she and Miss Caroline are friends from way back when they both used to dance professionally.

I don’t want to go to Dance Art anyway. Those girls are scary. It’s like a tribe of mini Jasmines.

‘Yeah, I saw that,’ Riley said. ‘Ms McGlone put my name down. She stopped me and Jasmine after class.’

‘It sounds very posh,’ I said.

‘Yeah, I guess,’ Riley said. ‘It would be cool to do it but I’m not fussed.’ She shrugged. ‘Come on, you got any snakes? I need the sugar.’

Lolly snakes are our thing – mine, and Riley, Ellie and Ash’s. We always have a packet on the go. It was my turn to bring them and I’d come prepared. We went to the change room and I rummaged through my dance bag (it has Cabbage Patch Kids on it – I’ve collected the dolls since I was little!) until I found the packet. Riley picked green. I picked red.

Ellie came in while we were munching on the snakes. She was singing to herself. Her voice was getting better. But she stopped when she saw us and her face went blank.

‘Hi Riley,’ she said.

Nothing for me.

Ellie came right over to where I was sitting but all she did was pick up a pair of chorus shoes that were on the bench. I saw she’d added tiny pink bows near the buckle. It was such an Ellie thing to do.

It made me really miss her.

‘You want a snake?’ I asked, holding out the packet.

‘Gross,’ said Ellie. She got the shoes and then glanced at my dance bag. ‘Lame,’ she said, although she’d never seemed to have a problem with it before. Then she spun on her heel and stalked off. ‘See ya,’ she said to Riley on her way out.

The snakes tipped over onto the bench and fell on the floor. My heart sank right along with them.