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Jaidev
A LOUD RAPPING ON MY door wakes me, and I've only opened my eyes for two seconds before a figure storms in.
“Hey, you can’t do that!” I rub my eyes, then sit up straighter. “Avril!”
“I told you, Jaidev! I told you to be ready.” She waggles her finger at me. “I expressly told you to meet me in the foyer at eight. Did I not? And is it not five past eight now?” She makes a high-pitched noise at the back of her throat—something she only does when she’s really annoyed. “We are leaving for the airport and—”
“And I told you I’m not doing it. I’m not dancing again.” I glare at her. “Can you get out of my room now? You’ve no right to do this.”
“We are going! I am not having my students—my own son—look fickle and unprofessional in the eyes of Madame Cachelle. I am sure some of Roseheart’s teachers think our school produces sub-par dancers compared to theirs, but you have the chance to redeem us because they know you are good, and you will speak well of our training there.”
So that’s what this is about. Avril’s school. Her reputation. Not me. I fold my arms. “But I'm not doing it. I told you, I’m not dancing.”
We had a whole huge argument about it last night, right after Mr. Maxim opened the door of the video-link room and I practically tumbled over the threshold, having been listening a little too intently. I was fuming and I told Avril then—told all of them—that there was no way I was doing it. In fact, I told them I was moving out. Today.
Avril had laughed when I told her I’d be staying with Bastien. Laughed like it was the funniest joke in all the world.
Now, she is not laughing. “Just get ready.”
“No.”
Avril sighs. “This is stupid. It’s not like anything big has just happened. Those rumors are nothing. So why don’t you tell me what this is really about?”
“What it’s really about?” I stare at her. “Why isn’t it enough when I say that I just don’t want to dance? That maybe I’m not supposed to be a dancer, despite what you think.”
I pull the duvet around me. There’s no way I’m telling her the nightmares have started again or that my therapist—whom she doesn’t know I have—thinks it’s because I’m still trapped in these walls. How can I ever expect to be free of the past when I’m not allowing myself to move on? I need a break—not just a break from this place but from dance altogether. Because I know what will happen if I’m dancing with this new girl. I’ll be remembering, I’ll be thinking it’s her. My flashbacks will restart, not just the nightmares.
I need a clean break. And living in Bastien’s trailer with him does sound more appealing than I ever thought it would.
Avril sits on the edge of my bed. “I want what is best for you, and I know this is an opportunity that you need.”
“Just stop, okay.” I hold my hands up. “You can’t make me be a dancer anymore. I don’t want to be and the more you go on, the more determined I will get not to do this.”
She presses her lips together in such a fine line that her meticulously applied lipstick all but disappears. “Very well.” She rises from my bed. “Very well.”
She leaves and it’s.... it’s weird.
I frown. I can’t have just won. Not after the argument, the screaming, last night. It would never be this easy.
But she has gone. Left. So, I’m not going to the airport. Not getting on the plane. I won’t have to dance with a new girl. I will get away. I really will. A grin spreads across my face, and I grab my phone to text Bastien, to tell him the plan we came up with late last night is really on. We are really doing this. I’ve escaped. I’m going to be free.
Something silver catches my eyes. Avril’s necklace on my bed. Must’ve fallen off. It’s always doing that because she won’t get the clasp fixed. Doesn’t want anyone else touching it.
It’s the last thing her husband gave her before he died. Avril will be distraught if she thinks she’s lost it.
Swallowing my pride, I scoop up the necklace and open my door. I call after her, but it’s silent. She must’ve gone already. I grab my dressing gown and run down the corridor, then out to the foyer where the housekeeper’s desk is.
“Which way did Avril go?” I ask Lani.
Lani, the housekeeper, points straight ahead, through the big double doors. I race forward and see my mother. The accommodation block is on the edge of the school grounds, right by the road.
I throw the doors open and rush out.
“Avril!” I shout, holding the necklace up.
She’s by the road, starting to cross it as she looks back. Her eyes widen and—
A blast of sound—a horn. A red car and—
I scream, feeling everything inside my body contort as the car hits Avril.