En Pointe Part 9

Monday morning she woke up at five to an imaginary alarm clock before drifting back to sleep. From then on she couldn't fall back to sleep. At about six thirty she finally rolled out of bed and took a shower, getting dressed in sweat pants and an old t-shirt. She wrapped the bandage around her knee and tied her hair in a ponytail staring in the mirror. Natalia and Natasha used to joke they were mirror images of each other. Natalia was left handed, Natasha right.


She knew she wasn't ready for this, not without her sister by her side. She hobbled to her room and grabbed her crutches. Still after a week her knee still hurt and she hated it. It felt like her body didn't belong to her any more.

She managed to go down the stairs and sit at the table, crutches propped against it. "Hey, sweetie,"

"Hey, dad," she said starting to eat a bowl of cereal. Her mom had left the cereal box and milk at the table.

"Excited for school?" he asked.

"Sure, can I visit Natasha today?" she asked shoveling it.

"We visited her yesterday," he said. She slumped. "Beside she's basically asleep,"

"The doctor said she might be able to hear us."

"We can go tomorrow," Natalia finished eating and her mom came downstairs and drank her coffee. When it was time to leave she got her back pack ready and was on crutches. She secretly wanted to ditch them somewhere, but her mom would throw a fit if she found out. "See you tonight,"

"Yeah," she said going out the door. Her mom was driving her to school for her first day. She would ride the bus after that that since it was easier. They drove in silence as her mom approached a large brick building. It had a green lawn filled with kids milling about and a large wood sign proclaiming VANDERBUILT HIGH. "It's bigger than the NEDC," she said opening the door.

"Well, good luck. Are you sure you don't me to come in with you?"

"I'm a big girl, I can handle myself," she said as she got out. The kids stared at her as she made her way to the front office. She opened the door and the first thing she saw was the sign she turned and found herself in a bright room, the walls plastered with pictures of sports teams.

"I'm-"

"One second hun," a secratery said. She was tall and thin with short red hair. She typed something on the computer and hung up the phone turning to her. "Now what do you want?"

"I'm Natalia Evans, the transfer student," she said her throat suddenly feeling dry.

"Should have known, there is just so many of you kids it's hard to keep track of all of you," she said and handed her a couple pieces of paper and placed them in front of her. "Now here's your schedule. I understand you transferred from the...well a performing arts school?" she nodded. "Well we run on a seven period system: you have the four core classes: History, Science, Math and English. Then you have a foreign language and two electives," her nails clicked against the counter as she pointed things out.

Natalia looked at the schedule perplexed. "Is something wrong?"

"A couple things actually. I already took Algebra 2 and I got an A in it. I could do PE for an elective if that's all you have but wouldn't it be more benefical for a study hall. Also I should be in my third year of French, not in a first year of Spanish," she said.

"All we offer here is Spanish. Listen take your schedule to Mrs. Klumph, the counselor and see if she can help you with your classes," Natalia nodded and took the paper as she tried to find the counselor's office. After some looking she turned down a hallway and found the room labeled with the counselors name and knocked.

"Come in," she said. Natalia came over and sat down. "Your the new student, aren't you?" Natalia nodded. "What can I do for you?" Natalia told her about the schedule and all the problems with it. The woman nodded than went on her computer clicking away, berfore turning to Natalia. "How about Art 1 and I could squeeze you into... weightlifting or photography,"

"I thought I saw physiolgy on the elective sheet," Natalia said thinking of the one elective that interested her. The counselor shook her head.

"It doesn't match your schedule, besides those classes fill up early,"

"photography," she answered quickly, the counselor nodded and printed off the schedule, handing it to Natalia. She grabbed it and nodded a weak smile turning down an offer to be escorted to her next class.


Reese slumped in his chair as his teacher talked about the Scarlet Letter. It was the next book they would have to read. They'd read Speak in class. Their class always read one easy book then a hard book. He started talking about the requirements, then launched into all the symbolism in the book.

Almost all the kids were nearly falling asleep when there was a knock on the door. "Just a second then I'll pass out the books and the packets," Everyone groaned, but Mr. Revery just rolled his eyes and walked to the door. You couldn't abate the man's passion for the 'classics'.

Everyone leaned over as a girl walked in. She was new, everyone started to whisper especially since she was on crutches. There was something familiar about her. The white blonde hair, green eyes and how thin she was. The girl from the hospital only she wasn't covered in blood and about to burst into tears. She didn't even have any makeup on. He looked at her knee how it was bent, is that what happened to her?

"Class this is Natalia Evans, she's a transfer student," he said. She smiled weakly. "Do you have any nicknames, hobbies?" he asked and the class leaned forward hoping she would go into a long speil to waste time.

"You can call me Tally and I....Well I used to like to run," she looked down at her knee and the class laughed forced. "That's about it,"

"Well that's good, if you'll take a seat behind Mr. Conway," he gestured to Mike who raised his hand when he said it. She smiled and hobbled over never looking in his direction.


"So do you do track or cross country?" asked Katie, a girl who was in most of Natalia's classes.

"No, I just did running as something to relax," Natalia answered eating her salad. She'd forgot to pack a lunch and wished she did. The food was less than to be desired for.

"Oh, did you do any other hobbies?" Natalia shook her head. She mentioned no word of her ballet. People always asked is she had any hobbies, but dancing wasn't a hobby it was a lifestyle.

"Not really, I was busy with other stuff," she finally answered.

"Oh," Katie said flatly. She scanned the room for a second before waving her hand. "Reese, over here!" she called. A boy walked over, his hair was shortish light brown. He was about 5'9 or 5'10, she guessed, with a lanky build. "Reese, this is Tally," she said with a smile. "And Tally this is Reese,"

"I'd already guessed that," she replied, he looked so familiar.

"What?" he asked. She looked down at her salad.

"Nothing, you just look so familar," she said.

"You look familar too," He knows something, she thought to herself. His voice seemed the most familar, only it reminded her of a headache. "So..." he said. She snapped out of her own thoughts looking at him, she must of zoned out. He chuckled before speaking again, "Your next classes?"

"Oh, I have photography, Spanish 1 and then Art 1," she answered thinking of how lame her classes sounded all first year classes, she'd probably get stuck with stupid juniors (or over achieving Juniors that the only thing they had left was electives) and freshman.

"Spanish 1? You haven't took it yet?" Katie asked.

"I took French, but it was one of the only classes that wasn't full," she answered.

"I have photography with you, I could show you where it is," Reese muttered looking at his food. Usually she would say some snide comment but instead she answered,

"Sure, thanks," then quickly took a bite of salad wondering where that came from. Natasha was the social one, the people person, the outgoing one and Natalia was an extrovert who only was herself when she danced.

The bell rang and Reese met her halfway down the hall. They made small talk and he introduced her to some people, the whole time something nagged at her wondering where she knew him from.