En Pointe Part 15

Two days later at school Natalia was talking with Katie about Spanish. "Don't you pay attention?" she demanded.

"I do, but my second language is and always will be French; Spanish makes no sense," she said with a laugh and ditched her stuff in her locker as they headed to math. It was a good thing Katie was a math geek too other wise she would be stuck in a class with twenty guys (only eight girls were in there) even though they didn't sit next to each other.

"Tal!" They both spun around and saw Reese running towards them and handing her a manilla envelope. "Fill out as much as you can," he said with a smile and walked away. Reese was insane, he still wanted to be her partner after she made him run 2 miles and go through a pretty intense workout.

"What's up? Last week you hated him for some reason and now your all buddy buddy. He's leaving notes on your locker and handing you envelopes," Katie said. Natalia still didn't feel comfortable enough to talk to her. Now the only person she talked with about dancing was Reese. Yesterday he'd left a note on her locker asking her to come to his dance class after school. She laughed just thinking about her dancing hip hop. About her dancing at all without her tights and toe shoes.


The next day Natalia came with Reese on the bus to the studio. She had her back pack and dance bag. They sat next to each other toward the front of the bus. They got off at the studio and headed straight to the dressing rooms inside.

Reese was heading toward the classroom when he saw Natalia coming out. "What are you wearing? It isn't ballet," She was in shorts, tights and a tanktop with her hair twisted in a bun.

"Nothing else feels comfortable." She said with a shrug. There was already a couple people in the room warming up. Natalia awkwardly started her regular stretches for ballet along with the ones the doctor gave her.

"Who's prima ballerina?" One of the three guys including Reese asked. She glared at him. More people started to filter in, it was nearly three thirty when the instructor finally came. She had a feeling Reese told her that the class started earlier.

The instructor went over a couple exercises before starting the routine. "Okay 5,6,7,8," She counted out and Natalia silently wondered how hard this could be. "Walk, walk, walk. To the right," she called out going into a lunge. "To the left," She went over the routine quickly and she felt lost. She was going to kill Reese. "From the top," She said counting it out, watching Natalia closely. "No, no, no! This isn't ballet, we do not point out toes! Don't be afraid to slouch," Reese really was going to get it.

By the end of class Natalia was more confused than ever. Hip hop was nothing like ballet. You couldn't really compare them; one wasn't easier or harder (well unless you added in pointe shoes as a factor). "Wasn't that fun?" Reese asked. She huffed and strode into practice room 3. Like usual. He quietly slipped in and out with out her noticing. When he came back she was at the barre going through her typical routine and he had his camera.

She turned around and saw him. "Put that thing away!" she said and left. She went to the backroom and grabbed her dance bag. "Are you going to walk home with me?" he nodded and they left in silence. "So what are we going to do for our routine. Are we going for a more classical feel or do we want something more contemporary. There's a lot of choice we could do..."

"I was thinking about Secrets by One Republic, there's Fireflies by Owl City, but I was talking to Sadie she said there was this band called Superchick and they had a couple songs. One was Crawl and the other One More..."

"Reese, like I told you before I dance classical ballet." She said and they continued walking. They came to her house. "Is your mom or dad going to pick you up?" He nodded as they walked to the front door. She tried the handle, it was locked. Usually her mom was home by now. She took her keys out and opened the door. She looked around and saw a notepad on the counter: Went to hospital, had to talk with doctors about Tash. Be home around 5.

"My mom went the hospital to talk with some doctors about my sister." Reese lingered uncomfortably in the doorway. "There should be a CD of classical music I usually dance to in my bag," she said pointing to the black duffle. He looked at it before opening it. He poked around in it.

"Why do you need all this stuff?" He asked pulling out a pair of tights, two pairs of pointe shoes (one old, one new), one pair split sole canvas ballet slippers, a can of hairspray, several granola bars, one litre water bottle half full, make up bag, ace bandage, medical tape, nail clippers, mini sewing kit, sweatshirt, book, more tights, a leotard....

"Just let me do it," she said and dug around revealing several pairs of socks and jars of burts bees. "Here," she said and frowned. "I haven't cleaned my bag out in forever," she said.

"Obviously, do you use all this?" She nodded.

"I used to practically live at the dance studio. Karova, our instructor, had to practically kick me out." she said with a laugh. ''Are you hungry?" he nodded and they headed to the kitchen dining on some of last nights left over casserole. They talked some until the heard a horn honk.

"See you tomorrow," she nodded and he left.


She went to three more classes with Reese and each time it was more humorous. She earned the nickname 'prima ballerina' from the only other guys in the class. She couldn't help it; she hadn't taken a hip hop class since she was eight! She was trained in classical ballet and that was what she always practiced.

The next day her and Reese were sitting at lunch, Katie was going to be later. "Eat it," Reese said showing her a hamburger. "I'm never going to be able to eat a second one,"

"You shouldn't have got it. Besides if your going to be my partner you need to be in shape. That means no eating all this over refined crap," She told him waving around a fork with salad on it.

"Yes, mom," he said with an eye roll. She laughed and went back to eating. Then he leaned in holding a second burger. "You know you want to. Come on Tal, it won't kill you,"

"Oh, you think that? What happens when it clogs my arteries and raises my cholestrol and gives me a stroke of heart attack?"

"Well you could be iron deficiant and meat gives you iron,"

"I eat cereal for breakfast every day," she answered, clearly getting annoyed. For once she wished Reese had his camera so he would leave her alone. "Besides I need to eat healthy. If we're going to be doing any lifts every ounce matters," Now it was his turn to roll his eyes, he'd never heard her complain about her weight and didn't want it to start now.

"Your a twig," he said. She took it to shut him up. "So?" he asked.

"Little dry, besides who puts mustard on a burger?" She said. He smiled and that's when Katie came over.

"Should I faint? Or give you guys a cookie, wait a medal for Tal, she doesn't eat calories." She said laughing.

"What are you talking about? She's eating a hamburger do you know how many calories that has in it?" At that point two of the guys from the wrestling team decided to turn around and stare at him, before dropping their burgers. "I should get a cookie and a medal for getting her to eat it," Katie rolled her eyes.

"I can't believe you left your 'baby'," she said, referring to one of his cameras.

"I'm going to develop pictures after I finish eating," he said and Natalia laughed. "What?" she shook her head as he got up.

"You like him," Katie stated loosely looking down at her food before waving over another one of her friends. Natalia didn't even attempt to argue.


Natalia stared in the mirror, not even noticing the door opening or the footsteps. Suddenly music started playing, that's when she turned around and saw Reese standing there with his video camera. "Here is the famous Natalia gifting us with her dancing abilities," he said.

"Reese put that camera away, I'm trying to practice," he rolled his eyes and went over to turn off the stereo.

"Come on, we have several songs to choose from and I want to see you dance to some of them," he said impishly. She rolled her eyes. "Please," he said.

"Just because you pretend to be polite doesn't mean I'm going to do it." She said and looked in the mirror, smiling, before turning around. "If you can do one pirouette I will dance to one of your songs on that CD of yours,"

"That's not fair! I do hip hop, what if I do a back bend or a front walkover?" he asked. She wondered if he could actually do those but didn't pursue it. "Fine, watch," She walked over and sat crosslegged on the ground next to his bag and clapped her hands as if to say 'start'. She watched as he went through the steps. First he made a big show out of standing tall and trying to stand on his tip toes before kicking one leg out as if to propel him into a spin. She laughed as he fell to the ground. That's when she pulled out the camera and took a picture.

"Hey!" He said stumbling to his feet.

"You take a picture of me, I take a picture of you," He tried to snatch it but she took another picture of him. "All's fair in ballet and war,"

"It's love and war," he said grabbing her around the waist and snatching the camera away. Their faces were inches away from touching. She backed away realizing what had happened and walked back over to the barre. She pretended to be completely interested in fixing her hair so it was the perfect bun sitting directly a top her head. "You okay?" he asked.

"What happens when people are in coma's?" she asked suddenly. It had been on her mind for a while and it was difficult to talk with her parents about it.

"It depends on the case. After 4 months it's little for partial recovery and even more rare for full recovery. Your talking about Natasha right?

"Yeah, but it hasn't even been a month. So she should be okay right?" She looked down and then to the ceiling. "You should have seen her the first time she did a pirouette, it was a lot like you. I, of course, was obsessed with it. Their was this girl she got her nickname, Pira, from..." She looked at him. "Never mind. What song would we dance to?" She said reverting back to her serious state.

Reese didn't know how to react. There would be times when the real her shone through, but the moments were brief and wonderful before she went back to how she was. "I thought Fireflies by Owl City,"

"Everyone knows that song. If you want to go for a more lyrical aspect, you know sort of meld the two types, try My Immortal at least. We could do this whole like shadow following thing."

"I have an idea." He said and grabbed her hand taking her to the center of the room and placing his hands on her shoulders. "Okay, so for the first part your going to enter quickly and lie down wait until the chimes come on, about 7 ish counts of four. Anyways try to do it in time with the music."

"What are you going to be doing?"

"My hip hop teacher is helping me choreograph the first part, but when you hear 'you would not believe your eyes' I'm going to help you stand up by pulling beneath your arms..."

"Can we just start, sort of improve to see where we're going?" he nodded and started the song. She ran and laid down in the middle when she heard the chimes she got up and sat cross legged covering her eyes with her hands. Reese came up behind her and pulled her up. She did a grand jette then laid down on the ground, he followed her with another jump and pulled her up and spun her around, they both fled to the other sides of the room. By the time 'planet earth turns slowly' she was in his arms and he was dipping her so she almost touched the ground.

"Okay that was enough for today," she said coming back up. They were so close, almost to close. She pushed him away and went and got her bag. "We'll work Wednsday?" he nodded and she left.


Things became awkward between the two of them, sure they worked on dancing, but at school they hardly communicated. They were in the dance studio, Natalia had been there for a little while and Reese just got out of dance class. "So what are we working on now?" she asked.

"The dance part you know the foxtrot and the sockhop," she rolled her eyes and walked toward him. "I don't really know how to foxtrot but I thought we could do it like this," He said and put his right arm around her waist and grabbed her left hand. "Just step forward, step back and release for about a second and grab hands again. You know how in swing that they slide the girl beneath the legs," she nodded. "I'm going to do that and your going to get up tap me on the shoulder and wrap your arms around my waist. I'll twist you around and lift you up, then it's 'i'd like to believe that planet earth turns slowly' and we'll basically repeat what we did,"

Natalia nodded they practiced without the music first. He came up with the moves and she worked them into counts with the music. Soon they tried it with Fireflies playing in the background. "Relax," he said. "You need to move, not be like a board,"

"This song is not meant for lyrical," she said coldly. "It's more mechanical,"

"We need to make it seem like that. We need to 'wow' the judges," he said dropping his arms. "What's been up with you lately?"

"Nothing has been 'up with me'," She said and crossed her arms walking over to turn off the music.

"Do you just want to quit? Is that what you want? Are you mad that I'm not running around in tights pirouetting all over the place? Are you mad that you can't wear your precious pointe shoes? Talk to me," He said.

"I'm mad because when I dance it's still not the same, I'm mad because I have no idea how my sister is doing because for some reason my parents don't want me to visit her. I'm mad because technically I'm not supposed to be dancing at all with or without my 'precious pointe shoes'." She said and talk out her water bottle downing half of it in a gulp before sitting down back leaning against the mirror.

Reese walked over and grabbed his camera before sitting next to her. "What?" he started a video and let her watch. It was of her, dancing of course, she wasn't at the barre doing her usual routine but doing fouettes across the room. "When did you tape that?"

"When you weren't watching," he said with a smirk. She sat cross legged and straightned her posture.

"Why do you do this?" she asked.

"What?"

"I can't be mad at you! I can be mad at everything else," She said. "And I don't even know how you talked me into doing this! I don't do what ever type of dancing we're doing,"

"No matter what type of dancing you do it's amazing." He said.

"Don't lie. I know I'm too stiff, too structured." She said and threw the water bottle across the room and pulled her hair out of it's bun. She shook it out and put on her shoes before getting her bag and heading towards the door.

"We'll meet tomorrow, I just need to clear my head." With that she left Reese in an empty room with an empty water bottle, holding his video camera. He watched the video again wondering when the girl he filmed would come to life again.