Passion and Pain (Dancers and Divas) (3 page)

The teacher stood from the desk where she was leaning and approached Elena.

“We have a low tolerance for tardiness. Make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“Yes ma’am,” Elena said as she headed to the only empty seat next to a small girl with bright red hair.

“Hi,” Elena whispered.

The girl was typing furiously on her silver laptop. She paused momentarily and looked at Elena. “Hi.” She continued typing. God knows what she was working on considering the class had only started. Most kids had their laptops out. There only seemed to be a handful of students, apart from her,
who
had notebooks to write in.
Another item to add to her shopping list
,
along
with
a
roller
bag.

“We’re writing 500 words on what it means for us to be here,” the girl whispered.

“Thanks,” Elena said. What
did
it mean to be here?
Everything.
A dream and a miracle.
She tapped the pen against her temple before starting her story. She
describ
ed
her fears and anxieties
of being in the same school as these talented stude
nts
and her determination to succeed, not only for herself, but for her mom
,
the teachers at the Youth Center,
and all those who helped
her
get
into the school. 

“Ten more minutes,” the teacher called out.

The girl next to her had
already finished
and was reading a book. Elena was almost done, guessing at where 500 words might be.

“Two pages with your handwriting should do it,” the girl said, not taking her eyes off her book.

“Thanks.” That was weird. It was like she could read her mind. She had reached three pages
,
so she stopped.

“Time’s up,” the teacher said. “Who wants to read theirs?”

Elena was not too
excited at the thought.
The last thing she wanted was for everyone to know how scared she was.

“Veronika?”

The girl next to
her
sighed, put her book down and sat up.

“The Beginning,” she said in a clear voice.

She went on to read her story
,
talking about the application her mom had put in for her early last year, before she got really sick with cancer. Her mom
had
really
had
wanted her to follow her dream of writing
,
even though
Veronika
had no faith in herself. Her mom
had
passed away last spring and now
Veronika
was
here, wanting to reach her dreams for the both of them.

Elena gulped to hold back the tears. There was silence in the room.

“Thank you for sharing that with us,” the teacher said. “That was beautiful. Your gift
for words
is
apparent
.”

“Thank you,” Veronika whispered.

“So, class, who can tell me what made that good?
Shantal
?”

“It was like, really sad and she used lots of big words.”

Veronika rested her chin on her hands and drummed her fingers against her face
,
clearly unimpressed. Elena raised her hand.

“Elena
,
is it?”

She nodded. “She used really detailed descriptions of her emotions and her environment. There were also strong metaphors that made the writing come to life.”

“Excellent.”

“Teacher’s pet,” the boy in the seat opposite
her
whispered.

“Seriously?
What are we, fourth grade?” Elena retorted.

“They forgot to check his ID on the way in,” Veronika whispered. Elena smiled.

Another student was chosen to read
his
story.

“Sorry about your mom,” Elena said.

Veronika
simply
nodded.

The boy finished his reading and sat down
, seeming
pleased with himself.

“Any comments?”

“It was cool,” a girl in the front row said. That was deep.

“Yeah, awesome,” his neighbor called out, giving him a high-five.

Veronika rolled her eyes.

“I think you needed to have a bit more structure to it,” the teacher said. “And the
p
oint of
v
iew was a bit unclear. Does everyone know what I mean by
p
oint of
v
iew?”

Veronika raised her hand.  “It’s the perspective of the person telling the story. Things are described as if we were seeing it through th
at person’s
eyes.”

“Perfect.”

“Look at
M
iss
S
marty
P
ants. Knows all the answers, doing it for her mom,” the same boy sniggered quite loudly.

Veronika’s face crumpled.
The little bastard.

“Ignore him,” Elena said.
“Obviously not the brightest
one in the room
.”

“He’ll be sorry when I’m writing stories for the school newspaper,” Veronika said.

“Homework assignment,” the teacher said, “is to write a two
-
minute script of the story you wrote today. It’s to be done in pairs and finished by next week.”

“Hey you,” the sniggering boy said, p
oking
Elena with his pen.

“What?”

“Let’s pair up.”

“Um, no.
I want a partner who’s smart,” she said. “Veronika, what do you say?”

“Sounds good.
I would never want to be with someone who wasn’t my intellectual equal.”

“
What
?” the boy said.

“I rest my case,” Veronika said. Elena giggled.

“I’m Elena
,
by the way.”

“My friends call me
Roni
.”

“Do you really work on the school newspaper?”

“Yeah.
I can’t wait. I’ll get to hear all the gossip first hand. They always say the pen is mightier than the sword,” she said, her emerald green eyes glittering with amusement.

“Nice to meet you
Roni
.
See you later.”

“Bye.” Veronika hugged her laptop and walked out.

Elena got through her next classes without incident. Lunch time came and she was
looking forward
to see
ing
Sebastien and find
ing
out how he was doing. Now, where to sit?

She walked into the large open space. Students were everywhere, sitting in groups. There was
a
cluster of students dressed in tights, their hair pulled back into tight buns
-
obviously dancers. There were students with instruments by their feet and others relating stories with exaggerated hand gestures
.
P
robably actors.
There were kids practicing vocal harmonies and others typing on their laptops. The buzz was electrifying
,
yet somewhat overwhelming. Elena picked up her tray and moved along the
line
.
At
the back of the room were wall
-
to
-
wall glass windows
that
revealed an outdoor courtyard. On a warm sunny day like this, it seemed the perfect spot. She grabbed a burger and some salad and headed outside.

As she stood in the doorway looking around, she noticed Veronika slide onto the bench of a table that students were evacuating. Perfect.

“Nice move. Can I join you?”

“Sure.”

Her laptop was still open and she continued working as she ate.

“Lots of work to do?”

“Y
eah
,” Veronika said, not looking up from her computer. Elena slowly ate her lunch, surrounded by students laughing and talking.

“So, Elena right?” Frankie said as she stood next to Elena, her hands on her hips.

Elena nodded as Frankie came
a
round and sat beside her, crossing her legs.

“You’re doing acting
, right
?”

“Yeah.”

“So drama next period?”

“Ye
ah
.
I think they’re going to tell us about the auditions for the productions.”

“Pretty exciting
,
isn’t it?”

“Well, that’s the real world, I guess.”

“Oh, you
’
ll be fine.
Okay
, well,
I
just wanted to find someone in the same class,” Frankie said.

“This is
Roni
by the way.
Roni
, Frankie.”

Veronika looked up from the screen and smiled at Frankie.

“Hi,” Frankie said, waving her hand enthusiastically. Elena thought she saw Veronika cringe.

“Great spot El,” Sebastien said as he appeared from nowhere, sat next to Veronika and took a big bite out of his extra large sandwich.

“Ooh, hello,” Frankie said. “Is this the boyfriend?”

“Sebastien,” he replied.
”Best friend
,
not boyfriend.”
Veronika moved her face around the computer to look at Elena
with an arched eyebrow
.

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Frankie pouted. “I’m Frankie.”

“Are you a drama student?” he said.

“How did you guess?”

He shrugged. Elena could feel Veronika smiling behind the computer.

“I must be off,” Frankie said. “I’ll see you soon, El.”

“Bye.”

“Cute,” Sebastien said, munching on his sandwich.

“Definitely
perky
,” Elena agreed. “She’s interesting.”

“By the way, this is Veronika, Seb,” Elena said gesturing towards Veronika.

“
Roni
.”

“Hi
.
”

He peered over her shoulder to see what she was typing.

“Hey,” Veronika said, pulling the lid down.

“School newspaper?”

“Maybe.”

“Didn’t know freshmen wrote many of the articles.”

“They don’t usually
,
but I didn’t want to waste my first year writing classified ads so I decided to write the material and then convince them to use it.”

“Go
Roni
,” Elena said.

“What’s it about?” Sebastien continued.

“You know, first day of school. Who’s wearing what, doing
what.
Freshmen getting lost,
s
eniors feeling the pressure.
Who’s dumped who? You
know,
the good stuff
.
”

“How do you find out that stuff? You’re new here,” Elena said.

“It’s amazing how easy it is to be invisible behind a computer. People don’t notice you
’
re there. Plus, those in misery always want to be heard. I give them the opportunity.”

“Sneaky,” Sebastien said. “Nice work.”

Veronika smiled gratefully.

Sebastien finished his lunch and licked the top of his fingers. “That was good,” he said, patting his stomach. Elena had barely gotten through half her food when the bell rang.
Time for the last class
-
drama
.

Elena and Sebastien took seats at the back of the classroom, waiting for their drama class to begin. Sebastien placed his hands behind his head and leaned back against the chair. Elena looked around the room at the other students. Some looked familiar from the classes earlier today. Frankie bounced into the room moments later and sat in front of them.

“This will be interesting,” Frankie said glancing at them briefly before her eyes began scanning the room.  “Excuse me.”

She moved from her seat and went to sit near a group of boys, introducing
herself
and gaining their interest immediately. Elena wished she had that sort of confidence.