Rhythm and Blues (2 page)

Miss Caroline arrived to begin class. I guess I got lucky because our lyrical warm-ups aren't very energetic or cardio-based, like our jazz ones.

Lyrical warm-ups focus on movements that have a natural, flowing feel to them. There are a lot of swings, isolations, contractions and long stretches to get your blood pumping. So I handled those pretty well, keeping as
much weight as I could off my bad ankle and cheating in some of the stretches.

Although I did notice Paige looking at me a bit suspiciously when I didn't go as far into my lunges as I usually do. She knows I give it my all in class every single time, no matter if it's warm-up, travelling, or choreography work. I hate doing anything when I know, with less laziness, I could have done better. Ellie is a bit the same, I guess, which is why we get on, even though we're both so different.

I gave Paige a bright smile like I had no idea why she would think anything was wrong, but even so I hurried over to the corner when it came time for travelling work. I could tell it was on the tip of her tongue to ask if there was something up with my ankle, and I didn't want anyone, not even Paige, to know I was dancing when perhaps I shouldn't be.

It could only last so long, though.

Travelling steps proved my downfall.

I figured out pretty quick that there was no pretending when it came to posé turns and saut de basque jumps. Even simple lyrical travelling steps like a waltz, tombé or pas de bourrée were a struggle. Putting any sort of weight on my ankle became a real problem, and eventually it began to hurt so much that when I was landing jumps and leaps, I started to flinch.

All the time I could feel Paige's eyes on me, watching very, very carefully. I couldn't help it, though. I kept pushing. I prided myself on my technical steps and setting an example for the other girls. I felt like a failure if I sat out or started doing the exercises with half my usual energy.

‘Riley,' Paige said to me, as I lined up to do my turning jetés. ‘Is your foot okay? Because you shouldn't be …'

I took off then, before she could finish, in case anyone else could hear. But because I was in such a hurry to get away, I mucked up my timing and messed up my preparation for the turn leap.

Then it happened.

I turned, leapt, landed … and it felt like someone had just smashed a branch into my ankle. I stumbled, tried to right myself, half fell and half lowered my body to the floor. Pain flared up my leg from my ankle.

I had a very, very bad feeling that I'd just made everything a hundred times worse.

I bit my lip. My ankle hurt so badly.

Do not cry, Riley, do not cry.

‘Riley!' Paige yelled, breaking away from the corner and rushing over to me. A few busybody girls followed her.

I had to get out of the room. I absolutely could not have a repeat of yesterday.

Paige flung herself down next to me. ‘I
knew
something was wrong!' she exclaimed. ‘Is it your ankle?'

The other girls arrived at the scene and Miss Caroline pushed through them. ‘Give her some space,' she said, gently. ‘Riley? What's happened? Did you land funny?'

‘I … I …' I hung my head and clutched at my ankle, trying to stop the flares of pain from running up my shin. ‘I hurt it a little at basketball and then I put too much weight on it and … and …' I grimaced. ‘It really hurts!'

Miss Caroline looked at me and I felt like she knew everything that was going on in my head, including that I felt like the world's biggest dummy.

‘Okay, Riley,' she said, and gave a brisk clap. ‘Girls, that's enough, return to the corner. Bethany, you run and get Jay – he's on the reception desk today – and tell him to come and carry Riley out to my office. Paige, you want to go with them?'

Paige nodded very seriously, her long lashes blinking back her own tears.

Miss Caroline knelt down next to me while everyone else but Paige went back to the corner.

‘She probably did it on purpose,' I heard one girl, Jasmine, mutter. ‘For the attention.'

Jasmine is a great dancer but she's also pretty snobby. She and her sidekick, Tove, are always making life difficult for me and my friends. It was just like Jasmine to say something like that, and stupid too, because
as if
I wanted everyone eyeballing me while I was sprawled on the ground.

But my ankle hurt too much to even think about saying something snappy back to her.

‘Can you put weight on it?' Miss Caroline asked.

I shook my head. I knew I couldn't. It was
ten times worse than at basketball. I was really afraid I'd done something serious.

‘You've probably got a sprain, judging by the way you landed,' Miss Caroline said. ‘We'll keep it elevated and ice it here, but I'll get Jay to call your parents to come pick you up. I recommend you go to the doctor, honey, especially if you had a problem with it before class.'

I nodded miserably and wished the walls of Silver Shoes would tumble down around me. ‘I'm sorry, Miss Caroline,' I whispered. ‘I just didn't want to miss today's lesson, not with exams so close.'

Miss Caroline gave a kind chuckle and squeezed my arm. ‘I understand,' she said. ‘Your commitment is fantastic. But you should never put your health at risk. You only had to tell me and I would have let you modify everything – or you even could
have watched along with me to keep the steps in your memory. It isn't a weakness to give your body a rest every now and then.'

Paige put her arms around me. ‘Riley is very stubborn,' she said, ‘but that's why we love her. She always gives everything 100 per cent, Miss Caroline.'

Miss Caroline nodded at my ankle. ‘Well, let's just hope you make a 100 per cent recovery from this.'

Jay dashed in then, making ambulance noises. He's the hip hop teacher at Silver Shoes. Everyone has a crush on him because he's young and funny and has terrific shaggy hair. Not me, though. Having three older brothers makes you allergic to boys!

‘Doctor Jay to the rescue,' he joked, pretend-driving to me. ‘Heard you got yourself an injury, Riles? You okay, chicky? You need ol' Jay to give you a leg up?'

I nodded.

‘Woo!' Jay teased. ‘Not even a comeback from the young lady! This must be serious!'

That, at least, made me smile.

‘Come on,' Jay said. ‘Hang onto my arm there, that's it.' I put all my weight on my left leg as he helped me upright. ‘Now I get to sweep you off your feet.' He grinned and, to my total embarrassment, lifted me up so I was being carried off like some princess in a fairytale.

Poor Paige gave an embarrassed giggle for me as Jay tipped her a wink.

‘It's how I get all the ladies,' he said. ‘Right! Let's go get some ice and make some calls. The health and wellbeing of Madam's dainty foot depends on it!'

But I had a feeling that my injury was a lot more serious than his jokiness let on.

‘You're not supposed to dance for three weeks?' Ellie flung herself back on my bed, kicking her legs up. Her pink sneaker pumps almost hit me in the face. She widened her green eyes dramatically and clutched at her heart. ‘I would die!'

‘And even then, when the three weeks is up, I'll still have to take it easy for a while and not do anything too “strenuous”.' I stared
glumly at my foot, which was propped up on two pillows and covered with a bag of frozen corn.

The girls had come round to my house Tuesday afternoon, a few days after my fall at Silver Shoes, and I was delivering them the news:

I, Riley Nason, had a sprained ankle.

In other words, my life as I knew it was over.

At least for a couple of weeks.

Ashley looked over from where she was trying on my collection of hats in the mirror. ‘I'm sorry, Riles,' she said. ‘Does that mean you have to miss some basketball games too?'

‘Yeah,' I said. ‘And the track meet next month.' I punched my spare pillow and scowled at the frozen corn. ‘What am I going to do? I can't just sit around at home all day! I already missed ballet on Monday night. I'm going to fall behind!'

‘You can play with Del?' suggested Paige, who was sitting on the floor, holding my baby sister, Del, and making cute faces at her.

Paige is an only child, so she loves playing with Del or Ellie's little brother, Lucas. She's great with them, too. Sometimes I think they like her more than us!

‘Del's cool,' I said, giving my sister a smile, which she returned with her crooked baby teeth. ‘But she spends most of the day sleeping.'

‘Ugh!' Ashley joked. ‘I'd love to spend all day sleeping! Maybe we can swap places?'

‘I'd swap places with anyone who had a working ankle,' I said.

‘Even Jasmine?' asked Ellie, fluffing out her blonde curls as she lay down next to me and reached for one of Nana's coconut sugar cookies.

Ashley giggled. ‘You'd get a working ankle but an empty brain instead.'

‘Be nice,' Paige warned. ‘Riley, what happened after you left Silver Shoes on Saturday? Did you go straight to the doctor?'

‘Yeah,' I said. ‘Nana took me. The doctor made me move my ankle in different ways, and he poked and prodded at it and all the time it was growing to the size of a water-melon! Then I had to get an X-ray. They made me take my jewellery off and then wear this weird apron thing.'

‘That's why I will never allow myself to get sick or injured,' said Ellie. ‘Hospitals are so unfashionable.'

‘The price you pay when you're saving lives,' Ashley said, playfully throwing a cap at Ellie, who lunged to protect the sugar cookies. ‘You'd probably add rhinestones to your hospital smock.'

‘Anyway,' I interrupted, ‘we got the results back and I have a sprained ankle. The doctor
said it's bordering on Grade Two, which is like in the middle of how bad a sprained ankle can be. So if I keep this compression bandage on it and ice it twice a day for at least a week, then after a few more weeks I can slowly get back into dancing and all that.'

‘Did the doctor give you instructions on how to care for it and the strengthening exercises you should do daily?' Paige asked. ‘I remember when my mum hurt her ankle at the gym and she got this booklet on rehabilitation. It really helped her.'

‘Yeah, he did,' I said, shrugging at a pile of papers I'd dumped by the side of my bed. ‘I haven't really looked at them, though. Whatever. It isn't exactly hard to keep my weight off my foot and do some pointing and flexing.'

‘But he gave them to you for a reason,' Paige insisted. ‘You should at least check them out. There must be something in there that'll help.'

‘I know how to look after my own body, Paige!' I snapped.

She looked at me in surprise and then turned to Del, picking at one of the buttons on her baby smock.

Ellie sat up and glared at me angrily. She gets really defensive over Paige, and I knew that if she was giving me her ‘Ellie' look, I'd gotten a bit out of line.

I sighed. ‘I'm sorry,' I said. ‘I didn't mean to be mean, Paige. I'm just disappointed. And annoyed at myself for doing this. And … worried. Exams are so close. It's just the worst time to get an injury.'

‘Urst!' agreed Del.

Paige smiled and smoothed my baby sister's hair. ‘That's all right,' she said, ‘I understand. But we'll help you if we can. And you're so fit and strong, Riley. I'm sure you'll be back to your best in no time.'

‘Hear, hear,' agreed Ashley. She deepened her voice. ‘Coming to a cinema near you:
Riley's Return
. How one girl dared to jeté where no girl had jetéd before.' She came up and slung one of my caps on my head. ‘Come in to jazz tomorrow, yeah? Just to sit and watch. It might make you feel better. Miss Caroline won't mind.'

I screwed up my nose. Sitting and watching everyone else dance didn't sound like much fun. But being at Silver Shoes always made me feel good. Maybe the key to a healthy ankle was a happy heart?

I'd give it a try.