Page 39 of Broken

After visiting our sister camp, Abstract Arcs, and watching your performance, we’d like to offer you an audition for our prestigious program…

My eyes whizzed over the rest of the email, and I literally started bouncing as I screamed.

Footsteps pounded down the stairs, and Annie and Jet came racing over.

“What? What happened?” Annie sounded panicked, her eyes darting around the room as I jumped up and down, clutching my phone to my chest.

“I got it!”

“Huh?”

“I got it!”

“Got what, sis?” Annie huffed.

Jet gave me an amused look. “In her defense, you’re not making much sense.”

I shook my head, because how were they not getting how big of a deal this was?

Leo: Did you get it, too??

Me: Yes!!!! Ahhhh!!!!

“Izzy!” I looked up, surprised to see Annie’s outright frustration. “What did you get?”

I held out my phone, and Jet took it, my face beaming. “Baste Academy! They want an audition!”

Annie blinked before a smile slowly formed on her face. “That’s awesome. Congrats.” She opened her arms, and I grabbed her, bouncing up and down again. Jet just watched, laughing.

“That’s seriously great, Izzy. When is it?”

I nodded at my phone with the email. “In a couple of months. December. Oh! I have to get ready. I have to start preparing.” I yanked at my apron strings. “Shit. The soup.” I was making Tucker soup. I grabbed the strings again, my hands fumbling in my excitement as I tried to retie, and Jet laughed, tugging me back by the strings to fix it. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” He was still laughing. “And I thoughtIwas excited about recruiters.”

I shot him a playful look, sticking out my tongue. I was so freaking excited. I caught Annie’s expression out of the corner of my eye. The one she didn’t want me to see, and I stopped.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She shook her head, clearly not.

“Annie…”

“I’m sorry.” Her voice grew tight. “I’m being awful. This is amazing for you, and I’msohappy for you, but at the same time, I’m not. I’m just not. I know you’ve been dreaming about dance school. It’s been the reality for years. But my dream has been the four of us at collegetogether. That won’t happen now if you get this. So, while Iwantyou to get this, I really do, I also don’t.”

She dropped her head, and Jet reached out to rub her back. Meanwhile, my heart swelled because everything she said? I got it. Down to my toes I got it. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere not near her or Tucker or Jet next year. But this was mydream.

I stepped forward and pulled her into a giant hug, making sure everything in it told her what she needed to know. Everything I felt. When we finally pulled back, our gazes met, and we nodded. Both of us understood.

“Always.” Our voices mixed as we squeezed each other’s hands.

“And five, six, seven, eight,” I counted, Leo and I falling into our steps with the music. We made it to the second chorus when Leo broke rank. “No. Nope, not working.” I hit pause on the sound system as he linked his hands behind his head to pace in front of the mirror. “The pattern just isn’t flowing right. We can do better. You’re awesome. This routine is awesome, but it’s just missing…” He rubbed his fingers together.

“Something.” I nodded, my hands resting at my hips as I contemplated how to fix it. He was right. It was good, great even, but for Baste Academy, we were shooting for phenomenal. The best we’d ever done.

“How about we change the motifbeforethe spin instead? I suggested. “We could go from this,” I demonstrated one of the moves we’d already been using, “and go into a backflip. Then I can jump or go into an arc where you catch me and flip me around over your back into a lift?”

Leo nodded, considering. “Okay, I’m intrigued. Let’s give it a try.”

---