Page 1 of If This Was a Movie

ONE

JULES

“Miss Jules! I can’t find my tutu!”

The shout makes me jump, forcing the tip of my mascara wand to poke me in the eye, and I’m remindedonce againhow badly I need to finish my office.

I sigh, blinking as my eye waters, a black smear of mascara ruining my nearly finished makeup. “Have you checked your bag?” I ask the adorable, if not incredibly forgetful, little girl who ran in.

There’s silence before she says, “Not yet,” running off to find what she was looking for, probably exactly where it’s supposed to be.

I sigh, grabbing a makeup wipe while my assistant, Claire, laughs at me. I glare in her direction before she steps over, grabbing the makeup wipe from me, carefully cleaning the mess so I don’t have to redo my entire face.

“I could have done this, you know,” she says. “Filled in for Gina.”

Standing in full ballet costume to understudy the Sugar Plum Fairy for our dress rehearsal of the Nutcracker, I groan. “Yes, except you’re abandoning me tomorrow, and the point of today is to make sure the rest of the kids know how things will go forthe performance. If the twins aren’t better by then, I’ll be the one taking their place, unfortunately.”

Claire, the godsend who fell into my lap just under a year ago, is leaving tomorrow to move across the country with her boyfriend. She showed up for an interview for a teacher and assistant and got the job on the spot, seeming to be everything I needed to keep my sanity. As excited as I am for her to have an adventure, I also have no idea how I’m going to function without her now that my business is booming.

“I’m not abandoning you, Jules! Stop making me feel bad,” she says with a huff.

I smile and shake my head. “You know I’m just kidding. It’s just a lot going on right now.”

Two years ago, my best friend Ava joined a beauty pageant to help my and our friend Harper’s businesses out, and it changed all of our lives for good. Then last year, I had my hopeless romantic heart broken once and for all, so I decided to fall into my work, to ignore any dreams of love and romance because it never, ever lives up to your dreams, and continued to build the dance studio of my dreams.

What started as one small dance studio and a waiting area is now two large studios, a lounge for parents, and a locker room with room to grow.

It’s everything I dreamed of when I was a kid taking dance classes and daydreaming about the future. Even though I danced for as long as I could remember, I always knew I was never going to be some prima ballerina, performing on grand stages. I just love the feeling of losing myself, drifting to a secret place of content and safety in my mind where no one can touch.

No nagging mom, no men who always disappoint, no expectations, no reality.

Just me, myself, and the music.

“You just need to finish up the green room, Jules,” she says, sitting on the edge of my desk as I finish the rest of my makeup. “And your office.”

I groan aloud, knowing she’s right.

Two years ago, when I bought the building and opened First Position, we were only two small studios, a lounge for parents, and a front desk on the first floor of the three-story building, my apartment on the top floor.

Slowly, I’ve been finishing each room to be the studio of my dreams, but I’m also only one person, and while the studio is doing well, I enjoy paying those who work with me a living wage. That being said, I’m still working to finish a formal office with aworking door, another studio, and a dressing room for the dancers.

“I know, I know. I just need to save up a bit more, and then it’s next on the list.”

Claire shakes her head and rolls her eyes.

“You really should just let me call my brother. I know he would be more than willing to help out. I could even get you a family discount.”

“And you know that I want to do this on my own. I don’t need any help,” I tell her, not for the first time.

“I think you’ve more than proved to your mom you can do it, Jules. You don’t need to keep struggling just to prove a point.”

She’s never going to appreciate it anyway,Claire doesn’t say it aloud, but the words hang in the air anyway.

When my grandmother passed, leaving me a small inheritance, my mother begged me to use it for something practical, like a nice house in a well-off neighborhood where I could go on hot girl walks and bump into some rich man and convince him to marry me.

Instead, I bought the building where First Position was born and have been barely scraping by, updating it room by room all by myself.

My mother doesn’t get it, and Claire doesn’t understand why I refuse to get help, but I do. It’s mine. I’m proud of this place, knowing that every inch of this place hasmyblood, sweat, and tears.

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