Practice Makes Perfect (Completed)

Chapter 17

Anastasia was in no condition to be dancing in a tournament, but a point was added to her total for every tournament she danced at, regardless of results. If she wanted to get her overall score above 50 before the state meet without any big wins, she needed to attend as many small tournaments as possible.

"Alright, so if you can score a win that's great, but we're mostly here for the participation points and to scope out the new girl. She hasn't showed up yet, but I hear she's coming, and it'll be good to have some information on her before we have to actually compete."

"Right." Anastasia agreed, leaning against her palm.

"You have got to perk up. If you can't get up on stage, we lose that point."

"I'm sorry. I just haven't heard from Luke in a few days, and I can't stop wondering if he's found someone else." Anastasia whined.

"I'd love to discuss this later to assure you things are fine, but I need you to be all smiles out on stage. If they think you're in pain, they could stop the dance halfway through."

"Right." Anastasia took a deep breath. "I've got this."

"Glad to see the change of heart. You're on next."

Anastasia rushed to take her place behind the curtain, and counted beats in her head as the girl performing ahead of her finished her routine. She stretched and balanced on her good leg as she waited for her chance to take the stage.

During the applause for the girl ahead of her, the two dancers switched places, and Anastasia took a starting position on the stage. There wasn't much of a crowd, but there were three judges she had to convince she sucked.

The music began, and she smiled as she ran through the simple moves she had been practicing. Her routine was going flawlessly , if simply, when the auditorium's doors opened, and a pair of teenagers rushed in. She wished she could ignore them, but one look at the boy in the duo revealed an inconvenient truth--the hat was a dead giveaway.

Luke was there, and he was with some other girl.

Her smile suddenly fell, and with it so did she. Her ankle had been in pain for the whole routine, but she hadn't really noticed it until it combined with the pain in her heart to create a swirling abyss of unpleasantness. She felt a tear start to leak even as she tried to remind herself of her priorities.

"Do we need a medic?" one of the judges called out.

Anastasia waved a hand instead of saying no. She tried to struggle to her feet, but the cast wasn't made to stand on, and it was nearly impossible without a bar to lean on. She was still somewhat upset about Luke, but her sadness had only been a momentary distraction. Her injury was what kept her glued to the floor.

After several failed attempts to return to her feet, the sound crew put her out of her misery and turned of the music. Her coach rushed out onto the stage and carried her off it, Careful not to knock her ankle against anything as he returned her to the warm up room.

"What the hell happened out there?" He snapped. "All we needed was a performance. It didn't have to be spectacular, it only had to be believable. Is that too much to ask."

"I'm sorry." she wiped what might have been a tear away with the back of her hand. "I guess I just got distracted.