Centre Stage: A Novel

Justine was smiling. My warm feelings for her disappeared in a flash.
    ‘Doing well, Sophie,’ Samantha called.
    Dizzy shot her an annoyed look. ‘That’s enough, Samantha!’
    Red in the face, I stood up.
    ‘What happened there?’ Dizzy called to me. ‘You seemed to lose your balance completely.’
    ‘I… I don’t know,’ I replied.
    ‘Try again. Just from the jump. And five, six, seven, eight!’
    As I started the side step into the first jump my feet slipped on the floor.
    ‘Hang on, Sophie. Stop!’ Dizzy shouted.
    I stopped. ‘What have you got on your feet?’ she demanded, walking over to me and staring at my toes.
    ‘Dance socks,’ I said uncertainly.
    ‘Dance socks?’ Dizzy raised her eyebrows. ‘And what are dance socks?’
    I stared at her. What did she mean — what are dance socks? She was a dance teacher. And then I heard the red team’s sniggers and it hit me. It was a joke. Justine had tricked me!
    ‘Um… er,’ I stammered.
    ‘Take them off,’ Dizzy said abruptly.
    I quickly removed them. ‘Well, I don’t know who’s being telling you that these are dance socks,’ Dizzy said, shaking her head as she looked at them. ‘But it’s lucky you didn’t break your ankle. Dancing in these would be like trying to dance on ice.’ She looked at me. ‘So, who told you to wear them?’
    I ached to tell her the truth but I wasn’t going to drop Justine in it — no matter how much I wanted to. I looked at the floor.
    ‘I see,’ Dizzy said after a moment. ‘Well, I advise you to no longer listen to whoever told you to wear them. Now, let’s try the dance again — this time without the socks.’
    But the fall had put me off and it took me ages to get the dance even vaguely right.
    ‘Let’s leave it there,’ Dizzy said at last, to my relief. ‘Justine, your turn now.’
    I went slowly back to my team. They were looking confused.
    ‘Have a good trip?’ Samantha grinned as I walked past.
    David and Xav laughed.
    I felt myself go red. How could I have been so stupid to have been taken in like that? I should have known it was a trick.
    ‘Let me know if you want to borrow some dance socks again,’ Samantha said. ‘I haven’t laughed so much in ages!’
    I saw Colette’s eyes widen as she put two and two together. ‘You gave Sophie those socks?’
    ‘Well, Justine did, but it was my idea,’ Samantha said. ‘Good joke, wasn’t it?’
    ‘Joke? She could really have hurt herself!’ Colette said angrily.
    ‘It was a stupid thing to do!’ Jack said.
    ‘Oh, lighten up,’ Samantha drawled.
    ‘Quiet over there!’ Dizzy called.
    We all shut up. ‘Stupid idiots!’ Colette whispered to me. ‘Are you OK?’
    I nodded. But inside I was still smarting. It had been a mean trick to play and I felt totally betrayed by Justine. OK, so maybe she was jealous that I’d got to be interviewed and she hadn’t, and the trick had been Samantha’s idea not hers, but she needn’t have gone along with it. Anger and hurt surged through me. To think I’d imagined we might actually be friends. Huh! I should have known better than to trust Justine Wilcox.
    After Justine had danced — effortlessly, of course — through the solo, Dizzy announced that we were going to go through all the dances that we had learnt so far.
    ‘I want to get an idea of how all the dances are looking and how well you are remembering them,’ she told us. ‘So we’ll go through them without stopping.’
    While the rest of the chorus danced the opening number, I took my place with the other principals at the side. Samantha smirked at me. I could tell she thought I was going to mess up and my heart sank.
    Samantha was right. I managed the first few dances OK but then I got completely lost in the beaver dance, and in the celebration of Asian’s return I was late on almost every spin.
    Around me the rest of the cast seemed to be spinning and jumping perfectly, every movement right on time. I could feel myself blushing. I caught Dizzy looking at me. Try harder , I urged myself.
    ‘Take a ten-minute break and then we’ll go through each dance slowly,’ Dizzy told us at the end.
    Everyone started to stand up. As I got to my feet, I saw Dizzy heading towards me. Oh no. She was going to say something about how awful I’d been. She was going to tell me I needed extra help. Maybe she was even going to make me go through the dances now on my own in front of everyone.
    I couldn’t cope.
    ‘Sophie…’ Dizzy