“I justâ¦I hope you don't hate me now,” she says.
“Of course I don't.”
“Melissa does,” she says.
“She'll get over it.”
She shakes her head. “I don't know. She's not even speaking to me.” She blinks a few times. “And I really wanted to be Clara.”
“There's always next year,” I say. “Andâ¦umâ¦if Melissa still isn't talking to you next week, you can hang out with me and Cam and Mackenzie at lunch. If you want.”
She hands me the laptop. “Thanks, Cassandra.”
I head to my room, wondering what possessed me to say that. Shouldn't I be mad? But I'm not, for some reason. I feel like I've aged about five years over the past two weeks though.
I open Skype and call my parents.
While I wait for them to answer, I think about what Diana said about Melissa:
I don't know that Melissa has ever had a chance to want anything else.
I've always complained about my parents not understanding my love of dancing, always felt frustrated by their insistence that I take time off, not work so hard, have other interestsâ¦but maybe all of that has been a good thing.
Maybe it's allowed me to have a choice.
Maybe it's given me the freedom to know what I want.
My mom's face appears on the screen. “Cassie!”
“Hi, Mom,” I say.
“How's your ankle? Is everything okay?”
I nod slowly. “Yeah,” I tell her. “Everything is really good.”
Many thanks to Maureen Eastick, ballet teacher and choreographer, for welcoming me into her studio and allowing me to watch as she taught, encouraged and inspired a group of young dancers. Thanks also to Sasha Beardmore, Alyssa Beattie and Sophia Harrington for all their encouragement and suggestions; to Alex Van Tol and Kari Jones for being great writing buddies; and to Sarah Harvey, as always, for being such a fabulous editor and friend.
ROBIN STEVENSON
is the author of more than a dozen books for children and teens, including four novels in the Orca Soundings series. Robin spends most of her time writing, hanging out with her son and teaching creative writing to adults, teens and kids. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia, with her family. For more information, please visit
www.robinstevenson.com
.