LITMIR.BIZ

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thought as she felt her face. What is the point if it makes my face bigger?

      She sighed and turned on her laptop. Immediately a message from Jules popped up.

Alexandra Dunstan
Julian Reese Hey
Alexandra Dunstan Hey, ‘sup?
Julian Reese Um, nothing. Do you have Leah’s number?
Alexandra Dunstan Ya …wait a sec
Alexandra Dunstan 778-448-2053 is her cell
Alexandra Dunstan She runs Movement Conspiracy, u can google them
Julian Reese Thx!
Alexandra Dunstan No prob
Alexandra Dunstan How was RAD?
Julian Reese Uh…rlly bad
Julian Reese Haha! Always
Julian Reese Was rehearsal good?
Alexandra Dunstan It was ok…
Alexandra Dunstan Gotta go for dinner, see u tmw
Julian Reese K, good night
Alexandra Dunstan ’night
|

      Alexandra smiled, looking at the blank screen. Jules is rather sweet …

      Emma burst angrily into the room. “Mom said that you had to set the table. I did it yesterday; you have to do it today.” Alexandra ignored her.

      “I’m not doing it!” whined Emma.

      “Fine! Just be quiet and go away!”

      Alexandra went downstairs and began setting the table.

      Chapter Eight

      Julian Reese

      “I, I wish you could swim — Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim — Though nothing, nothing will keep us together … We can beat them, forever and ever…!”

      Julian woke up and reached to turn off his alarm clock. It wasn’t there. But it continued to beep. He realized that, somehow, he was facing the wrong way. He flipped, reached blearily for the alarm-off button, then flopped back down on the bed and closed his eyes with relief at the silence. He lay there for a second, psyching himself up, then managed to jolt himself out of bed. He yawned as he felt his legs clench. Too many classes. It was five o’clock, way too early to be conscious, but Mr. Yu was making him do school shows with the youth company because they needed another boy. So he was going to some random elementary school to perform. He yawned again and stumbled into his clothes.

      Mrs. Yu had gotten up even earlier and made breakfast. Julian was confused. He had assumed that they would just eat cereal, like usual. He looked across at the girls, but they just shrugged. He sat down and took his plate, wondering what the mound of greasy, white, slightly burnt food was exactly. He prodded it with his fork, running a list of possibilities through his head: Fritter? Pancake? Dumpling? He tried a bit. All he tasted was oil, held together by flour. He spat it out in a napkin.

      “Its last night’s dumplings,” Mrs. Yu said. “Mash, is pancake. You try.” Julian was horrified. He hadn’t liked the dumplings the first time around, and he was sure that he’d puke if he tried them a second time. The girls started giggling and handed their plates back to Mrs. Yu.

      “What’s wrong? You don’t want breakfast?”

      Julian handed back his plate, too. “It’s just kinda too early for breakfast.” His stomach growled, and he wondered if he had any energy bars in his room.

      “Okay, okay. If you don’t want breakfast, tell me before I get up and make!”

      Julian followed the girls out into the hall. “Do you guys have any food?”

      Keiko giggled and said, “You should eat Mrs. Yu’s breakfast, if you’re so hungry.”

      Mao nodded, grinning. “Then you grow very tall, and not get sick,” she imitated Mrs. Yu.

      “Just gimme some food? Please?” Julian pleaded. They went into Mao’s room, and Keiko went to grab some of her stash too. They spread it out on the bed.

      “Hurry up,” Keiko said. “We have to get ready for the show, and I don’t want leave you here with my food.”

      Julian grinned at her and made his selection. He thanked the girls before leaving with the food under his shirt.

      As soon as he was ready, Julian went out into the kitchen. Mr. Yu was already there, eating his breakfast. Julian watched him in amazement. He didn’t even seem to taste what he was eating. Suddenly he stood up and said, “Okay, go now.”

      Everyone trudged after him to the van and shoved into the vehicle, trying to make room among all the costumes.

      “Where are we going?” Julian whispered to Keiko as they headed downtown.

      “To the academy to pick up everyone else,” Keiko whispered back. Julian groaned. Of course, the other dancers needed a ride. But it seemed like an impossible number of people to fit in the van. The others got into the van with a chorus of “Ohayou,” and “’Morning,” and then they all lapsed into silence.

      When they finally got to the school, a custodian let them into the gym where they would be performing. Everybody started stripping down to their dance clothes and putting on their warm-ups. Julian stopped moving.

      “What’s wrong?” Kageki asked curiously, noticing Julian’s horrified expression.

      “I forgot my warm-ups. And my non-costume dance clothes!”

      Kageki laughed. “Sorry, man, that sucks,” he said, trying to be sympathetic. “I write a list of everything I need to bring every day, and then I check it all off,” he told Julian as they both went to get chairs to use as a barre.

      “What? Like, everything?”

      “Yes, everything. Cellphone, dance belt, lunch, pencils …”

      “You are really weird,” Julian said shaking his head. Kageki grinned. He didn’t deny it.

      Mr. Yu yelled, “Hurry!” impatiently, and began to leading the exercises before they had finished setting up their chairs. Julian reached down to hold his chair and realized that it wasn’t going to be any help at all. It was way too short and light to support him. He moved over to the wall and tried to find a surface that he could grip onto. It was all very smooth, so he gave up and just touched the wall lightly to get his balance. He tried to stand in first position in preparation for the exercise as Mr. Yu tried to find a good piece of music, but his feet immediately slid out of position on the slippery floor. He looked over at Tristan and Kageki, who just smirked at him.

      “Got any rosin?” he asked hopefully.

      “Nope,” Kageki said, looking forward as Mr. Yu glared at him.

      “Sprinkle some water on the floor,” Tristan whispered.

      “I forgot my water bottle,” Julian whispered back. Tristan rolled his eyes and passed his over.

      When Julian was done sprinkling the floor, Tristan happily grabbed his bottle from Julian and started to spray the rest of the floor, too.

      “Ahh! Too much!” Aiko wailed, as Kageki narrowly missed splashing her pointe shoes.

      “Enough,” Mr. Yu said impatiently. They all went back to their chairs and walls, the girls glaring at the boys as they attempted to avoid the puddles of water and grumbled about it ruining their pointe shoes. They got through pliés without incident. Mr. Yu actually just stood there, staring into space, as they did the exercise.

      He snapped out of it and started to give a tendu exercise, but stopped suddenly and ordered them to take their clothes off. They groaned and began shedding layers. They did the rest of the barre in a hurry and had no centre practice as Mr. Yu suddenly realized what time it was. The second they finished, they changed into their costumes in a panic, and the girls began fixing their pointe shoes and trying to warm their feet up a bit more. The boys went into the centre of the gym and began testing out their pirouettes.

      “I love this floor!” Julian said as he

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