Hi readers,
A while ago, I received an email from someone requesting a custom story. The characters, their appearance, what they wear, the setting and all the events in this story are all their suggestion; I have simply worked them into a story. I hope the person concerned is happy with my work and that you all also enjoy it.
MELD
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SANTINI SCHOOL OF DANCE, NEW YORK. NOVEMBER 1989.
"Alright girls, that will do for today. I will see you all tomorrow," Miss Laine chirped as the girls picked up their gear and made their way out of the studio towards the changing rooms. Seething with anger, Laura picked up her bag, slung it over her shoulder and stormed off towards the exit, slamming the door behind her.
"Laura...wait!" yelled a voice behind her.
Turning round, she found her friend, Maiko running to catch her up. Sighing, she placed her hands on her hips and waited for her.
"What's the matter?" her friend asked worriedly.
"I'm sorry Mai, I just had to get out of there," the brunette replied, wiping a tear from her left eye.
"Hey come on, don't get upset, you don't know you haven't made the final line up."
"Oh I know alright!" Laura huffed, stomping off down the corridor towards the exit.
"Where are you going?"
"Home!"
"At least let's get changed first Laura, it's freezing out there!" Maiko yelled after her, pulling on her short cardigan and throwing her bag over her shoulder.
"Sod it! It's only a couple of blocks!"
"Oh...oh alright, wait for me!"
Since moving to New York from London a year ago and joining the Santini School of Dance, Laura had hit it off almost instantly with Maiko, a petite Japanese American girl with warm soft brown eyes and a friendly personality to match. The English girl had always felt a strange attraction to her friend; her soft voice and beautiful smile usually had a soothing, calming effect on her whenever she lost her temper, but not today. Laura stormed through the doors and out into street leaving Maiko trailing in her wake.
"Jesus Laura, slow down!"
"Come on, keep up if you're coming with me, it's bloody freezing," Laura grumped, snaking her way along the crowded sidewalk.
"I told you we should have changed before we left. How do you think I feel? At least your leotard's got sleeves," groaned Maiko, trying to get her cardigan out of her bag and put it on as she struggled to keep up with her friend.
A few minutes later they arrived at Laura's apartment. Opening the front door, the brunette found a note on the floor; picking it up, she quickly read it, screwed it up and threw it in the waste paper basket.
"What was that?" asked Maiko.
"A reminder from the old cow downstairs that my rent is late," Laura sighed, pulling a bottle of wine from the fridge, "want a glass?"
"Erm...yeah okay," her friend smiled as she sat down on the sofa.
Pouring two large glasses, Laura handed one to her guest and flopped down next to her.
"Have you calmed down now?"
"No, not really," the brunette muttered, taking a large swig from her glass.
"Why, what's the matter?"
"Oh come on Mai, you were there. That bitch Laine did nothing but pick on me for that whole session. Every two minutes it was hands Laura, shoulders Laura, feet together Laura, neckline Laura. I tell you Mai, I've got no chance of being picked if she's got anything to do with it," Laura huffed, taking another sip.
"You don't know that yet, Miss Laine might be just pushing you a little harder because she knows you can do it," Maiko smiled, putting an arm around her.
"Bullshit! She just doesn't like me, simple as that."
Despite thinking her friend was perhaps over reacting a little, Maiko could understand why she was upset. In the New Year the school was sending some of the girls to put on a performance at a dance event in Berlin and all of them had been training hard to make the final line up, none more so than Laura. Every bit of spare time away from her bar job, the 21 year old had spent at the studio.
"Can you imagine what it's like over there at the moment Mai?" she sighed, getting up off the sofa and pacing over to the window, "the wall's only just come down, I would have bloody loved to have gone."
"I keep telling you, the line up's not been decided yet," Maiko said softly, getting up and putting her arm round the downhearted brunette. Turning to her friend, Laura smiled and hugged her.
"I like your cardigan Mai."
"Thanks, it's new," the dark haired girl smiled, taking a sip from her glass as she sat back down. The cardigan was pink, matching the rest of her outfit, a sleeveless leotard, short skirt, tights, ballet slippers and a clip with an artificial rose which she wore in her black, bobbed cut hair. Laura cast her gaze over the petite pretty 20 year old, the same old familiar twinge in the pit of her stomach making her whole body wince.
"Are you okay Laura?"
"Erm...yeah I'm fine Mai...sorry," the brunette smiled awkwardly, turning away.
"Oh, okay."
Smiling to herself, Maiko topped up her glass. It wasn't the first time Laura had looked at her strangely, far from it in fact. When they first met, it had made her feel uneasy, thinking the English girl had some sort of problem with her; but as their friendship grew, she simply dismissed it as just a quirk or just nerves. Smiling and nodding in agreement as Laura stood there bitching and complaining in her black long sleeve leotard, black short skirt and white tights, Maiko wondered why her friend looked at her in that strange way sometimes...unless she...no...it couldn't be that...could it?
"Who do you think will get the lead?" asked Maiko, dismissing the thought from her mind.
"Hah! Oh come on Mai! We all know who that's gonna be don't we? Fucking Gina de la Cruz!" Laura scoffed, flopping back down on the sofa and folding her arms.
"Maybe not."
"Oh you must be joking! She's been the lead in nearly every production we've been in. I can guarantee you she'll be there out front, all teeth and tits, hogging the limelight as per bloody usual."
"You have to admit Laura, Gina is a pretty good dancer," Maiko conceded, shrugging as she finished her glass.
"A good dancer? Come off it! I've seen drunks where I work with better co-ordination than her. Everyone knows why she nearly always gets the lead, and that's because her Dad is one the school's main backers and he's got old Ma' Santini and Miss Laine wrapped round his little finger. Huh! Gina de la Cruz...de la crap more like!"
"Finished your little rant now?" Maiko smirked at her friend.
"Yeah well Mai, she gets right on my tits, with her airy laugh, her stupid bloody outfits and that self satisfied smug look on her face. I'd love to smack her one again," the brunette continued as she topped up her glass.
"Well you definitely won't get picked for Berlin if you do that."
"I know, but it would be bloody worth it."
Generally speaking, most of the girls got along with each other; but there was certainly no love lost between Laura and Gina. The pair had taken an almost instant dislike to each other from the moment they had met. Laura despised the pretty blonde because she thought she had an unfair advantage over all the other girls. Hardly a session went by they didn't exchange a barbed comment or a catty remark at least once. On one occasion it boiled over after Gina called Laura a 'talentless Limey bitch' and the two came to blows, having to be separated by Miss Laine, an incident which resulted in Laura being suspended from the school for two weeks. After Maiko pleaded her case on her behalf and she begrudgingly apologised, Laura was allowed to return, provided there was no repeat of the incident. The brunette promised there wouldn't be, but the pair still continued snipe at each other.
"Have you got it all out of your system now?" Maiko teased as her friend finished another tirade of abuse directed at virtually everyone at the school.
"Yes...I think so," Laura sighed, smiling and sitting down next to her on the sofa.
"I wish you'd waited so we could have at least changed out of our ballet shoes. It won't have done my feet much good walking about outside in them, they feel really sore."
