Taken and Misused.

“Stephen, you are not the teacher here” the older man, who I guessed was Mr. Delmonte, said. Stephen, at least I assumed he was Stephen, crossed his arms.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t find my way around” I apologized, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear, my cheeks lighting up with a rosy color. My face was always so readable, sometimes it annoyed me.

“That’s understandable, your first day in New York” he mused, indicating for me to put my things down, “it must be a big transition from France; please put your pointe shoes on Elisabeth” he said. Mr. Delmonte gracefully moved across the hard wood floor as Stephen began stretching.

I sat down and pulled my new pointe shoes out of my bag and stretched and bent them a few times to loosen them up. I had done this last night, my step-mom had thrown out my old, broken in ballet shoes and had bought me new ones. She had absolutely no clue about ballet. I knew as I slipped on my brand new, never broken in, ballet shoes that by the end of today I would have very tore up feet, ballet wasn’t all pretty all the time. As I laced them up I noticed Stephen was watching me, I crossed the ribbons and met his gaze with an eyebrow raised, “yes?” I asked.

“Nothing” he replied, his Russian accent only slightly evident. I’d had so many Russian teachers to be able to point out their accent just by hearing one word.

I shrugged, I wasn’t going to push him to tell me, I had a feeling it wouldn’t be nice. I finished off tying my shoes with a sturdy knot at the back of each my ankles. I stretched, still with Stephen’s gaze on me, I brought my hands down to touch my toes so that my whole body was folded in half then I moved into a split and touched the floor in front of me. I felt a pressure on my back pushing me down slightly. “You are very flexible but before you begin dancing in my class I advise you push your limits a bit more” Mr. Delmonte said, I saw Stephen grin but I only nodded and continued stretching.

Stephen was finished before me and he was up doing small moves, changing his foot placement with small jumps, a move called Balancé .

“First position Elisabeth” Mr. Delmonte called, pacing in front of me with slow steps.

I slipped into position with my feet turned outwards, touching at the heels and my legs straight.

“Arabesque” he called to me and I slid my weight onto one foot and extended my arms to create graceful lines while my other leg lifted to form a ninety degree angle with my first.

‘Assemblé” he commanded when I returned to first position. I slid my foot in front of me in a half-circle then swept it up into the air, my momentum carrying my other foot up as well and I extended the toes of that leg down so I landed on point.

“Your form is very precise and elegant, you obviously know the forms very well and I can see that dancing comes naturally to you” Mr. Delmonte praised, I kept a modest expression on my face, no smile. Most teachers in ballet didn’t see praise as a reason to smile. “ But I can also see you have become too much acquainted with dancing solo” he said, this was why you didn’t smile when you got praise, it always led to criticism and you didn’t want to be the idiot who was smiling like a fool only to have it swept off your face in two seconds. “That is why Stephen is here, I believe dancing with a partner will improve your dancing, as well as his own” Mr. Delmonte said, wiping the grin off of Stephen face and making a grin of my own tug at my own lips.

“This institute is holding a recital in a few months, for partners only, and you two are going to be in it” he continued, going over to an expensive looking stereo and pressing play, a slow waltz began playing and I recognized it as a piece of Choppin. “First you must learn when to lead and when to follow” he said, moving his hand to the tempo of the music.

“What do you mean when? The man always leads” Stephen said, his Russian pride evident.

“You are obviously misled” I retorted as we approached each other.

“A waltz, please” Mr. Delmonte said, speaking over Stephen’s next words.

I placed my hand in his and then my other on his shoulder, he grasped my hand lightly and positioned his hand on my waist. After a moment we caught the tempo and I let him lead me, as was traditional in waltzing.

“Now Elisabeth, you lead” Mr. Delmonte said, watching us carefully. I switched my movements to lead us and Stephen stepped on my toes but we continued after Mr. Delmonte instructed us to do so.

We continued this for an hour, each of us taking a turn at leading. Soon neither of us stepped on each other’s feet. Stephen moved to lead me into a twirl and I followed through, rising up on point and then going down onto flat feet once more as we went back into form and went back to the tempo of the music.

“Alright, stop but stay in form” Mr. Delmonte said and we stopped, holding in our form with my hand raised in his, my other on his shoulder and his hand that wasn’t holding mine was on my waist. My eyes were fixed on his chest, seeing as he was about a foot and a half taller than me.

Mr. Delmonte stopped in front of us and tipped my chin up and tilted Stephen’s head down so we were making eye contact. “Eye contact is very crucial to dancing with a partner, nothing connects you better than the eyes” he said, he skimmed a foot behind Stephen’s, tapping it once so Stephen slid his foot forward, bringing him and I closer together. It was absolutely uncomfortable, I didn’t know this guy and yet here we were, no space left between us. When I went to look away Mr. Delmonte tilted my head back up with two fingers under my chin. “Eye contact Elisabeth” he repeated.
“Now, once more” he called pressing restart on the song we had been dancing to.

We began to repeat what we had been doing for the past hour, this time closer and our eye contact only wavered when one of us stepped on each other’s toes, which was rarely.

“Think you can follow a bit better this time?” Stephen taunted, raising an eyebrow.

“Think you can brush your teeth next time?” I shot back, even though his breath didn’t smell at all.

“Dancing does not require speaking” Mr. Delmonte said, watching us from across the room. We both quieted but I knew this partnership would not turn out well. We were both too stubborn and too prideful.

------ ------ ------- ------- -------

The music stopped and me and Stephen both glanced over at Mr. Delmonte, “wonderfully done you two, for your first time as partners” he said, turning off the stereo. “Tomorrow I advise you wear dance heels Elisabeth” he added to me, looking pointedly down at my ballet shoes. My feet were slightly cramp from not going up on point, the piece of wood at the tip rubbing into my toes uncomfortably and I could feel my stockings rubbing the raw skin on my heel and the sides of my feet. Ballet shoes were not made for waltzing, especially new ones.

“When are we going to start ballet Mr. Delmonte?” I asked, seeing the slight confusion on Stephen’s face as well.

“You may know ballet, but you do not know it when dancing with a partner, it becomes a whole different dance” he said, smiling lightly. “First you two have to get a long” he said, I guess he had noticed the slight animosity between me and Stephen.

“See you tomorrow” Mr. Delmonte said, a chuckle in his voice. What was so funny? I had no clue.

We watched him leave then returned to pack our things.

“How about you get here on time Elisabeth?” Stephen questioned, his hand on the door knob to leave, his other holding his dance bag. He had pulled on a pair of jogging pants and was now watching me untie my ballet shoes. I stopped and looked up at him.

“What made you so angry with me?” I asked, fed up with his attitude, going back to untying my shoes. I slipped them off and pulled on some soft ballet slippers, easing them on to avoid rubbing the skinned sections of my feet.

“I don’t want to work with a partner” he said, looking at my feet with no shock, any ballerina would know why someone’s feet would get that tore up during one practice.

“Well I didn’t sign up to be your partner either” I replied, standing up and putting my shoes in my dance bag. When I looked back up he was gone, I would definitely be calling my mother and asking if she had known about this partner thing.

When I left the dance school I looked up to see that familiar black mustang waiting for me. I sighed and walked up to it, Vaughn rolled down his window and grinned at me.

“Hey princess” he greeted.

“You’re acting like a stalker, how did you know when my class got out?” I asked, ignoring the little nickname he had used for me. Each dance class had a specific time that they got out, this was a very elite school, only a handful of students were admitted.

“Good guess” he said with a shrug. “Get in, I’ll take you home, you look like the walking dead” he said grinning at his little joke.

“You know just how to compliment a girl Vaughn” I muttered as I slipped into his car. If he had been planning on kidnapping me he would have done it a long time ago I deduced.