The Ballerina and the Rocker

Quinn

“Chassé forward into pas de ciseaux, followed by sissone fermé, and pirouette off stage left,” Quinn’s dance instructor, Ms. Jacks, rattled off to the class. “Line up and as soon as the person in front of you begins to pirouette you begin your chassé.”

The class of eleven dancers quickly formed a single file line upstage as their instructor stood opposite them downstage.

“Ready, and - go!”

The first girl in line jumped forward and began the routine, followed by another girl who had a little trouble balancing. Quinn was fourth in line and waited for the boy in front of her to begin to turn before she glided forward. She executed the pas de ciseaux, jumping up and crossing her feet like scissors before landing on her left leg, and continued on with the series of small jumps taking her further downstage until she hit her mark and began her pirouette. When she had made three solid spins she walked over to her classmates and waited for the others to finish.

“Wonderful, everyone,” Ms. Jacks addressed the class once the last student completed the assignment. “Don’t forget to keep practicing these exercises. And if you haven’t already, start choreographing your routine for the showcase.”

As Quinn was gathering up her duffle bag two people approached her, each with their own bag slung over their shoulder. One was a girl from the Bronx named Crystal with whom Quinn had befriended last semester, the other was a short-ish, pale boy she hadn’t met before.

“God, you’re perfect,” Crystal said to Quinn.

“I am not,” Quinn replied, shyly.

“Your balance is so precise,” she continued while Quinn changed her pointe shoes for sneakers. “I have so much trouble with landings like that - I’m always a little off center.”

“You better fix that fast,” the pale boy beside her said, “those little things will get you dropped from the program.”

“You don’t just get dropped from the program,” Crystal shot back.

“Why do you think this routine we have to do at the end of the year is so important?”

“Because it’s a final exam?” Quinn offered.

“And what happens when you fail a final exam?” the boy continued, “you get held back.”

“Don’t mind Eddie,” Crystal said to Quinn, “he’s just a little neurotic about these things.”

But now that the boy called Eddie had mentioned it Quinn couldn’t help but think what would happen if you fell short on the final routine - would you have to do the year over again? Or worse, would they kick you out of Juilliard? They wouldn’t just keep crappy dancers in their program.

“Anyway,” Crystal continued, snapping Quinn out of her daze, “we’re going to grab a bite to eat, want to come?”

She nodded and followed Crystal and Eddie out of the theater and towards the cafeteria.

After a quick tuna sandwich, Quinn returned to her dorm and quickly called her sister about her Juilliard freakout.

“You’re obsessing over nothing,” Audrey said over the phone.

“I don’t think I am,” she replied. “What if I do horribly on this final routine?”

“But you won’t.”

“But what if?!”

“Then you get the boot from Juilliard and can earn a living dancing on the subway.”

“Audrey, I’m serious!”

“Well, what do you want me to say?”

Quinn sighed. “I don’t know… I’m just freaking myself out; I’ve been so focused on getting here that I never thought about failing.”

Zacky

Even more in debt than before, the next logical step after recording an album was to start touring. But where would they even begin?

“I talked to James,” Matt informed the band, talking about the Eighteen Visions singer, “and he’s playing in Ventura this weekend and he said there’s, like, a fifteen-twenty minute slot open that we can take.”

“Well yeah, let’s take it,” Brian said.

“Gotta get our feet wet, right?” Zacky chimed in.

Still new to it all, the band had been contacting friends and other bands about venues and concert opportunities around Orange County. Hopefully from there they’d be able to branch out across the country.

It was a daunting task, but failure wasn’t an option.

Quinn

“I’m glad the show went well,” Quinn spoke over the phone to Zacky.

“Yeah, it was great, actually,” he said. “We’ve got a few more places lined up then see where we go from there.”

“Has Matt gotten into any more fights lately?” Quinn asked, remembering Zacky telling her a few weeks prior about their “banishment” from Chain Reaction.

He laughed. “No, not yet. And Justin’s doing good, too,” he added of their new bass player.

“Good, I’m glad.”

“Yeah.”

There was a pause.

“Keep me posted on how your other shows go.”

“Will do.”

Another pause...

“Ok, well, I should get going. Bye, Zacky.”

“Bye.”

Once she hung up the phone with Zacky, she laid on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. It wasn’t that they were at a loss for things to talk about or that their conversations grew boring, but lately the phone calls just weren’t making Quinn feel better like they normally did.

That scared her more than flunking out of Juilliard.

Zacky

With another show under their belts, Zacky was feeling good. Sure, it was Pomona, and sure, it was still in Orange County, but at least they weren’t just playing in their school auditorium.

“Good job, Zacky,” Val said as she passed the van where he was loading up his guitar.

“Thanks, Val,” he said. A thought came to his mind. “Hey, Val?” She stopped walking and turned back to him.

“Yeah?”

“Can… can I ask you something?” She nodded and Zacky pulled her over to the side for a bit more privacy. “Uh, I don’t really know how to ask this…”

“Is it about Quinn?” she guessed. Spot on.

“Well, yeah… how did you know?”

She shrugged her shoulders and smirked. “Girl’s intuition. Also, you’ve seemed kind of down the last few days. What’s up, are you two ok?”

“That’s just it, I don’t know. I mean, we still talk as much as we used to but now things just seem, I dunno, different. You know?” He waited for Val to answer but when she didn’t he continued rambling.

“But you and Matt have never had to do the long distance thing, so maybe you don’t know… maybe I’m just being paranoid.”

“Maybe you should just talk to her about it,” Val offered.

If he only knew what “it” was. Did he say something to her? Did he not say something? Whatever was causing the awkwardness between them and their long distance phone calls, Zacky needed to fix it fast. There were two things he cared immensely about: Quinn and the band. And when something was wrong with one, he knew the other was bound to suffer.

Quinn

"Hello?"

"Hey, Val!" Quinn said to her friend over the phone. "It's Quinn."

"Oh my god, hey!" Val enthusiastically replied. "How are you?"

"I'm good." She took a deep breath before continuing with a smile. "So listen, I have a bit of a favor to ask you."