Chapped Lips and Cold Kisses

Mela hadn’t slept a lick and the audition was in 30 minutes. She practiced all night long even after Essie had called it a night. Now they were in the hallway stretching, Mela chugging redbull and coffee, and Essie scolding her for not sleeping. Mela was amped; she was shaking from the caffeine and ready to dance. She noticed the other girls eyeing her up and down, whispering to their friends. She gave them a death glare and they all turned around, except one. Her name was Bethany Lord and she was from England.

“Hello, what’s your name?” She asked Mela with a fake, pearly white smile.

“Melena and this is my friend Essie, we teach ballet together back home.” Mela responded in broken English.

Bethany looked at her weird, “Where are you two from? That accent is horrid.”

Essie locked eyes with Mela and said in Finnish, “I believe she just insulted us.”

Mela nodded at Essie before Bethany screeched, “They’re talking about me in their language!” to her gaggle of friends. “If you want to say something, say it to my face. In English!” Bethany yelled overdramatically, getting every girl in the hall to look over at Mela and Essie. It didn’t look like they’d be making any friends. Eventually Bethany went back to her clique and continued gossiping about them.

When it was time for the first part of the audition, the barre, Mela chose a spot as far away from Bethany as possible. For this first audition all they really had to do was stretch using the barre, showing off their bodies and formations to the judges. If you were tapped on the shoulder then you were out. Luckily both Mela and Essie made it through the first round of auditions, but so did Bethany.

An hour later and they were on the second part of the audition. This time they had to follow a routine that one of the choreographers was teaching. By the eighth time, Mela was getting bored and when she looked to her left to see how Essie was doing, she noticed that Essie was gone. Mela internally screamed, her best friend was eliminated. How did she not even notice? Mela kept twirling even though she wanted to punch someone. Essie was perfect; she couldn’t have been eliminated. They were supposed to do this together. After the judges finally released them she went out in search for her blonde friend. She found her outside smoking a cigarette, her face red from crying Mela presumed, or from the cold.

“What happened?!” Mela yelled, plopping down next to her.

“I stumbled and they saw it. Fuck my life.” Essie hit her head against the concrete wall repeatedly.

Mela put her hand between Essie’s head and the wall, “Stop. There must be something we can do.”

Essie looked at her with her watery eyes and said, “You know as well as I do that there’s nothing we can do. It’s over for me.”

“I’ll quit.” Mela stated.

“You will not. You will go in there and dance for both of us, Melena Fagerholm. If you quit I will never forgive you.” Essie demanded.

“Are you sure?” Mela asked, her eyes now welling up with tears.

“Yes, I’m positive.” Essie pulled her into a hug, both of them sobbing on the other when they heard a laugh behind them. They both turned around to see Bethany and her group.

“Is team ugly accent cracking under pressure?” She asked snootily, her nose turned up against the two best friends.

Essie stood up and Mela thought she’d have to hold her friend back from punching Bethany, but Essie wasn’t violent like that. Instead of punching her, all she said were six words, “Team Finland is just getting started.”