Open Friendship on Pointe

[Aelin Fox]

It had been about a year and a half maybe now that Aelin had been going to dance classes. She'd begged daddy to sign her up for some and then auntie Geo had also signed Eden up, having her best friend around for classes was a definite plus in the six-year-old's eyes. Ballet had quickly became her favourite thing to do, the classes had easily become her second favourite place. First one being home with both her dads, of course.

They'd just finished with class and the blonde was now staring at herself in the floor to ceiling mirrors that took one whole wall of the room. She was wearing a powder pink leotard, with some white stockings and a sheer wrap skirt over it. Secretly Aelin was sad that they could not use pointe shoes for a long while yet, but Miss Duval (her teacher) had explained that it was something they'd need to train for. So that their ankles could be strong enough. Apparently it was important you had big girl bones and muscles before doing pointe work. Whatever that meant, daddy had said she should eat her greens and drink loads of milk to ensure the strongest bones. As Aelin stared at the mirrors and more specifically herself, she repeated a few of the Plié's they'd been going over today. She watched with furrowed brows at each movement, set on doing it the way Miss Duval had. She wanted to be just like the woman, everything she did seemed so graceful and precise. "When I grow up I'll dance all around the world." Aelin stated as though it was a fact already, but she'd made her decision the second she began dancing.

 

[Eden Adler-Cade]

Eden enjoyed her ballet lessons, but then to be honest she enjoyed all the classes she was going to. Being the only girl at home while the rest of her family were away at Hogwarts meant that mum and dad wanted to do everything they could to make Eden feel as though she wasn't being forgotten about, which meant she'd been dancing at any opportunity (when she wasn't at school) to fill the void of a large empty house. The babies didn't count.

Soon Bailey would graduate and she'd see her eldest sister properly for the first time in her life. Sure, she'd seen her at family gatherings at Christmas, but Bailey had started at Hogwarts before Eden had even been born, so she wasn't quite sure what it was going to be like if she came back to live with her.

Approaching Aelin, her best friend was keen to make sure she was doing the best Plié's possible, but for Eden, she just wanted to get out of these shoes now that she felt as though they were crushing her feet. She liked ballet, but it still took a toll on her body, and made her frustrated in a way she didn't think was very fair. "What's wrong with dancing in the kitchen? Or the garden?" Eden had so many different places she could dance in at home, it didn't make sense to travel very far away when she had everything she could possible want right on her doorstep.

 

[Dylan Hollis]

Dylan really didn't know how to feel about ballet. The outfits were kind of uncomfortable and the dancing was way harder than it looked like it should be so he wasn't really sure he saw the fun of it yet. But it did make his mum happy, even if he knew Dad didn't like it. It felt like a lot things were like that. Either Dad liked it and Mum hated it, or Mum liked it and Dad complained. It'd be easier to know how to feel about it if it didn't feel like Mum wasn't more happy that it made Dad angry than happy that Dylan was taking that class.

It was exhausting to think about on top of an already exhausting class and Dylan had decided to melt by sitting down by one of the walls and letting all his legs go jelly. Ballet seemed so focused on holding things in the right place and Dylan was happy to not worry about what his arms and legs were doing for a few minutes as he slumped there, watching two of the girls in his class by the mirror.

"Why'd you even wanna dance at home anyway? We dance enough here I think," Dylan said, feeling even more tired just looking at the girl practice more plié's in the mirror.