Fallen Stars and Broken Dreams - C.C. Masters Page 0,96

teeth in frustration.

Maverik’s words were eating a hole in my heart, and I wanted to get the truth straight from Ryan. When I thought back over the last few conversations we had, I was forced to admit Ryan wasn’t acting like himself. Something had been off for a while, but I was going to fix it.

Chapter 29

Katya

I sat in front of the brand-new laptop that suddenly appeared in my room yesterday. Richard left a note that I should use it for school, but I was feverishly searching for ballet schools in the area who might have a summer program. Bedford might be putting together a program for me, but that wouldn’t start for months. Working alone in my ballet studio wasn’t going to get me to the next level, and I couldn’t afford to slack off.

Since Ryan was ignoring my texts and phone calls, I also looked through all the paperwork that Bedford Academy had sent over for me. Headmaster Rufford had put together a suggested study plan, but I also had to take some of the finals that had been administered to their students last year. If I was going to be stuck here, then I was determined to do whatever it took to pass those tests. I did not want to be forced to repeat a year of high school.

I desperately needed an opportunity to forget all of the bad shit in my life and just focus on dance. I didn’t want to think about mafia guys, evil step-brothers, or best friend betrayals. I would much rather be pushing my body to its limits, losing myself in the pain, and feeling the satisfaction of achieving a new level of excellence that got me one step closer to perfection.

The ring of my phone interrupted my concentration, but I didn’t mind. I was desperately waiting for a call back from Ryan, but luckily, I glanced at the screen before answering with a snarky comment. The number was local to the Seattle area, but not one I recognized.

“Hello?” I answered cautiously.

“Hello!” a friendly voice called cheerfully. “May I speak with Ekaterina Kotova, please?”

“This is her.” I swallowed back all of my anger and frustration, no need to take out on what seemed like a genuinely nice stranger.

“My name is Pam, and I’m calling from the Ruby Ballet Theater regarding an email that you had sent regarding your interest in attending classes here. Are you still interested?”

I perked up. “Yes, very much so.”

I’d left a phone message with them only a few hours ago to follow up on my email, so I was surprised to hear back so quickly. My heart sunk when I realized it was probably a rejection phone call. It would take much longer to decide to accept me into their program than it would to simply say no.

“Excellent,” Pam responded with a peppy tone. “I’d like to offer you a spot in our summer intensive program, level C. It’s four weeks long and will require four to five hours of class a day. Does that sound like something you could do?”

My jaw dropped in shock. This was unbelievably good news.

“That sounds perfect. When would you like me to audition?” I asked nervously. This might be my only opportunity, so I couldn’t afford to mess it up. Whatever they needed - I’d do it.

“No audition necessary,” she assured me. “But we do require prepayment of all four weeks before classes start.”

My heart sunk. A school that didn’t require an audition made me question how serious they were about training career ballerinas. Amateur classes teaching girls how to put on a pair of pointe shoes wouldn’t help to get me to the professional level - it would just hold me back.

“May I ask what the curriculum is like?” I asked cautiously, keeping my fingers crossed that this would turn out to be the challenge that was critical to keeping my sanity.

“You’ll have technique and pointe classes daily with several of our instructors. In the afternoon, we have variations classes and an exciting lineup of guest instructors that include a former principal dancer from the American Ballet Theater, an instructor from ARC, and several judges from YAGP.”

“Sounds good,” I told her in relief. I wasn’t going to improve by dancing in isolation, and I could use some pointers from a ballerina who had been a principal dancer. YAGP (Youth America Grand Prix) is a national competition that awards scholarships to dance schools based on their performances, but there were also representatives