#slice2013 3 of 31

I decided to make a blog to join in the Slice of Life challenge. My mom told me about it and is doing it herself, so I decided why not. I think it is such a great idea to write a story of your own life every day. When I sit down to write a story, I often can't think of anything to write about. However, I am hoping that if I write a little every day about my life, then by the end of March I will have some great works in progress that I can continue to build off of. 

This weekend I had a dance competition. Within every dance competition there are at least 100 mini stories to write about, but I decided to pick one moment.

(I changed the names)

I sit between the curtains, careful to stay out of the glowering eyes of the judges; I remember what countless directors and instructors have told me, "if you can see the audience, the audience can see you." The two girls that are performing now are doing really well. Their turns are perfectly together, and they had an amazing lift; a hard feat to pull off for a girls' duet. It would have looked better if one of them was a guy, though. All the girls at my studio come to these competitions and leave feeling beyond jealous of all the companies who lucked out in finding an amazing male dancer. One of my friends went up to one guy and offered to pay him to do a duet with her. He looked at her quizzically, awkwardly laughed and said "thanks?" He didn't realize that she wasn't kidding. 

Anna and I are in two dances. I chew on my lip and watch as the next duo takes the stage. 

"Anna," I say, and walk over to where she is rehearsing by the door. She raises her eyebrows at me while marking a turn. "Do you think we could run the lift a couple more times?"
"Larkin, can't you see I'm in the middle of something?"

I go back to my spot in between the curtains and continue stretching. Everyone knows that when Anna says to go away, you should go away. I close my eyes and picture the dance in my head. Anna and I are different in that way. If I practice my dance right before I go on, I will get all stressed out that I am going to forget it and then I'll go onstage and I'll actually forget it, so I choose to just picture the steps in my head. For Anna, she does best when she runs it over and over beforehand. 

I look back over my shoulder. Anna has taken a break and is sitting in her left split with her eyes closed. 

I walk back over. "Anna, do you think we could do the lift just a couple of times? I would feel a lot better if we run it before going on."
She opens her eyes.
"Yeah, whatever. But don't screw up now because then you'll psych yourself out and screw it up onstage."

She has always known how to boost my confidence. 

We are able to run it once before my dance instructor calls us over to stand in the wings. A lot of people say that their "heart beats through their chest" when they're nervous. That's not the case with me. My heart stays relatively calm, but I get really bad stomach aches. And let me tell you, my stomach was not feeling too good. 

"Anna and Larkin, senior duet, Somebody That I Used To Know."

Anna starts walking and it takes me a moment to realize that I am supposed to follow. I trot along behind her and we get into our opening places. She is standing right in front of me, toes touching, back facing the audience. I've grown in the past year so now we're standing eye to eye. "I love you, let's kick some butt, " she whispers. I grin back as the music starts.