Upheaval: Day 11

Word Count: 66,012

Summary of Events:

Leon went to his dance school early and got confronted by a disgruntled parent wanting to know his secret to success — except he didn't know why he was so successful. He had a bit of a private lesson with Miss Corrine before his classmates showed up. Maeve, Justine, and Daphne, his three classmates who were still in the competition, also asked for the secret to his success, to which he again had to reply that he didn't know. That evening Leon got into his costume and then watched in the wings as Daphne was the first dancer called to the stage . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

The crowd hushed. Leon heard Daphne's shoes softly knock on the stage as she took her position at centre stage — the only thing that was the same about every dance so far — and waited.

As the lights came up the music started and Mr. Chekov started giving instructions. Daphne linked the manoeuvres she was told to do smoothly. Leon was glad she was doing well, although he was nervous that she was going first: that meant she had the shortest time dancing before she'd fallen last night, which showed just how close to not making this cut she'd been.

This time she seemed confident, though, and she seemed very much like she would be able to complete the whole dance, but being as no one knew what Mr. Chekov was going to say next, no one really knew for sure.

Toward what Leon was pretty sure was the end of the dance Daphne wavered on her foot in an arabesque and had poor footing out of it that led her to fall down and bring the music abruptly to a stop.

The majority of the dancers performing tonight had gotten more than two minutes into their dances, or even three, on previous nights. Daphne's only chance to stay in had been pretty good, but the question was: was it good enough?

Would other girls perform worse than Daphne tonight, assuring her a place in the elimination rounds? Only time would tell.

The music started for the next dancer and she launched in. Leon couldn't help but feel tense within. He wanted Maeve, Daphne, and Justine to all make it through to the elimination rounds with him — as he was pretty sure he was booked a spot — but yet he didn't necessarily wish any of the other girls did anything less than the best their abilities allowed either, after all, they all deserved a sporting chance.

Leon groaned with the crowd as the girl fell in her dance, and Leon was sure she'd fallen much sooner than Daphne had fallen, which he took a little solace in, but he didn't really want to take too much solace in it, after all, there was the possibility that girl might be eliminated from the competition, which would be sad for her, having worked so hard to get to this point.

Sighing, Leon had a feeling that no matter what everyone was going to be somewhat upset about this competition, it was very gruelling, and it was very unforgiving, even if it did somewhat level the playing field because everyone had to dance on a whim.

Never in their future careers would the dancers have to do something like this, thus it seemed rather unfair to subject the dancers to this sort of competition, but at this point it was far too late for anything to be changed.