Upheaval: Day 16

Word Count: 96,043

Summary of Events:

In the second round Leon got worked hard in his first dance, and he hadn't really fully recovered from the effort when he had to dance again because Maeve completed her second dance; he succeeded in completing his second dance and moving on to the final night. After sleeping a lot longer than usual Leon went to the library and learned some more about his grandmother: notably that she'd died while in Toronto, which unsettled him. He and Rhoenne were instructed to come early so they could actually learn a dance before performing it, with Rhoenne going to learn hers first while Leon had a brief visit with Mr. Chekov before waiting for Rhoenne to finish . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

He followed Denis back to the big room. It seemed unnerving for such a large room to be so empty, when only a week ago it'd been practically bursting at the seams with dancers eager to show Toronto that they would become the next prima ballerina of the Bolshoi.

Now, in one week, two hundred and eighty dancers had been whittled down to two, the two whom — at least it appeared — were the best of all the dancers that had entered, and were now going to be pitted against each other to see who could withstand the challenge of being pushed to the limits of their abilities in front of a large audience.

A newspaper article Penelope had showed him at lunchtime talked about how there was the possibility that even some of the big names in politics might be there to watch, including the Mayor of Toronto, the Premier of Ontario, the Lieutenant Governor, the Prime Minister of Canada, and the Governor General of Canada.

Canadian ballet icon Karen Kain might even be in the audience according to news reports. It sounded like everyone who was anyone in Canada, and in dance in Canada, would be watching the two best dancers in Toronto — although some were even saying they were the two best in Canada — in one of the most epic dance-offs of all time to see who would win the chance to go to Russia and be a member of one of the world's most prestigious ballet companies.

Leon's stomach twisted. He couldn't help but feel nervous. If all those people showed up in reality it would be nerve-wracking, and Leon wasn't sure that he wanted to actually go through with it now.

Goodness knew — with the news sensation this contest had become in Toronto — he might end up front-page news tomorrow morning, and even though Mama wasn't big into reading newspapers, she would assuredly glance at the front page, and would quickly be scandalised to see her son whom she'd expressly forbidden to participate in the contest being celebrated as one of the two best dancers in all of Toronto.

He doubted the fact that the contest hadn't taken him to Russia would appease her at all — especially if he actually happened to win tonight — and he didn't really want to know what would happen, but he doubted, especially at this point, that there was anything he could possibly do to stop it from happening.

If he was being truly honest, Leon had to confess that he wanted to win tonight. Winning would be better than runner-up because at least it meant that he had a way to get out of living with Mama and suffering her ire for his participation in the contest.