Chapter 13

Summer intensive was everything I hoped and feared.
The dancers were better than me.
Some richer.
Some colder.
Some kind.
For the first week, I felt like Brooke’s words followed me.
Poor girls are used to pain.
Then one instructor stopped me after class.
“You dance like you’re proving survival instead of trusting technique.”
I did not know what that meant.
So she showed me.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Not with pity.
With discipline.
Real discipline.
The kind that builds, not breaks.
By the end of summer, I danced differently.
Still fierce.
May you like
Less desperate.
There is a difference.