Chapter 1
Eve
Well, this wasn’t where I thought I was going to be. Years of training and planning to make it into the Ballerina Academy and in two short weeks, that dream was yanked from me faster than I could say pirouette.
And now, here I sat, staring at my reflection in the mirror in an outfit that I’d rethought about fifty times, wishing a hole would just open up and devour me. I will never badmouth uniforms again.
I sighed as I yanked my brush through my hair once more like that was going to fix my dark brown hair that hung stick straight down my back.
“Eve! You’re going to be late.” The hair on my neck prickled at the sound of Mom’s voice carrying up from the kitchen downstairs.
She had the kind of voice that carried. When we were kids and it was time to come home for dinner, the whole neighborhood knew. Who knew my mom was a drill sergeant in another life.
“Eve! We’re waiting, sweetie.” Mom tried again in her sickly sweet voice. She knew I was angry that they allowed my scholarship to lapse. They were supposed to come up with twenty percent of the tuition—and they hadn’t. And I didn’t blame them—er, I was trying not to. After all, my kid brother George needed surgery and it took all of our remaining pennies to pay that off. Only someone heartless would complain.
But right now, with the anxiety coursing through my body, I felt bad for myself.
Really bad.
“Evelyn. Now!” Dad’s voice echoed against the walls.
I winced. Everyone on this block was probably urging me to leave my bedroom already so they could have some peace and quiet at seven in the morning. But I still lingered in my bedroom to read the last text that had come in from Collette, one of my friends from school— from my old school.
Colette: You got this, girl! We can’t wait to hear how it goes!
This was followed by about ten heart emojis and more than a dozen four leaf clovers. Luck. That was definitely what I needed.
I placed a hand over the churning pit of acid in my belly. If I made it out of this bedroom without puking from nerves it would be a miracle.
Olivia: I’m seriously jealous. Think of all the boys you’ll be hanging out with while we’re here surrounded by hangry divas.
Boys. I squeezed my eyes shut. Yup, I was definitely going to throw up.
I heard another ding but I shoved my phone into the back pocket of my jeans before I could check it. The girls from The Ballerina Academy had been texting me all morning to cheer me on for my first day at Oakwood High, the local public school. It was sweet but also—
“Eve!” My mom’s voice was close to my door. Any second she’d come in here and drag me out.
I sucked in a deep breath and threw the door open to find myself face-to-face with an older version of me. Seriously. Sometimes when I was this close to my mother it was like looking in some sort of funhouse mirror where you see yourself in twenty years. We were the same height—a whopping five foot nothing—with a slim build and dark hair. We even had the same features, the kind of pixie look that got me cast as an elf every year when the academy put on a Christmas show for the little ones.
The only difference was that my mom had laugh lines next to her eyes and she had more confidence than anyone I’d ever met.
Me? Not so much.
“Eve.” She planted her hands on her hips as she said my name with an exasperated huff. “Are you planning on hiding out in there all day?”
“No, Mom,” I muttered, following her into the living room where my dad and little siblings were waiting.
“Babydoll!” My dad also had a booming voice. Maybe that was why he and my mom were drawn together. They’d realized they could hear each other from across the campus green at the college where they’d met. It was love at first bellow.
His arm wrapped around my shoulder as my little brother George tried to steal my little sister Veronica’s snack for lunch and chaos ensued.
“Who’s ready for a great first day?” he asked with way more enthusiasm than was warranted, in my humble opinion.
We both ignored the two kids fighting at our feet.
“Um, me?” I offered before I winced and hopped back as Victoria’s bowling ball of a head slammed down on my toe.
Dad didn’t seem to notice my distress as he grinned. “That’s my girl. This is going to be great, you’ll see. Oakwood High is going to love you.”
I turned to say something to my mom and—flash!
I blinked rapidly. “Mom,” I groaned.
Her smile was unapologetic. “It’s not every day our little girl starts a new school.”
My mom, too—her smile was too big, her expression too hopeful. Between her and my dad they looked like they were about to start selling me the latest model of used car or something. It was weird and it did nothing to help my anxiety. I knew they felt bad about me losing my scholarship, but their sympathetic stares made it worse.
“You’re going to make so many new friends,” my mom said.
“I already have friends,” I said. “At the academy.”
My mom’s grin faltered and that was when I saw it. Through their bright smiles and their hopeful looks—guilt.
My insides deflated and my anxiety was temporarily replaced with something far worse. Crap, I hadn’t been thinking when I’d said that. They already felt bad enough that they couldn’t afford to send me there anymore. Even with the partial scholarships I’d been scoring year after year, the elite ballet academy was still too expensive.
Finding out that my last tuition check had bounced right before the holidays had been tough, but I knew no one felt worse about it than my parents.
My typically self-assured father looked a little lost. “I’m sure your friends will miss you, babydoll, but—”
“But I’ll see them on Thursday,” I finished. This time I was the one wearing a smile and my parents wore matching looks of hope.
“That’s right,” my mother said quickly. “When you dance with Cooper.” Mom drew out his name and wiggled her eyebrows at me. Ever since she’d caught me signing my name with Cooper’s last name five years ago, she always made a point to tease me about it.
My smile threatened to fall at the mention of my dance partner—who also happened to be my brother’s best friend—but I wouldn’t let it, especially not when Mom was watching me. There was no way I was going to fuel that fire. “Exactly. I’ll see them twice a week for evening classes and on the weekends, I’m sure, so....” I took a deep breath, no longer sure who I was trying to convince with this happy-go-lucky routine. “So it’ll be great.”
I picked up my backpack and called out goodbye to the still-fighting heathens on the floor. George and Veronica went to the grade school so they’d be taking the bus. I was flying solo.
“Aren’t you going to wait for Cooper?” my mom asked. “I’m sure he’d love to give you a ride.”
I just barely held back a bitter scoff. I might have figured out that Cooper had zero interest in being near me, but I didn’t have to disillusion my mother, who thought my brother Trenton’s best friend walked on water.
I got it, I guess. Since my brother enlisted in the army after high school last year, Cooper was the next best thing. He’d always been like another kid to my parents and these days he was a link to Trenton.