Maria stood by her barre skillfully rotating through first position to fifth position, every movement of her body performed perfectly like a well oiled machine. However, her movements were anything but robotic, even the smallest motions were so fluid, it seemed like water was flowing through her body. She had been a ballerina her whole life, Maria lived and breathed dance. To Maria, dance was just as important as any one of her basic necessities, that’s why when she moved into a new town the first thing she did was find an organization to dance with. She was overwhelmed with joy when The Crown, a dance company she had auditioned for accepted her. She was especially excited because they would be producing the iconic Swan Lake dance for their Spring festival. And of course she would play the lead role of Swan Queen, the perfect lead for the perfect dance. All she needed to do was audition better than the other girls, and the role was hers.
As Maria was practicing her turns, a group of girls approached to her, Maria observed a blonde with two lackeys behind her. The blond girl in the front, who introduced herself as Samanta, was undeniably beautiful, and to complement her face, a perfect physique. “You’re Maria right? Why don’t I drive you home? Get to know you a bit, show you around town.”
Maria could see straight through Samantha, she knew that Samantha, didn’t care about getting to know her, nor did she care about showing her around. Maria knew all Samanta cared about was getting to know the competition, she wanted to size her up. But, despite this, Maria still graciously accepted, “Sure! I’d love to!” After all, that’s the way she was raised, the one thing she held higher than ballet, was principal, she always had to do the right thing.
As Maria and two other girls shuffled into the back of Samantha’s car, one of the girls asked, “so Maria, I hear you’re thinking about auditioning for the lead?” The girl’s tone was less inquizitive, and more, “there is no way you could ever beat Samantha,” however, Maria decided to ignore the obvious mockery, and simply express her interest in the role. “Well auditions are tomorrow so you better be ready.” The girl looked towards Samantha to make sure she was not paying attention to their conversation, and with a hushed tone, “besides, Samantha practically already has the role, cause she and the director… you know.” Maria looked down at the girl’s hands and noticed she was awkwardly mushing them together.
The car came to a sudden stop, “Maria this is where you live right?”
Maria looked around, “um, actually I think I’m a couple blocks down.”
Samantha looked back at her, “can I let you off here? We actually need to go in the other direction.”
Maria grabbed her large duffel, “I guess that’s alright. Thanks for the ride.” She hopped out of the car, and slowly trudged home as she watched the car speed away into the horizon.
“Ok everyone, auditions for Swan Queen will now begin, please sit in the chairs behind me while you wait for your turn.” Maria took a look around and found a seat in between two other girls. She watched as Samantha walked onto the stage and began her routine, throughout her dance Maria could notice countless errors, sometimes her toe wasn’t pointed, others she made the wrong move, but at the end the director still cheered, “bravo Samantha that was amazing!” Maria watched Samantha grab a seat next to the director and start rubbing his arm. “Next we will have Jessica.”
Maria watched countless dancers do their routines, she knew none were as good as her, she had been training for this moment her whole entire life. However, after each one finished, without fail, Maria would whisper some form of motivational message to make them feel better. Finally it was her turn, she walked onto the stage and began her routine. Every step she took was perfectly calculated, every turn with just the right amount of force. Her toes perfectly pointed as they should have been, every leap, jump, or hop started gracefully and ended the same way, a truly flawless audition. Just as she finished, she could see the director with a smile on his face, but his smile wasn’t for her, Samantha had his arm pushed against her chest, and his hand stroking her leg. “Get a room,” Maria thought, as she smiled and walked off the stage.
Maria walked into the ballet studio the next day with a confident strut, she knew she had the role, some girls, after her performance, even informed her that her dance moved them to tears. She walked up to a crowd of people staring at a bulletin board with the results posted on it, once the crowd started to thin, she was able to see her name, and to the right of it, “Swan Queen.” She was overwhelmed with joy, but at that moment a girl moved her head and revealed the word, “Understudy,” beside Maria’s title.
Understudy!? Her flawless audition earned her to role of understudy!? It was at that moment she realized that the director didn’t care about his dancers, he cared about himself. He was not fit to be in that position of power, and just like that all of Maria’s joy turned to pure, unfiltered rage. She stormed through the studio looking for the director. She at least wanted to get an explanation for why she was understudy, to Samantha of all people as well.
Maria’s march of anger brought her to an empty dressing room, where a bunch of other girl’s duffel bags were lying around. She noticed Samantha’s bag in the corner, and beside it, her slippers. She walked to the bag and picked up the slippers, she was about to throw them to the side, when suddenly, a switch in her mind flipped. At that moment she felt some tension grow inside her. She dug through Samantha’s bag and found an apple shaped perfume bottle, she was done waiting for things to happen, it was her turn to make them happen. Maria poured the perfume down the sink. She smashed the bottle on a wooden bench. She swept the shards of glass into her hand. She dropped the shards into Samantha’s slippers.
Maria rushed out of the room just before Samantha entered, she noticed some blood start to drip from her hands, some blood spilt for this cause was blood she was happy to lose. As she entered the bathroom, she heard a devilish shriek come from the dressing room; she knew the role was hers. She cleaned her hands of the blood, revealing deep cuts that would be replaced with scars. As she left, she shoved the unbroken top of the perfume bottle into her duffle; a tombstone for Maria, but a birth certificate for the Swan Queen.