[Sawyer]

[notfaking_it]

She was dancing Odette's solo.

In a way, it felt strange. The part, so longed for, still felt like it was Nina's and when Lily practiced, she had a tendency to avoid Swan Lake altogether, though she could never put her finger on why it felt off. It was only a ballet, just another solo in a long line of beautiful solos and it wasn't like she hadn't

Comments

[cibosity]

If Sawyer tried to claim that he hadn't spent a good portion of his afternoon looking for the very girl he stumbled across as he passed the studio, it would've been a stark lie. Ever since their last meeting, Lily had worked herself solidly onto the short list of folks Sawyer didn't feel too bad hanging around. There wasn't too much weight there, no hint of high expectations that he'd fail in the moment. Just a girl who seemed sensible, who was capable of dealing with an outburst of anger or two, and seemed a whole lot more sure of what she wanted from life and, perhaps more importantly, where she was going, than Sawyer himself had ever been. The kind of confidence and blasé that Sawyer was willing to be selfish in looking for. It came down to her being strong

[notfaking_it]

In the mirrored wall, Lily had seen the reflection of someone coming into the studio, but there was almost always someone coming in or out. Another student, River with something to bring into the studio, sometimes even a specatator, though that wasn't as common. All she knew from the brief glimpse of the reflection she'd caught was that it wasn't Nina and it wasn't until the clap began that she finished a turn and dropped down from pointe. "Well," she said as she grinned, "I didn't even know I had an audience."

Somehow, she wasn't surprised to see Sawyer.

"Next time you should let me know you're coming, I'll put together something more interesting than a sweaty girl spinning across the floor," she said, though she was mostly joking. Odette's solo was one of the most beautiful she knew, though she couldn't exactly do it justice dressed in a black bodysuit and grey skirt. It just wasn't the same without the costume and the set. Still smiling, she pushed her damp hair off her face and rested back against the barre. "So how was I?"

[cibosity]

"Are you kiddin' me? Sweaty girls dancin' across the floor is totally what I'm into. In fact, I'm pretty sure that routine could've used a bit more of sweaty girl dancin' across the floor, if that's even possible. Just one, though. Get too many together and you might cause a riot," he pointed out with a devilish grin, pushing off the wall and crossing his arms over his chest, walking on over with confidence in each step. Truth was, though, he didn't know very much about ballet. Hadn't watched much of it in all his years; somehow, whenever he had the opportunity to indulge in a hobby that leaned more towards the high end of art, other hurdles seemed to get in the ay. Distractions

[notfaking_it]

With a laugh, Lily rose up onto pointe again and extended one leg as she supported herself on the barre. "These?" she asked, pointing the toes of her lifted leg in Sawyer's direction. "They're not so bad. As long as the box sees fit to give me good ones that I can break in." And it didn't hurt that she'd been wearing them for eight hours a day -- sometimes longer -- for longer than a decade. At this point she knew what hurt and what didn't, she knew how to prepare her shoes properly and she knew how to prevent injury.

She wasn't one to brag about it, but dancing was one thing Lily knew most about.

"It was Swan Lake," she admitted as she dropped her leg and fell to the flats of her feet again. "The show I was in before I got here." She hadn't been cast as Odette, but that didn't necessarily matter. She knew the role, she knew the solos, she'd had to be good at it to be Nina's alternate and it didn't hurt to keep practicing, even if she wasn't going to get the chance to dance it here. "So have you just come to see my interpretation