Louisa the Ballerina

by Adele Geras

  On Tuesday afternoon, it didn’t take Tony very long to work out that we weren’t walking towards the sports centre.

  “This isn’t the way to the sports centre,” he said. “Where are you going?”

  “It’s a short cut,” I told him, hurrying along the pavement so that I wouldn’t have to talk to him.

  “No, it’s not,” he said, a bit breathlessly. “The centre’s over there. I’ve lived here long enough to know that much.”

  I didn’t bother to lie any more. I just muttered, “We’re nearly there now,” and Tony said, “Nearly where? Honestly, Weezer, you are a pain sometimes! Where are we going?”

  “It’s a surprise,” I said, “and don’t call me Weezer!”

  “OK,” he said. “But tell me the truth. This talent contest isn’t being held at the sports centre at all, is it? You didn’t want to tell me because you thought I’d only come if it was at the sports centre. Right?”

  “Right. Look, come on,” I said. “It’s getting late. We’ll be there in a minute.”

  I was busy wishing St Christopher’s wasn’t such a big and churchy-looking church. There it was, right bang slap in the middle of town and everyone knew it.

  As soon as Tony saw it, he cried, “But that’s St Christopher’s! That’s where you go to ballet!”

  I nodded. He went on, “You go to ballet on Tuesdays at four.”

  I nodded again. I felt like closing my eyes because I didn’t like the way Tony’s face had gone quite white. He was starting to look really angry.

  “I know what you’ve done. You’ve brought me to your ballet class. That’s horrible of you, Weezer, and I’m going to call you Weezer because you don’t deserve to be a Louisa. I thought you were my friend, but you tricked me! Well, I’m not going to jump around in front of a whole lot of stupid girls. I’m going home.”

  He turned round and started walking down the road. I went racing after him. He couldn’t go now, not after all our work. I shouted, “Tony! Stop, Tony! Stop and listen to me . . . Just listen for a second . . . please.”

  He stopped, and looked at me. He was still angry, but at least he seemed ready to listen.

  “Tony, I’m sorry. I didn’t like lying to you, but I had to do it, didn’t I? When Miss Matting said we had to find someone to dance with, I just knew it had to be you because you’re the best dancer I know. You’re better than anyone else in my class . . . and I just thought we could do a really good dance.”

  I felt so sad when I thought that all our hard work had been for nothing that I started to cry. Tony came up to me and peered at my face.

  “Don’t cry. Please stop crying, Weezer. It’s your own fault I won’t come to your class. I said all along I wouldn’t. Why are you crying?”

  “I’m crying,” I said, “because I’ve worked so hard and it’s such a waste. You’re a good dancer and you won’t do anything about it. You worked hard too. And you enjoyed it, so don’t say you didn’t.”

  Tony sighed. He said, “All right, all right, I’ll do it. I’ll come into your class, just this once. Just stop crying, Weezer, please.”

  “OK,” I said. “Thanks, Tony.” I took my hankie out and blew my nose. I decided to ignore the Weezer. Tony was coming into my ballet class! I said, “It’ll be fine, you’ll see. There are some boys in the class. I told you about them.”

  “Girly wimps!” he said, but he was smiling.

  “No, they’re not,” I smiled back at him. “You’ll see. They’re ordinary boys like you. I’ll take you in and introduce you to Miss Matting. I expect you’ll have to wait to do our dance till we’ve done all our exercises.”

  Tony followed me into the hall. I’d made sure we were early, because I knew that I’d probably have to explain everything to Miss Matting.

  “Hello, Louisa dear,” she said, coming towards us as soon as she saw us come in. “Who is this young man?”

  “It’s Tony Delaney, Miss Matting.”

  “Hello, Tony,” said Miss Matting.

  “Hello,” said Tony.

  Nobody seemed to know what to do next, so I said, “Tony lives next door to me and we’ve made up a dance together.”

  “How delightful!” said Miss Matting. “I look forward to seeing it very much. You can sit on one of those chairs, Tony dear, just while we do our exercises.”

  Tony nodded and sat down. I ran to the changing room to take off my red tracksuit. I’d have to put it on again for the Jack and Jill routine, but I didn’t care. Tony was here. He was going to watch our class. He hadn’t run away.

  Tricia and Maisie were waiting for me in the changing room.

  “It’s Tony!” Tricia said. “He’s your secret partner. Why didn’t you tell us? We’d never have told anyone, honest!”

  “Yes, but if I’d told you, then it wouldn’t really have been a secret would it?” I said.

  “I suppose not,” said Maisie. “Is he a good dancer?”

  “Wait and see,” I said, and went into the hall to take my place at the barre.

  Chapter Six

  TONY AND I had to wait until the very end of the class to do our dance. As soon as the exercises were over, Miss Matting said, “We’ll have five minutes’ rest everyone, and then I’ll see your dances. I’m greatly looking forward to this, and I hope you are too.”

  I was looking forward to showing off our Jack and Jill dance, but while I was in the changing room getting into my tracksuit, I could feel my heart beating very hard in my chest. I went to sit next to Tony when I was ready, and I whispered to him, “I’m nervous. Are you?”

  “No,” said Tony. “Not really.”

  “Why not? Why aren’t you?”

  I couldn’t understand Tony at all. He wasn’t a bit like me. He never lost his temper – well, hardly ever – and now he was sitting here as calm as calm, not a bit worried about dancing in front of all these strangers. I decided boys’ minds just didn’t work in the same way girls’ minds did. I said, “Aren’t you scared of forgetting the steps? Or falling over in the middle of a cartwheel?”

  “Well,” he said, “I know what we have to do. We’ve practised it enough, haven’t we? We’ll just do it the way we do it at home. I’m waiting to see what everyone else does. And guess what?”

  “What?”

  “I know James Williams.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, he goes to my school. He’s in the class below me. I never knew he did ballet.”

  “He’s not a silly boy,” I said, “who thinks that only girly wimps do ballet.”

  “Ssh,” said Tony. “They’re starting.”

  Maisie and Tricia were the first pair to dance. They were pretending to be kittens. Linda and Pam were birds; two of the boys did a sailors’ hornpipe. I watched each pair carefully, and they were all very good. I began to feel more and more nervous.

  “No one’s done a story yet,” Tony whispered to me. “I think our dance is the best.”

  I thought that, too, only I’d never have said so to anyone except Annie. That doesn’t really count, though, because she’s my sister and I tell her everything.

  Soon all the others had done their dances, and it was our turn.

  “Louisa has brought a new boy to the class to be her partner, children,” said Miss Matting. “Say hello to Tony Delaney, everyone.”

  Everyone said, “Hello Tony!” I thought he would be embarrassed, but he looked exactly the same as he always did, and he said “Hello,” back to them.

  I gave Miss Matting our music tape and she put it on for us. As soon as I heard the first chords, I forgot all about the others, and the room we were in, and Miss Matting. I even forgot about being the very best. I could almost see the steep hill in front of us, with the well at the top. When it came to pushing Jack, I held my breath for a moment, hoping that Tony wouldn’t be put off his cartwheels by having to do them in a place he’d never even seen before, and on a surface he wasn’t used to. I needn’t have worried. He whirled along so fast that it really
did look as though he were tumbling out of control, and when he landed at the bottom of the hill, the face he pulled as he clutched his sore head made the whole class laugh. They laughed again when I did my tumbling after, and when we’d finished, everyone clapped.

  “Well,” said Miss Matting, “I must say I’m very pleased with you all, class. You’ve worked very hard, and your dances were excellent, and I think Louisa and Tony were very clever to think of doing a whole story as a dance.”

  “It was Tony’s idea,” I said. “And he helped me with the choreography.”

  “It was a very good idea. Have you been going to ballet classes for long, Tony?”

  “No, Miss Matting,” he said.

  “He’s never been,” I said. “I taught him all the positions and steps. I try to remember everything that you show us in class, and then I go home and teach it to Tony. He lives next door to me, so we can practise every day.”

  “Well, you’re a very good teacher, Louisa. Maybe I’ll take a holiday and leave you in charge.”

  “Oh no,” I said. “I want to learn, Miss Matting. I don’t want to teach.”

  “I was only joking, dear. Of course I shall go on teaching you all. But Tony, I would be very pleased if you joined the class. I think you’ve got a real gift and it would be a shame if you didn’t develop it, don’t you think?”

  “Yes, Miss Matting, I suppose so,” Tony said.

  “So will you come every week? There’s always a shortage of good male dancers, you know.”

  Tony looked at me and hesitated. I nodded at him. He turned back to Miss Matting and grinned at her. “OK. I mean, yes, I’d really like to come and learn properly. I’ll ask my mum and dad tonight.”

  I was so happy that Tony was going to come to class with me every Tuesday that it wasn’t until we were back at home and telling Annie all about it that I realised what he’d said to Miss Matting.

  “You told Miss Matting you wanted to learn properly. Does that mean you think I don’t teach you properly?”

  “No, no, of course not,” he said. “You’ve taught me brilliantly. Really you have. And I’m glad I’m coming to class with you on Tuesdays.”

  “Me and all the girly wimps,” I said. “Don’t forget them.”

  “I’m going home now,” he said, “to ask my mum and dad, and tell them all about our dance.”

  He did some Nureyev-style leaps as he made his way to the front door and frightened poor Brad who was lying on the mat at the bottom of the stairs.

  “Sorry, Brad,” said Tony. “I didn’t mean to scare you. ’Bye, Weezer.”

  “ ’Bye, Ant.” I stuck my tongue out at him. “See you tomorrow.”

  That night in bed I said to Annie, “Miss Matting thinks Tony has a real gift. She said so.”

  “Well, you said so as well. Didn’t you?”

  “But I’m worried now,” I said.

  Annie groaned. “Honestly, you find things to worry about that no one else has ever thought of before. What is it now?”

  “What if he’s better than I am?” I said. “I don’t mind him being gifted, but I want to be even more gifted.”

  “He’s a boy,” Annie said. “It’s different. No one will be comparing him with you. And Margot Fonteyn had Rudolf Nureyev, didn’t she? A real, proper ballerina needs a good partner. You told me that. You’re always telling me that.”

  I closed my eyes and thought about this for a bit. I could see Tony and me taking a bow on a big stage with red velvet curtains behind us, just like Fonteyn and Nureyev.

  “Blair and Delaney,” I told Annie. “It has to be that way round – Louisa Blair and Tony Delaney – doesn’t it?”

  “Of course it does,” said Annie. “It wouldn’t be at all the same if his name came first. Now go to sleep, Weezer, it’s late.”

  I was falling asleep as Annie was talking. I don’t even know if she heard me saying, “Louisa . . . my name’s Louisa,” or if I was only thinking it in my head.

  A Rival for Louisa

  For Joanna Carey

  Chapter One

  SATURDAY IS USUALLY my best day of the whole week, because that’s when I go to my special ballet class. I started going in the spring. Miss Matting spoke to Mum, and Mum phoned Dad. I made Mum tell me what Miss Matting had said to her.

  “She said you had a gift for ballet, Weezer, and she wants you to go to her advanced class on Saturday mornings. Dad and I have agreed that you should.”

  That was one of the happiest days of my whole life, and I didn’t even mind Mum calling me Weezer because I liked what she was saying so much.

  There were ten of us in the special class. Then, a couple of months after I started, Miss Matting said she thought Tony should come too, so now we go together. It’s very useful having him living next door. It means that we can both go over all the steps and routines, which makes them more fun. I don’t mind a bit when Tony tells me what’s wrong with something I’m doing, which is funny, because usually I hate being criticized. Miss Matting told me off about it once.

  “Louisa,” she said, “the greater your talent, the more critical I have to be. You do realize that, don’t you?”

  “Yes, Miss Matting,” I said.

  “Then we won’t have you pulling sulky faces ever again, will we?”

  “No, Miss Matting,” I said. Was it possible that all the really great ballerinas never sulked? I didn’t think so, not really. Still, I made up my mind to sulk less, and to keep my sulking hidden from Miss Matting if I ever felt like doing it during a class.

  After that I was very good and well-behaved for ages, until today. I didn’t exactly sulk today, but I was annoyed, and I kept on being annoyed even after I got home. My sister Annie noticed at once.

  “What’s the matter with you?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” I mumbled.

  “Then why have you just thrown your precious ballet suitcase across the room like that?”

  I flopped on to my bed and spoke into the pillow.

  “I can’t hear a word you’re saying,” Annie said at last. “Sit up and talk to me properly.”

  I did sit up in the end. “A new girl came to Miss Matting’s today. She’s come from another ballet class, on the other side of town, because everyone knows that our class is so good.”

  “Is that a reason for you to be so grumpy?”

  “I am not grumpy!” I said. “I’m just annoyed.”

  “But why?”

  “I told you. It’s because of this new girl.”

  “What’s the matter with her? Does she bite? Did she kick you? I don’t understand, Weezer.”

  “LOUISA!” I hissed. Annie never seemed to learn. I wanted to be called by my proper name. A real Russian ballet dancer had told me it was romantic.

  “Louisa,” said Annie. “Sorry. Tell me about this girl. Is she ugly?”

  “No, she’s pretty. She has lovely brown hair with reddish bits in it. Not carroty red, but beautiful dark red.”

  “Where does she go to school?”

  “Somewhere fancy, I expect. Her voice is dead posh. And you should see her car. It’s huge, and it’s so clean it shines.”

  “Your voice is quite posh,” said Annie.

  “Quite posh isn’t the same as dead posh. She also says silly things in the changing-room, like ‘oh my golly’ and ‘cripes’. Can you imagine any normal person saying ‘cripes’?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t say it and you wouldn’t, but it doesn’t seem like a very good reason to dislike a person.”

  “That isn’t why I dislike her,” I said. “Though it doesn’t make me like her any better.”

  “What is it then?”

  “She’s got a silly name.”

  “Tell me,” said Annie.

  “She’s called Phoebe.”

  “I think that’s a beautiful name.”

  “You don’t! Not really. You can’t . . . you just can’t. It’s a pathetic name.”

  “It’s not pathetic. It’s just old-fashi
oned,” Annie said.

  “Well, then it suits her. She’s old-fashioned.” “How do you know?”

  “I can tell,” I said. “She was wearing a horrible pleated skirt. And shiny shoes. No one wears shoes like that any more. They’re too babyish. We all wear trainers.”

  “That’s still no reason not to like her. If you only liked people because of what they wore, then you wouldn’t have any friends.”

  Annie is such a creep! I could feel myself getting cross with her now so I said, “I don’t want to talk about it any more. It’s boring. Talk about something else, Annie, for goodness’ sake.”

  We went downstairs for supper and I forgot about Phoebe for a while. I remembered her again as I was trying to get to sleep. I thought about what I’d said to Annie. I hadn’t told her the real reason I was annoyed. I didn’t want to admit it, even to myself. It was because the new girl was a good dancer. She was definitely as good as I was, and in the dark it was easier to think something that made me feel really bad: maybe she was even better. I know you aren’t supposed to mind about things like that, but I did. I just couldn’t help it. I wish, I said to myself, I wish, wish, wish, that she would find another class to go to somewhere else. I wish she’d just disappear.

  Chapter Two

  PHOEBE DIDN’T DISAPPEAR. She came to the Saturday ballet class every week, and everyone else seemed to like her. She always chatted away as we got changed, and Eleanor and Michelle hung around her all the time. They said things like, “Oh, Phoebe, I really love your hairband!” or, “Where did you get that leotard?”