The Girl With The Tattoo

30. the scholarship

Lexi

Class has just finished and everyone is gathered to wait to find out who's been chosen for the dance scholarship. I personally think that Sophie has this in the bag. I mean, she's probably the best dancer in the room and I'd be surprised if she didn't get this opportunity.

"Hey, good luck." Sophie says to me, almost like she thinks that I have a chance at this.

"Soph, the scholarship's yours." I tell her "You're the best dancer in this room, you've got this."

"I don't know. Mom wants me to win this but I don't want to get my hopes up." Sophie tells me "I just don't want to let her down. She'll probably kill me if I don't get this scholarship."

I rest my hand on her arm to try and calm her nerves "Stop freaking out, you've got this!"

"Yeah, I hope so." Sophie looks at the ground and I can tell that she's panicking so much right now.

All of a sudden, a woman walks into the room holding something close to her. It looks like a certificate or an award or something and I know that it must mean that it's time for the winner to be announced.

"Oh my god, I'm freaking out." Sophie mutters.

I rest my hand on her arm once again "Hey, it's gonna be okay. Just breathe."

Silence fills the entirety of the room as the woman now stands at the front.

She finally speaks "Ladies, now is the time that you've all been waiting for. Over the past couple of days, you've been working hard in class, learning a few of our company's dances whilst our staff watch you closely."

She continues "We've thought long and hard about this decision and we want to assure you that it wasn't an easy choice. But over the past couple of days, the dancer that we have chosen has shown great resilience and we think that she would thrive at our company."

Sophie has so got this! They're definitely talking about her. I mean, Sophie thrives everywhere!

I turn my head to look at Sophie before giving her a quick, reassuring smile. She smiles back at me despite her nervousness.

"So we want to congratulate this dancer for winning a scholarship at the Ontario School Of Ballet." She begins to announce the winner and my heart starts to race.

Any second now.

It's gonna be okay.

Calm down, Lexi!

And my eyes widen as I hear this "Congratulations to Miss Lexi Donovan!"

What the fuck?! I must be dreaming! What the hell is going on?

I hear everyone in the room begin to clap as my name is read out by the woman at the front of the room. I feel like I'm in a trance and I have no idea what to do as I'm struggling to process what's just happened.

I look at Sophie once again and she has a smile on her face. I muster up a smile of my own as I try to act like I'm not losing my shit right now. And I finally begin to walk towards the woman so that I can accept my certificate.

She hands it over to me after giving me a quick hug "There you go, young lady. I hope you enjoy your time at our school."

I turn around to look at the rest of the room, most people clapping to congratulate me. I honestly feel like I'm dreaming right now. I mean, I never would've thought that I'd win an award for dance, let alone an entire scholarship!

I just hope that Sophie isn't mad at me for taking this opportunity away from her...

And as I'm walking back towards Sophie, I can't help but notice Isabella glaring at me from across the room. She winks at me and I just know that she's up to something. She's been acting strange ever since we'd gotten here.

"Good job!" Sophie pulls me into a hug, smiling at me.

And as we pull away, I say "I hope you're not mad at me for winning this. I mean, you've worked so hard, it's not fair that I got this award and you didn't."

"Shut up! Are you kidding?! You totally deserve this!" Sophie tells me "It's not like the award had my name on. Mom will probably be a little disappointed in me but she'll get over it."

She continues "I'm just so happy for you! See, when you work hard for something it always pays off!"

I shake my head "I just can't shake the feeling that I didn't deserve this."

Sophie grabs my shoulders, looking at me with a serious look on her face "Lexi, you do deserve this! Don't do this to yourself."

Sophie turns over the award so that she can have a better look, as she says "And now you will be spending the entire summer dancing for the best ballet school in the entire country!"

I smile, weakly. I don't want to tell Sophie that I probably won't be able to dance here even if I wanted to. My dad would never allow it and I wouldn't want to leave Carl on his own for such a long time. Plus, I'm just not good enough to dance here.

"I thought you and I were gonna travel the world this summer?" I ask her.

Sophie laughs "This is more important! We can do all of that next year, there's no rush!"

"Just focus on yourself this summer." Sophie says to me, and I can tell that she's serious about this "And you'll have to tell me what it's like dancing here. Maybe I can join you one day?"

She's going to be so disappointed when I tell her that I won't be able to go. I should probably hand the award back so that someone else can take my place. I just don't want to admit that I'll never be able to go.

"Yeah, maybe." I muster up a smile.

The rest of the girls begin to leave and I walk over to the back of the room to grab my bag off of the floor. And just when I'm standing upright again, I feel someone purposely push into me.

"Nice trophy, Twiggy." Isabella decides to insult me, referring to my weight once again.

My face instantly drops as she says this to me. And Sophie seems to have heard as I watch as she furrows her brows, clearly confused as to why Isabella would say something like that to me.

She clearly doesn't know that Isabella is a bitch.

"Why did she say that?" She asks me, oblivious to the fact that I'm constantly ridiculed when it comes to my body.

"Nothing." I try to brush it off because I don't want to talk about it "She's just a freak. Let's go."

Sophie nods, not asking any more questions "Okay."