Chapter 6: Dropped

At breakfast Sutton passed me the butter without a word and left before I finished chewing.

Wallace talked about the weather.

My mother kicked me under the table, gently, in a way that meant we'd discuss this in the car.

I ate my toast and did not think about the garage.

I thought about it the entire drive.

Studio A was full by the time I arrived.

Twenty-two dancers sat along the walls in warm-ups, and every one of them looked at me and looked away.

The cast sheet was pinned beside the door again.

Maddox, partner. Fenner, third.

The girl beside me at the barre, whose name I had never learned in two years, slid a granola bar into my hand.

"For the morale," she whispered. "She's a snake."

I put it in my pocket.

It was the first kind thing anyone in that building had done for me in a year.

Philippa walked in at nine on the dot with her cane.

"Good morning. Tidewater has a new partnership as of today. Miss Rennard and Miss Maddox will open the showcase."

Lydia stood on the other side of the room in black leotards, her copper hair braided flat, and she had never looked more at ease.

She did not look at me, but her phone was in her hand.

"Philippa," I said.

All the heads turned.

My heart was thudding, but my voice came out steady.

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