Fiona loved dancing. It wasn’t her passion; it was her life.
She spent every waking moment listening to music and choreographing the accompanying routines in her head. As she put the slice of bread in the toaster and made a cup of tea, she danced around the kitchen.
“Watch out, Fi, darling. This ain’t the London Palladium"
“Sorry, Mum,” Fiona replied, taking out one earbud to hear what she said. Once she realised it was yet another monologue about A levels, exams, and university, she put it back in and carried on planning the next part of her routine.
She knew schoolwork was important, but she also knew if she could just get on the stage, she’d be noticed, and then she could just spend her life dancing. The problem was that when you lived in a shite hole of a town where nothing happened, who is going to notice you?
A knock at the door signalled it was time to go to school. She shouted to her mum that Nicole was at the door and she was off. Nicole had been her best mate since primary school. They had grown up together. They used to be so alike. Nicole used to spend her evenings in Fiona’s room with the two of them, dancing and laughing. But now Nicole was all about the boys. She didn’t care about Fiona’s dancing, even though she would still listen to her plans and watch her routines. Fiona knew, though, that Nicole would rather be somewhere else and was just glad she would still spend some time with her.
“Alright, Fiona.”
Fiona rolled her eyes as their next-door neighbour Dennis called out to them as he unloaded a couple of cardboard boxes from his van.
“Hiya, Dennis,” Nicole giggled.
Fiona couldn’t believe Nicole. Flirting with a guy twice their age. Dennis was just about to say something else when Fiona tugged Nicole away. She’d always been wary of him but lately, he was just being more and more of a creep. He seemed more interested in ogling Nicole’s big tits today, though, which was understandable. Everybody ogled Nicole’s big tits. Fiona was sure Nicole bought her blouses a size too small on purpose, just so they’d look like they were bursting out. Fiona glanced down. Hers were tiny by comparison. One boyfriend had told her he liked her tits; they were a perfect handful. She’d let him sleep with her on that basis. He came out as gay two weeks later, and Fiona was never quite sure if sleeping with her had been the final catalyst.
She kicked the stone along the pavement as she walked home from school. Nicole was meeting Gary, or whatever his name was. By the time she got home, she figured Nicole would have Gary’s tongue down her throat and his hand up her skirt.
She let herself into the flat and breathed a sigh of relief at the silence. Her mum was at work, and her latest boyfriend, Brian, was off doing whatever wasters like him did all day. She pushed the sofa back to clear a space, selected the track on her phone, and played it through the Wi-Fi speaker.
She began to dance. As the music played, she twirled and danced and lost herself in the music. She felt like she was floating, dancing on air, the rest of her life left far below. She pulled the hair bobble out of her long dark red hair and danced and twirled faster and faster until the music suddenly stopped.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
She opened her eyes. She felt the blush rising as Brian and her Mum stood there, shopping bags in hand, staring at her.
She flushed as her mother looked her up and down. “You should be revising for your exams, not dancing around the living room. You’re almost 18 years of age. And straighten the furniture up, for god’s sake.”
“Yes, Mum,“ she muttered and moved the sofa and coffee table back into place.
She stood waiting for her Mum to buy a couple of lottery scratch cards at Kwiki-Save. She read the notices stuck up on the community announcements board. Adverts for a gardening club, a book club for mothers which Fiona thought was a bit discriminatory and an ad for dancers for a new club. She re-read the ad.
Wanted: Have you got what it takes to entertain a crowd? New dancers needed with great pay plus tips. Phone 0864 1967 456
She looked around and carefully pulled the notice off the wall, folded it up and slid it into her pocket. She was itching to phone the number but knew she couldn’t let her mum find out what she was doing. Once she’d put the shopping away, she walked out onto the balcony and leaned over, watching the impromptu football match on the communal green. She dialled the number and turned away from the front door as it rang.
“Hello? Yeah, I’m phoning about the ad for dancers.”
“Yeah. I can come tomorrow. What time?”
“And where is it?.... Ritzy’s on Camden Row? Yeah, got it.”
She hung up and checked she hadn’t been overheard. She couldn’t believe it, an audition.
She changed in the toilets after school. She liked to dance in a tight top and baggy trousers, giving her unrestricted movement. She found Ritzy’s on Camden Row easily enough. She pushed open the heavy wooden door. The place smelt of bleach and stale cigarettes. She heard the final bars of Paradise City by Guns ‘n’ Roses in the distance. She walked down the corridor following the muffled voices. A blonde woman bustled past her, almost knocking her over.
“Alright, love, can I help you?”
Fiona stared at the man sitting behind a table. He was older than she expected. He looked in his 50s or 60s with a bald head and a serious beer gut. He held a cigar in one hand as he wrote something on a piece of paper with the other. A woman sat smoking beside him.
“Um, yeah. I’m Fiona. I’m here for the audition.”
“Grand then, up you go onto the stage. Play your music through the PA system there.”
She stepped up onto the stage. She glanced around. There were fireman’s poles on either side and a catwalk down the middle of the room. She imagined the chairs around the tables filled with people watching the show.
After connecting her phone, she pressed play and prepared herself. Once the first few bars played, she began her routine. She arched and spun, twirling around and around, then stopping, frozen for a couple of beats before reacting. She’d choreographed this as if she were a wood nymph being chased through the woods and felt the adrenalin buzz as she swooped around the stage.