That night Dominika lay in her bed, restless as the wind beat against her windows, tossing the trees outside back and forth in their wake. Even if it wasn’t for the racket of natural percussion outside, she still wouldn’t have been able to sleep thanks to the moral dilemma that played over and over in her mind.

Dominika desperately wanted to attend Daphne’s party, partially because she wanted to please her friend, but mostly because she’d never been to a real party with people her own age in her whole life. She’d spent the last few weeks enjoying the life of what she imagined to be a fairly typical American girl, minus being chaperoned from place to place, and they’d easily been some of the most interesting of her life.

She knew the Ways wouldn’t allow her to attend, and to be honest she couldn’t blame them. They hadn’t met her friends, they had no idea who any of the people attending were, and to them it would come across as a massive security risk for the Princess. No, they would never allow her to go, so that left her with only two options. Either ask and accept their answer as no, or to stretch the truth a little and go without them knowing. What they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them, right? The very second she began to realistically consider it however, her heart began to race and thump guiltily in her chest. Could she really lie to Gerard’s parents? Especially to Donna who had loved and treated her like her very own daughter these last few weeks? The thought of losing the Way’s trust was painful, but Dominika wanted so badly to have the experience, even if it was only this once.

It would be pretty easy to get away with it, of that much she was quite certain. Donna already knew to expect her home late for the entire week due to her upcoming audition and the late rehearsals and extra practice she was undertaking, so surely she wouldn’t suspect anything if Dominika was home a little later on Friday night. She would have no reason to worry, and Dominika would make sure she was home at the time she would say she would be. She would have Daphne drop her back to the company lot where John could pick her up, as if she really had spent the night at rehearsals and no one would be any the wiser. She grinned to herself in the dark as she worked over the plan in her head, even though her subconscious frowned at her at the back of her mind. She would have to clear it with Daphne tomorrow, of course, and come up with a plausible excuse for why she had to sneak around without seeming weird. John was another Uncle according to the story she’d told Daphne and Harriet, so she hoped they’d accept why she had to lie to her guardians without too many questions.

The wind picked up tempo as she began to relax and drift off to sleep, her mind eased by the plan she hatched. Just before she fell asleep, she smiled to herself, entertained by what she imagined Gerard would say if he knew about all this. He’d probably laugh and encourage her, and somehow that made it a little better.

---

The next morning Dominika woke to a light purple early morning sky, highlighted with an occasional smudge of white cloud. Today marked her first day of a week-long stint of tiring rehearsals leading up to her final audition for The Sleeping Beauty. The piece Mr. Rush had given her to practice was one of the most difficult pieces of Ballet dancing ever preformed, the Rose Adagio. She had worked on the piece as a younger teenager but now she was worried it had been too long since she had danced en pointe as extensively in one piece as the Rose Adagio required. She read through the written choreography as she readied herself for the morning, the small, stapled stack of paper set on the edge of her vanity as she coiled her long hair carefully into the same ballerina’s bun she had worn almost every time she’d danced since she was a child. She could style her hair on autopilot now, freeing her mind to memorize the steps spelt out on the pages in front of her.

John’s Bentley was already waiting for her as she stepped out the front door, parked at the base of the porch steps. She was shivering as she slipped into the passenger seat, placing her bag on the floor.

“Its freezing” she said, leaning forward to adjust the air vents so they pointed at her. John chuckled as he turned up the heater using the dashboard controls.

“Good morning to you too. Just be glad I installed a reverse-cycle air-con in this thing”

“Thank you, John” Dominika said, rolling her eyes. He laughed again as he turned up the radio, another terrible 80’s classic flooding her ears.

The enormous reception of the ballet company was warm as Dominika stepped inside, greeting the receptionist as she approached.

“Good morning, Lorraine” she said softly, hoisting her bag over her shoulder.

“Hello, Miss Dominika, how can I help you?”

“Mr. Rush said I’d be assigned with a new timetable today for rehearsals, has he printed them yet?”

Lorraine thumbed through a pile of papers on her desk and plucked one out, glancing at it briefly before handing it over to Dominika.

“Here you go”

“Thank you”

Dominika studied the paper carefully as she walked out into the reception yard, making her way to her first rehearsal according to her schedule. She frowned at the paper as she read through it, realizing she’d need to at school an hour earlier than usual. As she walked across the common to her assigned studio, she was excited and nervous about what was to come, knowing she’d have to commit her full attention to the task ahead.

Today was not a day to be day-dreaming about Gerard.

Notes

Bare with me! We're heading into more excitement!