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GRACE

“I feel like I should prank Daddy.”

Swiftly, I faced Ruby who sat still, nibbling on what was left of her cookie as if she just didn’t say something about pranking her father.

We were at her ballet academy, waiting for her session to begin.

“Ruby, why do you want to prank your Dad?”

She clapped her hands to shake off the cookie crumbs, swinging her legs which barely touched the ground.

“He doesn’t play with me at all. And I want him to. So, I’ll prank him to get his attention.”

Aww. That’s weirdly... cute.

“But, do you have to prank him?”

She frowned and looked up at me. “Uh?”

“Why don’t you try talking to him first? Tell him how you feel.”

After looking up thoughtfully for some seconds, she faintly groaned, “I don’t know. Daddy doesn’t talk to me after he comes back from work.” Her gloomy expression saddened me but when it briefly wore some brightness, I became intrigued. “When Fiona was here, I talked to her about many, many things. But my Daddy doesn’t talk to me.”

I reached for her little hand and gave it a squeeze.

“How about this? When your Daddy comes home tonight, let’s talk to him about how you feel.”

Her sadness disappeared without a fuss.

“Really? You will do that?” I nodded. But her face turned serious for a moment. “Daddy can be very hard to talk to.”

The tone of her voice told me that the last statement was a warning.

“Well,” I touched her nose, “I am very hard to ignore.”

I think.

What am I doing?

Just last week Mr. Powers sternly warned me to never enter his room. And now, I am plotting how I am going to corner him when he comes back from work.

As I felt Ruby’s little body crash into mine to give me a huge side hug, I prayed silently that I wouldn’t lose my job after what I planned to do.

“Thank you, Grace.”

“Hey, you know that you can speak to me about your worries right?”

She nodded and tightened her hold on my waist.

When I realised that she had no desire to let go of me soon, I wrapped my free arm around her. And we remained that way while the delightful French song from the dance class filled the corridor.

A few moments later, a lady interrupted our little bond and called Ruby in for her class.

Excited, Ruby ran into the room looking all cute in her uniform, leaving my body to feel a loss of warmth.

As a smile I didn’t intend plastered on my lips, memories of the days I’d spent with Ruby rushed into my mind. It has been a week or so since I got this job and it has been a blast.

Well apart from the painful seven-hour lessons Ruby has from Mondays to Fridays, it has truly been a blast.

Since I was now alone in the long corridor, I took out my phone to check if anything fun was happening.

After a few strolls on Twitter and Instagram, I became tired and decided to occupy myself with another distraction.

********

After almost two hours of rigorous editing, while listening to the soft music that was coming from the room opposite me, I finally got up to have a little tour of the academy.

But before doing that, I decided to have a peek at what was going on in Ruby’s class. I wanted to see the little gracious moves of the little ballerinas.

As I got to the glass window that allowed visual access into the room, I noticed a little ruckus.

Nobody was dancing, instead, they were all gathered around someone or something.

I don’t know. I could hardly see shit.

But as I struggled to get a glimpse, out of nowhere, someone was pushed out of the little circle and my eyes bulged out in fear when I saw that the little figure sprawled on the floor, attempting to get up was Ruby.

I wasn’t sure where the feeling came from, but my heart squeezed at that sight.

Within a second, I was already pushing the entrance door and crouching beside Ruby who was grabbing her ankle, pain etched on her face.

“Oh, my God. Ruby. What to do, what to do...” My hand dangled helplessly over her injury while I frantically searched my head for ideas.

It was then I remembered that they actually had a teacher. And I was yet to see her trying to ease Ruby’s pain.

That made me search the room for the slim, kind of pale-looking woman. When my eyes landed on hers, I silently questioned her inability to do something, and that pushed her to walk toward us.

“How may I help you, ma’am?”

I almost scoffed. “How may you help me? More like, how can I help you recover your senses?” I spat.

What insolence!

A little frown appeared on her forehead. “Excuse me?”

I glanced at Ruby who had tears forming in her eyes. “She is hurt because one of your students pushed her. So, how can you just stand there and ask how you may help me? How about you help yourself out of your delusion?” I took a minute to stay calm before continuing, “I need first aid for Ruby, ma’am.”

“You should have said that earlier.”

My jaw dropped slightly in surprise at her obvious stupidity. But I said nothing and watched as the woman strutted off to get the first aid kit.

But my attention quickly turned to Ruby. “Darling, what happened? Why were you pushed?”

Ruby pointed in a direction that exceeded my angle of view. “She pushed me because I pushed her.”

Before I looked in the direction she was pointing, I asked, “So you pushed her first?”

She shook her head quickly. “She pushed me first, twice!”

With that, I turned and landed my slightly feisty sight on the... human that hurt Ruby. She was about Ruby’s size, she just had a more mature look, probably because of the smirk on her face.

I got up and walked to the girl whose pose had disgusting pride written all over it.

“So, you think it is fun to push other people, uh?”

The girl rolled her eyes to my biggest surprise. “She was about to take my position and I don’t like people stealing my position.”

“And, what position is that, darling?”

Oh yes. I can make the word darling sound very dreadful.

The girl flipped her hair and claimed, “I am always in the front. I belong in the front.”

I nodded slowly and faced the others. “Is that true, guys?”

“No!” A voice cried beside me. “Ruby is always in the front, Bethany is just jealous!”