Chapter 10

Before I knew it, the day of the lycan luna’s birthday banquet had arrived. It felt like only yesterday that I was just working my waitressing job trying to earn enough money to get by, and now here I was backstage about to perform for the queen.

The birthday banquet was held at The Royal Grand Theatre, a considerable upgrade from the humble Moonlight over in Blue Moon territory. The Royal Grand Theatre was every ballet dancer’s dream performance space: its vaulted ceilings with intricate gold molding, cushy velvet seats, a massive non-slip stage in pristine condition, and endless backstage practice space and dressing rooms. Not to mention the theater was famous for hosting the most prestigious events, particularly for the royal family. Performing here was an honor desired by all yet achieved by very few.

When my dancers and I arrived at the venue, it was a breathtaking experience walking into the theater and seeing it full of dancers from every pack. Under different circumstances I would have loved to make friends and hear the stories of each of the dancers, but I knew I had a job to do. I couldn’t be distracted from my goal — thankfully, seeing Cate and her dancers pulled me back to reality. I kept my chin up high as I led my troupe to a free dressing room where we could rehearse and prepare our costumes.

“This will be our home base for the night so try and keep your things in order so this goes as smoothly as possible. I have to attend the choreographers’ meeting to determine when in the order of dances we’ll perform. Go ahead and start stretching and I will be right back,” I told my troupe, trying to sound as encouraging as possible. In truth, I was scared shitless of what we were about to attempt — it certainly would be a change of pace, and I knew nobody in the audience would expect it.

As I made my way down the hall to the main stage, I peeked into other dressing rooms to see different packs rehearsing their pieces, all looking very traditional. I wished I hadn’t looked… my palms began to sweat.

I finally arrived on stage and saw one of the queen’s assistants standing in front of the rest of the choreographers, a large bowl in hand. Cate saw me enter and snickered to the girl next to her.

“Looks like someone doesn’t know how to be on time,” she whispered loudly. I rolled my eyes, but thankfully the assistant had waited for me to fall in with the rest of the group.

“Good evening ladies, the lycan luna is most pleased to host each of you and your dancers at this year’s birthday banquet. As you know, it is tradition to pick the order of the show on the night of the performance to ensure fairness. Also, as a reminder, this is not a competition but a chance to celebrate the queen and we expect you to behave as such. Any foolishness will not be tolerated and will be cause for dismissal without performance from the theater,” the assistant looked around at us with the utmost seriousness. Clearly something had gone wrong in the past.

“Now, please step forward and pick a piece of paper from the bowl then place yourselves in the order of those numbers,” all the dancers immediately jumped to life and hustled to put their hand in the bowl and retrieve a number. I somehow managed to grab a slip of paper without my arm being torn off and I opened it the second I got away from the crowd.

The paper read ‘15’.

My stomach dropped as I looked around the room — I had forgotten to count how many troupes there were, but surely I would be near the end.

Some poor red-headed girl looked as if she was about to pass out as she made her way to the left of the stage and held up the number ‘1’. Slowly, the other women fell in line behind her. I tried to put some distance between myself and the first girl, hoping that someone would come up to me with a higher number. But my hopes were dashed as I got farther and farther away from the front and soon realized that there was nobody left to fill in.

I had chosen the last slot. Cate, who was a few spaces ahead of me, looked back at me with a grin that could be described as nothing short of evil, as though this was all part of some plan of hers. I did my best to avoid her.

“Alright, please come give me your name and the name of your pack so I can appropriately announce your performance. Once you do so, you may return to your dressing rooms and the queen will arrive shortly with her guests,” the assistant called and we followed in a line to sign up our pack. When it was finally my turn, the assistant gave me a look of pity; even he knew that I had picked the worst spot.

After breaking the news to my team, there was nothing left to do but wait. We decided to join the other packs in a common space where they were broadcasting the performances live. I looked around the room at all the intricate costumes and couldn’t help but feel self-conscious about how different ours looked. I had opted for a tight, black long sleeve top coupled with black flowing pants that had a shimmer in them that would catch perfectly on the stage lights. It was simple yet elegant, but by no means traditional in the world of ballet. Even our shoes were black to reflect our association with Black Moon.

The other teams seemed unimpressed by our look and gave my troupe looks of disdain and mockery.

“That can’t possibly be what you’re wearing,” Cate scoffed from her spot on one of the lounges where she sat in a classic pink leotard and tutu. “Are you Black Moon performing a ballet or a circus act?” Others laughed around her and I felt my face heat up.

“At least my outfit isn’t boring Cate, the lycan luna will probably fall asleep just looking at you,” I retorted, trying to maintain my composure in front of the other packs.

“Every person on my team is a professional dancer. We will be the best,” Cate said, blatantly ignoring my taunts. “You’re all talk Eleanor and I can’t wait to see you fail.”

With that, we saw the lights dim on screen and the queen’s assistant announced the first performance. All of the packs watched respectfully, saying their polite ‘break-a-legs’ to each of the troupes as they left for the stage and appropriate congratulations when they returned. The tension in the room remained high. The assistants' vain attempt at getting us not to compete had clearly been unsuccessful — we all knew there was a fight to be the best.

When Cate and the Blue Moon dancers left to perform I made a point of not even looking up, but I kept my eyes trained on the screen. I wish I could say their performance was lack-luster, but they actually did excellent.

Blue Moon was renowned for its ballet and I hated to admit they had done well, but I tried to remain optimistic for the sake of my team. Cate’s performance received much applause from the audience, and the camera panned to the lycan luna and she seemed more pleased at Blue Moon’s dance than any other pack’s. Others in the room looked discouraged and annoyed; it seemed I wasn’t the only one in the room who found Cate less than desirable.

Finally it was our turn, and I took a deep breath before heading towards the stage. I ignored the rude comments from Cate and her groupies and focused on my performance. My dancers made their way to their respective sides of the stage where they would enter, and I led two of the dancers to our starting position at center stage. People in the audience gasped and I could hear laughter emanating from backstage too. I steeled myself for what might be the embarrassment of a lifetime.