Breaking Pointe by Samantha-Ellen Bound Page A

then pulled my socks on. I play basketballwith my school team and tonight was our semi-final. If we won this, we’d make it to the grand final!
    Getting into the grand final was important to me because my brothers play basketball and I wanted to show them that I was just as good. Whenever I’m practising hoops at home, they always come and steal the ball and say they’ve got ‘important boys’ business’.
    Yeah, right.
    My feet were aching. Ms McGlone, the ballet teacher at Silver Shoes, had worked us extra hard in the last class. I’d never done so much jumping in all my life – we were switching from pas de basque to pas de ciseaux to jeté passé . The whole time Ms McGlone kept calling out ‘ allegro, allegro ’ (which means ‘fast, fast’ in Italian).
    All of us dancers were still getting used to our pointe shoes, as well. We’d only just beenallowed to start wearing them (you’re not supposed to until you’ve had a certain amount of training).
    By the end of class my toes were cramping badly, but I didn’t show it on my face. When I snuck a look at Jasmine, I saw she was grimacing every time she landed, and it made me feel better.
    A lot of people don’t think I’m as competitive with Jasmine as Ellie is, because Ellie goes off like a firecracker every time Jasmine opens her mouth. But I am. I just keep it to myself – I like to watch and wait until Jasmine shows herself up.
    Sometimes this affects my dancing. Miss Caroline or Ms McGlone often say to me, ‘More face, more expression, Riley – you look like you don’t care!’
    But of course I do. I just let my dancing speak for itself.
    It made me grumpy that Stacey was telling me off. ‘Look at my toes!’ I wanted to yell. ‘I danced last night for three hours!’ But I just made my expression blank and finished putting on my shoes, then walked onto the court.
    Stacey wouldn’t be telling me off once I started scoring goals for our team.

    The game was pretty even, and the quarters went by really fast – nothing but the squeak of sneakers and the swish of the net.
    There was this one girl on the other team, I think her name was Kel, who would shriek and act like she’d won the lottery or something every time she scored a goal. It was really satisfying the few times I managed to get the ball off her.
    When I sunk my goals I didn’t scream and shout like a clown. (I ended up scoring 13!) I just coasted and went back to my starting position. Like I said, the goals spoke for themselves.
    By the end of the fourth quarter though, it was clear the St Vitus All Stars were going to win.
    When the final buzzer rang, we were 16 points in front. And going to the grand final! What a week – the athletics team and now the basketball final!
    I got so caught up in the excitement of it all I forgot about my sore feet, even though I knew my after-game blisters would be all kinds of ugly.
    â€˜Well done as always, Riley,’ said Stacey at the end.
    I just half-smiled at her, but that wasn’t because I was being rude. This time, itwas because I’d kicked off my shoes and caught sight of my feet.
    Ouch.

Chapter Three
    I’ll admit it, by ballet class on Monday afternoon, I felt a bit lazy.
    Not a sloth, like Aidan when he comes home from school and steals the couch for an hour while he scoffs Nana’s babakau (Fijian pancakes) and plays Call of Duty.
    But just a little bit over it all, like, there’s nothing that special about today, it’s just another ballet class, it probably won’t matter if I don’t give 100 per cent.
    Here’s the truth – even when I only give 90 per cent, I’m still one of the best in class.
    Unlike poor Paige, who was getting frustrated because Ms McGlone kept yelling at her to maintain her turn-out.
    â€˜Better yet, turn around and walk out,’ Jasmine whispered to her when no one was