Dance of Shadows by Yelena Black Page A

don’t you say something?”
    Vanessa swallowed, trying to appear calm, like someone who hadn’t just seen the boy she liked hold another girl’s hand. Like someone who wasn’t about to go see the head choreographer to be expelled from the most prestigious ballet school in America.
Expelled
, she thought, her throat suddenly dry.
Was that even possible?
    “Vanessa!” her mother screeched.
    “Yes, I’m here, Mom,” she said. “I had a bad connection.”
    But her mother barely listened. “I’ve been calling and calling, but you never pick up. What’s going on? Is everything all right?”
    “Stop worrying. Everything’s fine. I’m sorry I haven’t called you back, I’ve just been busy. They announced which ballet we’ll be performing and it’s
The Firebird
.”
    “The Firebird?”
her mother said. “The same one Margaret wassupposed to be in?” Before Vanessa could answer, her mother continued. “You haven’t been cast yet, have you?”
    “No, not yet …” Vanessa lowered her voice.
    This seemed to cheer her mother up. “Well, maybe it’s for the better,” she said. “You need to focus on your schoolwork. How’s that going, by the way?”
    “It’s fine.”
    “You sound upset,” her mother said. “You know you can come home at any time. Whenever you’re ready. If you don’t get cast, we can always enroll you in the public school here. The teachers are wonderful. I ran into one of them in the grocery store the other day, and she started telling me about their freshman curriculum—”
    “Mom, I’m fine here. Things are going great.”
    “What did you say? It sounds like you’re walking down stairs.”
    “I said things are going great. I’m—I’m going to the studio. To practice my exercises,” Vanessa lied.
    “Exercises? Maybe you should take a break. Go to the library.”
    “Okay, Mom, I’ll keep that in mind,” she said. After saying good-bye, she hung up. Vanessa stared at her cell phone. Still no response from Elly. Quickly, she dialed her number and listened as it rang, once, twice, three times. Then the sweet sound of Elly’s southern drawl, saying that she wasn’t available to take her call.
    “Elly, it’s me, Vanessa. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. You don’t have to explain or anything. I just want toknow you’re all right.” Vanessa hesitated, as if waiting for Elly to cut in. When she didn’t, she hung up.
    Josef’s office was tucked into the first floor of the main hall. The dark wooden door was cracked open when she arrived, a dim light emanating from within. Catching a glimpse of a messy desk covered with papers, she knocked. “Josef?” she said, her voice wobbly. When no one answered, she pushed open the door.
    The office was unnaturally still. A thick haze hung in the air, and the pungent smell of smoke tickled her nose. The shades were drawn, barring all light except what came from an old lamp, which flickered in the corner as if its bulb were about to burn out.
    Vanessa took a step inside, still holding her cell phone.
    The walls were covered with black-and-white photographs of Josef as a young dancer and autographed posters from famous ballerinas. She saw a wooden filing cabinet whose top drawer was ajar, revealing a row of files. Student files, she thought. For the briefest moment she considered searching for hers, but then came to her senses. Josef could walk in at any moment. The top of the cabinet was lined with trophies covered in a layer of dust. She studied them, until she noticed a gate leading to a darkened room lined with books. A library, she thought, and out of curiosity, tried the latch. It was locked. She turned to face the desk, behind which stood a tall pendulum clock, when she realized that the smoky smell had gotten stronger.
    On Josef’s desk, several odd-looking blocks of rosin were stacked beside a sketchbook and a metronome. They lookedalmost like the rosin Vanessa rubbed on her pointe shoes, except these were