“Dancers, before you leave, I have an announcement to make,” Dem said, drawing everyone’s attention to him.
I leaned against the piano, pulling out my phone to take notes while he spoke. I already knew what he was going tosay—I’d helped write the speech. What I really wanted, though, was to analyze everyone’s reaction to the message.
“As I’m sure you’re all aware by now,” he said. “Last Friday, Ivy was injured by a piece of glass placed in her pointe shoe. She was taken to the emergency room, where the shard was extracted, and her toe was treated.”
I watched all the dancers as some whispered to each other while others looked stunned. There were a few, though, that looked like they couldn’t be bothered to listen. I quickly typed a few names into my phone.
“The amount of glass that was placed, and the way it was placed in multiple pairs of Ivy’s shoes, led us to conclude that this was a malicious attack against her from someone within this organization.” Dem took a deep breath, trying to keep his voice calm. “We absolutely will not tolerate this kind of attack on any of our company dancers. The police have been called and will be actively investigating who could have done this.”
Several of the dancers gasped, shaking their heads in disbelief. They were probably just as shocked as we were—this had been a pretty tight-knit group throughout these past few years.
“If anyone has any information that would benefit the police’s investigation, I am offering a five-hundred-dollar reward so long as it leads to this person’s arrest.”
Dem paused, taking another deep breath as his hands slowly crumbled the paper he was holding. I raised my brows curiously—unscripted Dem tended to be very passionate with his messaging.
“I don’t think it needs to be said how I feel on this matter. My mate was attacked within my company, under my watch. This will not be tolerated, and if justice were up to me…”
I cleared my throat, stepping forward to interrupt Dem. “Dancers, Ivy will be out today, but will most likely be back in the building tomorrow. Thankfully, there was no permanent damage done, and she was already back on her feet as of yesterday. In the meantime, if you do have any additional information, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.”
“Dismissed,” Dem said, crushing the paper further in his hands. He turned to me and gave a weak smile. “Thanks for stopping me.”
“Anytime,” I said. Turning to watch the dancers scatter, my eyes immediately landed on Millie, who was slowly sauntering up to me.
“Ivy’s been sending me updates on her toe all weekend. I’m so thankful she’ll be alright.” Millie gestured to my phone. “Who’s on your list of suspects so far?”
“Three of the corps girls, Adrienne, Nerissa, and a few of the boys,” I whispered, showing her my list.
“The boys seem unlikely, but best not to rule anyone out,” she said. “You heard about Adrienne and Preston last Friday?”
“Yeah, he mentioned it,” I replied. “That almost seems too convenient.”
“I agree,” she said. “Then there’s Susan, who is always a big gossip, and her minions—Tracy and Erika. Tracy has been griping to anyone who will listen about being overlooked for roles. Erika is a scatterbrain.”
I laughed at Millie’s description. “Maybe I’ll start in the dancer’s lounge and see where that leaves me.”
“Sounds good,” she said. “I’ll keep my ears open, too.”
***
Once the morning rehearsals started, I slowly made my way to the dancers’ lounge, phone in hand and ready to take notes. Past the front door, the first thing that caught my eye was the rock Ivy had mentioned. It had been placed off to the side near a row of lockers.
I walked over to it and knelt, inspecting the rock. Colorful pictures and sweet messages for Ivy had been written all over the rock. It was hard to believe this was a source of bullying and hate towards Ivy at one point.
Reaching along the side, I gently pivoted the rock to the backside, looking to see if any of the original message wasstill present. On the back, I could read very faint parts of the message that someone had tried to remove.
newest anchor…pack…deadweight
I switched my phone over to take a picture of the writing, hoping I could compare it to something we had on file. Looking at the writing made my heart ache; Ivy had been enduring all of this without telling any of us. I just wanted to keep her safe in my arms.
I stood up from the rock and walked over to the pointe shoe room. Last Friday still haunted me with how frantic Millie had been when she found me in the halls. I remembered crashing into this room, panicked that Ivy had been seriously hurt. The look on Ivy’s face was heartbreaking—damn, I couldn’t keep thinking about that, I had to do my job here.
Isaac had already cleared out all of Ivy’s reserved pointe shoes and tossed them in the trash. We didn’t want to take any chances of any lingering shards or anything. We also inspected all of the other dancers' shoes, but no one else seemed to have glass like Ivy’s did. I’d told all the dancers to be cautious, and if anyone felt they needed new shoes, too, they just needed to let us know.
My hand felt along the floor for any traces of glass shards. A tiny prick hit my pinky finger as I slid it across the carpet. Lifting my hand, I let out an annoyed sigh. We’d vacuumedthis carpet at least a dozen times to try to get all the glass out, but here I was, still finding some.
I walked out of the supply closet and grabbed a nearby vacuum. After plugging it into the wall, I turned on the vacuum and proceeded to, once again, clean the closet.
Little pings of dirt and debris (and probably more glass) sounded out with each pass I made over the carpet. After a final pass of little noise, an idea struck me as I turned and looked at the rest of the locker room. I maneuvered the vacuum to the locker room now and began my pass, once again hearing that ping of debris being collected.
