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To the discontent of all its student body, the San Diego Academy of Ballet was situated next to the biggest skate park in California. The future prima ballerinas complained relentlessly about having to traipse through a dirty parking lot of edgy girls and boys in baggy clothes just to get to school every morning.
Linh Song didn't care.
And, one day, she started to care even less.
It was an average grey Tuesday in the beginning of April, just early enough in the spring to be getting warm but not early enough for clear skies. Dust swirled in the air as she opened the door to the outside alone. All her friends were in an extra credit class about the history of ballet, which Linh didn't take this semester, instead opting for a contemporary dance course. Noises flooded the air in every possible direction. Shouts, wheels landing against the smooth concrete, songs played through tinny speakers. The air intermingled with the smell of cigarettes and vapes, and Linh automatically held her breath in an effort to protect her lungs. Several of the skaters sneered at her as she walked amongst them in her leotard and tights, hair in an immaculate bun. She tried to block everything out and focus on the walk to her bus stop. However, one thing she couldn't ignore. Someone was running after her. Fast.
"Hey! You! Ballet girl!" she heard a girl call out. She tried to turn around as normally as possible, but it was probably still faster and more graceful then the average person.
"You dropped this." A blonde girl with two short, shoulder length braids messily arranged underneath a cap with a small, sunset coloured rainbow on it turned out to be the voice that was calling her. She wore a faded black t-shirt for some kind of band, along with dark red cargo pants with chains on it. She had eyes so blue they were almost the exact shade of the sky on a clear autumn day, surrounded by way more eyeliner than necessary, and full, glossy black lips. She was holding Linh's water bottle in one hand, the other being occupied with a skateboard under her arm, looking at Linh with a smile that was more curious than kind, more gentle than unkind.
"Oh. Sorry, I don't know how that happened," Linh apologised, not reaching for the bottle. She looked down at the girl's hand. Illegible notes had been hastily scribbled on it in blue biro pen, a habit Linh used to have until ballet school snapped her out of it. Her black nail polish was chipping and two of her nails were drastically shorter than the rest.
"Well, you're lucky I found it. Ballerinas need water more than air, don't they?" The girl was also visibly sizing Linh up, trying to figure out... something.
"I think we need both pretty equally. Or we die. You know, like a normal human being." Linh said dryly, as if she was challenging this girl to view her as a person, not a ballerina.
"Obviously. You'll have to excuse me if I appeared rude. I'm aware my fellow skaters have given you the notion we all hate dancers and all those who follow the noble craft of ballet, but I certainly do not." Linh could tell that for some reason, this girl was attempting to use fancy words to impress Linh, which made her smile. This girl that she would have found intimidating under any other circumstances was trying to impress her.
"I'm afraid my classmates have given you many reasons to hate them," Linh replied. "You should hear them complain about the 'rowdies' out here."
"They use the word 'rowdies'? Do you go to school with people from the 1930s?" the girl smiled, really smiled, her face extending into a grin.
"Probably."
"Well, I think our disciplines are quite similar. My feet might even spend more time in 6th position then yours do."
Linh paused, then quietly said, "There are only 5 positions."
The girl's eyes widened and she blushed slightly, clearly embarrassed. This made Linh smile even more. Clearly this girl wasn't smooth as she liked to think she was.
"Right. Of course. I knew that. Uh, which one is this one?" She dropped her board to the floor and got on it, her feet in parallel.
"Second. Kind of." The girl smiled shyly and nodded, trying to regain her composure.
"So, you got a name, Princess?" she said, avoiding eye contact as she kicked her board into her hand. Something about the nickname made Linh's stomach flip.
"Linh Song."
"Wow," the girl raised her eyebrows. "That your real name or is it a stage name?"
"Technically a real name. My grandma's last name was Tong, but she changed it to Song. It was her stage name, but her kids took it anyways."
"She was a ballerina too?"
"Yep. All my family are in the industry or training, pretty much."
"Interesting. Well, I'm Marella."
"No last name? What are you, Zendaya?"
"Zendaya's last name is Coleman," she countered, avoiding the question.
"And Marella's last name is?"
The girl smiled weakly. "Marella isn't on great terms with the people who bestowed a last name upon her."
"Ah," Linh said.
Marella cleared her throat. "Well, you should get going. Don't want to be seen with a rowdy, do we?"
"No, this rowdy is pretty cool in my opinion."
"Well, that's very Romeo and Juliet of you." Marella paused for a second. "In a platonic sense. I'm sure you already have a Romeo."
"Not many straight boys at ballet school, shockingly."
"Ah, I can imagine. All straight girls falling for gay boys in tights."
"Well, a surprising amount of the girls are gay as well, so it actually works out."
"Oh?" Marella seemed to be asking Linh something, but she was unsure as to what, so she just nodded a little.
"Marella! There you are!" A strawberry blond boy with piercings all over his ears and some on his face ran up to Marella, only just noticing Linh.
"Oh. Chatting up a ballerina, are we?" he said.
Marella went bright red. "I'm not chatting her up, Dex, jesus, stop being weird."
"Sure," he said slowly.
"Anyways, Linh, here's your water bottle back," Marella said almost robotically.
"Thank you," Linh said, talking the bottle, their fingers grazing for a breathtakingly small moment.
"Let's go, then," Dex said, turning his back.
"See you tomorrow, Princess," Marella whispered, winking, leaving Linh alone and confused.
And Linh did see her the next day.
She made sure to hang around after class 'practicing her solo' as to not leave the building with her friends. And when she did leave the building, Marella was leaning on the wall right next to the door, sweet smelling smoke streaming out of her mouth. Linh not-so-subtly coughed.
"Hey, Princess," Marella smirked.
"That stuff will kill you, you know," was all Linh said in response.
"Well, pretty corpses and all that," she joked. Seeing Linh wasn't amused, her smiled faded. "Does this stuff seriously bother you?"
Linh nodded. "Noted," Marella said, putting her vape in a pocket. "Park?" she asked.
"The skate one or the normal one?" Linh asked.
"Normal."
"Scared of your skate friends seeing us? I see how it is," Linh said.
Marella rushed to explain herself. "It's not like tha-"
"Relax, I was kidding," Linh assured her, starting to walk to the park.
"Well, where do your friends think you are right now?" Marella followed her.
Linh blushed slightly. "Practicing my solo."
"Interesting."
"Yep."
After a beat, Marella said, "So, what do you want to know?"
"What?"
"I mean, I certainly have questions about you. Do you have any for me?"
"Uh, sure. How did you start skating?"
Marella smiled. "When I was 9, this board was just lying against a wall in my street. Like it fell from god or something. I waited a week, and no one took it. So I did, and taught myself to skate. Then I came here, and my new life began."
"That's really sweet," Linh said. The girl was definitely passionate, she'll give her that.
"Yeah. I'm guessing your parents had you on pointe before you could walk?"
"Not on pointe, obviously. But yeah."
"Not going to waste a question on that, then. Let's see…" Marella scanned Linh like she was trying to see the inside of her soul. "Do you love ballet?"
Linh paused. "I love… dancing. And ballet's the foundation of all dance. I would love to be in theatre. Musicals, actually. But my parents would not like that."
"Wow, you want to do musical theatre but your parents want you to do ballet? It's like a more boring High School Musical," Marella said lightheartedly.
Linh laughed. "Yep."
"Your turn now," Marella said gently.
"What are your friends like?" Linh asked.
"They're cool. None of them go to my school, so I'm alone there, but we go to the skatepark together every day and hang out. How about yours?"
"Well, there's my brother and his girlfriend, and her brother and my two best friends and one of them has a cousin who hangs out with us… it's complicated. But they're nice by dancer standards I guess. Was that your question?"
"Sure."
"Uh, okay." Linh tried to ask something light and casual. Her eyes landed on Marella's hand.
"Why are some of your nails so much shorter than the others?"
Marella's eyes widened. "Oh, um… because, I, uh, am a lesbian."
"Oh." Linh didn't quite know what to do with this information. "What does that have to do with that?"
"Well, you know, when girls… well," Marella raised her eyebrows pointedly, "the nails need to be-"
"Oh! Right. Jesus. Uh. Sorry, I, um…" Linh's face felt like it was burning hotter than the sun. "Sorry. I didn't… well."
Marella smirked. "Do they not have sex ed at ballet school, Princess?"
"Yes! Obviously. I just, uh, not … about… that." Linh said, trying her hardest not to look anywhere near Marella.
"Well. Are you straight, by the way?"
"Is that your next question?" Linh said, meeting her gaze while avoiding the question.
"Only if it needs to be for you to tell me," Marella said, barely contained hope shining in her eyes.
Linh looked away. "I don't know. I've never thought about it."
"You've never thought about it?" Marella asked, confused.
"No."
"Well, have you liked a boy?" Marella asked, trying to be helpful.
"Yes. I think. Short-lived though. He's gay."
"Happens to the best of us," Marella assured her. "What about girls? Have you liked a girl?" she asked.
Linh looked at Marella and her blue eyes that made her truly understand why people can be described as 'strikingly beautiful'. "I'm not sure yet."
Marella smiled slowly. "Well, if you need any help, I highly recommend lesbianism."
"I'll... keep that in mind." Somewhere in the conversation they had stopped walking, and were now just staring at each other. Something almost like static electricity was rippling between them. Marella broke the moment by clearing her throat.
"Your turn," she said, starting to walk again.
And so Linh asked a question.
For the next two weeks, Linh stayed behind and met up with Marella and they asked each other questions. Weirdly, even though it had only been a fortnight, Linh felt like Marella knew her more than most people. One day though, everything went a little wrong.
Instead of going with Biana to the bus stop, Tam decided to stay back and work on his solo with Linh.
Watching her do a solo that she had actually barely practiced, he said, "You're rushing."
"Sorry," she replied. "Tired."
"Where do you actually go after school? Because I'd be surprised if you've worked on this for more than an hour."
"No I did, I'm just tired." Tam raised an eyebrow.
"Come on, let's get out of here, let's go home," Linh said.
"Where are you in a rush to get to? Linh, is this about a boy?"
"What? No."
"You can tell me, Linh," Tam said.
Linh sighed. "It's just a friend."
"The kind of friend that's a boy?"
"No, Tam. She's a girl. Just... one who happens to enjoy skateboarding."
Tam, to his credit, didn't act shocked. His face stayed perfectly neutral. "I want to meet her."
"Tam-"
"Linh," he said, in that way that declared it was final.
"Fine." She grabbed her bag and stormed into the corridor as he followed.
As soon as she opened the door to the outside, Marella's voice rang out.
"You're late, Princess."
"Princess?" Tam repeated.
"Marella, this is my little brother. Tam, this is Marella."
"We're twins," Tam couldn't resist saying.
"Hello, Tam, lovely to meet you," Marella said, extending her hand. Tam stared at it and Marella, who was currently wearing ripped jeans and a shirt that simply said "dyke" in a metal font, and reluctantly shook it.
"What are your intentions with my sister?"
"Tam!" Linh said, mortified.
"None, unless your sister has any intentions with me," Marella replied in that charming way of hers. The lack of any denial made Linh's heart flip.
"Hm. Linh?" He started walking away motioning for her to follow her.
"What? Tam, we were going to hang-"
"Just for a sec," Tam said. Linh followed him. He stopped when they were out of earshot of Marella, glancing at her.
"I hate to say it, I kind of love her," he whispered. Linh grinned.
"Good to know. May I go now?"
"Sure." He took one final look at Marella, and walked off into the parking lot.
"I didn't know we were at the meet the family stage," Marella teased when Linh joined her.
"Shut up, I was cornered," Linh retorted.
"Fair enough." A beat of silence passed before Marella tentatively said, "Do you wanna meet my friends then?"
"Are you serious?" Linh said.
"Yeah?" Marella said nervously.
"Of course!" Linh's face broke into a smile.
"Let's go then." Marella lead her to the skatepark, where, amidst the chaos and dirty looks shot at Linh, they found three people watching a boy skating in the bowl (Linh was pretty sure it was Dex).
"Hey-" Marella said, but a tall blond boy in a hoodie and sweatpants put up a finger to silence her.
"Hold on, I wanna see if he lands this."
Dex did some sort of trick that was apparently impressive, and all four of them, including Marella, cheered. Linh clapped politely.
All three then turned towards them, immediately noticing Linh.
"Holy shit, is this the famous Linh?" a blonde girl said.
"Dex is going to be so pissed he missed this," the blond boy smirked.
"Linh, this is Sophie," Marella said, nodding to the blonde girl, "Keefe," the blond boy, "and Jensi." The final boy had curly brown hair and was fidgeting a lot.
"Hi! I'm Jensi- You're Linh right? Cool- Marella has missed so many sessions just to hang out with you- No hate, though - You must be pretty cool for her to do that - Even though you're a ballerina - Like a real life ballerina - I've never actually talked to one - I tried ballet as a kid - They told me I didn't have any balance - Well, clearly I do to skateboard -So they were wrong I guess."
Linh tried to keep up, but got lost at his breakneck speed of speech. She glanced at Marella, who smiled.
"He's always like this. You get used to it."
"So, Marella," Linh asked hopefully, "am I finally gonna see you skateboard?"
Marella smirked. "Sure, Princess. Whatever you want."
Before Linh's brain could even process that sentence, Marella was positioned to drop into the bowl which Linh hasn't noticed quite how deep it was until then, and before Linh could have a heart attack, Marella was off.
Even though Linh knew absolutely nothing about skateboarding, she could tell Marella was good. She seemed so comfortable on the board, doing tricks all over the bowl, hair flying, eyes shining, winking at Linh when she caught her gaze.
Finally, Marella ran up the bowl and pulled herself up.
"Good enough for you, Princess?" she said.
"Wow. I mean, just... wow," Linh replied, speechless.
"Thanks."
"Get a room!" Keefe joked.
Marella gasped sarcastically. "Coming from the 'president of the Foster fan club' himself?"
He bowed ironically.
"Anyways," Marella said, "I gotta bounce. Walk me to the bus, Princess?" She offered her her hand.
"Gladly," Linh said, taking it.
The next day at lunch, Biana sat down in the seat opposite hers and angrily asked, "Why didn't you tell me you had a girlfriend?"
"You have a girlfriend?" both Stina and Maruca said in almost perfect unison.
"I don't have a girlfriend," Linh said tiredly.
"You don't not have a girlfriend," Tam pointed out.
"I do not don't not have a girlfriend," she said, carefully trying to navigate that grammatical mindfuck.
"Stop trying to grammatically mindfuck me and tell me about her!" Tam threw up his hands in exasperation.
"Why would you be so secretive if she's not your girlfriend?" Stina asked pointedly.
Linh sighed. "Because Marella is what you guys would refer to as a rowdy."
Maruca gasped and Stina raised her eyebrows.
"Linh, you're friends with a skater?" Maruca said.
"Yes. It's really not that big a deal, guys," Linh mumbled.
"Honestly, that's fair enough," Fitz said. "Some of the boys in the skate park... goddamn." Linh made a mental note to introduce him to Dex.
"Don't be gross, Fitz," Biana said. Fitz shrugged defenselessly.
"I mean, Linh, of course we support anyone you want to be friends... or girlfriends with," Maruca assured her. "Just... be careful, okay? You never know with," her voice dropped, "those people."
Linh decided not to argue. "Thanks guys. Now, does anyone remember the combo we were supposed to do as homework? I totally blanked when I got home."
Biana rolled her eyes affectionately. "And that's why you take a video in class for future reference. It starts like this..."
And all of a sudden the conversation was dropped. And no one even alluded to Marella for the weeks that followed.
Soon it was June, and Linh and Marella had hung out every day after school for two months, all while the San Diego climate grew hotter and hotter. Linh watched Marella skateboard and became friendly enough with Sophie, Keefe, Dex, and Jensi. Sometimes Tam would even join in.
It was a Friday that day where Marella said, "You know, Princess, you've seen where I hang out, but I've never seen where you do. Can you bring visitors into this fancy school of yours?"
"Technically, but-" Before Linh could even finish what she was about to say, Marella bolted back to the Academy's building. Linh reluctantly followed her and swiped her card at the side entrance, letting Marella in.
Checking her watch, she said, "Okay, we have an hour before the school closes. Let's go find a practice room before someone notices you."
"Why, do I not look like a ballerina?" Marella twirled around in her faded brown leather jacket and ripped black jeans. Linh just stared at her and opened up the door to her favourite practice studio, locking it as soon as she and Marella were in.
"Wow. Fancy," Marella said. Linh shrugged. To her, it was just one of dozens of identical studios, a mirror, a bar. The only thing that this made this one her favorite was the light coming in from the window and the view of the skatepark. Sometimes she tries to find Marella when she dances.
"So, you've seen me skateboard. I wanna see you dance, Princess." Marella sat on the floor.
Linh rolled her eyes. "Fine. But give me a sec. I need to put my pointe shoes on." Thank god she hadn't changed out of her ballet clothes yet. After putting her shoes on, (they were wearing out, she noticed, she'd have to get new ones) she put on some music and danced her part of her favourite group routine they were working on for the end of year performance. When she finished, Marella was staring at her wide-eyed.
"Wow. Jesus. Uh. Fuck. You're... Uh. Wow." She cleared her throat. "Not bad, Princess."
"Thanks," Linh said, taking her hair out of her bun and sitting next to Marella.
"You ever did ballet?" Linh asked. "Like as a kid?"
Marella smiled. "Yeah. My mom was a ballerina, actually."
Linh turned her head to look at her. "What? Really?"
"I really never did tell you my last name, did I?" Marella said softly. Linh shook her head.
"Marella Redek, nice to meet you," she confessed.
"Redek." Linh repeated. "Like... Oh."
Casprise Redek is infamous. A beautiful ballerina, gorgeous, huge in her day. She settled down, had a kid. But she missed dancing, so she auditioned for Juliet in a production of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, the part she was famous for. When she got rejected, called 'out of her prime', she snapped. Hard. Went totally, clinically insane. Tried to murder her husband and three year old daughter in a frenzy. He managed to send her off to a psych ward, where she died a few years later.
"I'm so sor-" Linh started.
"Don't. I don't need pity." Marella was staring at the bar, her blue eyes hard as steel.
"Fine." A moment of silence. "Why didn't you tell me?" Linh asked gently.
"Every day since I started skateboarding, no one has recognized that name and I didn't need to talk about it. I knew you would and I didn't want to talk about it."
Linh opened her mouth. "I still don't want to talk about it," Marella stated.
They sat silently for a minute or two before Linh said slowly, "Your mom was a beautiful dancer."
Marella smiled a little. "I know. I used to think she was the best dancer in the world. Until about five minutes ago, that is." She moved closer to Linh. "Until you."
Linh felt her head start to lightly spin. "You know, I had this whole conversation planned," Marella continued, "where I told you the ballet industry is bullshit, and you shouldn't do it. Tell you to find what matters to you. But I now think that depriving the world of you dancing would be a crime against humanity."
"I think you're exaggerating slightly."
"Nope. You're... just beautiful. I mean, you're beautiful all the time, but when you dance, it's like your body becomes pure emotion, like gossamer, and it's like the art of dance was invented purely for you to do it." There was a fraction of a pause before she abruptly continued, "You know I'm in love with you, right?" Marella looked into Linh's eyes. "I'm completely fucking in love with you, Linh."
Ballerinas had strong lungs. They needed them. But Linh's crumpled up like paper in that moment. She wasn't sure her voice would work to tell Marella everything she'd felt since she met her.
So she did the only thing she felt she could and kissed her on the lips.
It felt like stage lights and an orchestra blasting the overture and light streaming from a studio window and doing one too many pirouettes and Marella's chapped lips felt like smoke and glass and smirks and her heart was beating like a hummingbird until Marella finally pulled away.
"Not bad, Princess. Not bad at all."
Much to the discontent of her teachers, Linh Song had changed her solo performance in the end of year showcase to an excerpt from Romeo and Juliet. Sitting in the front row, to the shock of those next to her, was a slightly disheveled girl in a tight red evening dress and an old leather jacket with a large bouquet of flowers under her seat staring lovingly up at her. When Linh's year's section was over, she snuck out of the crowd to backstage, where, unbeknownst to anybody, the two girlfriends shared a secret kiss in the darkness of the wings.