Pas de Chat [Rosalind/Victoria]

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"Swing left, swing right. Up into second, down into third and sweep round into first. Up, around and down into fourth. Pas de Chat, pas de Chat, pas de Chat, good, good, Rosalind. Much better."

The prima ballerina encouraged, her sharp gaze scrutinising every slight move Rosalind was making. The dancer sighed as the session was brought to an end. For the second time today her partner had not turned up for the rehearsal. Frankly, it was starting to worry her. It wasn't for Aimee to miss sessions. The teaching of ballet hadn't really changed from the 40's and for that Rosalind was grateful.

She pulled her discarded cardigan on and flopped onto the floor beside the door, sipping the cooling liquid gently and catching her breath back. Whoever said ballet wasn't tiring was lying.

The acting side of this queer compilation was up next for a rehearsal, and rather than slouch off somewhere for a nap, Rosalind decided to satisfy her curious side and hang around to watch. The theatre was eerily empty as she sat cross legged with her back against the cold wall, watching the actors file on stage. 

She had barely gotten her breath back before a strange looking man with a comb-over and half moon glasses wandered over rather sheepishly. "Miss dancer, sorry to bother you but we seem to be missing one of our actresses, would you be able to read through the part for us?" The man asked, holding out a script towards her. "Yes of course." Rosalind agreed, her tone and choice of words rather more formal than was suited for the time. "After all, we're all family here." The dancer agreed, climbing delicately onto the stage in her black leggings, strappy white top and dark grey zip-up hoodie much to the man's gracious thanks.

The script was clasped in her hand as the director moved her around on stage next to another actress. "Right, Victoria is playing the lead and you're playing her second. We're starting on page three of act one." He said, clapping his hands and a hush fell on stage.

Rosalind coughed once to clear her throat and began to read.

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Victoria looked around the stage nervously. This was the third night in a row that her costar had relucted to show up to rehearsal. And that was nothing like her. Even if she was late to a rehearsal she had a mini panic attack, and missing three in a row would drive her insane. Vicky just could not believe that her co-star would miss this many rehearsal’s willingly. Something with up, not only could she deduce that, but she also felt it. For example, at each rehearsal she felt like she was being watched. Others might shrug it off as something to do with the numerous pieces of tech equipment, but with Victoria’s history in the supernatural. She just couldn’t.

She was snapped out of her thought, when the director placed one of the dancers beside her on the stage. Evidently she was going to fill in for her co-star."Thanks for agreeing to help." Vicky quickly turned to the right page and cleared her throat. She began reading through the first line, strengthening her Irish accent for the part. Before she could finish unfortunately she began to have one of her ‘feelings’. She knew that soon she was going to have one of her ‘episodes’, but she didn’t want the other to see. Back home at Broadway, the usual cast and crew had become accustom to Victoria’s ‘episodes’. But here in London, they had no idea that she was different.

She quickly ran off the stage, ignoring the surprised directors shouts. She turned down one of the hallways, leading towards the bathroom. She tried opening the girls bathroom door, but unfortunately there was a sign saying that it was out of order. She banged on the wall in frustration. At least no one had followed her.

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Rosalind smiled and relaxed into the part, letting her voice project out to the back of the theatre whilst trying to cut out her slight German accent for the role. It wasn't exactly her best performance, the slight hesitation in her words made that clear, but she persevered and well, there was a reason she had become a dancer rather than an actress. The dancer didn't usually socialise much with the acting side of things, even their dressing rooms were separate, but despite sharing the odd word with them in the break room, Rosalind had to admit that she didn't know who this actress was, short of her name - Victoria.

She nodded along with Victoria's reading, smiling slightly at the emphasised accent and trying to pre-empt her next line. But she didn't even get to say that. Midway through her own line, Victoria hesitated and bolted off stage to the confused looks of the rest of the cast and crew. She witnessed the lighting crew exchanging shrugs and the director shouting after her.

Rosalind stepped closer, reaching a hand out to place it on the ageing man's shoulder. "I should go and find her. She's not the only one missing a co-star." She shot him a meaningful glance at those words before turning on her feet and darting gracefully through the other amassed actors and actresses down the corridors in the way she thought the girl would have gone.

Throughout the years, some things never change. If you need to be alone, and there's not a dressing room handy, where do you go?

The bathroom, of course!

Rosalind turned quickly and slowed to a purposeful stride, peering around the corner and confirming her suspicions. She cleared her throat, casting her eyes down for a second before raising them up with a small smile to meet those of the other girl. "Are you feeling alright?" She asked, stepping closer along the wall and keeping the friendly smile on her face.