The city lights died as the sun
rose up in the sky. The cars began to speed by and the people bustled around
going this way and that way all hoping to get to their destination on time. I
opened my eyes to see the shelter lit brightly the people beginning to stir. I
let out a soft groan getting up. Even now I hated mornings. I wasn’t a morning
person as a child and I seriously am not a morning person now. It was time for
me to head to my new job. I’ve had so many jobs at this point in my life it’s
crazy. None of them are good jobs that require a degree or anything. I barely
finished high school let alone go to college. So, I just take whatever job
comes my way and call it good until I pack up and move again. I grabbed my
backpack, which held everything I had, and headed to the door. I would brush my
teeth on the way. I ran my fingers through my hair once and called it good.
Thankfully my job didn’t require that I look professional and I could wear
whatever clothes I happened to have which would be the ones I’m wearing. “Chaz
man you coming back tonight?” I heard a voice shout from behind me. I turned
around seeing it was one of the guys that ran the place. He was used to me not
showing up for the night and but he always left the back door open even though
it was against regulations. “Who knows.” I smiled walking out the front door. The
first thing that always hits you about New York City was the smell. You can’t
decipher one smell from the next. The next thing that hits you is the chaos.
There’s always so many people running around trying to squeeze past each other
and all you hear is car horns. It’s crazy. That’s why I choose to walk
everywhere instead of trying to bother with a cab. It always fascinated me how
everybody seemed to have somewhere to go. I didn’t have anywhere to go. Just
jobs here and there and shelters. There wasn’t much to my life. I’d been on my
own since I was ten-years-old and I liked it that way. I never had to depend on
anyone but, myself and I didn’t have a problem with it. I shrugged my backpack
on and headed down the road to the dance studio that I worked at. Most people
would kill to have my job. At least most males would. I get to be around girls
in tights and leotards all day long, but honestly I could care less. Girls
aren’t really a part of my life. It’s not like I can afford one and lord knows
they’re expensive. I reached the studio in about half a hour. The front door
was emblazoned with “Leo’s Dance School.” Leo, the owner, wasn’t like a very
well-known ballet instructor, but he was good. His dance shows were always sold
out. It was a lot cooler inside than it was on the musty streets of the city.
It was well lit and had many rooms full of girls of all ages. Every room would
have a class that was practicing over and over again until every detail was
perfect. That was one thing I never understood about dance. Why did everything
have to be so perfect? Nobody’s perfect so why did they expect them to get it
absolutely perfect? I guess that’s why I clean and not dance. It was mostly
empty at the moment, only the older women were here dancing. They always liked
to practice while all the children and teenagers were gone. Everybody else was
either at work or school. The door shut lightly behind me as a brunette woman
approximately thirty-five-years-old came around the corner. She was a small
woman. The top of her head barely graced my shoulder. She did know how to dress
though. She wasn’t a dancer that much was obvious. She was more of a
receptionist type. She wore a smile unlike any other and gave me a hug. “You
must be Jesse” she greeted me. I really wasn’t much of a hugger, but I gave her
a light squeeze. “I’ll take you back to where you can put your things.” she
smiled turning on her heels and lead me down a number of hallways to the back.
She was wearing freshly pressed black slacks with a white button up blouse and
just a regular black blazer. She looked very professional, but still laid back.
Her hair was up neatly in a ponytail with a black headband on to keep the extra
hairs out of her face. She opened the door to a nice looking room that had
uniforms, lockers, and cleaning supplies. “Have you ever cleaned a dance floor
before Jesse?” she asked me showing me which locker would be mine. I put my
backpack in the locker nodding to her. “Yes ma’am I have. I cleaned a few up in
Virginia.” I’ve cleaned plenty of floors in my life and a dance floor was no
different. I walked over to the uniforms finding a small one and walked to the
dressing room. I was surprised to find a uniform in my size. Most places I’d
worked at only had mediums or larges and those were definitely not my size.
“Okay then I’ll leave you to change and get started. Any room that is empty
feel free to clean.” I listened to the soft ‘pat pat pat’ of her heels as she
walked out. I slipped off my blue jeans and pulled on the black pants. I
shrugged. “At least they’re comfortable.” I shrugged on the shirt buttoning it
up. I left the last three buttons undone. If I was going to clean I wanted to
be comfortable. I walked out tossing my pants in my locker and grabbed a broom.
I walked out and began to walk down the hallways to find an empty room. I
entered a room that was labeled as ‘Ages 3-6 Ballet’. The door closed lightly
behind me and I began to sweep. The rooms were a pretty good size. They weren’t
huge, but they weren’t small either. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
I could do a lot of thinking in this room. There wasn’t a lot of dirt on the
floor and I wondered why they even hired me. Everything was already so clean. I
wasn’t going to complain though I got paid very well. I popped in my headphones
and started to sweep. Before too long I finished the room. It looked no
different to me but, then again I don’t dance on this floor every day. I took
my headphones out checking the battery on my ancient Ipod. I’d bought this
thing years ago. I remember saving up everything I earned to buy it. It made
the time go by faster for me. I never picked the music that was put on it.
People I met throughout my life would put music on it for me. I walked out
slowly as a group of young kids rushed into the room. They were smiling and
laughing to each other as their instructor followed them in. “Great job” she
said to me closing the door behind her. I smiled. These people were awful nice
to me. They didn’t even know me and they were being so nice and friendly. It
surprised me a bit. Most jobs I worked I was ignored most of the time and
nobody complimented my work. I headed to the next room that was labeled ‘Ages
30-39 Modern'. The ladies were leaving and I held the door while the hurried
out. They each thanked me and I nodded to them. It’s like they weren’t used to
common courtesy anymore. I guessed they were headed home or to work. I smiled
as the last lady left and I walked into the room. It too seemed pretty much
clean. I frowned looking at the mirror that ran across the room. I saw finger
prints and smudges on the mirror. That would not acceptable. I walked back to
the room with the supplies and this time brought everything I could carry. I
brought glass cleaner, a rag, a mop, mop bucket, and everything I would need to
clean. I went back into the room and began to wipe down the mirrors. After I
was done I had actually broke a sweat. I wiped my forehead and looked at the
mirror again. “Much better” I said to myself. The mirror was sparkling clean.
When I had a job I made sure I did that job to the best of my ability and when
it came to cleaning, I did great. I cleaned the floor and took everything to
the next room. I wanted to get this done as fast as I could. I did this over
and over again until I had gotten every single room. I even got the front room.
I took everything back to the back closet putting everything back in its place
and walked up to the front. The woman that had greeted me came around the
corner again and smiled. “Great, great job Jesse” she said smiling. She looked
surprised and my only guess was that the previous custodian didn’t do as well
as I did. “Thank you ma’am.” I said to her looking around for something else I
could do. I liked getting things done fast, but I also liked clocking in a lot
of hours. More hours meant more money. “You can call me Belle” she said with a
smile as a group of ladies about 40 years old walked through the door. “Welcome
ladies you know where the room is and it was beautifully cleaned by Jesse” she
pointed to me and smiled. They all smiled thanking me and walked back to the
room. I could hear soft “ooo’s” and “ahh’s” coming from the room. I smirked
slightly glad I could make them happy by simply cleaning a room. If only making
everyone happy was that easy. I couldn’t believe how nice all these people
were. All the New Yorkers that I had met since I ran away were rude but, these
people were polite, considerate, and nice. I looked to Belle. “Is there
anything else I can do?” I asked her. Belle looked around. “Well not that I can
see but, our teenage girls should be coming sometime soon since school is out.
You could sit in a watch if you’d like.” she said with a smile. “I’m their
instructor.” I smiled at her. “I think that would be neat. I’ve never watched
people dance before.” The only dancing I’d ever seen was street dancing. I
street danced every now and then but, it wasn’t something I really enjoyed
doing. It was more of something I did when I was bored out of my mind. Belle
lead me back to the room labeled ‘16-21'. I walked inside and sat on the floor
off to the side. “They should be coming any minute so you can just chill in
here until they get here.” Belle smiled and walked out. I presumed she was
going back up to the front to wait for the girls. I looked around the room. It
was brightly lit and seemed to shine. It was really a very nice looking room. I
leaned up against the wall leaning on one elbow, one leg was bent up and the
other was straight out in front of me. I always sat like this it was incredibly
comfortable. A few minutes later a group of maybe 10 girls filed into the room.
The all looked over at me instantly turning a shade of red. I was used to the
redness girls turned when they were around me. It didn’t bother me anymore. I
watched as they all filed in and Belle entered last. “That would be Jesse”
Belle said with a slight chuckle. She could obviously see the redness of their
faces. “I think he’s single ladies” she chuckled and they turned an even deeper
red color. I smiled and I swore they all thought that I was smiling for them. I
looked at each of there faces so I would know for future reference that yes I
did know who they were. As I scanned the faces I noticed a blonde hair blue
eyed girl that was not red in the face. She was gorgeous and the only one in
the room, besides Belle, that wasn’t blushing. It amazed me. She smiled at me
and I smiled back at her. She was really something. I’d have to talk to her
sometime. I smiled as Belle commanded the attention of the class and they all
turned to her and were instantly focused on ballet.
**
School had been like any other day,
long and incredibly boring. All day I just waited for it to be over so I could
go dance. Dancing was my life. I lived and breathed dance. The moment school
was out and I reached the studio all my stresses went away. I loved dance. I
danced every single day. I’d been dancing since I was three-years-old and I
never quit. It was so much fun and it was something that I was actually good at
besides academics. I never had a B in my life and made sure to keep up my A’s.
My schedule was always filled. There was never a boring time in my life. I was
always busy, busy, busy. I listened to the sound of my feet as I patted along
the floor with the rest of the girls to the room. Today was ballet dancing, one
of my favorite kinds of dance. I walked through the door hearing a few gasps of
surprise from the girls. At first I didn’t know what they were gasping about
until I looked to the side of the room. Sitting down on the floor was a guy
about my age. He had dark straight hair, a slight tan, mysterious but kind
brown eyes, a slight muscular build and this sort of youthful glow to him. He
seemed like one of those quite guys that was talented and really sweet. I
watched as the girls began to blush and twirl there hair. I watched him and he seemed
very uninterested in them. His eyes met mine and I smiled. He smiled back at
me, his smile was so big and bright. I would definitely have to talk to him
sometime. I turned as Belle commanded our attention. We started our warmup so
we wouldn’t pull a muscle and before I knew it we were all sweating. Most
people would think that ballet dancers hated to sweat that dancers were a bunch
of girly girls that twirled around. That was not true. We worked and trained
for years to reach greatness. We pulled muscles and broke bones. We cried and
got stressed out. We trained our entire life to be the best. Dancing was more
than just a hobby for some of us. It was a competition. For me it was a
competition and a hobby. I loved to dance and I also wanted to push myself to
be the best. After we finished our warmup we started to stretch. Stretching was
a lot easier once you had warmed up. Stretching was always my favorite part
besides the actual dancing. It was so relaxing. As we stretched I glanced over
to where Jesse was sitting. I turned my head back to focusing considering he
was watching me. I tried my best not to blush, succeeding like I always did. I
couldn’t be distracted by some guy I had to focus. To be completely honest I
hadn’t been anywhere near a guy my age in forever. The closest I got was my
brother, Charles, and my father. As soon as we finished our stretching Belle
started the music and counted us off. We started to practice the dance that we
had started. We were going to be preforming this dance at a festival downtown.
It had to be sharp, clean, and simply perfect. I watched as we danced. We
looked great. We were on time and in sync with each other. We worked so hard it
should be perfect. We had only a week before we had to perform. Ms. Belle was
smiling widely as we danced. She clapped her hands as we finished. “Great job
ladies” she said. I looked over at Jesse and he to was smiling. He clapped his
hands when I looked over at him. I couldn’t help but, smile. I watched as he
walked out of the room. I didn’t see him again until after the class was over.
I walked around until I finally found him in one of the dance rooms. He was
cleaning the room. He must have been the new cleaning guy. I really wouldn’t
have never guessed. I didn’t think that he was the cleaning type but, he
obviously was. He had the room almost finished and it looked absolutely great.
I knocked on the door lightly and he didn’t seem to notice. I knocked a bit
louder and this time, he turned around. He smiled at me. “Hey there” he sat down
the window cleaner. I smiled and took a step into the room. “Hello. Jesse
right?” I asked making sure I had his name right. “Yeah my names Jesse. What’s
yours?” he asked me. “I’m Coraline May Montegomery.” I said taking a couple
more steps. I saw him smile. “That’s a very fancy name you go there Coraline.”
he chuckled. “Well yes, I guess it is.” I said with a soft chuckle. I walked
over to him to where I was standing directly in front of him. “It’s a pleasure
to meet you.” he said holding out his hand. “The pleasure’s all mine” I said
taking his hand. He smiled kissing my hand lightly.
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