Love You, Hate You

by Charis Marsh

  “Aww, we take really good pictures together!” Taylor said, turning to Julian and smiling.

  “My turn now.” Tristan shoved his camera at Keiko. He wrapped his arms around Julian and smiled. Julian stuck his tongue out and winked at the camera.

  “Cute,” Keiko proclaimed.

  Just then they heard the ten minute call.

  “Oh no! I’m not finished!” Keiko squealed. She ran back to the girl’s changing room.

  The matinee went pretty well. Julian even got through the Russian without puking, and Kageki didn’t sing except during the group bow. The kids were a fairly enthusiastic audience, enjoying everything except Dmitri and Grace’s Sugarplum pas de deux, which received markedly lukewarm applause. The Russian was very popular, as was the snow, surprisingly enough. The stage hands hadn’t realized that the tinsel was supposed to be snow for two performances, or that it should be sprinkled gradually as opposed to being dumped in one huge tinsel flurry. Poor Aiko stepped out for a pirouette diagonale just as they dumped it, and fell. She got up quickly, but they were all slipping over the tinsel the rest of the dance, and Aiko had a huge clump of it in her hair. The snow corps came off stage frantically trying to shimmy the tinsel out of their tutus. After the bows there was a struggle to get off stage. The older students were trying to push their way through the dawdling little kids to the changing rooms, and Mr. Yu was frantically trying to sweep up the tinsel for the next performance. He was demanding that they all “Shake off! Shake off!” the tinsel that was all over them.

  “Are the Duan’s buns here yet?” Tristan asked Mr. Yu quietly as he passed him in the flood of bodies. Mr. Yu nodded. Tristan quickly mimed to the rest that the buns were there, and Kageki and Anna forced their way over to him. They made their way to the green room where the Duan’s buns were set up on tables, picking up Taylor, Leon, and Jonathon on their way.

  “Quickly,” Tristan directed. “Taylor, you get the juice boxes, we’ll get the buns.” Taylor obediently got a couple flats of the juice. “To the boys changing room!” Tristan said quietly, his voice sharp with urgency. They made it to the boy’s changing rooms without incident, and were greeted with a cheer.

  “You made it!” Delilah crowed.

  “Get what you want quick. They’ll notice soon.” They all began stacking buns on paper towel from the washroom and eating them.

  “What’s in them?” Julian asked.

  “This is pork,” Tristan said. “And this one is custard, and…”

  “This one is egg and ham and stuff, and this one is coconut, its super sweet … like literally, in taste,” Taylor interrupted. “And these are custard tarts, and these ones are raisin twisty bun things.”

  “Don’t they want us to eat healthily?” Julian asked, taking a coconut bun. “They’re always going on about being skinny. Where’s the fruit platters?”

  Tristan shrugged, taking the other half of Alexandra’s bun as she reached in the box and took another.

  “Do you think she knows that the calories still count, even if she splits with him?” Grace whispered to Anna.

  Mr. Yu banged open the door and glared at them. They quickly shovelled almost all of the remaining buns onto the counter.

  “Hi Mr. Yu,” said Tristan.

  “The parents,” Mr. Yu said slowly, emphasizing the word parents with an expression of distaste, “say that you took all the buns.”

  A large man was practically jumping as he stood behind Mr. Yu, who was blocking him from entering the changing room. “Like they do every year!” he said, his voice high-pitched with excitement. “The older ones, they take the buns every year!”

  “The parents aren’t supposed to eat the buns,” Tristan said defensively. “They always eat them.”

  Mr. Yu turned around to face the parents gathered in the hall. “The parents not supposed to eat the buns,” he said sternly. “We pay for these buns, for the students.” He tapped his chest to emphasize the seriousness of what he was saying. “They cannot go get dinner, they need to eat the buns. You, you don’t have rehearsal, you can go spend the money, buy your own food.”

  “But the young children,” one of the moms said. “They need to eat buns, too!”

  Mr. Yu gave up. “Take them back out,” he ordered. Tristan, Kageki, and Leon took the boxes back to the green room, now almost completely empty. Before they headed back they grabbed a small box of custard tarts, to protest by the parents.

  Everyone slowly filed to their seats for the evening performance. The parents carefully smiled at some of the other parents, and pretended they didn’t see others. Steven Audley came rushing in. Charlize grabbed him by the arm and led him to their seats. “Where were you?” she hissed. “I can’t believe you were almost late.”

  “I was in a meeting!” He hissed back. “And Taylor isn’t even dancing in this show.”

  Alison walked behind them, rolling her eyes. “Oh, look,” she said excitedly “That’s Julian’s dad!” She pointed at a man with dreadlocks who looked like he was in his late twenties. He was wearing artistically distressed jeans and a black shirt with obviously hand painted words that said “Find your own light” underneath. Holding his hand was a beautiful naturally blond woman who looked like she was still in her teens. She wore no makeup, a tie-dyed tank top, knee-high boots, and a loose, swirly purple skirt that stopped half an inch before her boots. Holding on to her other hand was a small blond boy who looked about five, with huge dimples. He started waving to everyone, happy about all the attention he was generating.

  “What?” Charlize said. “That can’t be Julian’s dad, he’s way too young. And how do you even know what Julian’s dad looks like?”

  “Taylor showed me his Facebook page.”

  “Is that his mother then?” Charlize asked in disbelief, watching as the trio made their way to their seats.

  “No, that’s Julian’s dad’s girlfriend,” Alison said. “And that must be his half brother, River.”

  “Well, we’ll have to say hello, then.”

  “Not me,” Steven said, snorting. He went to sit down.

  Charlize and Alison went over to the trio, and Charlize offered her hand to Julian’s dad, saying “Hi, I’m Charlize, Taylor’s mom. You must be Julian’s family?”

  Julian’s dad smiled and shook her hand. “Yup. I’m Will, and this is my partner Daisy and our son River.”

  “I’m Viver!” River confirmed, smiling.

  “Well, it’s so nice to meet you!” Charlize said as Taylor came into the theatre, running towards them in her high heels and tiny black dress.

  “Oh, are you Julian’s parents?” she asked, giggling.

  “Yes, honey, this is Julian’s dad,” Charlize said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

  “Hi, Mr. Reese,” Taylor said, waving excitedly even though they were a maximum of three feet from each other.

  “Oh please, call me Will,” he said, uncomfortably staring at Taylor’s chest. “Nobody ever calls me Mr. Reese.”

  Taylor had made friends with River as her mom talked to Will and Daisy. “I’m going to go backstage to watch. Can I take River with me, Daisy?”

  “Taylor, I hardly think that …” Charlize began to protest but Daisy cut her off.

  “Sure! River would like that. Have fun, River,” Daisy said, her voice sounding unusually mellow.

  River jumped off his seat and Taylor took his hand. They both went off without a backwards glance, River explaining to Taylor as they went that “I am very good at soccer. And painting.”

  Jeff and Cecilia Wardle sat in the centre middle seats, surrounded by relatives, friends they’d roped into coming, and Mrs. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard was explaining loudly that “Kaitlyn just has so much better technique than the rest of the academy. I try, I do my best, but good clean technique just isn’t valued at the academy. I’ve talked to the Demidovskis about it many times, and every time, Mrs. Demidovski says that she will talk to the teachers. But nothing ever changes! And you know what? It’s the
students who suffer, it’s the students.” Cecilia smiled sympathetically and led the conversation back to the subject of Kaitlyn’s Solo Seal examination.

  Peter and Beth Dunstan were sitting with Tristan’s parents. “Tristan is really inspired to go to the Genee competition after Alexandra found it so enriching,” Kaveri Patel was saying.

  “That’s good,” Beth said, scanning the room for Grace and Anna’s parents. “I’m sure he will find it a marvellous opportunity.” There they were! She pressed her lips together, seeing that the Kendalls and the Valaraos were talking excitedly.

  The evening show was better simply because of Aiko’s wonderful job on the Sugarplum pas de deux and variation. The snow was dropped correctly this time, thanks to Mr. Yu’s screaming into the crews’ headsets. Michael made a very touching Fritz. But Kaitlyn was wearing soft shoes, for some reason.

  Cecilia ran backstage during intermission. “What happened? Why are you in soft shoes?”

  Mr. and Mrs. Demidovski were right behind her. “Must be on pointe! Must be proper shoes!” Mrs. Demidovski thundered.

  Kaitlyn struggled not to cry, her eyes welling up. “Somebody poured water all over my pointe shoes!”

  “What! You only bring one pair?” Mrs. Demidovski demanded, not at all shocked by this revelation. “Where is Chloe?”

  Cecilia whipped out a pair of shoes from her purse. “Here you are, Kaitlyn. I just finished sewing them.”

  “But they’re brand new!” Kaitlyn protested, her eyes welling again.

  Cecilia glared at her. “She can wear these,” she said, smiling at Mr. and Mrs. Demidovski. Mr. Demidovski nodded in agreement, and they both left.

  In the second act, Alexandra managed to look beautiful in the Arabian despite a slightly fixed smile. Julian, quite frankly, looked like he was going to puke during dolls: Mao was practically holding him up instead of the other way around. He did one less jump than he was supposed to in Russian, but he ended up looking good in spite of himself. Tristan shone, looking completely professional and lighting up the stage with his smile. He managed to look very much in love with Kaitlyn, as well, which was a bit hard to do as she was dancing with zero expression and was extremely unsteady during their pas de deux thanks to her un-broken-in shoes. Dmitri looked like he was marking the whole show, and at the end while everyone was standing on stage and the audience was clapping, he mouthed, “Do you want to go for a drink?” to Jonathon, apparently unaware that the audience could still see him. Kageki nearly made it through the show without mishap, but he collapsed into giggles as they took their bows.

  Certain members of the audience had been drinking heavily during intermission, as Mr. Demidovski had predicted, and as the audience waited for him to make his speech they discussed the show.

  “Grace’s thighs are quite a bit bigger than that Arabian girl’s, don’t you think, Paula?” Grace’s grandfather commented. “I quite enjoyed that Arabian dance. Very sexy and all that.” April Kendall glared at him.

  “Which one was Kaitlyn, again?” Steven Audley asked loudly.

  Charlize Petrenko shushed him, looking around to make sure that Cecilia Wardle hadn’t heard.

  Finally, Mr. Demidovski made his way up to the stage. He cleared his throat. “Everyone … clap for the students! They have given us a beautiful show!” He turned around to the students. “Everyone … clap for your parents! They make all of this possible.” He launched into a lecture on the importance of parents starting their child’s dance education early, the importance of the arts, the value of supporting a child who wanted to be a dancer, and the need for donations to the school. Then he thanked all of the teachers individually. The dancers stood on stage, clapping when told to, zoning out otherwise. The littlest ones began yawning. Finally, he began thanking some of the

  students individually. “Alexandra! She won the bronze in the international competition this year!” Gabriel whispered in his ear. “The Genee International Competition.”

  River had been perfectly happy sitting on Taylor’s lap backstage during the show, finding the whole thing fascinating, but now he was getting bored. “Can I go see Jules? I will be just there.” He pointed onstage where Julian was standing next to Tristan, swaying sleepily.

  “Just a bit longer,” Taylor whispered, tugging him back onto her lap. She pulled a packet out of her purse. “Look, here’s some chocolate.”

  “Is it dairy?” River asked, looking up at her.

  “Uh … no,” said Taylor, not sure what exactly was classified as dairy. River smiled, quite willing to be bribed, and began to eat it.

  Mr. Demidovski had reached Kaitlyn. “And, our Clara!” he proclaimed grandly. “Karen is new at the academy, but she does very well. Yes, very well!” The older students woke up at this and began sniggering. Mr. Demidovski was finally finished, and they all clapped for the last time as the curtains started to close. They waited until the curtains had completely closed, and then started screaming and jumping around, hugging each other, all the adrenaline of the night coming out in an exuberant rush. Taylor grabbed River’s hand and tried to keep up with him as he began to run to Julian, yelling “Jules! I’m here!”

  “River!” Julian shouted excitedly. He swooped him up in his arms. “Where are Will and Daisy?”

  “I don’t know,” River said, shrugging his shoulders. “I’m with Tay. Tay’s my girlfriend.”

  Taylor blushed. “No, I’m your friend that’s a girl.”

  “Thanks for bringing him,” Julian said, smiling at her as they were shoved to the changing rooms in the press of people. Julian introduced River to everyone, and River was clearly in his element, enjoying the height he achieved in Julian’s arms. They passed Mr. and Mrs. Demidovski.

  “Ah, your brother?” Mr. Demidovski asked, inclining his head toward River.

  “Yep, this is River.”

  “And how did you like the show, River?”

  “It was good!”

  Mr. Demidovski laughed and shook River’s hand. “Thank you,” he said seriously.

  They continued on their way to the changing rooms, Taylor bobbing happily along in the wake left behind Julian and River. Everyone was congregated in the boy’s changing rooms to take pictures and say their goodbyes before Christmas holidays. The little kids and their parents had taken over the girl’s changing room.

  “Guys, guys, listen!” Jessica suddenly shouted in a panic. “We forgot Secret Santa!” Everyone quickly ran, got their presents out of their bags, and began to hand them out.

  Kaitlyn waited expectantly. Secret Santa was always so exciting. She’d gotten Chloe, and handed her a pair of warm-up booties. “Oh, thanks Kaitlyn, you’re sweet,” Chloe gushed. “Come on; take a picture with me and the booties!”

  After all the Secret Santa gifts had been handed out, everyone started to pack up. Taylor was sitting on the counter with River, taking pictures. They both found this highly entertaining, and Taylor was very impressed that River already knew how to flash a peace sign at the camera.

  “Again,” he’d command every time she stopped taking pictures.

  “No, let’s film now,” said Taylor, showing him how it worked.

  Kaitlyn looked around impatiently. She hadn’t gotten a Secret Santa gift. “Jessica,” she said, walking over to her. “Who’s my Secret Santa? Did I not have one?”

  “Everyone had a Secret Santa,” Jessica said, staring at her like she was out of her mind. “Maybe yours just forgot.”

  “Forgot? How could you forget about Secret Santa? Don’t you have a list or something so I could check who it was? “

  “No,” Jessica said curtly. “I have no idea who it was. It’s not such a big deal, it’s only Secret Santa. Don’t be such a baby.” She turned her back to Kaitlyn and began buttoning up her coat. As she walked out the door, Kaitlyn stared after her in disbelief. She picked up her bag and left to go find her parents, fighting not to cry.

  Julian finally came out of the washroom. “I can’t get the makeup of
f.” His voice was tinged with fear. “This eyeliner is, like, permanent.”

  Tristan rolled his eyes. “Dude, it’s called makeup remover for a reason!” He handed him the bottle and some swabs.

  “Thanks, man,” Julian said with relief.

  “’Night guys,” Alexandra said, smiling brightly. “See you after the holidays.” She gave Julian and Tristan hugs, waved at River, and ignored Taylor. “Have fun moving sets,” she added, smirking at Tristan before she walked out the door, her mouth trembling with the effort to keep up her smile.

  “Thanks,” Tristan called after her sarcastically. Everyone else slowly trickled out.

  “Don’t you have to go home, Taylor?” Julian asked. “I can take River.”

  “It’s okay. I think he’s gone to sleep.” She stared down at River, proudly. He was flopped in her arms, chocolate smeared all over his face and some melting in his pocket, still clutching Taylor’s camera and snoring loudly. At that moment he gave a snuffle and leaned closer to Taylor, getting chocolate on her dress.

  “Julian, aren’t your parents here?” Tristan asked.

  “Yeah,” Julian said, putting on his shoes.

  “So … aren’t you staying with them tonight? I can just tell Mr. Yu that you can’t help move sets because your parents said you have to go.”

  “Good one! Thanks Tristan, see you after the holidays, bro.” He gave him a hug.

  “Sure, see you Jules, have fun,” Tristan said awkwardly. He picked up his bags and went to help Mr. Yu. As he walked through the door, he tripped on a stray wire. He got up, blushing. “Bye!”

  “Bye bye, Tristan,” Taylor said happily as he finally left.

  “Want me to take him?” Julian asked, holding his hands out for River.

  Taylor let Julian take him and then hopped off the counter, shaking her arms. “He gets heavier when he goes to sleep.”