by Megan Atwood
Emma kept pace with her. “Well, it sure seems like you’re doing better, with your dancing, anyway. No offense, but things weren’t looking that good for you for a while.”
Kayley balled up her fists. How dare Emma say something like that? Who was she to judge Kayley’s dancing?
And like that, Emma’s feet came out from under her and she fell down the stairs.
Kayley looked at the bottom of the staircase and at Emma’s twisted arm in shock. People thronged around Emma and began to help her up. What was going on?
And then a thought came, unbidden. Maybe Emma deserved that fall.
Kayley gasped at herself and felt the blood leave her face. Who was she turning into? She turned to run up the stairs, taking only one quick peek back at Emma and the throng of people.
She saw Ophelia eyeing her suspiciously.
Chapter 11
Back in her room, Kayley couldn’t catch her breath.
She’d thought that Emma deserved to have an accident. And then she did.
She shook her head. But that was crazy to think she could make people have accidents. And anyway, the shoes were supposed to give Kayley good luck, not make other people have bad luck.
Unless maybe she couldn’t have one without the other.
She took out her sushi slippers and peered in at the shoes. She took one out and stroked it.
It looked harmless enough. The shoe’s design was just beautiful, and once again, Kayley felt mesmerized. She reached her hand into the second sushi slipper.
Then she jumped a mile high when a knock came at the door.
Quickly, she stuffed the one shoe back in her slipper as a voice carried through. It was the maintenance man.
“Room search. Open up.”
Too paranoid to put the sushi slippers away, Kayley had an epiphany: she would wear the slippers with the shoes in them. She shoved her feet in the plush slippers, amazed that everything fit. She scooted along the floor and opened the door.
Madame stood with Bert and said, “A quick look through your room, Kayley. You may stay here while Bert searches.”
Suddenly Kayley had a thought: he had seen her looking at the shoes. For the second time that night, her heart began to race.
She hoped she was as forgettable to him as he was to her.
He showed no signs of recognition as he began searching her room. She sat down on the bed and bounced her knee.
Madame stood by her. As Bert searched her shoes, Kayley felt ecstatic that she’d put the slippers on. Bert was practically tossing the rest of her footwear in the air—if he’d done that with her slippers, the pointe shoes would have surely flown out.
She looked down at her slippers and noticed the tip of a ribbon sticking out of the back of her slipper. When Madame spoke in her ear, she jumped yet again.
“I’ve been very impressed with your dancing as of late, Kayley. I see you took our talk to heart.”
All Kayley could do was nod her head. She tried hard not to look down at her feet so that Madame wouldn’t either.
Madame continued as Kayley started chewing on her fingernails. “All it took was a little extra effort on your part. It’s good to see the fire back in your eyes.”
She patted Kayley’s shoulder, and Kayley shuddered so much that Madame drew her hand away as if she’d touched a hot stove.
Madame narrowed her eyes. “Are you OK, Kayley?”
Kayley nodded. “Yes, just tired.”
Madame scrutinized her face. “Yes, you seem like it. You have dark circles under your eyes. When Bert’s finished here, you should go right to bed.”
Bert stood up. “I’m done here. No shoes here.”
Kayley had a hard time not sighing with relief. She put one sushi slipper over the ribbon poking out and said, with real feeling, “Yes, I think I will go right to bed.”
Madame nodded and walked out with Bert. “Remember, you have class tomorrow! And it seems as though everyone is getting hurt.” She frowned, then turned back to Kayley. “Be careful tomorrow. We seem to be having a rash of bad luck.”
When the door shut, Kayley dropped back in her bed. That was close. She was suddenly so tired she could barely keep her eyes open. But when she tried to sleep, nightmares of falling ballerinas kept her tossing and turning.
At morning class the next day, Kayley was almost an hour early. She’d gotten no sleep and although she could feel the weariness in her bones, the events of the past two days had made her so anxious that she welcomed the thought of dance practice.
After her warm-up, around five thirty, Ophelia stormed into the room.
“I thought I’d find you here.” She crossed her arms across her chest. “What. Is. Going. On. With. You?”
Kayley stopped her turning. “What is going on with you?” she shot back, suddenly feeling the weeks of isolation. What had happened to the two of them?
“Me?” Ophelia said. “You’re the one acting all strange! You stop trying at class, you don’t care about anything … and then all of a sudden you stop talking to everyone and become this über-dancer!”
Kayley shot daggers with her eyes. “Jealous, much? And anyway, I’m surprised you even noticed, with your head so far up Madeleine’s—”
“Yeah, right. I think you’re the jealous one. Madeleine hasn’t been acting like a freak. You were supposed to be my best friend, but you disappeared.”
Kayley heard real disappointment in Ophelia’s voice. A pang of longing shot through her. She did miss her best friend.
But then Ophelia’s eyes hardened. “Anyway, like you could ever compare to me as a dancer.”
Only Ophelia would say something like that. But instead of the rueful amusement Kayley normally would have felt, she felt rage.
She was twice the dancer Ophelia was now.
Madeleine walked in and seemed to see the sparks between Kayley and Ophelia.
“Guys?” she said timidly.
Kayley turned on her. “What.”
Ophelia began to shout: “You are being such a b—”
Before Ophelia could finish, Madame walked in, along with most of the company. Practice commenced.
Kayley couldn’t stop thinking about Ophelia’s rude comments. When it was time for Ophelia’s solo as Cinderella, Kayley stared at her with unrestrained hate.
Ophelia turned around and around in a quadruple pirouette, then performed a complicated series of movements that even Kayley couldn’t take her eyes off of. But she kept thinking that maybe she could even be Cinderella if Ophelia were out of the picture. Then Kayley’s parents would finally be proud of her. And Ophelia would get what she deserved.
As Kayley had the last thought, Ophelia landed a grand jeté. Her knee gave out beneath her and she collapsed to the floor.
The popping of the knee snapped Kayley out of her trance. This was the third time she’d had such vicious thoughts and the third time something happened about them.
Whatever else was going on, Kayley knew one thing: The shoes were causing bad luck all around her. Without asking to be excused, she ran to her room.
Chapter 12
Kayley sobbed on her bed. Everything was wrong.
All she wanted was to dance like she used to—instead, everyone she cared about was getting hurt. And she couldn’t deny it anymore; she didn’t like who she was becoming.
She had no friends anymore, she thought, and no peace of mind. Everything had gone wrong from the moment she had read about the shoes.
She didn’t even care anymore if she had the fairy godmother part. All she wanted was for those she loved to be safe.
She decided to skip breakfast and classes and do some more research on the shoes. She tried to remember where she put the book she’d discovered in the back room of the library and finally found it under her bed.
Should she try to find another book that would help? Now that her friends had been hurt, Kayley didn’t trust the first book at all. When she picked it up, it felt heavy. Even evil, if evil had
a feeling. She could swear even her mood darkened. Why did she ever start reading the book in the first place?
She walked out of her room and headed straight into the library, back into the dusty old shelves, through the twist and turns that had led her to the dark corner once before.
Even during the day, the little space was completely creepy. The frail shaft of light that shined through the corner’s one high window only exposed a solar system of dust particles.
She stuck the book on the first dusty shelf she saw, shivering as she looked at the darkened space so hidden from the rest of the library. She couldn’t even believe she had been back there once, and she sure wasn’t going to do it again.
A voice startled her. “Can I help you?”
It was Geraldine, the librarian. Kayley had always liked Geraldine—about twenty years younger than most other teachers in the school, she always had some fun fashion thing going on. Today, her glasses sported skulls on the sides. She worked only part-time, so Kayley was surprised to see her on school grounds so early in the morning.
“Um … ,” she stammered, hoping Geraldine hadn’t seen her put the book back on the shelf.
“This area isn’t for you,” the librarian said. “No one, if you ask me, needs to ever go back here.”
Kayley saw Geraldine shiver.
Then Kayley had an idea. “Is there a book about the legends of this building? Superstitions?”
Geraldine looked at her closely. “Are you wondering about the shoes?”
Kayley nodded and swallowed. “How did you know?” she asked, hoping she sounded nonchalant.
Geraldine chuckled. “It’s a popular topic around here lately.”
She squinted at Kayley. “I’ll go ahead and tell you the current legend. But I hope you won’t go spreading this nonsense around. I trust you to take it for the folderol it is.”
Kayley didn’t know what folderol was, but she was anxious to hear the legend. She nodded her head.
“OK.” Geraldine’s eyes twinkled. “Legend had it the shoes belonged to Headmaster Quincy’s wife.”
Kayley nodded impatiently. She knew this part.
“Well, the headmaster had terrible luck toward the end of his life. His wife was an amazing dancer, but she was killed onstage. Quincy was so taken with grief, he became convinced the shoes were to blame. To save the school—in his mind, anyway—he slept every night with the shoes by his bedside to make sure he alone would bear the bad luck. He nearly lost his fortune and everyone dear to him. Desperate, he took a glass case and locked the shoes inside.
“And legend has it, his luck turned around. He recovered his fortune and saved the school from closing. Supposedly, the case contained the bad luck of the shoes and kept them from infecting the grounds. In his will, the headmaster demanded that the shoes stay within the academy walls; the shoes can only be destroyed if the school is destroyed. The poor man was so delusional. He thought burning the shoes would send horrible luck out into the world. So Dario Quincy Academy keeps the shoes to this day! Or until a few days ago, anyway.”
Kayley was taken aback. That wasn’t the story she had read at all. But how had her dancing improved?
“How do you know all of this?” she asked.
Geraldine winked at her. “Well, when you get the academy’s librarian job, you also become the keeper of its secrets.” And then she walked away, leaving Kayley alone with her thoughts.
If what Geraldine said was true, she needed to get those shoes back in the case. And she would do it tonight.
She didn’t care anymore if she danced well or not—it was time to do the right thing. It was time to take care of the people she loved instead of herself.
All throughout afternoon practice, Kayley was distracted. Madeleine had been promoted to the role of Cinderella, taking Ophelia’s place. And Kayley was back in the fairy godmother spot.
It didn’t feel good.
Although she danced well, her mind was elsewhere, thinking ahead to nighttime, when she could put the shoes back.
When it was Madeleine’s turn to do her solo, Kayley’s knees shook up and down. She started to chew on her fingernails.
As Madeleine did her piqué turns, Kayley noticed an antique light fixture swinging above the dance floor. And with horror, she saw a bolt pop out, then another.
Without thinking, she rushed away from the wall and pushed Madeleine out from underneath the fixture. The light crashed down in front of her. Madeleine lay on the floor, legs in split position, fallen but unhurt.
Madame Puant gasped. “Oh my word. Madeleine, Kayley, are you all right?”
They both nodded. The entire class began talking hysterically. Madame looked almost panicked, her eyes wild. “Class dismissed. No practice tomorrow. This place has become dangerous! Patrick, will you please call Bert?”
Kayley walked over to Madeleine and put her shaking hand on Madeleine’s shoulder. “Are you OK?”
Madeleine, also shaking, nodded. “You saved my life,” she said in wonder. Kayley felt tears behind her eyes.
“Can you come with me for a second?”
Madeleine’s eyes got wide and she nodded.
Kayley pulled her into the hallway and waited until everyone was gone. Tears streamed down Kayley’s face.
“It’s my fault everyone is getting hurt.”
Madeleine shook her head in bewilderment.
“Madeleine, I’m the one who took the shoes.”
Chapter 13
Madeleine gasped. “Kayley!”
Kayley hiccup-sobbed. “I know!”
The whole story came tumbling out of her. She realized then how isolated she’d felt.
“I wanted to become a better dancer, and I read this book that said the shoes would make you a better dancer, but then I just found out that they don’t make you a better dancer; they just give the school bad luck and people get hurt! … And it almost killed you, probably because I’m most jealous of how good a dancer you are and how you took Ophelia away.”
Madeleine wrapped Kayley up in a hug.
“First,” she said, her eyes boring into Kayley, “I didn’t take Ophelia away. We’ve been talking a lot about why you have been so distant. She loves you, Kayley. You’re her best friend. I can never take that away.”
Kayley wiped her nose as another tear slid down her cheek.
“Second,” Madeleine said, “You don’t need any stupid shoes to make you a better dancer. You’re a wonderful dancer. You just got lazy. Don’t be mad at me for saying it, but you stopped coming to rehearsal early. You just stopped caring. The shoes had nothing to do with how you’ve danced lately. You just started putting some effort in!”
Kayley considered this for a moment. Maybe the electricity she felt wasn’t about the shoes but about believing she could get to where she wanted to be.
“And third,” Madeleine said. “We need to get those shoes back into that case. When do you plan on doing it?”
“Are you saying you’ll help me?”
Madeleine was at the academy on scholarship. If she were expelled, it was probably the end of her career. How could she offer something like that after Kayley had admitted to being so awful?
“You may not think so, Kayley, but people care about you. Including me. And as your friend, it’s my duty to make sure I help you redeem yourself after something stupid.”
Kayley sniffled and then grinned. “Well, you have your work cut out for you.”
“I’ll say. So, before we start planning, want one of these?” She pulled out a Twizzler, and Kayley’s grin got bigger.
“Now we’re talking.”
“Man, this place is creepy,” Madeleine whispered as she and Kayley sneaked into the lobby. At two in the morning, the red Exit light shone on the wall across from them. The glass shoe display stood empty and forlorn.
“You’re telling me,” Kayley whispered back.
What she didn’t add was how much less creepy it was with a friend. For the eightieth time that
day, she thanked her lucky stars for Madeleine. And the rest of her friends.
After Madeleine and Kayley had their talk, they had visited Ophelia’s room and grabbed Sophie and Emma too. Kayley came clean and felt a kind of relief that she’d been missing for ages. Of course, Ophelia had called her a couple of choice words, but Kayley could swear she saw a softness in the girl’s eyes. Kayley really did have the best friends ever.
Now, in the lobby, she had a chance to put everything to rest. She put the key in the case’s keyhole and turned its handle.
And an alarm sounded throughout the school, a whooping, screeching, horrible alarm.
Chapter 14
Kayley turned to Madeleine with huge eyes and saw her friend mouth the word run.
So, Kayley ran. She ran so fast, she barely knew where she was running to. Until she realized she was running right toward the lobby staircase. A crowd had started to gather at the top.
Kayley skidded up to one of the stairway’s outside curves and crouched down. She hoped-hoped-hoped no one would see her through the uprights of the banister. She hoped even harder that Madeleine had found a safe place.
Peeking between the banister’s uprights, Kayley watched light flood the upper floor. Girls in pajamas stood whispering to one another. Madame Puant strode down the stairs with purpose and stopped in front of the glass case. Kayley backed up even farther against the wall, feeling exposed.
Just keep looking at the case, she prayed.
Bert stood by Madame Puant. Both of them looked disappointed.
Madame’s eyes swept the room and, for a moment, Kayley saw Madame leaning over, Madame’s back parallel with the slope of the stairs. But her eyes kept moving. Kayley breathed a sigh of relief.
Madame whispered something to Bert, then tapped her cane against the floor.
“To bed everyone! Nothing to see here.”
With the maintenance man behind her, she began her climb back up the staircase.