Chapter 7

Sharvona reached out her hand to stop the ringing alarm clock. The illuminated hands showed her that it was 6.50. She really felt too tired to get up but she had no choice. By the time she had eaten and was fully ready it was 7.55. Sharvona unlocked the front door and stepped into the light rain. Pulling her raincoat hood firmly over her curly hair she trudged towards the school, inwardly grumbling about the weather.

Megan had arrived in school 10 minutes earlier and was reading a book when Sharvona came in and dumped her rucksack on the table. She sat down on the table swinging her feet.

“I’ve got the gala in two weeks”        

“Really, can I come or…”

“I don’t know yet my teacher said she’ll give me more information nearer the time. Did you finish your English work?”

“Sure I did, I don’t want a detention for no reason”.

“Mind you Miss Carson is fair with her detentions but still it isn’t really worth it”.

Sharvona jumped down from the table and went to sit at her desk.  The clock showed 8.27 which meant exactly 3 minutes until the bell rang. Sharvona took out her English notes and stared at them critically. They were not very long, just the right amount. In any case she was not going to use them in the lesson; all she needed to do was read over them during registration and make sure that all her points made sense. She reached into her bag to check for her ballet shoes, she had wrapped them in tissue paper so that if her drink spilled they would be partly protected. As normal there was nothing interesting in the register and Sharvona was only too glad when the bell rang for the next lesson.

“Megan, wait for me a second can’t you”, called Sharvona flinging her bag over her shoulder and chasing after her.

“Sorry I was in a bit of a hurry, you know what she’s like about punctuality”, grimaced Megan as she opened the door. Most of the class was there already, going over their presentations and getting their friends to listen to them. The noise was deafening and in the middle of the confusion Miss Carson walked in with a sheaf of papers. The noise died down instantly and the offenders slunk guiltily back into their seats. Miss Carson put her papers on the desk and sat down.

“Girls I could hear you from half-way down the corridor. I expect to be able to leave the classroom without it turning into some kind of zoo. I am very disappointed; if you can’t behave sensibly we will not be doing anything fun. I don’t have to do this, I have my own marking to do and it would be very easy to give you a boring essay to complete. Now sit down and be quiet!”

There was a low shuffling of chairs as the class sat down. Miss Carson switched on the monitor and moved to sit by an empty desk.

“Okay, does anyone want to go first, or do I need to go down my list?  Right Savannah you can go first are you ready?”

“Miss I forgot my USB stick”

“Well telling me at the beginning of the lesson is not going to help; I gave you enough time to do your presentation. I want you to have it ready by tomorrow, Sharvona why don’t you go”, she suggested.

Sharvona grabbed her USB stick and sat down at the computer.

“Miss my presentation slides are short because I’m doing a demonstration afterwards”, explained Sharvona.

“That’s fine, you can start now”.

“As many of you know I do ballet and will be taking part in a gala event very soon , ballet is a form of classical dancing and most girls and boys will start around the age of 5”.

Meanwhile Miss Carson was looking at her mark sheet, Sharvona was obviously a very confident speaker and she had no doubt that she was going to give a brilliant dance display, she had never seen her dance before but she knew she must be good if she was to be in a gala. Once Sharvona had finished her PowerPoint she put on her shoes and clicked on the music link. The whole class sat entranced as Sharvona performed Coppelias’ solo, her movements were almost doll-like and she had her hair in two bunches. The music came to a pause and Sharvona curtsied to her audience; a burst of cheering and applauding issued. Sharvona smiled around pleased.

“Sharvona you are an absolute star, one day when you’re famous I’ll be very proud to say I was one of your teachers – right any questions?”

“I have a question, why did you start doing ballet?”

“I went to see my first ballet when I was 8 and I loved it so I asked my parents if I could have lessons”.

The rest of the lesson went quite smoothly and before anyone noticed the bell sounded.

“Pack up and hurry to your next lesson please”.

Sharvona put her ballet shoes away and waited for Megan outside.

“What you doing after school?”

“Ballet practise”

“Skeen”

“Come on Megan, I’ll come to see you on Saturday see?”

“Yeah and you’ll have another practise”, snapped Megan.

Sharvona felt hurt, why was Megan suddenly so snappy she was normally cheerful; well she would try to make it up to her, maybe she could invite her to the gala.