Page 1 of Set the Moment
Prologue
Bloodpoolsinmymouth as I chew on the inside of my cheek, my heart racing.
“No seriously, Keegan! Sienna has such a stick up her ass…” I hear my classmate, Natasha, laugh.
I don’t mean to flinch at her words. My nanny raised me better than to let foolish haters affect me.
But I do.
I cringe as Keegan laughs. The sound is wheezy and loud, like a toy rooster as she cackles away at my expense.
“It’s because her family is famous, Tash…She wouldn’t be in this program without Mommy and Daddy.”
Hello pot, meet kettle.
It’s alwaysDaddy's moneythis,Mommy’s moneythat when people talk about me, as if I had gotten into one of the most competitive dance programs on my parents’ merit alone.
I rest my head back on the wall behind me, covering me from their view as they continue to spew their nonsense.
Today’s the last day of classes at NYU before the summer break begins, and it’s also my last dayeverin this cesspit. From the moment I stepped foot on campus two years ago, my life has been a living hell.
I’ve had random people follow me from cafés to my condo, a study date with a weirdo from my econ class who wanted me to take hisfeetpics, and not to mention all the times where my things would come up “missing” in the studio with the girls in my class being a pain in the ass.
I mean seriously, who puts a nail in someone's pointe shoe?
Heaving a sigh, I prepare to enter the cold room when another voice stops me in my tracks. My skin boils with anger as the person giggles with the two dancers.
“Oh c’mon, girls, you two both know her parents don’t love her enough to pay for schooling. That’s why little Miss Perfect’s always overachieving. I bet all she needs is a good fucking to get her out of that bitchy attitude she has.”
My heart sinks as none other than Valencia McAllister, my idol, current mentor, and professor for Dance Technique, speaks.
Never meet your idols, they say.
I smooth a stray, brown coil from my face, take a deep breath, and straighten my spine. I refuse to give these assholes the satisfaction of my tears.
“Oh, you’re so right! Anthony told me that she was a frigid bitch who wouldn’t put out when they had a date a while back.” Keegan cackles.
My breathing shakes as I try my hardest not to cry. They’ve been nothing but cruel to me since I stepped foot on campus. I could storm in there and give them a piece of my mind, tell them all off.
But I don’t.
It would bring shame to my family if I ever did something worth headlines. That’s my cousin Zola’s job. She’s the star in that department.
Deep breath in…
Hold for ten seconds.
Exhale.
The breathing technique from yesterday’s hot yoga class is no use. Everything feels like it’s caving in on me.
The walls are closer, I’m as tall as the ceiling, and my legs are wobbly.
“Oh! Hey, Sienna!” A familiar voice calls out to me like a life raft, but I don’t take it even though I need to. Instead, I sink further into the depths of my mind as the girls in the room gasp, now fully aware of my presence.
Ignoring the voice, I get out of there as fast as I can. I don’t think about the fact that we have evaluations today or that I’m running around Washington Square like a chicken with its head cut off in a lavender leotard.
My breathing doesn’t calm itself until I make it to my shell of a condo that I’ve lived in for less than two years. The place is cold, lacking in anything that screams Sienna Jones. The only distinctive quality in the apartment is the six-tiered pink cage that houses my pet ferret, Oscar.
