~Sunday January 9th~

Why is it that while I am very certainly a night person, my best friend is the epitome of a morning person? The world would be an easy place to live in if only I didn't need to wake up by ten in the morning on a Sunday just so that Olivia could come over and overreact for an hour or two about a date that is most definitely not a date. But alas, I find myself turning off an alarm at ten o'clock on a Sunday, the one day of the week where I normally get to sleep until I wake up on my own, usually past noon.

Grumbling to myself, I get out of bed and take a quick shower, standing under the hot water for five minutes after I'm done, sulking in the fact that I should still be sleeping right now. After drying off I put on sweatpants and a comfortable t-shirt, knowing that Olivia is going to pick out an unnecessarily nice outfit for me later.

I head downstairs, remembering that I'm alone today, and make myself some scrambled eggs and toast as a brunch. As I eat, I scroll through the notifications on my phone and note when I get a text from Olivia at ten-forty-five stating that she is leaving her house. Just as I finish my last piece of toast, I hear the doorbell ring - five minutes before eleven.

"Why didn't you just come in?" I ask as I open the door for her.

"It was locked," she says quickly before rushing past me and running up the stairs towards my room. I sigh to myself, knowing that this is going to be a long morning. After putting my dishes in the sink to be cleaned later, I brush my teeth and head into my room.

I can't actually see Olivia, but what I can see is articles of clothing flying out of my closet onto a growing pile on my bedroom floor.

"Ugh, I just cleaned," I say in exasperation as I plop down on my bed, knowing this is going to take a while.

"Well it's worth is. Look what I found, you have to wear it!" Olivia emerges from my closet holding up the dress that I wore to my sixteenth birthday party almost two years ago. It is very pretty, and I would willingly wear it again if I had a deserving event, but today is not a special occasion.

"That's way too nice, Liv."

"Oh please, it's your first date ever!"

"Don't rub in the fact that I've never been on a date - including today because for the millionth time, it's not a date!"

"You're no fun," Olivia exhales before returning back into my closet, leaving the dress at the top of the clothes pile. "What about this?" She says, holding out a cute romper.

"I'll freeze, you know it's the middle of winter, right?"

"These are all great options Theresa, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Let me take a look," I say standing up from my bed. With one look into my closet I can see that it's as big a mess as the rest of my room. Looking around, I find one of my favorite shirts, it's dark blue and long sleeve with small yellow flowers and a keyhole cutout in the front. Next I pick up some light distressed skinny jeans. That was easy. "What do you think?"

"Fine, have it your way. You're lucky that shirt is so cute. But, if you still don't think this is a date by then end of the day, it's your fault - not mine?"

"And why would I have changed my mind about this being completely platonic?"

"Because my outfits would have made him fall so in love with you that he would have admitted that he set this whole thing up just so he could talk to you."

"Interesting," I respond, but I'm already walking into my bathroom to change into the new outfit. After returning to my room, I throw the clothes I was wearing on top of the pile Olivia made, officially giving up on having a clean room. "Alright, what's next."

"Makeup!" Olivia exclaims, practically shoving me into the seat in front of my mirror.

"Olivia..." I draw out.

"I know, I know. Not too much. I'm good at this Theresa, I know when I'm overdoing it."

"Sure, now you know when you're overdoing it," I mumble under my breath.

"Excuse me, you do realize I have full control over what is about to go all over your face, right?"

"Yes ma'am," I say sarcastically, earning a chuckle from Olivia. She rummages through my bag of makeup for a minute before getting started and I close my eyes. I'm not bad at makeup - I've been practicing stage makeup since I was eight - but Olivia has a special touch. And plus, it's way more fun to have your friend do your makeup than to do it yourself. "So," I begin as she is working on my eyes, "how's Cameron?"

"How would I know?" She says softly, but when I open one eye I can see her bright pink cheeks through the hair that has been untucked from behind her ear.

"Aww, I guess he's good then. Come on, talk to me. How's it going?"

"Yeah, it's good. Obviously we're just friends - well I haven't friendzoned him or anything, and I'm pretty sure he hasn't friendzoned me - wait, how can you tell if you've been friendzoned? Hey Siri, have I been-"

"Liv, he didn't friendzone you," I cut her off. "He obviously-"

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite get that." This time it's my turn to get cut off, by Olivia's phone which actually heard her say "Hey Siri" for once, mine never seems to hear me. We both laugh as Olivia sets down the makeup brush in her hand to turn off Siri.

"Anyway, as I was saying, he obviously likes you," I continue.

"You really think so?"

"Of course."

"I just feel like he's way too good for me, like he's way out of my league."

"No way Liv, if anything he doesn't deserve you." Olivia sighs.

"Thanks Terry."

"'Terry?' That's a new one," I say with a small chuckle.

"I was trying it out. Is it weird? I think it's weird," Olivia moves on from my eyes to blend what I'm assuming is blush on my cheek bones.

"Yeah, a little." After she finishes, Olivia allows me to look at my makeup in the mirror. I am pleased to find that she has indeed kept it to a minimum, with simple but well done eyeshadow, blush, mascara, and eyeliner. I brush my light brown hair but leave it as is after getting Olivia to agree with me that it would be better just left down. At twelve-thirty, Olivia decides that her work here is done and leaves me alone again to wait for Noah to come over.

In the meantime, I judge that I have just enough time to watch Giselle on Youtube. Though I've seen most of the full length versions that are up on Youtube, I decide to watch my favorite version again since we will be performing it. This version features Svetlana Zakharova as Giselle and Roberto Bolle as Duke Albrecht, both well-known, phenomenal dancers.

I carry my laptop downstairs and set it the kitchen table where I plan to sit with Noah, so that if he comes early or if the ballet finishes late I won't have to rush downstairs to let him in. I lose myself in watching the ballet and find that when two o'clock comes around, I still have twenty minutes of the ballet left. I pause the video to save the rest for later and grab my backpack, expecting Noah to show up any minute.

Fashionably late, my doorbell rings at five past two. Unlocking the front door, I open it to see Noah in the doorway, one hand holding the backpack he has over one shoulder and the other hand in the front pocket of his dark jeans.

"Hey, come on in," I say as I step aside and let him into the front hallway, closing the door behind him as he slips off his shoes. Not knowing what else to say, I begin walking towards the kitchen and am relieved when I hear his footsteps behind following me without being invited to. "I was thinking we could work at the kitchen table," I say, gesturing towards it. "Do you want anything to drink?" I ask, wiping my slightly sweaty palms on the front of my jeans.

"I'm all set, thanks," he speaks for the first time since he got here. When he does respond, he looks at me with a slight smile, making his eyes sparkle and heat flow to my cheeks for a reason beyond my knowledge. I immediately break eye contact and turn towards the cabinets behind me to avoid what would have been an awkward situation if I had stared at him for too long. I busy myself by getting a cup out for my own glass of water while I hear Noah pull out a chair and set his stuff down. As I am walking towards the fridge to fill up my cup, I hear music from Act II of Giselle start up from behind me and turn around to see Noah sitting in front of my laptop. "What's this?" He asks.

"It's Giselle," I say as I begin to fill up my cup.

"What?"

"Giselle, it's a ballet," I say.

"Oh. What's going on?"

"Well that's halfway through the second act, so it would take a bit of explaining to get you caught up," I say smiling slightly at the thought of retelling the ballet to Noah.

"I've got time," Noah surprises me by saying.

"You want to know what happens?" I respond, setting my glass down on the counter.

"Yeah, explain it."

"Alright," I say resting my elbows on the counter, and Noah pauses the video to listen to my story. "It takes place in a small village in France. This guy named Hilarion spends most of his time trying to win over Giselle's love, Giselle being the lead ballerina, however everything he does - from leaving dead animals at her door to giving her flowers - doesn't seem to work. Then, a new man comes along. He immediately charms Giselle, telling her his name is Loys, and they are soon engaged. Giselle has an unhealthy heart but she loves dancing anyway, and her and Loys dance together a lot. Hilarion is jealous of Loys and suspicious of him. He then finds a sword in the shed across from Giselle's house, and only members of royalty are allowed to own swords in France at this time. He pieces together that the sword belongs to Loys, and that the crest on the sword belongs to their royal family. The Duchess, Bathilde, along with other members of the hunting party visit Giselle's house for a rest and Giselle and Bathilde get along. Then, not knowing the hunting party was there, Loys shows up. Upon seeing Bathilde he greets her with a kiss on the hand before Giselle tears them apart. All along Loys was really Duke Albrecht, who is engaged to Bathilde. Hilarion then proves this by showing Giselle the sword. Giselle goes mad with grief and a broken heart, her heart was sick already. She stabs herself with the sword and dies in Duke Albrecht's arms. That's the whole first act.

In the second act, Giselle becomes a Wili, the ghost of a girl who died of a broken heart before she was married, under the rule of Queen Myrtha, the queen of the Wilis. Just after her death, Hilarion visits her grave, but he senses the presence of Wilis - who take their revenge on men - and leaves. Then Albrecht shows up at her grave, and Giselle appears. Soon Queen Myrtha arrives and takes her revenge on Albrecht by ordering him to dance until he dies. He and Giselle both beg her to lift her curse, but she won't. Giselle attempts to save him by dancing with him. Meanwhile, Hilarion - who all along has been blamed for Giselle's death - runs into more Wilis and is also ordered to dance until he dies. In some versions, just before he dies he jumps off a cliff into a lake, dying anyway. Giselle and Albrecht continue to dance, receiving no mercy from Queen Myrtha, which is pretty much where the video is at now. Though collapsing many times, Albrecht survives until sunrise. Wilis can only be out at night, so he is saved. Though neither want to leave each other, Giselle disappears with the other Wilis and Albrecht leaves the forest."

"How long is the... play?" I laugh slightly at his choice of words but decide not to correct him.

"About an hour and half."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's actually pretty short for a ballet, certainly no Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake."

"You've seen this a lot, haven't you?"

"It's my favorite," I say, slightly embarrassed that he could read me so well.

"Have you ever... I don't know..."

"Performed it?"

"Sure."

"No, but I will be in a couple of months, actually."

"So you're that girl?" He asks, pointing to Giselle on my computer screen and playing the video again, causing me to laugh nervously.

"Well, hopefully, but we haven't had our audition yet. Since I'm a senior and this will be my last show with the school I can hope that I'll get some special treatment, but I can't be certain. There are a lot of talented girls at the studio." Noah grunts in understanding before getting lost in the ballet playing in front of him. After a couple of seconds of watching him stare at the screen with a confused expression, I pick up my glass of water and set it down on the kitchen table in front of the seat next to him. "Should we get started?" I ask after a short moment.

"Yeah, sure," he says, breaking from his trance and pausing the video.

Over the course of the next hour, I discover that Noah is much better at French than Madame had made it sound like. We start by going over our notes from the previous class, then we work through a packet of practice problems together. Noah knows the answer to almost all of the questions, and though his accent isn't perfect, neither is mine. By the time we finish, I can honestly say that not only does he really not need another tutoring session, he didn't even need this one.

As I walk with him through the hallway towards the front door, he suddenly stops and turns around to face me.

"I've been meaning to ask you, everyone else calls you Theresa, but you put your name in my contacts as Teresina. Which one do you like better?"

"Oh. I guess I don't really have a preference. Most people call me Theresa though, probably because it's easier," I say shrugging.

"Teresina it is then."

"Huh?"

"Maybe TD for short," Noah gives me a mischievous and slightly worrying smirk.

"Short for what?"

"Tiny Dancer, of course," he shows off his dazzling smile.

"I'm not tiny," I mumble as he puts his shoes on, earning a loud but short laugh from Noah.

"I'll text you about when we should meet next?" He says as he opens the door.

"Sounds good," I respond with a smile.

"See you, Teresina."

"Bye Noah," I say as I close the door behind him.

~~~~~

Written 12/27/17, Published 1/14/18

Hey everyone! I don't have anything special to say excepts wow this chapter is really long. It's about 2500 words long, where my goal for each chapter it usually 1700-1900 words... and the most recent essay I wrote had to be 1200-1500 (mine was 1202 lol). Anyway, I'm currently writing the next chapter, so I figured I'd get this one up :)

Thank you for 800 reads!

I ALMOST FORGOT!
Above is a video of Giselle featuring Svetlana and Roberto, it's the section that I was referencing earlier, with the dancers I talked about.