If I was in her shoes, I would have tripped and lost a few of my teeth. I was not the only one with this opinion because one of my friends, Princess Jane, turned to me, her mouth wide open.
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“Is she going to see well after this?” I lifted my shoulders in a shrug and turned back in order not to miss the rest of the event.
It was our baby girl, Perpetua who had recently been nominated for a dance competition, that was spinning around as she did her bit.
During her rehearsal, we were there to cheer her on and point out her mistakes to her. After three rehearsals, we all scouted for new songs for her to dance to and settled for one after much argument. She had done a few spins in front of us but not as intense.
“Did she do private rehearsals outside the ones we did? Because I've never seen her spin like this before” Treasure, my best friend sitting at my left hand said to me.
I shrugged once again.
It was just the second round of the competition, and they were asked to do a ballet dance. I had particularly chosen the song, Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky for her and Treasure had choreographed some of the dance steps but seeing the modifications she had done, we were all impressed.
“Woah, this is just the second round, do you think we should get glucose for her? The next round starts in a few minutes” Princess Jane asked.
“That's a good idea, but do you think we'll be allowed to speak with her?” I responded.
“Let's try at least, I don't see how she will survive the next round if she has to spin again like that” Treasure cut in.
We all stood and hurried out of the auditorium, listening to the two moderators making jokes while they stalled for the next round to begin.
“But it's really surprising how she came up with those steps within 24 hours, maybe her manager added some steps to her.”
“I don't even like that manager of a person,” Treasure said, wrinkling her nose. “She was just behaving as if we are obsessed fanatics, instead of friends that truly care about Perpetua.”
“That's her job so you can't blame her,” I said matter-of-factly.
We were almost at the end of the street when we saw a store to get the glucose.
“What time is it? Has the next session not already begun?” Treasure whispered into my ears. The old lady at the store was searching her purse frantically for some change to hand over to us.
“It's almost 5 pm. The next session begins in 5 minutes.”
“Then we may not be able to meet up with the time,” Princess Jane groaned.
“But seriously, this ballet dance, is it for all the rounds? I thought she was meant to dance about three different kinds of dance?” Treasure got the change from the lady, thanked her, and dragged us out of the shop. She was the most impatient amongst us and I understood why she was on the edge.
“Yes, if this ballet is her second kind of dance, then she has just one more to go and it definitely will not include spinning.”
“Please it shouldn't,” Princess Jane cut in again, “I was so scared for her. Maybe we should target giving her the glucose after her entire performance” she suggested drawing unanimous words of affirmation from all of us.
The competition was already in its final stage when we returned to the auditorium, plus other people were seated in our seats, so we had to stand at the back till the end of the program.
We could hardly see Perpetua’s dance from where we stood but we listened intently when the results were being called out.
“The second runner-up goes to contestant number 3!”
We looked at each other, “That's Perpetua,” Princess Jane said, confirming what was already in our hearts.
We hurried backstage where her manager was waiting happily for her to return with her cheque of 50,000 naira and a scholarship to one of the most prestigious dance schools in the country.
“I'm super happy for you!” I said when she finally came around, but my words were drowned by screams from the other two ladies with me.
“Congratulations!” Treasure said. “After all your spinning, I think you deserved the first place” We all laughed.
“Yes, how did you get to spinning that much without slumping?” Princess Jane asked. Perpetua shrugged.
“I'm a dancer, it's what I do. Please, girls, let's go out and take pictures.”
In our excitement, we had forgotten to hand the glucose over but seeing that she wasn't affected by the spin, we became completely relaxed.
