Toe to Toe (On Pointe Book 1) by Penelope Freed (read with me TXT) 📕

“Is that falafel?” I ask, peering over her shoulder. Seriously, my mom is the best cook. “Olivia is coming soon, when can we eat? We’re starving.”

“Dinner will be ready and your dad will be home in about twenty minutes. Why don’t you go upstairs and I’ll call you when it’s ready,” my mom says, pushing us all back out the doorway and out of our tiny kitchen. We grab our bags and head upstairs to my room. I flop on my bed and plug my phone in to charge while Lisa and Katy grab their chargers out of their bags and plug their phones in too. All our phones are dying because we spent half of our lunch taking pictures and videos of ourselves dancing and posting them on Instagram. None of us have very many followers, except Olivia of course. I’m more of a lurker than a poster. I was trying to get a video of me doing a really hard fouetté turn sequence, but I kept laughing in the middle and messing it up.

“Hey, I have an idea, give me your phone for a second,” Katy says. I hand it over and she starts scrolling through my photos. “You should just use the good part of those turns, it will look so cool!” Growling in concentration Katy fiddles with my phone for a minute. “There! How awesome is that?” She tosses my phone over to me and I look to see what she’s done. She’s made a little clip of me turning, the way she’s clipped it I just keep turning forever and ever.

“That’s super cool, thanks Katy,” I say and post it to my Instagram.

“Is it weird that I’m nervous for tomorrow?” Katy’s busy braiding her long brown hair as we talk. “I mean, I know it doesn’t really matter how I do, since I’m not going to go anyway.” She shrugs. “But I don’t want to do badly either.”

“No, it makes sense.” Lisa shrugs, laying out a sleeping bag and pillow on my floor. “Even though you’ll be going on all those college visits this summer, you still don’t want to embarrass yourself at the audition.”

“Where are you going again?” I toss an extra blanket to Katy for her bed. My full size bed is big enough for two people, but I assume Olivia is going to crawl into it with me like usual.

“Colorado State, Alabama, Florida State and University of Arizona. Pity me, I’m going to be stuck in a car with my entire family for three whole weeks, even Cole is coming. Just shoot me now.” Katy mimes it dramatically and falls on the floor, writhing.

“Hellooooo!” Olivia calls from downstairs, interrupting our laughter. The lilt of her and my mom’s voices drifting up the stairs reminds me of how much simpler life used to be. They chat for a minute before her blonde head comes poking through my door. “Your mom says dinner’s almost ready. Your dad was parking right when I got here. Let’s go, I’m starving!”

“Are you girls excited for the audition tomorrow?” My dad asks once we’re all sitting at the table. I take a helping of salad and pass it to Katy next to me.

“I am,” Lisa says, taking a piece of naan bread and passing it to my mom. “Do you remember the audition from last year, Hannah? The class was so fun, even though it was hard.”

Katy looks around the table. “It’s just a class, right? I didn’t go to any last year, remember?”

“You’ve never gone?” Olivia looks surprised. “It’s just a class, but with a bunch of old dudes sitting there judging you the whole time.” She laughs as she takes a couple of the falafel off the serving platter and passes it to Lisa.

I grimace at Olivia’s joke. “That’s not really true.” I turn to face Katy, her dark brown eyes throwing irritated glances Olivia’s way. “Okay, yes there are people there judging you, but it’s not just a bunch of ‘old dudes,’ they usually have one of the teachers from the school give the class, and a panel of other teachers watch.”

Katy ignores Olivia, talking to Lisa and I instead. “We don’t have to learn choreography or anything, right?”

“Nope,” Lisa answers for us. “Well, I’ve never been to a summer school audition where we did. Maybe for some of the more contemporary programs, but we didn’t last year at the PSB audition.”

“Don’t stress about it Katy,” Olivia adds, helpfully. Katy’s shoulders stiffen at the sound. “They just want to see who is paying attention to corrections and if you have decent training. You’ll be fine.”

After kitchen duty, Olivia insists on taking a shower, so we all scramble around and take showers after her before getting into our pajamas. I finish before Katy and Lisa and am surprised to see Olivia blow drying her hair when I get back to my room. “Um, why are you drying your hair and putting on makeup?” I ask, confused.

“Why not?” Olivia asks, with a shrug. “Hey, we should all do our nails,” she adds, walking over to my dresser drawers, looking for my nail polish collection. Not that I have that much. I don’t usually wear nail polish, if I do it’s just a pale pink or clear. I definitely wouldn’t want to wear anything crazy tomorrow at the audition.

I tell Olivia that which just makes her laugh. “Banana you are such a bunhead, it’s almost gross.” Lisa and Katy walk into my room just then, freshly showered and in their pajamas too. “Please tell me one of you has nail polish? Hannah only has boring colors,” Olivia asks, winking at me.

“I think I have some, hang on, let me look,” Katy says, reaching for her bag. She pulls out a small makeup bag and dumps it out on my bed. “I have red and purple. Who wants what?” She holds up two little bottles and we proceed to paint each other nails. I refuse