"I'm not asking for you to perform a miracle dad, I'm just asking for one of your contacts to give me a simple day volunteer thing and let me put it on my application.  I'll be miserable and they'll get a day's worth of free labor, isn't that what the people in your circles dream about?"

His wrinkles deepened and his left eye twitched  from over the morning paper. He was in a mood. A permanent mood that never seemed to get off the 'leave me alone' phase. He cocked his head to the side and answered without bothering to look up.

"Tia, I sympathize with your dilemma, but I told you you for years you can't rely on dance your whole life. You need to use your brain for other things. Get some friends, have a fundraiser, I'll make a donation myself.  Spending an afternoon serving country club members refreshments or washing firm members cars is not going to help your resume. You're on your own with this one. If you're old enough to apply to NYC, you're old enough to figure this out."

His face disappeared back into the Sunday Times and Tia held her tongue. It was just like him to bail out when anything was needed that required more than tuition or dancewear. Her whole life he had been the same. Some kids got father daughter dances, and some got dance tuition. Rarely did people get both.

She went back to her room and packed her newly washed and folded clothes for the week. Some days she was so glad she lived at the academy during the week. Just being home for the weekends was infuriating. Her sister Winnie was the only exception. She was the exact opposite of Tia in every way. She loved public school and dressing like a street rat, mooned over boys and had more friends than Tia could count. People said Tia got all the talent, and Winnie, the personality.

Even Tia couldn't help being charmed by Winnie's always positive attitude and ability to win over even the most vile people. It was a talent, not that she would tell her that. Secretly, she was always glad that Winnie hated dancing, she excelled at everything she put her mind to, and dancing was all Tia had.

She rolled up her makeup bag and put it on top to protect it from breaking when the secret knock of three raps followed by two raps echoed in the room.

"Come on in Winnie, it's open."

Winnie breezed into the room, her long hair unbrushed and obscuring half her face.

"You look especially orphaned like today, special occasion?"

Winnie smirked and threw a pillow from the perfectly placed pile on the bed.

"Yeah, I thought I'd dress up for your pity parade. And maybe save your butt, again."

Tia spun around and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Don't kid me Winnie, this is dead serious. You have an idea?  At this point I'm open to anything."

She shook her shoulders free and took a step backwards.

"No contact, and this is gonna cost you."

"Doesn't everything?  What are the terms, and more importantly, what do you have in mind?"

Winnie's held out her hand and spun herself around like a pageant contestant.

"I want you to make me up on Friday night for the spring dance, but not like a stage ballerina, I want to look like a million bucks, and to wear your sky blue gown, the one you got for the after party of The Nutcracker."

Tia mulled the terms over. The dress was beautiful and her favorite. Her grandparents had sent it from Paris and Tia envisioned her wearing it in NYC. Of course, there was no NYC without immediate intervention. She guessed Winnie either had a date or wanted one, and at least she wasn't asking for advice on that. Sometimes being part of her sister's life wasn't horrible.

"I'll agree to the terms if you swear to not eat in the dress and to protect it with your life, and if the deal is good enough to look amazing on my application."

Winnie held out her right pinky and Tia wrapped hers around it.

"Deal. Consider yourself human. Saturday at noon you will be giving a free city dance class at the local Boys and Girls club. It will be demonstration only, giving the kids an idea of things they can do for fun and exercise. It's all ages and before you panic, no individual instruction, just information and a tutorial. You're welcome."

Tia squealed and hugged her sister who tried pushing her away despite her glowing face.

"It's perfect!  I can easily talk about ballet! I could do that in my sleep."

Her sister handed her the bright orange flyer from the club. It already had her name and time slot printed on it.

"Wait a minute. How is it possible you already had this set up?"

Winnie winked as she made her way to the door.

"I was going to blackmail you into it anyway, but this way worked it better didn't it?"

Now it was Tia's turn to whip something at her sister's head. Luckily, the closest thing at hand was a makeup brush. Darn her for always being right! 

She walked down to waiting car still clutching the flyer. Despite her sisters manipulation, the hellion did managed to save her. A local boys and girls club in the city, now that was charity!  She might even enjoy herself. Providing she didn't have to actually dance with people who didn't know a pirouette from a pumpkin.

With the weight off her shoulders and a suitcase at her feet Tia climbed onto the train feeling content and excited to get back to what was important, dancing. A smile spread across her lips as she imagined the look of shock on Mrs. Taylor's scrunched up face when she handed her the certificate.  Just a few more months and she'd be leaving this place and heading to New York leaving nothing behind but the wind she caused as she closed the door to everything that was her life now.