One deep breath and three steps in, two large and heavy oak doors closing shut behind, silence apart from footsteps on wooden floors, the quiet thump of a bag being placed down. Two more steps to the middle of the room, one step to turn and face the four people sat behind the table.
‘’State your name’’ The oldest looking women asked, her grey hair pinned back tightly in a bun, winkles lining her eyes and sharp looking, thin lips.
‘’And why do you think you deserve a place in this school?’’ Three beats to his heart and nerves calming his hands up as he breathes in deeply and slowly exhales again, he had thought about that question in so many ways since he was a child, every since he learnt of his mother talking about her past. He tried to remember back to what he had planned, tried to remember what his mother had said before he was looking down at the dark floorboards and blinking. ‘’Mr. Stilinski’’ The same lady asked as he looked back up.
‘’Sorry’’ He breathed out before moving his hands behind his back.
‘’It’s quite alright Mr. Stilinski, everyone is nervous at this point’’ The other lady mentioned, her age younger, light brown hair tied back in a simple pony tail, the color similar to what he remembers his mothers to be, her blue eyes bright in the sunlight which was flooding in through the large windows of the room. ‘’Just take a deep breath and just let yourself speak, you got through the applicant for an interview, not many do that’’ She reminded him as he nodded.
‘’Alright, yeah…sorry’’ He started again, his cheeks slightly warming before he was taking a deep breath like she told him too. Letting his eyes dance from person to person, Stiles let himself calm down before he smiled softly. ‘’I think I deserve a place in this school because, simply, I love to dance’’ He told them as he rocked on his heels slightly, ‘’I’ve been dancing for as long as I can remember, my earliest memory of dance was with my mom when I was little, I think I was about four or five, my mom was cleaning. It was the middle of summer and all the windows were open and sun bright, I think she had Johnny Cash playing on the stereo as she dance’’ He smiled, the memory clear in his mind as he let himself stare over their heads at the wall, ‘’I remember her moves not even going to the music but he didn’t care, my mom was happy and smiling, I was happy because it was my mom you know’’ He shrugged, ‘’I remember her picking me up and dancing around the room with me. It was the same all the time, even if it was raining, mom would dance around with me in her arms, singing along to whatever track was playing. It was those moments I remember the most because it made me laugh and my mom smile’’ Stiles smiled softly as he lowered his eyes slightly to look back at them. ‘’as I got older, me and mom would make dances up together and she would let me stay up late some nights, waiting for my dad to get home from his patrol just to show him. I think my best memory too is when I was about seven…I say it was my best, it was also my worse I guess, for that’s when my mom first started getting ill’’ H smiled sadly. ‘’it was raining and I was being a pain for her, running about and not watching what I was doing, I remember tripping over a box which was half under the coffee table in the lounge and photos fell out, my mom scooped me up in her arms after I stared at the pictures and started asking a million questions a second which made her smile all the time, that’s when I first found out about my mom being a dancer, she told me how it was her dream ever since she was a little girl herself’’ Smiling at the memory again, Stiles could see the younger women who had told him to take a deep breath and one of the men smiling softly before he ducked his head and laughed slightly. ‘’she went to this school, I remember her falling asleep that afternoon after feeling ill a little more and I snuck on to the computer we had and looked this place up, I was awed by the photos, my mind was blown and all I could think about was how I wanted to become a dancer like my mom, I wanted to make her proud of me so I asked my dad about dance lessons when he got home and told him not to tell her because I wanted to make it a surprise, we kept it hidden for months, she thought I had joined the scouts’’ He laughed as he shook his head. ‘’after a month, I had my first recital and it was the same day as my mom’s birthday, dad brought her alone, telling her that I was having a rewards evening, I remember seeing her face in the audience when I moved to the stage with the other kids, I remember the smile she had, it was so big and blinding that I was worried that she was going t hurt her cheeks, in fact I worried so much that I actually ran off the stage to her and asked her to stop smiling’’ He laughed wetly before he was shaking his head again. ‘’but to say, she gave me the biggest hug ever that night and told me how much she loved me and how much she was going to make my dad pay from hiding that I was learning how to dance…um...I, do I have a limit here?’’ He asked suddenly, concerned that he had spoken too much.
‘’Of course not, continue Mr. Stilinski’’ The older women told him.
‘’Okay, right where was I…oh yeah’’ Stiles breathed with a laugh, ‘’for every dance lesson after that my mom came with me, she practiced with me whenever she felt well enough, you could say that we grew together, my mom relived her dancing days through me as she stopped when she found out that she was pregnant with me’’ Stiles told them. ‘’On the days where she felt too sick to move off the couch, we would sit together and she would tell me stories about being here at this school, she told me which teachers were her favorite, her favorite places to practice and what rooms was the best for certain types of songs. But to say, I deserve to have a place in this school because dancing is my life, I’m nineteen years old and honestly, I only started dancing again a year ago thanks to a old letter I came across, it reminded me of everything I felt when I danced, the joy it brought along with the smiles’’ He smiled, ‘’but I can’t see myself doing anything else. Dancing is me…it’s in my blood’’
