Week 7 Story: The Dance-Off

Donna and Jasmine, growing up, were the best of friends. They lived next door to each other, and from the time Jasmine threw a ball into Donna's yard, hitting her in the head and Donna popped it in retaliation, they were inseparable. They would talk and laugh for hours about jokes only they understood. They did everything together, from school, running around the street, and dance classes.

But then high school rolled around, and subtly but surely their dynamic changed. Jasmine exchanged her ballet flats for a cheerleader uniform, while Donna continued taking dance classes, growing more passionate about them as time passed. They spent less time playing in their backyards, but would still periodically take long walks around their street, catching up and wondering where their futures might take them. Even though they didn't do as many things together, they stayed close friends, friends for life.

***15 years later***

The cries of an infant could be heard down the hall, in the early hours of the morning. Jasmine sleepily got up for the fifth time that night, and padded down the hall, where she scooped the baby up and held her in her arms, cooing softly. As Jasmine stood there rocking her newborn child, she thought to herself, "It's times like these I miss my friend Donna the most. We were such great partners in crime for every big life event."

The next day, she voiced those thoughts to her husband, who asked her, "Why don't you go find Donna and ask her for advice, and catch up like you used to?"

That weekend, Jasmine did just that. She looked Donna up on Facebook, and found that she was running her own dance studio now. She went down to the studio, and entered it to find Donna leading a class of a dozen young ballerinas.

Before Jasmine even got a full sentence out, Donna interrupted her. "My dearest Jasmine! How nice to see you. You can see how successful I've become since we last saw each other. As always, I will do my best to help you with any favor you ask, but I hope you haven't come to try and reopen our friendship. After all, since I am running my own studio and incredibly successful now, we are no longer equals like we were on the school playground. And you must know, permanent friendship can never really be a thing--it is a childish notion, one to put behind us."

Jasmine didn't even know how to react to this. Angry and confused, she ran out before Donna could see the tears beginning to well up in her eyes. As she stood out there on the front step of the studio, she noticed a flyer tacked up to a nearby telephone poll. It read

CALLING ALL DANCERS! 

Come join us for a celebration of the arts, and the biggest dance competition this town has ever seen.

Any an all acts of the highest skill welcome

The winner will receive a chance to share their skill with the world, by gaining their very own 

DANCE STUDIO

Through her frustration and sadness, the spark of determination reignited in Jasmine's eyes. 

A few weeks later, it felt like the whole town was in the local hall for the dance competition. It had been the talk of the town for weeks. As the acts progressed, the whispers in the crowd reflected the judges' reactions: "Ooh, that was beautiful." "She has a lot of potential." "Huh, I thought they would have been better than that."

When Donna stepped onstage for her act, the crowd cheered. A lot of the audience had children or friends that were in her studio, and she was the projected favorite to win. Although she already had a successful studio, Donna had plans of expanding it, spiraling with her ever-growing ambition.

Her performance was beautiful, as everyone expected. "Serene, sophisticated, elegant" were the whispers of the crowd when she finished.

Donna's elegant dance (Flickr)

However, there was still one more act to go in the competition. When Jasmine stepped onstage, Donna scoffed, wondering what she could possibly remember after being out of practice for so many years. But her jaw quickly dropped. Jasmine blew the crowd away from the first beat of the music. Her number reflected her years of training as a cheerleader--she did backflips and handsprings, all with the grace of an old dancer, but with the energy of someone used to engaging a crowd. Despite having recently had a child, she had stayed in shape through the years, and had been able to pick up most of her old moves quickly once she put her mind to it.

Silhouette of Jasmine (Pixabay)

A week after Jasmine had won the grand prize, she strolled into Donna's office. Confidently, she addressed her. "Donna, all I had wanted was to talk to you like old times, to call on you as a friend in a trying new time in my life. You spurned me because you didn't view me as your equal. However, now that I've won the competition, I have a studio of my own to open right down the street from you. And I fully intend to take half of your students--a number of them came up to me after the contest, asking where I had been this whole time, because my talent matched if not exceeded yours. Anyways, now we are equals, and I shall be your friend again." With a smile and wave goodbye, she departed, leaving Donna standing shocked as half of her class left to follow Jasmine. 

Author's Note: 

I wrote this story inspired by the background story of Drona in the Mahabharta, by NK Narayan (Source). In it, he goes to ask his old friend for a cow after just having a child. His friend spurned him because he had become a king and Drona hadn't. Drona's response was to have the Pandeva brothers and their cousins capture the king, and Drona took half the kingdom, so that the two would be equals again. This story has those same elements, with Jasmine beating Donna at a competition, gaining an equal sized studio, and taking half of her students.