I waited, nervous. Then she followed up with three blond-girl emojis. I deflated. Spencer. Juliet. And Camden, I found out in the next text, one of the new girls who’d transferred in this year. They would do the lead role on alternating nights.

Got Myrtha tho.

Myrtha was an excellent role. Leader of the Wilis, and second only to Giselle. But it was second to Giselle. And Colleen deserved to be first.

Before I could stop myself, my thumbs hit the buttons and I felt a slight release of inner pressure. I was finally saying something back, and it was something true. Something I’d known was true for a long time, even before I let myself realize it.

You deserve Giselle. It isn’t fair. It was never fair.

I hesitated over the Send button. Would this make things worse for Colleen? I was out of that world now, and maybe that was why I was beginning to see its ugliness. She was still in it. I couldn’t force my anger onto her.

Because even if Colleen did get angry about it, Kira would just tell her the same thing she’d told us before. Ballet dancers accept the roles they’re given and make them beautiful. Colleen would make Myrtha beautiful. I knew that at least.

I erased the message, wondering if Colleen could see the three blinking dots telling her I was typing, that I at least wanted to respond. I hoped that was enough for now. I knew it wasn’t.

I put my phone down and looked up, seeing Jude with his phone still to his ear, a slight frown on his face. He finally lowered it and hung up. “Huh,” he said.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, um…” He grabbed a blindingly bright orange Fly Zone T-shirt from his locker and pulled it on over his gray one. Then he hung a whistle around his neck and clipped a walkie-talkie into his pocket. “My dad called and left a message. He’s back in town for a work thing for a couple of months. He said he wants to see me.”

“Geez. Are you going to?”

“No,” he said. I watched him delete the voice mail from his phone.

I was surprised at how sure he was. His dad sounded like a mess, but he was still his dad. “Have you seen him at all since he left?”

“Nope. I talked to him on the phone a few times, but then I stopped answering.” I sensed he had more on his mind, so I put my bag on the floor, clearing space on the bench beside me. He sat down, leaning over so his elbows rested on his thighs.

“It’s just, one of the ways I’m getting over the whole thing is realizing how I’m better off. Like, making peace with the ways my dad was wrong, and feeling now like I’m…” He paused, searching for words.