My story-Part 2

Part 1

Ugh, you’d think after five years I’d be able to sleep on this stupid train. But no, every night I lie awake until midnight or later swaying back and forth, hitting bumps and going around corners. Sometimes I wish I could just go back home.
My name is Polina. My parents, they knew they were going to send me away when I turned two. You see, we lived in Russia, well they still do. They were relatively poor so there only option was to hope there first born was a girl and then send her to the Russian Academy of Dance and Acrobats. They sent me there because if I was good enough at eight and toured around the world with the company, the government would pay my parents. It turned out I was so that’s why I’m on this stupid train. I don’t talk to my parents much but I do know that just two years after I was sent away they had a little girl named Tania, meaning fairy princess. This annoys me because my name means little stone. Let me tell you what I look like. I'm from the part of Russia near Europe so I have blue eyes, straight blonde hair, and fair skin. I'm 5’2 and really, really thin.
In the beginning at RADA I studied dance, then at age four I started acrobats, and at age six I started rhythmic gymnastics. So I was training full time at seven and at eight six of us girls were chosen to go on tour. That was the last time I saw Russia. At first I was scared of the train. Me and the other five girls became friends. We met some of the other girls who had been on tour for many years. Our first performance was in London, England. We arrived a day early to practice. We practiced for five hours straight. As the youngest performers we had a small part. The big girls practiced for ten to twelve hours. Our costumes were beautiful compared to our drab, gray practice dresses. They were pink dresses with white lace bloomers. Our hair was curled into perfect ringlets topped with big pink bows. We only did one short dance because it was our first performance later on the schedule became way more intense.
After that we traveled all around Europe. We spent about four days per city. On the train we all had one bag for our things, a mat and quilt for a bed, and a bag for our performance apparatuses. In our bag of performance apparatuses we each have a purple and silver hoop, a metallic purple ball, a silver rope, a purple ribbon, and purple and silver clubs to match our purple and white skirted leotard. We no longer wore the cute pink dresses. For our acrobatic performances we wore a blue leotard. We no longer preformed our dance routines.


Part 2

“Polina, sang Diana, time to get up!”
“Not now, Dasha!”
“I’m Diana, Dasha’s still sleeping. She's just as bad as you!”
“I don’t want to get up!”
“But were going to be in Venice for the week!”
“Fine”

Polina sat up on her mat, the sun was shining through the train windows. The air was warm. This is definitely Italy, she thought. She giggled as she watched Diana trying to wake up her twin sister Dasha. They were so carefree. They never seemed to be sad. They liked traveling and probably never thought of…..running away. Polina shook the thought out of her head. If she ran away her parents would stop getting paid and they would never let her back in their home.

Fifteen minutes later then train stopped and the girls unloaded. They each carried both of their bags up to the hotel room. The best part about staying in Venice was that they got to stay in a hotel, and sleep on real beds. The hotel owner felt bad for them and allowed them to stay free as long as he got two tickets for his daughters to one of the shows. After they put away their things they each grabbed a piece of fruit and ran over to the theatre to start rehearsals. The rehearsals used to seem long but now they were just a normal part of her day. First they did an hour long dance class followed by 2 hours of tumbling, afterward they had an hour stretch class. Then they had lunch and rest for 45 minutes and then spent the rest of the day rotating between rhythmic gymnastics and rehearsing their routines. Their day ended around 7:30pm. They all grabbed something for dinner, went up to the showers, showered, and went to their rooms and fell asleep.

The next night was their first show.

“Polina, Dasha; WAKE UP!!!! It’s a show day!”
“Diana, not now! This bed is SO comfortable.”
“But it’s a show day; we have rehearsal in 20 minutes.”

The girls jumped out of bed and changed into their practice clothes. After a long day of rehearsal they went to the dressing rooms to get changed. Polina’s favorite thing about being on tour was the performances and getting ready for them. For her first few performances Ekaterina helped her get ready. She was 16 when Polina first joined the tour. She had since ran away and gotten married. Polina knew this because they kept in contact. Ekaterina would send letters to RADA and they would be sent to the train’s next major stop.

“Dasha”, asked Polina, “have you ever thought about….running away?”
“Of course not! My parents have 4 other children to take care of. Now come over here so I can do you hair. Madame Olena wants two Dutch braids into a bun. I know you have trouble with the Dutch braids.”

After Dasha did her hair they slipped into their blue leotards, and packed their rhythmic leotards and apparatus. Polina stood in front of the full length mirror. After admiring her braids she looked at the rest of her body. Her arms and legs were thin but, muscular and her ribs stuck out like a plateau. This can’t possibly be right, she thought.

After they ended the tumbling part of their show they quickly changed into their purple and white skirted leotards and started to warm up their routines, as the youngest girls performed their dances.

“Udachi, good luck!” called Dasha and Diana at the same time as Polina went on stage to perform her hoop routine. Polina stood on stage waiting for the music, someone caught her eye. He was tan, had dark brown hair and….the most amazing brown eyes. They sparkled like stars at night. Her music started. She arched her back and began her routine