Practice Makes Perfect (Completed)

Chapter 13

Anastasia didn't have many pretty dresses that weren't meant for ballet, so she had bought one for her outing to the park. It was cute and pink with a flowing knee length skirt and sleeves that went just past the elbow. Certainly not a ballet dress, but it had good motion to, and she thought she looked like a dancer still. Overall, it was the perfect dress for her date.

Or at least it would have been.

On the morning of the date, storm clouds had inched in from the horizon, and by noon the rain had started coming down. Anastasia had cursed at the weather people, cursed st the sky, and cursed at herself for forgetting to get Lukes number.

"What am I going to do?" She asked aloud, falling back onto her bed.

"Well you can't wear that."

Anastasia didn't look up at Sarah. The girl was three years younger than Anastasia, and she had no idea what she was talking about.

"Well I can't just wear regular clothes either." She argued. "Its a date, and I specifically told him to dress up."

"Well what else are you gonna wear?"

Anastasia sighed. Sarah was a loyal friend, but she was too young to really understand the intricacies of a high school social life. She had specifically chosen to befriend a younger girl so they would never compete at the same level, but she was starting to regret it.

"That's my question Sarah. That's my question."

Together, the two rifled through Anastasia's closet. Almost all her clothes were training gear, costumes, and exercise clothes for ballet. The rest were school clothes, all old enough and worn out enough that they looked pathetic when compared with her dress.

"Do you even own a raincoat?" Sarah asked.

"Let me get it from downstairs."

Anastasia stomped downstairs, ignoring her brother who was flopped on the couch. The coat closet in her entryway was packed full of coats, mostly winter coats with fluffy linings and pockets stuffed with mittens. In the very back, in the left corner, Anastasia found her bright red raincoat, unused since the prior spring. It was bright, but it looked grown up when she wore it, mostly because it went to her knees rather than merely to her waist. It looked really cute with her red golashes, but those clearly weren't an option with her broken ankle.

Getting up the stairs was considerably harder than getting down them had been, and required maneuvering the crutches at an angle she was somewhat uncomfortable with. It was especially difficult with the raincoat bundled in her arms, restricting her range of motion and balance.

"Here's what I have." She displayed the coat to Sarah.

"Well you should have said it was so long. All me need is cute pants."

Sarah searched the closet as though looking for something.

"See, I knew you would have some." She said, emerging from the closet triumphant. "Black leggings."

Anastasia frowned. "They aren't fancy."

"Not really, but they will look so good with the raincoat. And as long as you leave the coat on you can wear whatever shirt you want."

She tossed Anastasia one of her long black sleeve undershirts from ballet. She liked to practice in them but there was nothing marking them as exclusive to ballet.

"This won't exactly look fancy." Anastasia complained.

"Try it." Sarah insisted.

When Anastasia obeyed, it was more in an attempt to prove the other girl wrong than out of a realistic beleifbthat it would look nice. She disappear to change into the clothes, then came back for the jackets which she pulled on over the top.