2-1: Cool Kids

She sees them walking in a straight line,
That's not really her style
And they all got the same heartbeat,
But hers is falling behind.
Nothing in this world could
Ever bring them down
Yeah, they're invincible, and she's just in the background

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Rain pulled her hair up, securing it into a bun as she always did before her lessons. She took one last look in the mirror, accompanying it with a deep breath. When she caught sight of her eyes, all she could see were her father's. The same deep blue that she grew up relying on for approval.

It wasn't that he didn't give it to her willingly on his own, because he and Eden were amazing parents, and amazing at showing their children love. Maybe not fairness, but love. It was just that this, ballet, was something that she had to be the best at. Her eldest sister had the grades, the friends, her mother's looks. 

Rain had the talent. The peace that came so easily to her made ballet as easy as breathing.

Storm ducked her head into Rain's room, surveying her with approving eyes.

"You look beautiful, doll. Are you ready to go?"

Her big sister had always called her that. She told her it was because Rain reminded her of a China doll. Beautiful, protected, untouched.

Rain found it foolish sometimes, but others, she enjoyed the attention.

Ballet wasn't about the attention, though. It was about art, it was about passion. 

At least to her, it was. It didn't echo the same in a lot of the girls who had grown up doing this with her. Storm and her younger brother, Thaddeous, didn't understand her obsession. Didn't get why she loved something as painful and time consuming as ballet as much as she did.

Rain turned to face her big sister, pulling a small smile onto her face.

"I am. Are you driving me, or is Nash waiting for me?"

Storm rolled her eyes so far back into her skull, Rain swore for a second that her pupils completely disappeared. 


"Your spastic best friend who is always late or your sister? What do you think?"

Rain nodded once, tucking her bag into her side. She could feel the heat gather in her cheeks from the blush. She was embarrassed easily. Especially when it came to endeavors of her intelligence. And Storm didn't mean to, but she made her feel stupid more often than not with her sarcastic comments.

Rain was more like her dad in that aspect. When she did use it, it was rare and on special occasions.

"Alright, let's go."

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"Rain! In the front!"

Rain instantly felt the nerves drop into her chest at her instructor's order. It wasn't that she was nervous. It was just having all of the attention on her when she wasn't on stage. It wasn't something she felt like she handled well.

"Now, watch her. She seems to be the only one of you that actually grasps the concepts of this routine."

Rain tried everything she could to push the blush out of her cheeks, but it never worked. 

So she did what she always did. She closed her eyes and wished everything around her away. Her world turned black, everything tuned out but for the sound of the music in her ears and the focus on her movements.

She didn't slip, didn't falter. Not once. 

She hardly ever did. Not anymore.

She could remember being a child, and always being the first one to pick up on everything that the instructor would teach.

If only that could transfer into her academics, she'd be set.

She could feel the bitter looks, but they didn't actually touch her. Nothing could touch her in these moments. Because she was nothing. Just music and wind and power.

When the song ended and she opened her eyes, she caught the smile on Nash's face and that was enough for her to drop into her small bow and scurry across the polished floor to her side. The instructor bellowed out directions, and the girls fell into stretches around them. But she caught Nash's whisper even with the yelling trying to drown it out.

"You were perfect. I don't know how you do it, Rain. No one should be like you are at 17. It's no wonder Adriana treats you the way she does. She's not half the dancer you are."

At her final words, Rain glanced across the room. Adriana Kirkpatrick and her best friend's sneers were evident even from the distance. It had always been Adriana and Kelsey vs Rain and Nash. An ever going feud, since they were little kids. 

Ballet was vicious at times. And the girls who competed against you were more vicious than the dancing itself. Jealousy and cruelty, they ran rampant.

But Rain had never seen it as jealously. She wasn't even sure Adriana had anything to be jealous of. She was gifted too. Even if most of the other girls in this place claimed Rain to be the best. 

If Rain was the best, Adriana was a close second. As in, millimeters. 

Despite what Nash had to say.

---------------

Time passed too fast for Rain when she was in her ballet classes. They were over much too quickly and each time, it was like leaving a piece of her behind on the wooden floors and in the mirrored reflections. When the instructor called for the end, she pulled out of her final pose with a sigh, leaning against the banister.

She could feel the wind behind her as people passed, and still she stayed. Suspended against the barre, calming her racing heart. Her scattered breaths. She felt the push in the air before it even touched her body, her stomach pressed roughly into the handrail in front of her.

"Try not to choke Saturday, Denial."

Adriana and Kelsey's laughs carried all the way out of the room, and it took everything Rain contained not to cry. She wasn't bullied commonly... But Adriana seemed to take everything to the worst level she could. She did anything she could to make her feel bad. To bring her down to a level she could deal with.

If it wasn't for the fact that Nash had punched her in the face last year, it would probably be worse. 

Rain opened her eyes and turned around, noticing that the room was completely empty. Nash had probably said goodbye to her, and she didn't even hear it. Too lost in her own world.

Because if Nash had seen that, Adriana would probably be bleeding, and Nash would probably be suspended from the lessons, and the next performance... Again.

Rain straightened up, tucking a piece of hair that had fallen out of her bun behind her ear. She wouldn't fall apart alone in this room. She would hold it together and cry if she still needed to later. She'd be fine.

"Hey... Uh. I'm supposed to take you home."

Rain jumped in surprise, turning so quickly she hit her elbow against the barre next to her. 

That thing is repeatedly injuring me in various forms tonight..

The words that left her mouth, however, were not the same words in her mind.

"Hey, I know you. You're..."

She instantly quit talking, drawing her words into her throat and shoving them down deep inside of her chest. She hated being wrong. She didn't want to be wrong this time either.

The guy who had spoken tilted his head to the side, however, a smile turning up the corner of his lips.

"I'm...?"

He was tall, with black hair and lavender eyes. One's she'd only seen in one other place. She knew his features well, even though she couldn't quite place his name. She knew the family he came from. She'd grown up with all of them. She knew his sister, Rae. They shared the same set of purple eyes. Rae used to sit next to Rain and crack jokes when their families would get together. One's that seemed to be just to make Rain laugh.

"I'm sorry. I don't remember your first name. I didn't mean to forget it, I just have a lot going on and-"

The guy let out a chuckle, cutting off her rambling with a small wave.

"Ryan Hunter. And yes, you know me. Pretty sure you and my twin sister get along pretty well.

At least from what I can remember from the shushing at family meals..."


He walked over to her, glancing down at her for just a moment before nudging her foot softly with his own.

"Don't those things hurt?"

Rain glanced down at the pointe shoes on her feet, shrugging one shoulder.

"They used to. Really horribly, actually.

Sometimes they still can when I'm breaking new ones in, but not as much."

He looked at her for a moment, his response said in a tone she couldn't quite place.

"I see..."

The room grew quiet so quickly, it made Rain uncomfortable. But eventually, Ryan nodded, gesturing toward the door.

"Alright, well, in case you were wondering... Your sister is with some random boy and my sister refused to come because she's busy being annoying with your mom. So, they sent me. Looks like you're either accepting my ride, or walking. Take your pick."

Rain raised an eyebrow, but she dropped the expression so quickly she wasn't even sure that he noticed it. She crossed the room, exchanging her pointe shoes for normal shoes as quickly as she could. 

When she was done, she stood up straight, pulling her bag over her shoulder.

"I'll take the ride."

Ryan's face broke into a giant grin and he almost seemed too happy. Like one of those people who never stopped smiling. But with Rain's personality, she didn't quite know how to handle people like that. She was so reserved and quiet and shy... 

She followed him to his car though, sliding in the passenger side and taking one last glance at the studio she was leaving behind. Knowing full well it was going to be a struggle getting through the week. Knowing that what Adriana had said about Saturday would spin in circles in the back of her mind.

You can do this, Rain. This is yours.

She nodded to herself, taking one more look at Ryan as he pulled out of the parking lot.

This is mine.

-------------

"You distribute and then simplify. But first, you should clear your fractions. It's easy enough, Rain. All you have to do is think about the steps as you're doing it."

It was like her mother was speaking a foreign language. Eden held a master's degree in mathematics. Rain was barely scraping by in basic algebra. She didn't know what her mom expected from her, but she didn't get either one of her parent's intelligence. 

And it made her sick every time she thought about it. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to hear her mom's tone as disapproving.

"I tried, mom. I really did. I'm trying right now. It's just not clicking."

Eden gave her a soft smile, but she could see the disappointment in her eyes. Hidden underneath the happiness, she knew that her mom saw her as less than her older sister. Storm Evein Nile. Valedictorian, physics major, top of her class so far in college at Berkeley, 4.0.

And all Rain had was her thriving ballet passion. It would never be enough. It wasn't the same as her sister's wicked intellect and social skills. 

Her parents would never say it. But she knew they had to feel it.

"Let her take a break, Eden. She's probably exhausted from her dance class."

Rain glanced up from her textbook at her father and shook her head quickly.

"No, daddy. I need to ace this. I have to."

Xavier sighed, walking and looking at the problem over Rain's shoulder.

"7x-3y+4."

Rain looked at the page, her father's answer falling correctly into place like she knew it would.

Why couldn't I just be smart like the rest of them? Talent is nothing without brains.

She sighed, writing the answer next to the useless work she had done that made no sense at all.

"Thank you."

She whispered it quietly, and he ruffled her hair in response, walking back across the living room. Thaddeous was in a chair in the corner, texting on his phone like he always was. Which wasn't an issue, because the 16 year old with the 130 IQ was graduating the same year as Rain, with all honors classes.

And his homework had been done for hours.

Rain let out a long breath, shutting her book and getting to her feet.

"I'm going to my room for a while. I need to practice."

Eden looked up from the papers she was grading, raising an eyebrow.

"Homework, Rain Olivia."

Rain nodded curtly. 

"Of course, I'll practice for a little bit, and then I'll get it done. I promise, mom."

Eden returned to the papers in front of her, and Rain headed up the stairs to her room. She slipped on her pointe shoes and stood in front of the mirror in the corner.

She did stretch after stretch and pose after pose, her mind completely lost in the motions. So much time passed, the sky outside the window grew dark and she collapsed onto her bed in exhaustion, forgetting to do her homework at all.
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I wish that I could be like the cool kids
'Cause all the cool kids, they seem to fit in
I wish that I could be like the cool kids
Like the cool kids