Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
EVERLEIGH
S eptember
“Cheers!” the girls and I ring out as we clank out wine glasses together.
“Officially settled into our new apartment and practice starts in two days,” Ellis glees. I nod, taking another sip of wine, elated that I finally have a New York address.
Ellis has been my best friend and favorite person since we met at auditions just six months ago. Her, Audry and I clicked instantly and were each other’s inspiration and motivation through the four grueling days of auditions and then the summer intensive camp when we were all pushed outside of our limits. I am not sure- even if I did cross-fit and hot yoga daily, I would have been mentally and physically prepared for that camp, but that’s what it is for. Not to break us, but push us outside of comfort and to figure out where the newbies fit in amongst the veterans.
Even though the returning Rockettes must audition every year, technically only eight positions were open within the company. The three of us bawled our eyes out in each other’s arms the evening the news was announced we made the company. Then at the end of this week we will be told if part of the afternoon or evening cast.
There are about twelve of us out tonight enjoying some fun before we are in full practice swing and then show season begins.
“To the ladies of the line!” May shouts from the end of the table and we all cheer with her. She is a four-year veteran and has been literal Rockette mother hen to all of us newbies from making sure those not native to NYC knew how to use the subway. How and where to get around, to make sure we had the right contacts to line up jobs after the season and making us all care packages once we arrived to call NYC home.
“Hey Leigh, don’t forget dinner at my parents’ tomorrow night,” Ellis shouts across the table from me.
“You need to tell me what I can bring,” I say back with a smile. My mama always taught me to never show up as a guest empty handed.
“I’ve told you, not a thing. They are just excited to officially meet you.”
“Fine, I am going to the farmers market in the morning to grab some things.”
“Whatever makes you feel better, Leigh.” She laughs with a gleaming smile.
“It most definitely will. You know my mama would be furious if she found out I showed up with nothing.”
“Oh, don’t I know it.” Audry tries her best to imitate my mama in an over exaggerating bayou accent with her own Minnesota tone, sending our whole end of the table into a giggling tizzy.
I had the honor of having them both visit me for a week at my family home.The south being a foreign country to their northern roots. That first week I was in NYC, I was a crawfish out of mud. My mama adopted them as they were her other daughters and they truly got a taste of southern hospitality and the culture of my home state. We even spent a day and night up in New Orleans for some city life.
“Audry, are you sure you can’t come tomorrow night?” I ask again, pouting my lips. She squeezes me into her.
“Oh, my little cajun-ette. You know when the future in-laws call, I can’t deny them. They are like sixty percent of the reason I keep Matt around,” she says grinning from ear to ear.
“I’m scared to ask what the other forty percent is,” I say with a grin.
“Oh, well obviously thirty percent is the amazing sex and then the other ten percent for his looks and personality.”
“Good grief, Auds, you’re going to give that man a complex,” Ellis laughs out because we all know the truth.
“I get it. I guess I can’t complain, El and I do get you like all the time over the next four months.” We all laugh and then Ellis squeals when she looks down at her phone. Audry and I look and blink at her in unison, waiting for her to share whatever news she has. It’s a common theme with us.
“Guess who finally got back into town just in time for family dinner tomorrow night?” We both look at El with clueless faces, “My brother.” Auds and I make O’s with our mouths.
Ellis has two siblings. Her older sister Lara and older brother Whit. When Ellis finally broke down one night to Audry and me about who she was in the elite of NYC, I nearly choked and died right there. She is a Vandemark, as in Vandemark real estate, who basically owns the majority of New York from high-rises to business, let alone a large chunk of the east coast and as she says, lightly dabbles in the West Coast.
I come from a blue-collar family with parents who did okay for themselves by putting a nice roof over our heads, raising me and my two brothers and making sure we had a comfortable life. Lived within our means and with lots of love in the house. We didn’t take a lot of vacations out of state let alone if it wasn’t driving a distance within four hours, we weren’t going. My Aunt surprised my mom and me with tickets to have a Christmas in New York when she was living here and to watch the Rockettes when I was thirteen. Knowing I’d been obsessed with them since I was four and saw them perform during the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade.
It was then I threw myself even more in dance to make my dreams come true. As I danced through college at LSU earning my marketing degree to fall back on if needed, I knew without a doubt I was born to be a Radio City Rockette. Befriending Ellis has been a bonus. I had friends growing up but no one particularly close. I lived, ate, slept and breathed dance. Hell, I still do, but she gets it. This group of women get it and it means the world to me.
Ellis doesn’t boast who she is, as she wants to make her own path without her last name involved. The night she came clean to Audrey and I, we were both speechless. She never led us to believe she was billions away from being down to our level of lifestyle and I think that is what I respect most about her. I’m sure she had the best dance instructors growing up and now I know she attended Julliard for two years before leaving for a more traditional college experience and kept up with dance classes on her own. That her biggest dream has always been to follow in her grandmother’s footsteps of being a Rockette.
I met her sister briefly over drinks one night during the dance intensive, but Lara was gone within twenty minutes of arriving due to something with her daughter. Ellis is closest to her brother, Whit, but pouts because he is always traveling and has been gone for the last two months in Spain for some acquisition. “Well, I’m excited to finally meet the infamous Whit along with the rest of the family.”
“Me too!” she squeals again. “This truly is going to be the best Holiday Season ever!” We clank our glasses together for another cheer of excitement for the upcoming months.