Undefeated, Unbroken

• Han Tran, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2017

Undefeated, Unbroken

Whether I’m sad or upset or happy or even angry, I dance. It makes me happy, it lets my emotions fade. My name is Jacinta and this is my story.
I was behind the curtain, running through a practice round. It was almost my turn to show everyone how much I deserved this role, what I was made of. I leaped into the air. THUD! “ARGHHH!” I screamed. I stared at the ceiling clutching my useless foot with hot tears welling up in my eyes. I closed them and just blocked everything out; We were rehearsing our dance for our end of year concert. Everyone had auditioned and I got the main part, I needed this more than anything.

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I waited. “Jacinta you have earned the main role!” I was overjoyed with happiness, I couldn’t believe it. “Let’s start with the choreography…” My teacher rambled on. I followed her as we learnt the steps. I practiced and practiced until I got it perfect. A week later we had a rehearsal run through of the night. Everyone was all dressed up in our costumes and behind the curtain getting ready for the performance. We even had an audience which was the whole school. “Get ready everyone the curtains are about to go up. I walked onto the stage and got into my position. “3. 2. 1.” The curtains went up and the music went on. I started dancing my solo part, all eyes on me, and that’s when I fell. Everything was over then, everything I had worked for was gone, someone would have to take over my part. I had two months to get better, I wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
“Hi Jacinta, how are you today?” Doctor Emily, my physio, would say every time I saw her. And I’d say back was, “I’m good thanks. Is anything getting better or are things getting worse?” I felt like there would be a bad reply every time because I wanted to get well so badly, dancing was the only thing that would get me through everything and right now I couldn’t use it. But I kept trying, I deserved to have my solo back, I had worked too hard to lose it and I was willing to continue trying until I had it.
It was the night of the concert. I was willing to embarrass myself to prove to people how much this meant to me. The curtain flung open. Music played whilst I danced along the wooden floor. My foot was aching but I pushed through the pain. I steadied my breath. I leapt into the air all eyes on me. I landed gracefully. My heart thumped and my foot throbbed, but I only cared about one thing “I did it” I whispered the crowd went wild. I bowed and half limped off stage. I did it I didn’t give up only pushed forward.