Five years ago:
“Want to tell me why we have to do this?” Lumi ignores Eleanor in favor of leading her in a 3/8 turn, which Eleanor, as always, gets wrong; she stumbles over her own feet, scowling as Lumi has to catch her from falling. “No, seriously. I have like two years before my debut, and they don’t even do much waltzing, anyway.”
Lumi straightens her up, correcting her hand placement so they can start again. “Yeah, and at this rate, it’ll take you until then to learn this. Come on, El, pay attention. I don’t want to be doing this for the next month.”
“Then stop.” Eleanor starts to lead just to be a jerk, or tries to, but Lumi shoves at her, and she shoves back, and soon they’re pushing at each other. Eleanor knows they’re supposed to be more refined than this, but Lumi’s her friend and neither of their fathers are around, and she really doesn’t care. Lumi pinches her cheek, and she jerks back, saying, “Agh, yield.”
Lumi laughs, reaching out to pat her on the cheek, and Eleanor sticks out her tongue at her. “You do know every time you stop doing this, you’re just going to have to work on it longer, right? Like, you actually have to learn this shit.”
“Are you going to be using those words around your kids?”
Lumi reaches down to pull off her shoes, tossing them off to the side where they definitely scuff up the floor. Eleanor is so glad she isn’t the one who has to clean all of that up. “I don’t even know if I’m going to be a teacher. Maybe I’ll end up as a—a—I can’t actually think of what else I would do. And whatever. I have like four or five years to clean up my language. But you, you’re fourteen. You’re not allowed to talk like that.”
“Asshole.”
“I think it would be bitch, actually.” Lumi looks over at her shoes. “Do you remember how to curtsy? I should probably teach you how to curtsy.”
“I know how to curtsy.” She learned that when she was eleven for some recital she had to do back when her dad still made her play piano, before he realized that no amount of old Polish ladies yelling at her would make her actually be able to get her hands to competently do different things at the same time. “It’s not the hard.”
Lumi nods. “Awesome. I didn’t actually want to go get my shoes. Actually, show me. At least then I can pretend I’m doing something useful so my dad doesn’t get pissy at me for us hanging out.”
That’s so annoying, but Lumi is right—and her father is an asshole who would definitely say that Lumi is too old to be hanging out with Eleanor and not let her anymore just because he can—so she tucks one foot behind the other, bracing herself as she holds on to her skirt and lowers herself just so. She holds it for one, two, take a breath, let it out, then straightens her legs, shifting her foot back to the right spot.
Lumi applauds, dropping down onto the floor and then laying down with her hands behind her back. “You’re going to have to be able to go all the way down, too, in one of those ridiculous curtsies people used to do for the Queen of England or whatever, but I’m lazy and don’t want to teach it to you right now. Come join me down here so I don’t look like the only slug in our friendship.”
Sitting down on the ground with three inch heels on is way more difficult than it seems like it should be, so she pulls them off, keeping them with her as she sits down next to Lumi. “This whole thing is ridiculous. You know that, right? All of the bowing and scraping and, oh, hey, I’m sixteen and old enough to bear your children. Like, what if I don’t want to fuck anyone at sixteen? Or get married? I’m not getting married at sixteen. Why do I need to present myself to everyone?”
“Tradition.”
“Yeah, well, tradition is dumb.”
“You’re not going to get any argument from—oh, Mr. Gray.” Lumi sits up, popping up to her feet, and Eleanor sits up as well, because oh crap, her dad is there, and he’s cool, but she’s not really supposed to be lying on the floor of the ballroom. “We were just taking a break.”
Eleanor stands, and she’s not really sure if it’s better to put on her shoes and make it obvious she’s not wearing them or to just stand there barefoot and hope he doesn’t notice. But discretion is the better part of valor, or something, so she just stands there holding them. “Hey, dad. Do you want to see me curtsy?”
Her dad sighs, but she can tell he’s entertained, which, ha, win. “Good to see you, Lumi. And I thought you were supposed to be learning how to dance. But we’ll have to hold off on the curtsying for now, because I have someone I want you to meet.”
“Is it a puppy?”
“Not quite.” He looks at Lumi. “If you’ll excuse us.”
Lumi nods. “Yeah, of course.” She walks over to grab her shoes and her purse, then heads out of the room, and Eleanor’s dad doesn’t say anything until the door closes behind her.
“I know we’ve talked about this before, but now I can officially tell you, I want to introduce you to your new stepmother.”
510A 