My Little Ingénue

By RowArk

Chapter One

Ingénue

n. a naïve, innocent or inexperienced girl or young woman

Ingénue.

That's what they called her.

She had once thought that it was a good thing. She thought it meant she was an up-and-coming ballerina, the one to keep your eye on. She was quickly learning, however, that they used it to mean stupid, silly little girl who thought her name alone was enough to get her on the stage, as if her hard work and dedication meant nothing.

It did mean nothing to them; she knew that much from the start.

But she wasn't using her name to her advantage. She had specifically changed her name from Nolan to Swan, because she was well aware that Emma Nolan wasn't getting any more lead roles than Mary Margaret Nolan's name had gotten her in her days. It didn't matter that now her mother was a prominent figure in the dance world, doing everything under the sun except dancing. It only mattered that when she was in her prime, fame didn't come.

Of course, her mother didn't think her name was the problem. Her mother thought she could have been a Prima Ballerina, if not for her rival, Kathryn Midas, sleeping her way to the top. Emma always just smiled and nodded, and didn't mention her mother's height (which was a disadvantage that Emma also suffered from) or her poor turn-out.

Emma had seen Kathryn dance. She was amazing. Midas was an appropriate moniker – a stage name, as far as Emma knew – since everything she touched seemed to turn to gold.

Emma's mother had won in one regard, at least. She had managed to win the affections of Kathryn's fiancé, David, away. Score one, Mary Margaret. Emma normally didn't approve of the backstabbing soap opera that lived behind the scenes in the dance world, but since Emma was the product of the union between David and Mary Margaret, she figured she had to let that one slide.

She was her mother's pride and joy, and she was expected to live out her mother's dream.

So here she was, at just barely seventeen, auditioning for the dual role of Odette and Odile in the Gold-Mills Dance Company's production of Swan Lake, though she had never done anything other than dance in the chorus, professionally.

She didn't particularly care about the role. She loved Swan Lake enough to name herself for it, but being a ballerina was her mother's dream. She wished she had known this year's production would be Swan Lake, however, before she chose a name that earned her way too many snickers from the impossibly tall and perfectly poised dancers waiting their turn to audition.

Emma didn't care about the role, but she did care about this audition, more than any she had ever done, for a very specific reason. Mrs. Cora Mills, the co-founder of this dance company, which Emma's parents had invested a huge chunk of money into to ensure their daughter received the best training available, had decided to let her daughter, Regina, cast the production this year.

The Mills family was essentially American royalty, and Emma had been infatuated with Regina since the first time she'd laid eyes on her. Regina wasn't a dancer – she didn't have the feet for it, much to her own mother's lament – but she was still there, all the time. Sometimes Emma wondered if the chance of seeing Regina was the only thing that made her want to show up for classes in the first place, though she wouldn't dare admit it to her mother, or anyone else.

There would be no audition for Prince Siegfried, as Regina had already cast her fiancé, Daniel Stabler, in the role. Daniel was among the most pretentious – and overrated, in Emma's opinion – dancers in the company, and she couldn't figure out what Regina saw in him.

Once, Emma had heard some of the male dancers, her friends, August and Graham, refer to Daniel as 'The Stable Boy', and she had laughed, blissfully unaware that Mrs. Mills was right behind her. She had made a huge production about it and threatened to throw all three of them out of the company. Emma's only saving grace was that her primary dance teacher, Neal, had made an appeal to his father, Mr. Gold, the co-owner of the company, to let the three stay.

Emma wasn't sure what the dynamic there was, Cora was definitely the louder and meaner of the two, but Gold seemed to hold the most power. Neal had only intended to fight for Emma's place, but he added August and Graham to the appeal, at her request. Neal had something of a crush on Emma, though he was at least ten years older than her, and Emma wasn't too proud to use that to her advantage, when she needed to.

Though nothing came from the debacle, Emma was sure that Cora had filled her daughter in, and likely embellished the details just a tad. And though Emma had never actually had a conversation with Regina, and she knew she probably hated her now.

But she wanted to dance for her anyway.

She truly didn't expect to accomplish anything. If she hadn't already known she didn't have a chance at getting this role, she knew now, looking at all the beautiful dancers around her. All she wanted was to be noticed, only by Regina, though she wasn't entirely sure why. She didn't expect them to become friends. She didn't know what she expected at all. All she knew was, for a brief period of time, she would have Regina's undivided attention, and perhaps that was enough, for now.

God, she was pathetic.

But she didn't care. Her entire world had been dance and dancers and Regina was the only person in this place who seemed to have a life outside this place, and she fascinated her to no end.

Emma raised her hand to her hair, checking her bun for the hundredth time, at least. Her hair always worried her. She knew her body looked good in her leotard, even if her legs and her torso weren't quite long enough. She couldn't control the length of her limbs, but she could control her hair, and it needed to be perfect. She needed to stop obsessing.

"Em, you ready?"

It was Neal, walking by the line, sweaty from teaching a master class. He was always so sweaty, it disgusted her. He could almost be cute, if he wasn't so much older. She looked at him like an older brother, though she was well aware that feeling was anything but mutual.

Emma shrugged. "Got this in the bag," she said, sarcastically, earning disapproving glares from the dancers in her immediate vicinity.

Neal leaned in closer to her ear. "I hear the young Miss Mills has a thing for blondes."

Emma gaped at him as he walked away. Why the hell would he say that? If she wasn't a ball of nerves before, she certainly was now.

Ruby Lucas, one of the impossibly tall brunettes with flawless technique but a terrible attitude - by company standards - turned to Emma. "And your mother thinks it's Kathryn who slept her way to the top."

Emma blushed. She knew Ruby was joking – she was one of the few female dancers Emma got along with – but it was still embarrassing because it wasn't the first time rumours about Neal and Emma had spread around this building, and she was certain it wouldn't be the last.

"Swan!"

Emma heard her name being called out at the door. She was confused, because there were at least fifteen girls who were slotted to dance before her.

"Oh, so that's what Neal was doing, huh? Bumping you up on the list?"

Emma turned to face Lily Page. They had once been best friends, growing up together, but competitiveness had pushed them apart. Emma knew she lacked the look and height of a ballet dancer, but she was good, and she knew it. Everyone here knew it, and that's why they didn't write her off as quickly as they could.

"I didn't ask him to do that," Emma said, more to the girls ahead of her than to Lily, as she quickly made her way to the door.

"Why am I going now?" Emma asked, Sydney Glass, who was responsible for ushering the girls in and out of the auditions in a timely matter.

"She asked for you," he said, with a small shrug, motioning toward the table. Regina sat in the middle, with Daniel to one side and Cora to the other. Emma's heart fluttered a moment, thinking at he meant Regina had asked for her, but it didn't take long to realize that Cora was staring her down, and Regina looked completely uninterested.

Auditions always made Emma nervous, even though she had been on too many to count. Every single one felt like the first one, all over again. In her very first audition, she had fallen flat on her face and embarrassed the hell out of her mother. It didn't matter that she was only a child, her mother didn't accept that as an excuse.

So Emma did what she always did during auditions, and forced herself to go into autopilot. She tried to ignore Cora and Daniel as they looked her over in her black leotard and pink tights, and started scribbling something on the papers they each had in front of them. What were they even doing? Regina was supposed to be casting this.

Regina was still looking down, twirling her pen around in her fingers. It wasn't until Emma took her place in the middle of the floor that Regina finally looked up. Emma met her gaze momentarily before she started, though she wasn't really able to read what she was thinking.

She had gone through this routine ten thousand times, but she was sure none of those had been as flawless as the one she was giving now. Her turns were sharper, her leaps were higher and her turn-out was more perfect than it had been in any of her practice runs with her mother or with Neal. Momentarily, she thought she might actually stand a chance.

Then it happened.

She choked on the quintuple pirouette.

She knew she should have stopped on four, she could feel herself falling out of it, and it would have been better to modify the move than fall on her hip, as she had just done.

Shit!

Despite her age and her relative inexperience, Emma was still a trained professional, and she knew better than to let her emotions show on her face. She certainly knew better than to stop before she was told, so she was up and continuing within seconds, even though she knew she had just blown it.

"That will do, Miss Swan," Cora said, curtly. Emma stopped immediately and watched Cora and Daniel flip over their pages to prep for the next audition. Regina hadn't written anything on hers. She was still gazing at Emma, twirling her pen.

"No, I want to see her do the fouettes," Regina said, not taking her eyes off of Emma.

"Regina, it's a waste of time," Cora said, shaking her head.

"I get the final say, and I want to see her do it."

Emma hesitated for a moment, looking back at forth between mother and daughter, trying to decide what to do. She hoped Regina wanted to see her do the 32 fouettes because she was still considering her, not because she wanted to see if she would fall on her ass again.

"Go ahead, Miss Swan," Regina said, when Emma made no move to proceed. Considering Regina was just a year older, she sounded so much more seasoned and mature than Emma was, and that instruction was all she needed to snap into action.

Or maybe it was the 'Miss Swan'.

Either way, she nailed the fouettes and she knew it.

She looked only at Regina when she finished. She still hadn't written anything down, but she gave a small, almost unnoticeable nod, and Emma wasn't sure how to take that.

"Thank you, you may go," Regina said. Emma still couldn't read her face, and she wasn't sure what to make of that audition as she scurried back out into the hall.

She tried to hurry past the other girls waiting, but Ruby grabbed her arm. "How'd it go?"

Emma stopped, and turned back to her. "I choked."

She heard a sharp laugh from behind her, and didn't look to see who it came from. It didn't matter. She shook her head and wished Ruby good luck, before heading back down the hall.

It didn't matter what those girls thought. It didn't matter if they called her ingénue, or any other French word that they thought made them sound superior, when they barely had a better grasp on the actual meaning than she did. It didn't matter that she was short, or not as pretty or not as anything as any of these girls.

Regina had seen her dance, and when Cora had tried to send her out, Regina had asked to see her dance some more.

It didn't matter who got the role and did the 32 fouettes on stage, because Regina had asked to see her do them.

She shouldn't have been letting that get to her the way it was, but it had already gotten to her, and she didn't care.

She came to dance for Regina, and she did it. The rest was out of her hands.