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It was one thing to shake my hips and do kicks toward a crowd of Warrior fans It was so completely different to put allto withstand the intense pressure of dancing with pointe shoes My entire body relied on ht now I didn’t have that trust in myself I couldn’t try on the shoes

Instead I turned off the closet light and pretended there wasn’t a dance squad unifor inside I would trade it out for a hundred tutus any day

I was thinking about taking a walk to the park nearup a salad on

I grabbed it from the kitchen island “Hello?”

“Natalia, what are you doing, girl?” It was Heather from the dance team

“Not much I was just headed out to pick up dinner”

“Good Then you can meet the rest of us for drinks”

“Oh no, I’ht”

“You’ll be the only one not there You have to go It’s a Goddess tradition” She sounded bubbly and excited

I rolled my eyes “And what tradition is that?”

“We always go out the night before the first gairls It’s so much fun”

“We’ve already had games,” I protested “It’s not the first one”

“Those were pre-season and totally do not count”

I was tired of the constant lectures on football ter about the sport I didn’t really like it I didn’t understand why thousands of people paid two hundred dollars a ticket to watch men try to bash each other’s brains in For e where I belonged I tolerated as much of it as I could

I knew I didn’t ame No one would be able to survive on a salary as a dancer We were never paid for the amount of practices we had to attend, but the pay out came from the promotional events Warriors fans knew no li the Goddesses for birthday, bachelor, or retirement parties