Edward
After the last show of Swan Lake, which went for a whole month, Kaleido Star was now known even more for its greatest shows and stories. Last week, Mia had the greatest idea while watching Sora and Leon’s training, secretly she may add, and came up with a next potential and astonishing production. They were preparing for "Beauty and the Beast". Each artist was anxious about production, even Leon.
Since he executed the Angel's Maneuver with Sora, each show to him seemed more interesting and funny. He forgot about the dread before and after each performance and now, the shows could have gone on and on, that he wouldn’t be bother anymore by this insignificant thing. But he couldn’t say the same thing about the trainings.
Sora, who gave her everything in each training and show, seemed now weaker than before. He noticed this, but, for now, decided not to interfere. Each training, no matter if it was a new production or just a regular training, it was excruciating and tiring, but still something felt off.
After more than five hours spent in the room, Sora felt the need to stop the training. She felt sick and asked Leon to end the training sooner; he agreed immediately.
Never has she felt that the distance between the training grounds and her dorm was this long. When she arrived in her room, Sora, as usual, tied Fool and went to take a warm and relaxing shower. After that she went to her bed and fell asleep.
Later, by that evening, while Mia, Anna, May and the rest were having their lunch and Sora still deeply in sleep, someone entered her room, as quietly as possible as to not wake up the petite girl, left her some food and checked if she was okay. Then pulled up the blanket over her and left just as quiet.
The clock on the table showed with bright red lights, 7:21 pm. Sora’s energy was restored after her ‘little’ nap. Okay, maybe more than a nap, considering she has slept for five hours. She got up, went to her bathroom to freshen up and then to the kitchen. She was starving. The cafeteria was already closed so she had to fix her late dinner with what she had in her fridge. Just as she passed the table, she stopped and looked over her shoulder. There, laid two plastic bags. Curios, she checked the bags, to realize their contents were full with food, yummy food. She thanked for whoever may have brought her lunch, probably May or Mia, and started eating.
After she ate, she dressed up, went to find Leon and apologize for her behavior and to continue their training. She found him in quite fast. He was still at the gym, practicing by himself for the show when he saw Sora, with the corner of his eye, looking at him very careful.
“Has something happened, Sora?” he asked while decided to stop for a moment.
“Oh, no, nothing, everything is fine. I was looking for you to apologize for stopping the training earlier this evening and to ask you to continue the practice. But then, I saw you doing that amazing stunt.” she spoke with awe in her voice.
For a second, he was taken aback by her words. He raised her eyebrow at her statement.
“Why do you want to apologize to me?”
“Because I wasn't focused on my training and I left too.” she said a small voice, while her head was bowed towards her feet.
He approached her, cupped her chin so she could look him in the eyes while trying not to look too intimidating.
“Sora”, he said calmly, “I felt that something was wrong with you during the practice. You going to your room to sleep or to calm down seemed to have made you well. As I see, now look much better. It would have been useless to tire you even more than you were as you wouldn't even had been able to concentrate.” he tried to sound as calm as possible while he said these things to her, and to his happiness, she saw her shoulders and expression relax.
‘Good. The last thing I needed was her being nervous and afraid around me’. He released her chin and proceeded to go back to his training when he felt her grab his shirt. Surprised, but not showing it, he turned to her and saw something in those delicate brown eyes. Fire and ambition.
“I want you to tell me more about that amazing stunt you were doing earlier. I would like to try it out too!” said Sora excitedly.
He agreed and so, together, they trained for a maneuver named ‘The Sleeping Rose’. Mia came up with the name while they showed the maneuver for rehearsals. It was going to be used in the show when the last petal of the rose fell due to the spell.
The time passed, the day of the show came. Everyone was anxious about it and couldn’t wait to perform on such well constructed story. ‘It has everything, drama to romance, disappointment to hope, hate to love. It’s perfect’, Mia thought while watching carefully each stage of the show. After the show has ended, millions of applauses were heard. Sora loved this moment the most. The moment when she knew that all the efforts put in the performance wasn’t in vain.
Once again, Kaleido enjoyed sold out shows, attention from the media and, what Sora thought was the most important thing, the happiness of the audience that enjoyed the show to the maximum. This stunt became famous and everybody was talking about it. The newspaper's reviews had the same opinion as the audience, that indeed it was the greatest stunt ever seen since ‘Legend of Phoenix’ and ‘The Angel’s Maneuver’. That and the fact that Leon and Sora were considered the perfect pair.
Soon, Kaleido Star welcomed a new performer, wishing to become Sora's partner. He was from England, a famous and very talented man at the trapeze but knew the basics of the trampoline as well. At the beginning, Sora was against it saying she was content with Leon and that she doesn't need somebody else, but Kalos insisted, so she had to accept. When Leon heard the Boss decision, he was more than angry. His glare could have killed someone, if glares could kill. He tried to discuss it with him but to no avail. He was no longer Sora’s partner, becoming the temporary partner of May, or at least that’s what he hoped for.
At first, Edward was behaving well with Sora and got along with her and the rest, but his heart was full of hatred which wanted to destroy the little redhead, because of her great success and for having the most famous and well-know partners. Something terrible was about to happen, but Sora tried to dismiss it from her heart.
