Panic (24 page)
Authors: Sharon M. Draper
Diamond frowned. “You know what I mean.”
“I know you can focus on the past and let it destroy you, or you can focus on the future and let it lift you up. It's your choice, Diamond.”
“I still have really bad dreams.”
“Of course you do! But, in time, they will fade. Your mom told me you were seeing a professional counselor, right?”
“Yeah. She's nice. And I guess she's helping a little. It's too soon to tell.” Diamond grinned then. “But she can't dance.”
“Let's get some music going then, okay?”
“Can you play âFaith' by Jordin Sparks?” Diamond asked.
“Great choice,” Miss Ginger replied. “Ready?”
Diamond nodded.
The piano plaintively plinked out the intro, and Diamond moved to the center of the empty room and just listened to the words as the piece swelled to its completion. Miss Ginger hit
PLAY
again. The song was about sad eyes, stolen smiles, and dark, dark skies. But the song was most powerful when Jordin sang about seeing the stars, about having faithâ
“When you fall the hardest, you find how strong you are
 . . . ” The song began for the third time.
Then, gradually, slowly, Diamond began to dance. Her body echoed her pain and agony as she moved across the room, the heavy-toed pointe shoes barely making a sound as she embraced the music. She didn't look at herself in the mirror as she spun around, balancing on one foot and using her free leg and her arms to propel herself around in a whipping motion until she was dizzy. She twisted and swayed. She let the tears fall.
Finally, Diamond lifted herself up in a relevé, a smooth continuous rise onto her toes. She was looking at the ceiling, but reaching for the skyâforever, finally rising above it all. She balanced on one foot, then slowly slid the other leg up, up, up. She lifted that leg as if it were weightless, stretching it, stretching it, her body an arrow of beauty.
Then, ever so slowly, she rolled out of the extension and dropped gracefully to a sitting position on the floor. The song reached its conclusion, and Diamond
sat there, taking deep silent breaths. The song played one more time, echoing against the walls.
When it ended, she looked up at her teacher. “I want to dance again,” she said emphatically. “I want to dance forever.”
“Beat It” by Michael Jackson
“Candyman” by Christina Aguilera
“Butterfly” by Mariah Carey
“Almost There” from the movie
The Princess and the Frog
“Boom Boom Pow” by The Black Eyed Peas
“Rumour Has It” by Adele
“Tender Shepherd” from the Mary Martin version of
Peter Pan
“Where Do Broken Hearts Go?” by Whitney Houston
“Tick Tock” from the movie
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
“Everybody Hurts” by Avril Lavigne
“Mirror” by Monica
“Sister” by Cris Williamson
“Firework” by Katy Perry
“Bluebird” by Sara Bareilles
“Beautiful Flower” by India.Arie
“Black Butterfly” by Deniece Williams
“Heaven & Earth” by Kelly Rowland
“Dance of the Swans” from Tchaikovsky's
Swan Lake
“Kiss Kiss” by Chris Brown
“Just the Way You Are” by Boyce Avenue
“Agony” from the Broadway musical
Into the Woods
“Faith” by Jordin Sparks
SHARON M. DRAPER
was winner of the 2011 Jeremiah Ludington Award, which recognizes lifetime achievement and significant contribution to children's literature, and the 2011 ALAN Award, which honors those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of adolescent literature. Her most recent novel,
Out of My Mind
, was a
New York Times
bestseller and recipient of three starred reviews. She is also a two-time Coretta Scott King Awardâwinning author, most recently for
Copper Sun
, and previously for
Forged by Fire
; recipient of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Author Award for New Talent for
Tears of a Tiger
; and recipient of the Coretta Scott King Author Honor for
The Battle of Jericho
and
November Blues
. Her other books include
Romiette and Julio, Darkness Before Dawn, Double Dutch
, and
Just Another Hero
. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she taught high school English for twenty-five years. She's a popular conference speaker, addressing educational and literary groups both nationally and internationally. For more information visit her online at sharondraper.com.
Jacket design by Debra Sfetsios-Conover
Jacket photograph copyright © 2013 by Paul Draine
ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
Simon & Schuster
New York
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Also by
SHARON M. DRAPER
Out of My Mind
Copper Sun
Double Dutch
Romiette & Julio
The Jericho Trilogy:
The Battle of Jericho
November Blues
Just Another Hero
The Hazelwood High Trilogy:
Tears of a Tiger
Forged by Fire
Darkness Before Dawn
Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs:
The Buried Bones Mystery
Lost in the Tunnel of Time
Shadows of Caesar's Creek
The Space Mission Adventure
The Backyard Animal Show
Stars and Sparks on Stage
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 by Sharon M. Draper
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
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The text for this book is set in New Baskerville.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Draper, Sharon M. (Sharon Mills)
Panic / Sharon M. Draper.â1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: As rehearsals begin for the ballet version of
Peter Pan
, the teenaged members of an Ohio dance troupe lose their focus when one of their own goes missing.
ISBN 978-1-4424-0896-8
ISBN 978-1-4424-0898-2 (eBook)
[1. DanceâFiction. 2. KidnappingâFiction. 3. Sexual abuseâFiction. 4. African AmericansâFiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.D78325Pan 2013
[Fic]-dc23
2012016339