Run, Girl (If You Can)

Violet texted her best friend back as she sat down in the kitchen to watch Nathan work. 'No need to feel bad. How's the competition going?'

'Joey already made it into the semifinals' Noah replied.

Joey was one of his students. He was twelve and currently a brown belt. Violet had seen him spar before; he was rather talented for his age. Just like Noah had been.

Her friend had taken this boy under his wing. She suspected it was because he saw himself in Joey. He looked out for all of his students but every once in a while there was a kid who truly loved martial arts that he identified with more than the others.

'Be sure to congratulate him for me and tell him I'm rooting for him' she replied. 

Most of Noah's students knew who Violet was. These days if she wanted to see her best friend she needed to show up at the dojo in the morning.

He taught preschool age classes in the morning during the week. Various age groups rotated through the dojo after school but she was always in the studio by then. She knew the older kids because of Noah's weekend classes. 

Violet would typically show up toward the end of one class and hang out with Noah on his break between lessons as he did administrative things. The owner of the dojo didn't mind because he claimed Noah got more paperwork done when she was there.

Actually, that might be true. She had always been able to help him focus.

"Who are you texting?" Nathan asked as he rolled out his pastry dough.

"Who do you think?" Violet retorted.

"Ah, your doting husband. You're right; it was a stupid question."

She rolled her eyes. Why had all of her brothers gotten on the 'Violet and Noah are married' bandwagon a couple years ago? They weren't like that!

It had started shortly after Violet graduated from college. On her first day of work at the ballet studio she hadn't packed any dinner and had idly complained about it to Noah on a water break, like she always did about things that bothered her.

What was different that time was that he had been in the middle of making himself grilled cheese and tomato soup because none of his family was home. He ended up bringing her a somehow-still-hot grilled cheese sandwich and a thermos of soup less than thirty minutes later.

Then she ended up bringing him bandages because Noah was at the dojo with a finger he had jammed in the doorway and it wouldn't stop bleeding. Tissues could only do so much.

They got into a pattern of visiting each other's workplaces regularly after that for various reasons. When Nathan called her out on it, Violet shrugged and said that was just how they were. He accused them of being an old married couple and told Oliver and Kaleb about it. The rest was history.

Why did people always say that men and women couldn't be friends? There was absolutely nothing romantic between her and Noah. He was practically her fourth brother. Nobody seemed to understand that.

"How's his karate competition going?" Nathan asked once his urge to tease his sister had passed.

"Pretty good. One of his students made it to the semifinals," Violet replied casually.

Her phone went off again and she laughed a little when she read it. 'I passed your message on and now he's swooning. He has the biggest crush on you, you know. About half of my students do'

She couldn't deny it; it was completely obvious every time she visited Noah. The older boys—all still under the age of sixteen—were infatuated with her. Was she really the only pretty woman these boys knew? It was baffling.

'Half of your students have very poor taste' she shot back.

Noah sent her a rolling eyes emoji. He had never been a fan of when her humor became self-deprecating. She replied with a shrugging emoji. Sometimes emojis were more helpful than words.

He didn't respond after that so he was probably busy. Violet turned back to watching her little brother work as he twisted the apples into a rose shape. It was amazing what he could do with food.

Having an aspiring chef as a brother wasn't so bad. Nathan had basically taken over the kitchen when he was in middle school and not one person in the family complained about it. He was just as good as their mom back then. Now he was unarguably better.

He finished the puffs and put them into the oven. Now was the hardest part. Waiting.

Nathan sat down across from her at the table. "So. Tell me about your show."

Of course he had already seen it but what he wanted to know was how she felt about it now that it was done. Ever since he was little he loved listening to the way his sister described how she felt when she was dancing.

So she told him. This particular show was a modern ballet that had only first been performed back in 2022. The story revolved around a caterpillar surviving the odds against birds and winter and other factors to become a butterfly.

Violet had danced the part of the butterfly. The caterpillar and butterfly were separate roles because they had to appear on the stage simultaneously toward the end of the show. She was also a crow that tried to attack the caterpillar in the beginning.

While there were certain aspects of traditional ballet in this show, a lot of the movements were jerkier and more violent, like many modern ballets. It fit the theme of the show since the caterpillar faced death many times before becoming a butterfly.

Violet enjoyed the part of the butterfly but what she really loved was dancing as the crow. She had channeled everything she had into appearing vicious and desperate to eat and survive in her movements. Ultimately, the entire ballet focused on survival and how futile it could be due to the food chain.

Her character the crow had been eaten by a housecat after failing to eat the caterpillar. The cat was played by one of the male dancers and their piece together had been fun to learn.

What she loved most was portraying the symbolism behind it all with her movements. That had always been her favorite part of dance: bringing a feeling to life even though no words were used.