I looked around at my classmates. They'd finished poking through the piles of stuff and were looking back at me. I picked up my dance bag one more time and checked it again. No luck. It was empty, except for my high-tops. Too bad I couldn't dance in those.

    I looked at Mme Noelle and shrugged my shoulders. "I'm sorry," I said. "They're not here." She gave me a glance that said, as clearly as words would have, "Jessica Romsey, I am most disappointed in you." Then, out loud, she simply said, "Come." We trooped back into the studio and got ready to warm up at the bane. I was just going to have to do the exercises barefoot. Mme Noelle put on some music and led us through a few minutes of plies (plee-ay - that's when you sink down, keeping your backside tucked in and only bending at the knee) and releves (reh-leh-vays - that's when you go up on your toes).

    I saw her look at me as I releve'd. Everybody else was en pointe - that is, really up on their toes. I was kind of just pretending. Madame shook her head, her lips in a tight line.

    "Zis will not do," she said suddenly. "If Mademoiselle Romsey cannot practice en pointe, zere is no reason to rehearse today. After all, she is zee Princess Aurora, and we cannot do very much wizout her." She turned her back on us and lifted the needle from the record. "Zis rehearsal is concelled." I was shocked. This was worse than I ever could have imagined! Everybody groaned. I knew how they felt. There's nothing worse than missing a day of dancing - it throws off your whole routine. And we needed every rehearsal that was scheduled. The performance wasn't all that far off.

    "Isn't there any way we can still rehearse?" asked Lisa.

    "What if we just look for the shoes one more time?" asked Hilary. "If Jessi says she brought them, they must be in that room somewhere." Mme Noelle didn't look happy about the idea, but she agreed. "One more time," she said. "But zen, rehearsal is off." I hated having her mad at me.