..Mme Noelle couldn't either - that was obvious. She was very impatient with me, and since I was feeling distracted, she kept having to repeat directions. That didn't help.

    "Long neck, Mademoiselle Romsey!" she said. "You are not doncing zee part of a hunchback. You are a princess - please act like one." I stretched my neck and proceeded to stumble in the middle of my glissade. I heard somebody giggle behind me. Wonderful! I just knew that everybody in the class was now convinced that I was a complete airhead. Once again I tried to concentrate.

    "STEP!" said Mme Noelle suddenly, clapping her hands. I had gotten off the beat. This was just not my day. She went to the record player and started the music from the beginning. "And . . . again," she said, nodding at me. "I want nossing but grace from all of you," she said. "1 want absolutely magnificent, glorious grace." Right.

    I worked harder and harder, forgetting the time, forgetting my lost shoes, forgetting everything except the music and how I was moving to it. Before I knew it, Mme Noelle was clapping her hands. "Okay, mademoiselles," she said. "Next time we will do better, am I right?" I met her eyes and nodded. She gave me a tight smile - I guess she was going to forgive me.

    I walked to the dressing room, relieved that rehearsal was finally over. I changed back into my school clothes and reached into my dance bag for my high-tops. I was thinking that the next rehearsal would just have to go better than this one - it certainly couldn't go any worse. Then I pulled my left sneaker out of the bag and saw something stuck between the laces.

    It was a note. And this is what it said: BEWARE. Nothing more, nothing less. Just . . . BEWARE.

    I couldn't figure out what it was supposed to mean. Beware of what? Beware of whom? I thought it was pretty strange. But I was too tired from rehearsal to wonder about it for long. I shoved it into my bag and headed out the door.