NYC Apartment Mail

"Mail!" Polly Harold called as she entered the small apartment. Her cheeks were pink, and her golden blond hair was dotted with snowflakes. Polly turned around and locked the door behind her, before walking into the kitchen.

"Mail," she repeated, tossing the envelopes onto the island. A girl in her mid-twenties, around Polly's age, peered up from behind the refrigerator door.

"Anything interesting?" the girl asked, closing the fridge door and taking a bite out of an apple.

"Nope. You got some letters... and.. oh, here's the gas bill."

Polly ordered the mail in 2 small piles. "There. And I think Sadie got something too... probably a late Christmas card, I don't know what is up with the mail service these days..."

"Is this my pile?" the girl asked, her mouth full of apple. She ran her fingers through her short brown hair. "Dang. Larger than usual."

"Yeah..." Polly walked across the room and opened a cupboard. "Hey, where are the pistachios?"

"Earth. I think they're on the couch.” The girl stroked her pixie-cut hair again. "Dang. That's a high gas bill. What'd you, go to Alaska in a car?!"

"No, I went to visit my cousins." Polly answered.

"They only live in Pennsylvania!" The girl sputtered.

"Look, we went on a few trips. It was a weekend! We want to spend some time together. Don't you when you visit family, Vanessa?"

"Yeah, yeah," Vanessa shuffled through the rest of her mail, munching on her apple. "What is this?"

She held up a cute little envelope addressed to her in neat handwriting. Polly glanced at it briefly and shook her head. "I dunno, it's your mail."

" "New York International School of Ballet"." Vanessa squinted at the letter, reading the return address aloud. "What do they want with me?"

"Do you or do you not take ballet?" Polly said sarcastically. Vanessa wacked her with the envelope.

"Yeah, but what does this school want to do with me? It's called a hobby!"

"Maybe so, but I'll have you know that that's a pretty good school, and it's just a few blocks away."

"Mmm." Vanessa tore open the envelope and quickly scanned the letter. "College was also a pretty good school, but--WHOA!"

Polly jumped and spilled some pistachios. "What the heck?!"

Vanessa caught her breath. “Well, this has certainly become an interesting day.”

“What? WHAT?!” Polly yelled, eager to know.

The door to the apartment opened, and in walked Sadie, the other person that was bunking with the girls. She walked into the kitchen, confused. “What’s going on?”

Sadie was a model, and worked until 7 on weekdays. Today, she’d arrived home unexpectedly early.

“What gives, Sadie?” Vanessa asked, dodging Polly as she tried to grab the letter. Vanessa was clearly playing with Polly, trying to stall as much as possible. She seemed to be enjoying it.

“Huh?”

“Why are you home so early?” Vanessa ran around the island to avoid Polly.

“Oh. Well…” Sadie watched her two roommates chasing each other, then continued. “Kent let us off early. He said he needed more time in the studio for the male models.”

“Ah. Really? And how’s Lawrence?” Vanessa giggled, hiding the letter behind her back.

Sadie raised an eyebrow, tossing her lucious, white-blond hair. “Uhm, he’s- what is going on?!”

“Vanessa got a weird envelope and got super riled up and she won't tell me what it says!!” Polly exclaimed breathlessly, lunging for Vanessa. Vanessa did a quick sidestep, resulting in Polly landing heavily on the couch.

Sadie pursed her lips and put her hands on her hips. “Oh come now! Nessa, spill it!”

Vanessa sighed and, smiling, politely handed the note to Sadie. Polly raced over, rapidly cursing in German, and began reading over Sadie’s shoulder.

When both women had finished reading, they looked at Vanessa oddly.

“Well…” Sadie started. “This is most definitely not the engineer job you applied for.”

“I can’t see you as a teacher,” Polly said, wrinkling her nose and shaking her head.

“Hey!” Vanessa snatched the envelope back. “This is not what I was expecting! But it’s a good job offer! And I know my stuff!”

“It would be cool to be a ballet teacher,” Sadie muttered.

“For advanced students!” Vanessa added. “Isn’t that soooo cool!”

“They must have heard about your previous performances,” Polly commented.

“How’d they figure out your hobby?” Sadie asked suspiciously.

“I…” Vanessa blushed. “I may have put it on my resume.”

“How’d they get your resume?” Polly blurted out.

“I DON’T KNOW!!” Vanessa exploded. “BUT I JUST GOT THIS REALLY AMAZING JOB OFFER AND I AM TOTALLY GONNA TAKE IT BECAUSE IT’LL BE AWESOME!!!!”

There was a silence. Polly nodded approvingly. “Cool.”

Sadie was shocked. “Wait, so you’re just going to ditch the engineering job that you applied for?”

Vanessa shrugged. “Why not. Besides, I get paid more doing this.”

“Niiice…” Polly smirked. “I wish I was into ballet.”

“I could teach you!” Vanessa said brightly. “I do need practice for my students, of course!”

“Of course.” Polly curtsied. “Mademoiselle.”

Sadie rolled her eyes. “Go ahead. Screw engineering that you worked several years to get your degree for.”

Vanessa frowned. “My life, Sadie. Butt out.”

Sadie scoffed. “I’m just saying, you might want a stable career-”

“Says the model!” Vanessa retorted. “And I’ll have you know that ballet teaching is a stable career. Many of the teachers there have been there for 30 years.”

Sadie didn’t have a response to this, so she simply strutted off into her room and silently closed the door behind her. Vanessa turned, satisfied, to Polly.

“So.”

Polly raised an eyebrow. “What?”

Vanessa was quiet for a moment. “Well, now we have two options. When does your shift start tonight?”

Polly checked her watch. “At nine. We have a few hours.”

“Okay.”

Polly sighed. “Now’s when you’re supposed to tell me what our two options are.”

“Right.” Vanessa chuckled. “So we can make dinner...or we can do some ballet. Pretend to be a student.”

“No. I refuse.”

“What?”

“I want to be the top student in my French ballet class. Mademoiselle.”

Vanessa couldn't help but laugh. “Fine. Miss “top student”, show me how to do a pli`e.”

Polly shuffled her feet. “Right. Right…”

There were a few seconds of Polly looking down at the ground, before she suddenly yelled “I DUNNO HOW!!”

Vanessa stared at her, surprised. Polly swallowed. “Pardon me, madam, I just meant to say that I do not know how to do a pli`e.”

“I can tell. Allow me, small student.”

“I ain’t small.”

“Just pretend.”

“The things I do for you.”