A Boom Boom Ba
Weird title, I know. These stories never got an official name, but they were inspired by the song "Boom Boom Ba" by Metisse. The lyrics are partly in English and partly in an African language; "a boom boom ba" is supposed to be the sound of one's heartbeat. You can find the proper lyrics here.
Anyway, the stories concern Melly and Bianca, sisters whose parents are gone and who live alone. Their only neighbors are two other girls who also live alone. Eventually, they're found out and sold into a form of slavery. Namely, they're forced to dance--it's like a forced ballet that the two desperately want to escape.
Some info on the characters' names: Melly was originally a Melony, but she became a Melisande after everyone said that Melony sounded like a fruit. I originally chose her name because it meant "black," while Bianca means "white." You can probably guess their hair colours, heh. Bianca's pale hair comes from her father, while Melly's dark curls are her mother's.
Their friends are Karekare and Ranyel Blacksand. Karekare's name is pronunced CAR-ay CAR-ay. Ranyel is, logically enough, rahn-YEL. Ranyel was a Raynel for a little while, because I mixed up the N and the Y and forgot how I originally spelled her name.
All these stories are old--two or three years old, if you want to know. There are some decent moments in them all the same, but the end of the uber-long one gets icky. Lots of discussion of eye injuries.
The Really Uber-Long Version