Daydream Believer

lxxxviii. dance class and improvising

lxxxviii. dance class and improvising

I never quite saw the point in having a ballroom dance unit. All it did was make things awkward between all of us. Today was the most awkward day of them all. First, we were being graded together. Second, we had to pick our partners. I already knew nobody would pick me. I was okay with that though. The teachers would pair me up with someone that was just as socially awkward as I was, and everything would be fine.

 

I stood in a corner and watched everyone else choose their partners. Some kids had already chosen their partners. Some kids forgot to do that and ran around searching for whoever they could find. Some stood in the middle, hoping that someone would choose them so they would be spared the awkwardness of asking someone to dance. Henry and Eric were in front of me, discussing whether they should ask the teacher if they could dance together or if they should just find some girls to dance with, even though the entire school knew they were a couple. They eventually decided to ask Elizabeth and Katie. I, however, was still alone.

 

Aaron eventually came up to me. “I’ve asked practically every girl in this class to dance!” he shouted. “I guess I’m just that ugly.”

 

“You’re not ugly,” I said. I was kind of hoping Aaron would ask me. That would make everything so much easier, since at least I already knew him.

 

“Hey, you’re a girl,” Aaron finally said. “Want to be my partner?”

 

“Yes!” I said, with maybe a little too much enthusiasm. I looked around the room. Justin was apparently with Haley. He caught my eye, and I smiled at him, then looked away and back at Aaron.

 

“How do we even do this?” Aaron asked.

 

I shrugged. I hadn’t been paying much attention in class either. “I think my hands go on your shoulders and your hands go on my waist,” I said, trying to remember what the teacher said. I reached up for his shoulders, but I could barely reach. Since when was Aaron so tall? I used to be able to do this with ease. I hated being short.

 

“Now what?” Aaron asked.

 

“Uh...I don’t really remember,” I admitted.

 

“Me neither,” Aaron said. He laughed. “We’ll just make up something then. I wish we were allowed to do the Chicken Dance or something.”

 

“It would be better than this!” I said.

 

The teacher came over to us. “How are we doing over here?” she asked.

 

“Fine,” Aaron said.

 

“Are you ready to be graded?”

 

I wanted to say no, but Aaron jumped in and said, “Yes!”

 

The music started playing and Aaron and I started dancing. We rocked back and forth and then started stepping around awkwardly. As the song went on, Aaron started getting more adventurous and spun me around a few times. Thankfully, Aaron seemed to have surprisingly good rhythm.

 

The teacher smiled. “Well, I’ll give you two an A for effort. Next time, try doing a few of the moves we learned in class.” She wandered off to grade some other people.

I didn’t really know what to say, but I guess that wasn’t as bad as it could have been.