The Sunshine Boy and the Snowflake Girl

The Snowflake Learns to Dance

March, 1985

"Ow," El muttered.

"Sorry," Dustin offered sheepishly. He had stepped on her foot again.

"I thought you were supposed to be the one teaching me how to dance?" El grinned, tucking hair behind her ear. It reached a little past her jaw now. Her sentences had grown longer with the help of the school speech therapist, who safely knew little about the girl's "complicated" past.

Holly sat on the floor, Nancy's music box clutched in her small hands. She'd close it and re-open it every time the little bell-like music drew to a close.

Lucas grunted from his place on the couch. "I'm sick of that stupid box, can't you at least play something good?" He crossed his arms indignantly. "Why are we even doing this here, where Mike could literally walk in any second?"

Dustin huffed and dropped his hands from El's hand and hip, his focus now blown. "What, do you want to go to your house?"

Lucas narrowed his eyes. "No."

"Oh right, I forgot your house is the psych ward across town," Dustin laughed, revealing two front teeth that now proudly poked out.

"Oh how about we head over to your house and tell your mom about the 'colorful language' you've added to your vocabulary lately," Lucas spat. "Bet she'll really like to hear about that."

Dustin pointed a sharp finger at Lucas. "Mike's house it is, then. Besides, Will said he'd have Mike preoccupied for at least an hour longer."

Will was in on the idea of a few secret dance lessons to prepare El for the spring dance that was coming up in a week. So he had knocked on Mike's door that morning, asking him to tag along to the comic store, where new X-Men and Fantastic Four editions were supposed to come out that weekend. "They're busy," was Will's simple reply when Mike asked where Lucas and Dustin were.

Holly clamped the music box shut and then opened it again, the tinkling music restarting as Dustin and El resumed their former positions.

"One, two, three, one, two, three—"

"Ouch, Dustin!" El bent over and rubbed her toe. "Maybe Lucas should take a turn."

Dustin frowned and scratched at the curls spilling out from under his baseball cap. He shrugged and turned to Lucas.

"Uh-uh. I'm not getting up." Lucas crossed his legs.

A rattling sounded from upstairs and the small band froze, the chiming from the music box still playing.

"Mike? Who's down there?" Nancy. She trotted down the steps and looked over the railway. "What are you guys doing here? Mike isn't home." She inquired, eyebrow lifted in confusion.

"Holly let us in," Dustin replied. Eleven nodded. Holly restarted the music.

"Oh, you guys are just hanging out with Baby Holly?" Nancy folded her arms across her periwinkle blouse. "That's rich."

Eleven spoke up. "I can't dance."

Nancy's brow again quirked up. She hadn't expected that. Then she recalled a conversation she had overheard earlier that week.

"I need a new white button up, my other ones are kind of small," Mike had informed his mom while packing his lunch for school. Nancy was running late, fussing over her hair in the hall mirror. Mike hadn't had a reason to wear any of his nice shirts since Will's "funeral". He had experienced a growth spurt since then, it had been more than a year. Thirteen now, he had grown a few inches but remained thin and somewhat disproportionate. "I really need one by the 23rd, okay?"