Uniqua's Choice

Chapter 7: Backyard Shenanigans

  The backyard was glowing, like a diamond at a jewelry store or a wedding ring. Everybody was there to bask in the party aspect of youth. Uniqua was amazed at the smiling people around her.
"Wow, it's beautiful!", she said looking at Pablo.
"WHO'S READY TO PARTYYY!" , Tyrone hollered out. The teens looked at him and cheered back. It seemed as if the whole school was there. Sofia the First, Amber, the entire Paw Patrol, Doc McStuffins, and so many more. Uniqua was in aw, seeing all her friends from school made the party appear more comfortable. Pablo looked to Uniqua with a smirk.
"So... you ready?", he said softly.
"For what?", Uniqua replied.
"READY TO PAARRTTYY!!", Pablo screamed.
The DJ turned up the music and everyone hit the dance floor. That is, except for Uniqua and Tasha. Tasha could see the withering smile on Uniqua's pink face. She grabbed her shoulder, displaying the concern on her hippo face.
"Uniqua, you good?", said Tasha.
"Yeah. Yeah, it's just weird", Uniqua replied, "It's weird that a bunch of us barely talk now. Just a few years ago we were in this exact backyard. Having adventures and just being kids. Crazy how things change so much."
" Uniqua, as much as I hate change, it's inevitable. There's so much that's going to change throughout our lives and we won't have any control over it. The scariest part for me is when we get older. High school seems like the biggest time of our lives right now, but when we're like 40 or something, it'll have only been a small fraction of our life."
"Tasha that's super depressing why would you even say that."
"I'm just playing! Let's live in the moment, and whatever changes, changes!"
Tasha pulled Uniqua into the crowd of teens and began to dance. Uniqua could feel the beat of the music and danced happily. Her experience in show choir made her pretty skilled in dancing, and she impressed the others around her. In the corner of her eye, she saw Pablo coming towards her. A rush of panic went through her entire body, but she still continued to dance. As Pablo was about to grab her hand, a stranger took hers swiftly. Uniqua was in shock and she tried to look for Tasha to save her. However, Tasha was dancing with Tyrone and couldn't see Uniqua's state of terror. The mysterious stranger spun her around. Uniqua looked with shock, it was Caillou. She had him for a few classes, but they had never talked. She continued to dance with him because YOLO.
"Hey Uniqua, I had you for biology! I'm Caillou if you didn't know."
"Caillou! How could I forget! You were the super smart guy right?"
"I guess you could say that! Enough talking, let's just dance!"
Caillou and Uniqua danced with such passion and energy, even the teens could feel it.
   Tasha, who was too busy at the time staring at Tyrone's face, looked to her left and saw Pablo in disbelief. She didn't know why though, so she continued to dance. Suddenly, the screams of teens grabbed her attention.
A circle formed and two people were in the middle, dancing to the pop song the DJ was playing.
"Tyrone, who's in the circle?", Tasha said, "Tyrone? Tyrone?"
It was too late, Tyrone had randomly disappeared, but Austin was right behind her.
"I can't see, Tasha, wanna get a closer look?", Austin said with curiosity.
"Uhh, sure!", Tasha said hesitantly.
Austin held her hand and pushed his way to the front of the circle. Tasha was blushing the whole way there. The people dancing in the circle ended up being Uniqua and Caillou! They were dancing some weird routine, probably something they both saw in the Step Up movies or YouTube. Whatever it was, the crowd was loving it.
   Uniqua could feel the connection she had with Caillou. She had no idea that he also knew choreo from Step Up 3, she thought she was the only one who did. In those moments, she felt like her and Caillou were only dancers there. Everyone else felt like an audience. This triggered her show choir instincts and she began to sing along to the music. It was hard to hear over the loud music, but Uniqua could see that Caillou was listening to her.