OSTRACIZE | GILBERT BLYTHE

70

"As promised, today we'll be practicing for the county-fair barn dance. Mr. and Mrs.Lynde have kindly consented to help us in this endeavour." Miss Stacy said to the students.

Ellis sighed and rolled her head along her neck. She hated dancing because she just couldn't do it. She had two left feet and a serious lack of hand-eye coordination.

"Since The Dashing White Sergeant needs a set of six, I thought we'd better do so. Oh, you remember my son." Mrs Lynde said as her son and two others walked in.

"Yes, of course." Miss Stacy said staring at the man.

"It's very nice to see you again." He said with a grin.

"Thank you all for coming to help. Shall we?" Miss Stacy smiled at the volunteers.

"We shall! Pay particular attention to the patterns. Ready?" Mrs Lynde said as they stood in two sets of threes.

"Ready when you are, Mrs Lynde." Mr Lynde said, with a small smile. A few of the students laughed.

"Please clap out the rhythm." Mrs Lynde said clapping. Ellis then started to clap, but it was completely out of time with everyone else. "And eight steps round." Mrs Lynde said as they all joined hands.

Gilbert stood in front of Ellis with a small smile. He grabbed her hands and clapped the correct rhythm. Ellis looked up to him a laughed, shaking her head. She started clapping the correct rhythm so Gilbert decided to step back into his original spot.

"Five, six, seven and eight, and back to other way! Centre dancers, get ready to set, and set and set, and turn with both hands." They had now split off into threes and two of them began to turn.

"And set and set, and one, two, three. Reels of three!" The threes were now weaving in and out of eachother. "One, two, three. Give your left shoulder to the partner facing you! One, two, three, and all three lines reform." The lines of three both now faced eachother again.

"And one, two, three, four. And back, two, three, four. And sweep under raised arms to form another set. Ah! And stop." Mrs Lynde said and everyone stopped clapping. "Oh! That's the basic pattern."

"Why don't we have you give it a try Please form your sets of six: boy-girl, boy and girl, boy-girl, boys and girls - Come along." Miss Stacy said separating everyone. Gilbert sighed noticing that he and Ellis were in separate groups. He wanted to dance with the brunette.

"Ready? Here we go. One, two, three, four. And one and two and three and four and five and six and - Other the way. And one, two, three, four. Get ready. Two, set, set! And Turn, turn, turn, turn, turn. Set to the dancer on your right! Right! Stop, stop, stop!!"

The dance was going horribly. Nobody understood it, least of all Ellis who had two left feet. She was struggling.

"That was a start. Yeah, that's- Take a little break. Catch my breath. Catch your breath."

Ellis stood next to Miss Stacy as she listened to the girls talk.

"What if I'm pregnant?! My mother said if I so much as go near a boy, I might get pregnant, and if a boy touches me, then I'll certainly get pregnant! So I must be.
You all could be!" Ruby explained as she sat down.

"How could this be?!" Anne questioned looking at her hands in shock.

"But who's the father?!" Tilly shouted.

"How could you let this happen?!" Josie seethed and Ellis doubled over laughing, she simply couldn't help it.

"Girls, girls, please, calm yourselves. I can assure you, no one will become pregnant from dancing." Miss Stacy reassured them.

"But there was so much touching!" Ruby exclaimed.

"That's not how it works. It's not uh topical. There are many steps to conceiving."

Ellis glanced to Miss Stacy, wondering if she was actually going to tell them the truth.

"First, courtship. Then, of course, marriage. Then you and your husband m-m-m-may will with your consent, go down that cherished path to parenthood. Together. Is that clear?" The girls all looked at Miss Stacy confused.

"B-basical-ly she means y-o-you have to ha-have s-"

Miss Stacy eyes widened and she quickly covered Ellis mouth with her hand. Ellis let out a defeated sigh and walked away. Franklin and Patrick used to mention it all the time when they were home.