Then Jack broke into his rap solo and it was as though the audience had gone crazy with excitement.
As we wound down to the sound of Millie’s incredible voice and one last intense drumming solo from Blake, the applause was deafening.
And we stood there, completely engulfed in pride and elation.
We had done it! We had done our best! That was all that we could ask for and as we headed off the stage, each of us was overwhelmed with joy. The ecstatic feeling that showed clearly on our faces could not have been more obvious.
Just as we were about to leave the back stage area and find seats in the audience, a strange thing happened.
“What’s going on?” Millie asked curiously. “What are they doing?”
We paused for a moment to listen, to take in the growing sounds around us, all the while, the noise becoming louder and louder.
“They’re cheering!” Jack exclaimed. “I think they’re calling out for more!”
“Yes!!!” Millie squealed. “Come on guys. They want us to do another song!”
I looked questioningly at Miss Sheldon who was standing nearby but Millie didn’t even wait for her response. Like a born performer, she rushed back onto the stage.
And with no time to even think about it, we followed her.
In front of us was a hall full of cheering kids and we launched into another song. I grinned at the others and then back out into the audience. It was everything we had hoped for and so much more.
As I strummed the strings of my guitar, I whispered a quiet thank you in my mind.
We had done it!
Back to reality…
Back at school on the following Monday morning, it seemed like we’d become rock stars. Kids were surrounding us, congratulating us and asking when we were going to perform again. Mr. Casey, our music teacher, along with several other teachers who were there on the night had congratulated us as well.
We’d been fairly confident that we would win, especially after the audience had cheered for an encore. But we had still felt nervous as the announcements were being made.
The judges had awarded a hilarious comedy skit the third place prize and then announced Sara’s band as the second place winners. The people sitting near us were all convinced that we would win for sure, but I still held my breath until the final announcement was made.
As we climbed the stairs of the stage to receive the first place prize, kids in the audience yelled and shouted their approval. To our relief everyone appeared happy with the judges’ final decision and we smiled broadly as we accepted a certificate and a voucher for $500.
I glanced at Sara as I’d walked past her on the stage but she did not any make eye contact whatsoever. And back at school she hadn’t said a word to me. In fact, she appeared to be completely ignoring me, which suited me fine. I’d much rather that than the usual evil stares and mean comments.
Perhaps, she had finally realized that she’s not the absolute best at everything and maybe the whole experience had taught her to be more humble. I could only hope so, but all thoughts of Sara were soon furthest from my mind as I sat down at my desk and heard Miss Watson remind us that it was revision week.
“Your mid-semester tests and exams will begin next Monday.” Her eyes scanned the room to make sure everyone was paying attention. She didn’t have to worry about that though, as the mere mention of tests and exams made everyone sit up uncomfortably.
“Will these grades go on our report?” asked Lucas, who sat on his own in a corner of the room to prevent him from constantly distracting everyone around him.
He was not particularly bright and it was probably the first time I’d seen him put up his hand all year.
“Yes,” Miss Watson replied, in a frustrated tone. “The grades you receive for these tests will most certainly go on the report that will be sent home to your parents in a few weeks’ time!”
“Oh, great!” I heard him mutter, loudly.
Miss Watson chose to ignore his comment but continued on to explain that we would spend the week doing revision lessons to prepare us for the tests ahead.
I sighed deeply, thinking of the promise I had made to my parents when I’d convinced them that practicing for the talent show would not affect my grades.
I knew that I was going to have a lot of study to do this week, especially when Miss Watson put some math on the board that I found totally unfamiliar.
“I don’t remember doing this before,” I whispered to Millie.
“She taught us how to do these a couple of weeks ago,” Millie said with a frown. “Don’t you remember?”
I looked back at the board with concern. There was no way I wanted to admit to Miss Watson that I didn’t have a clue how to do the work, so I concentrated on the numbers while frantically digging into my memory banks in the hope that the answers would somehow appear.
But all I could think about were guitar solos, rock songs, Millie on stage as our lead singer and the applause we’d received from the audience.
Desperately trying to focus on the work in front of me, I sighed once more and forced myself to concentrate.
Dancing with boys??…
Finally exam week was over! It had been so hard to get back into a regular homework and study routine, especially after all the time we’d spent focusing on our band. But we eventually came to the end of the tests and I breathed a huge sigh of relief when the final one was completed.
I had done all I could and just prayed that it was enough to maintain my usual standard. My mom was always going on about good grades and expected me to do well. I had put in lots of effort over the past week though and even turned down an invitation to the movies with Millie, Blake and Jack on the weekend. When I had told them that I had to stay at home and study, they’d groaned and called me a teachers’ pet.
But I told them that I was under threat from my parents to do well or they’d probably take my guitar away. Even worse though, I was worried that I’d be banned from hanging out with the guys and not allowed to go to rehearsals any more. That would be terrible!
Thankfully, they all sympathized and then agreed to postpone our movie date to another time.
“I really need to stay at home and do some study myself, anyway,” Blake had said. “So it’s probably a good thing that we give it a miss this weekend!”
Now with the exams finally behind us, Millie and I sat down at morning tea time to discuss the next event on the school calendar.
The kids in our grade were to begin weekly dance lessons for a period of four weeks. Then at the end of that time, the school was arranging a formal dance for us to attend which involved dancing in the style that we’d been practicing.
Mrs. Harding, our school principal, had heard of other schools doing this and had thought it was a wonderful idea. And our grade was being made to begin dance lessons in preparation.
The unusual thing was though, that we’d been told we would learn how to dance with a partner, which to the disgust of pretty much everyone, meant girls dancing with boys. As well, we had to learn how to do old school dances, like waltzes and something called a cha-cha along with a few others that I’d never even heard of.
The only exciting part was that because it was a formal event, we were expected to dress up, which meant we’d all have to get something new to wear. And this was all that the girls could talk about. Some had already bought dresses online and others were planning to go to the city to find something special. The idea was that we weren’t supposed to spend too much on our outfits but I could tell already that many girls were planning to go overboard.
I had no idea what sort of dress I should buy and neither did Millie, but we decided that we would go to our local shopping center after school one day during the week to see what we could find. There was a new shop that had recently opened which we hadn’t been into yet. So we thought we should go and have a look before all the other girls had the same idea.
Meanwhile, our first dance lesson was happening the following aftern
oon and already there were girls panicking about having to dance with the boys.
“I hope we’re allowed to choose our partners!” I said to Millie, with concern in my voice.
“I hope so too,” Millie exclaimed as she looked around in disgust.
“There are so many gross boys in our grade. It would be terrible if the teachers made us dance with them!”
I laughed at the expression on her face but then quietly agreed that it certainly wouldn’t be much fun if that was going to be the case. And I knew that Millie was definitely wanting to dance with Jack.
In fact she was really keen for him to ask her to go to the formal as his partner and was waiting in hope for this to happen. We weren’t sure if we were allowed to go with a partner but it would be so cool if we were.
I pictured the four of us arriving together, the boys in their suits and Millie and I in our new dresses and thought what a great photo that would make.
Blake had already asked me and I’d laughed, “Well who else would I go with?”
He had just hugged me then; one of those big bear hugs of his that I absolutely adore. When he wraps his arms around me like that, I feel so happy inside. It’s one of the things I love most about him but if anyone were to ask me what was my all-time favorite thing about Blake. I would have to say it’s his smile!
Dance class…
We all filed into the hall the following afternoon, not sure what to expect. All the chairs had been removed to make way for our dance lesson and Millie and I sat down alongside Blake and Jack, hoping that if we had to have partners, they could be ours.
From out of nowhere a strange man suddenly appeared. He had dark hair and was wearing long trousers and a long sleeved yellow shirt with a kind of polar neck. What really stood out about him though, was his loud booming voice and in particular, his accent.
“Good afternoon, boys and girls! My name is Dom, short for Dominique.”
“I thought that was a girl’s name!” Jack whispered to us.
Trying not to giggle, I focused on our instructor, who continued to talk.
“I am from France and you might think I sound funny, but to be honest, I think that you are the ones who speak with the funny accent!”
It was obvious that he was trying to make us laugh, but no one seemed to find him amusing.
“OK,” he said, “Everyone please stand and make a very large circle!”
“The first thing I’m going to do,” he continued, “Is demonstrate some steps that you must watch carefully and then you can try them yourselves.”
Everyone was being very attentive and listening to what he was saying. There was something about his manner that made us focus. Even the naughty kids were paying attention.
He then moved to the center of the circle and demonstrated some basic steps back and forth. After that it was our turn.
“Very good! Very good!” His voice boomed across the hall.
So far, so good and looking around I could see that everyone was actually enjoying themselves. Up until that point, anyway!
The next thing he did, we were not prepared for.
He asked all the boys to form a circle of their own inside the large outer circle and face towards a girl.
“Here we go,” I thought to myself. “This is where we have to have partners.”
Blake quickly stood in front of me and I could see other boys rapidly shuffling into place in front of girls who they obviously liked. Before Jack even had a chance, a kid named Tom jumped into place in front of Millie. There were several others who were fooling around and the teacher had to move them into position himself. In the end, two boys were left without a partner so they had to pair up, with one of them being forced to stand in the girls’ circle.
“You can be the girl for this dance,” Dom said to him with a grin.
Scowling, the boy took his place.
I glanced towards Millie, who was also clearly not impressed. She gave me a look and discreetly rolled her eyes.
The next instruction we were given was to hold the hands of our partner and that was where all the trouble began. I instantly grabbed Blake’s hands as this was certainly not an issue for us but many of the other kids were simply unable to do it. It was as though, the person in front of them was consumed by a hideous disease and they would be struck dead in an instant if they so much as touched each other.
Dom’s booming voice made everyone quickly jump to attention. “Ok!” he said, “It looks like I need to ask some people to demonstrate.”
Zooming in on a boy who was mucking around, he grabbed him by the shoulders and moved him to the center of the circle with his partner. Turning bright red, the pair had no choice but to reluctantly join hands and follow the steps that Dom was demonstrating.
We were then asked to repeat the same steps, slide, slide, back and forth, back and forth…all the while holding hands with our partner.
Some kids just did it with hands by their sides while others were barely touching the fingertips of the partner in front of them.
Our class teachers began to scold the ones who were fooling around or not joining in and warned them to follow the instructions or practice at lunch time instead. This certainly motivated these kids to apply more effort. Having to continue this at lunch time certainly was not something they even wanted to consider.
It was at that point though, that things became unexpectedly worse!
Dom explained that after doing the basic steps, the girls had to slide twice more in a clockwise direction and move onto the next partner, where they would repeat the steps all over again.
He grabbed the hands of one of the girls and demonstrated to us all how this should look. Alexa, who was his partner, was overcome with embarrassment. Several boys were snickering but this soon stopped when Dom asked if they would like to demonstrate instead.
Back, forth, back forth, slide, slide. Repeat the steps again and then move onto the next partner.
“Very good! Very good!” Dom’s voice boomed loudly, as we all continued on with the dance.
“Now we’ll try it to music!”
As he climbed the stage to turn on the sound system, Millie swung towards me and rolled her eyes. The boy who was standing in front of her was tall, nerdy and covered in pimples. He was looking adoringly at her though and smiled widely as she turned back to face him. Trying to suppress a giggle, I took the hands of my partner. Just then the music blared loudly and Dom signaled for us to begin.
To our huge surprise, it was actually a popular song that we all knew. And before too long, it seemed that everyone was so focused on the steps they were taking while trying to ensure they kept in time that they’d forgotten about the whole drama of having to hold hands.
Over the sound of the music, Dom’s booming voice could be heard, “Back, forth, back, forth, slide, slide, that’s it boys and girls! You’re doing great; now onto the next partner.” He continued to encourage us, all the while his accent stressing each word in a weird sounding way. The whole scene seemed kind of surreal.
As I glanced quickly around, I found it hard to believe that everyone was so engrossed in their steps. I felt as though I were watching a movie in which I was actually one of the characters.
I was certain that the great choice of music had a lot to do with everyone’s change of attitude and I could even hear some kids singing to the lyrics.
When the song ended and Dom congratulated us all on our progress, I felt quite disappointed that the lesson was over.
“Great work, guys!” he yelled above the clang of the bell which indicated that it was home time. “Next week, I’ll teach you how to waltz!”
Smiling at Millie, I commented, “That wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be!”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “It ended up being kind of fun; except for when we had to dance with boys who have sweaty hands. That part was disgusting!”
“And I don’t know about learning to waltz. Won’t that mean we have to keep the same pa
rtner for the whole dance? We’d better be able to choose!”
“I hope so too!” I laughed and still humming the tune of the song that we’d been dancing to, I raced Millie to the bus stop.
Breathless, we climbed aboard and moved to the back where we usually sat.
“Let’s go shopping tomorrow after school,” she said abruptly. “If we don’t go soon, we’ll end up with nothing to wear!”
The mere mention of dresses had us chatting non-stop and all thoughts of dancing, holding the sweaty hands of grinning boys and learning how to waltz, disappeared from our minds.
We had much more important things to focus on!
Shopping…
Our visit to the local shopping center had proved to be a waste of time. Neither of us had found anything remotely suitable. Even the new fashion shop that had recently opened had nothing in stock that we liked.
The only solution we were able to come up with was a visit to the city on the weekend. Millie’s mom had to work but my mom agreed to take us, so we decided to leave early in order to have a full day of shopping.
Our plan was to start at one end of the major shopping area and work our way through but after a couple of hours of searching, all we had for our efforts was a new bag for Millie. She desperately needed one for school as hers was falling apart, so she had grabbed it as soon as she had spotted it.
I’d begun to feel very anxious though, that we wouldn’t find any dresses we liked, when suddenly I heard a familiar voice call my name.
“Julia! Millie! Mrs. Jones, how are you?”
We turned towards the voice and to my astonishment, there was Sara Hamilton with her friend, Lucy, standing right there on the street in front of us. Sara was dressed in the most gorgeous spotted top with a matching blue skirt. The color suited her beautifully. Lucy also had on a really pretty outfit and I looked down uncomfortably at the jeans I had thrown on that morning.
“Don’t you want to dress up a bit, Julia?” my mom had asked me.
Julia Jones' Diary - Boxed Set - Books 2 to 6 Page 20