A Step to Love

“Five! Six! Five, six, seven, eight…” Jay, our jazz teacher instructed as the music started. From the radio played Yeah! It was one of Jay’s favorite songs and the song will be using for this year’s Grand Recital.

Everyone was sweating and dancing as exaggerated as they could. Just the way Jay liked it. “Stop, stop, stop,” he suddenly said. “Brody!” he called my dancing partner. “You’re supposed to dance with Lilly, not with Jenny.” Jenny just smirked, stepping backwards.

I raised my eyebrow. Brody was acting a little weird. He was dancing with me, but every time he did the pirouette, his attention centered on Jenny’s body. Everyone’s attention just had to be centered on her.

“Sorry, teacher. I was, er,” he struggled trying to explain himself. I rolled my eyes and he noticed. Turned to me, he asked, “What? Can’t I be distracted?”

I scoffed “Distracted? Are you kidding me?”

“Guys settle down.” Jay knew better. I get very bitchy when it comes to Jenny. I mean, why did he have to look at her so much? “Ok.” He paused and looked at the rest of the class. “Let’s start all over again.”

Brody put his hands on my waist and his lips were at my ear. “Jealous, much?” he whispered while smirking.

“You’re so full of yourself,” I whispered back, taking his hands off me slowly.

He chuckled and bit his lip. “You’re too cute.”

We spent most of our two-hour class trying to fix some details with the timing.

“You have another class?” Jay asked. I was putting some red heels on—something you don’t see very often. Let's just say that I am not exactly heel-friendly. I leave that to special occasions. Weddings, Christmases...you know.

“Yeah,” I replied. “My mom made me take these modeling classes here about a year ago and now our teacher is making us wear heels today, so…yea.”

I heard someone laugh. I lifted my face to see who it was. “You? At a modeling class? That should be fun.”

“It’s not that hard to believe, Jenny,” I said sounding a little bit bitter.

I watched as Jenny and Alex linked hands. Her jaw tightened and so did her hand. Alex was just staring at me with anger in his eyes. He really does despite me with all of his heart. I didn’t know why he did, but I certainly knew why I did.

“It kind of is, Lilly,” she finally said, not breaking her attitude.

I sighed but replied in the same tone. “Whatever. I have better things to do then waste my precious time with someone like you.” I turned to Jay. “Laters, take care.”

“You, too.”

I grabbed my bag from the floor and walked away. Jenny shoved me with her shoulder, but my plans right now were not to get her back.

When I got in the room, Vannesa was about to start the class. “You’re almost late, sweetie.” She smiled and kissed my cheek.

Vannesa and I were pretty close. We’ve know each other before I got in this dancing academy because of my older sister. They are best friends even though my sister went to Toledo to study and then moved there when she met the love of her life. At first Vannesa was kind of bummed about it, but then she got over it. At least I think she did.

“All righty, girls,” Vannesa started. “Today we’re going to learn how to walk the runway. You’re going to be walking all of that,” she said pointing at the twenty-three foot long runway we used for practice. “And when you reach the end you will strike the sexiest pose you have!” And with that she smiled and wished us good luck.

Holy Franksicles, I thought to myself. I really hoped my mother was happy with herself.

First up was Amanda, a red head girl with green eyes and some dimples that people thought made her look cute. She did exactly what Vannesa instructed. She walked all the way and at the end, she placed one of her hands on her hip and the other hand facing the ceiling, and then…she walked away.

Everyone basically did great according to Vannesa but then came my turn. I’ve always been a nervous-freak and even if I say to myself, everything will be all right, somehow it always turned out a total mess. It didn’t matter if I practiced a speech a hundred times or if I sang the same song a million times, I knew something bad was going to happen.

I stood up from the floor and climbed up the stairs that led to the runway and I waited for the background music to start and walked. Everything will be ok, everything will be ok, I thought to myself and kept walking. I hated this. I was afraid of falling.

Fall.

Have you ever tried not to think about something and then that thing turns out to be the only thing you cannot get out of you head?

My right foot went in front to my left and of course, my whole body went straight to the floor. The only thing I could hear at that moment wasn’t only my ahh’s of pain. I could’ve sworn that everyone in the room, including Vannesa, was laughing at me.

“Sweetie, are you all right?” Vannesa asked in a motherly tone.

How the heck to do think I feel?

“I’m fine.”

I got up and just walked out of the runway and out of the room. My face was light pink and couldn’t stand it. Public humiliation was the worst for me and the bad news was that I was an expert at it.

I could hear her calling after me, I tried to ignore it, but I was too slow. “Lilly,” Vannesa breathed out. “Why did you go? Was it because you fell?” she asked amused. You could see her trying to hold a smile.

“No,” I lied.

Then she sighed. “All right.”

We stood in silence for a few minutes.

“Can I leave? I just don’t feel well.” That was no lie. I wasn’t feeling good at all. From being the New Kid in the eleventh grade to that fall, I couldn’t think of ways my day could get worse.