Middle School Dances~A Photo Story

 

“So, Kit, are you going or not?”  I was genuinely curious.  My sisters and I sat in Nora’s room, getting ready for the dance (and maybe gossiping a little bit?)

Before Kit could even respond, Lindsey spoke up.

In her sweet voice, she said, “I think she should, it’s not like it’s any more boring than sitting at home diving into a deep internet hole of conspiracy theories” as if Kit wasn’t sitting on her laptop two feet away from her.

Amelia scooped her hair up into a high ponytail and dowsed it in hairspray.  “Let’s just go to the dance, and then Kit can go if she wants to!”

Finally, Kit looked up from her screen that was no doubt filled with creepy facts about world history, “I like that idea.”

Nora jumped in, “You should just goooo,”  she whined.

“Last time I checked, it’s a free country and I can make my choices without any input from y’all!”  she snapped.

“Yeah, but aren’t all your volleyball friends going to be there?”

“No, they have an out of town tournament,” Kit answered as if I should know the schedule of the California volleyball club.

One by one, Nora took out her curlers, and hopped up, “Let’s just go, ok!  And Kit is coming with, it’s not healthy to stare at a screen so long, you know…”

Kit groaned, I sighed, and we headed out.

…

We walked through the halls, heels clicking, and entered the gym.  It felt surreal to be at school when it was dimly lit with fairy lights and all the students were dancing instead of complaining about homework.

Some sort of mediocre rapper pumped through the speakers, and Nora bopped her head silently as she filled her cup with cherry punch.  The school had finally gotten used to having a world-famous pop star in their middle school.  She was easily the most popular girl at school, so she hurried over to the bustle of girls with too much cherry punch and too much makeup.

I was left in the middle of the dance floor.  The same place that I had done 30 situps at PE a few hours ago.  It felt strange.

Everyone danced.  That being said, nobody danced well, but they danced.

Except for one person.

I was about to tap Lindsey on the shoulder, when she gasped.  I backed away, but I heard her whisper to her friends, “There he is…”

And there he was. Evan had arrived to the dance.  The Evan that everyone dressed up for.

All eyes were on him, and people stopped dancing for a few seconds.

But then he took a step forward.  And then another.  Everyone looked at him.

Everyone was hoping he would take a few more steps towards them, ask them to dance.  Nobody would groan when the slow song came on, because he would be out there.

They had all put on far too much makeup to be chosen by Evan Landings to dance.

I snapped back to reality, and saw that he wasn’t only looking at me.

Only one person.

 

 

A random girl gasped, “he’s going to ask that girl in the sweatshirt to dance!”

He kept taking a few more steps, and Kit gave him a strange look.

I could hear Amelia whisper a sweet, “Awww!”

I couldn’t catch what he said, (no doubt spectulations would be floating around the school for a month) but he said something.  Kit nodded her head, and followed him…

Everyone watched with absolute wonder as he took the only girl there without a dress to the middle of the gym.

They waited awkwardly, and then a slow song came on.  The sweet melodies came in through the speakers, and the unthinkable happened.

He danced with Kit.

It looked really awkward, but it looked really fun at the same time.  Like it didn’t matter that half the school was watching.

When the song turned back to mediocre rap, he let go of her.

And I was just happy that my sisters and I could tell her, “I told you so…”