Chapter 3: June 2008

Written in August 2008, based on true story yet again.

Tuesday, June 23, 2008

 

                “Help! Save me!” I squealed as I hid behind my friend, Adriana.

                “What are you hiding from?” She asked, skipping away from me so I couldn’t hide.

                “I don’t know!” I said, when, in reality, I did know. “Just save me!”

                It was the day of the 2008 recital. I was in three dance classes: two ballet and one tap. Adriana and I were backstage, as it was the dress rehearsal; the performance was after.

                “No,” Adriana giggled, grabbing my hand. “Come on, let’s go to the audience. They still haven’t started, and we can watch at least eight dances before Isoline.”

                “Fine,” I said, dropping Adriana’s hand and running alongside her. “As long as you save me!”

                She rolled her eyes as we walked along the rows of seats and sat down next to my mom. The dress rehearsal still hadn’t started.

                Adriana and I watched the teachers set up. Finally, it started. The first dance was to a song called Liza With a “Z”. Our ballet class’s assistant teacher was in it, so we didn’t mind when they repeated the dance three times for unknown reasons.

                When the curtain opened for the start of the next dance, I had to stop myself from jumping out of my chair. “Save me!” I screeched, hiding my face behind Adriana’s chair.

                “What is the matter?” she asked. “Stop hiding!”

                I turned my face to the stage as the music started. I gulped, keeping my eyes on Chandler the whole time. After the dance was over, I covered my face in my hands.

                Adriana finally got me to pay attention, just in time for a random hip-hop number with about four people in it, one of them being a guy.

                Adriana turned to me. “He’s kinda hot,” she said, grinning.

                “Adriana! 13-year-old boys who do hip-hop are not hot!” I tried to convince my friend.

                “That dude is.” She giggled. I rolled my eyes.

                After the dance was over, we were told to go backstage to get ready for our ballet dance. As I waited in the wing of the curtains for the music to start, I couldn’t concentrate. When we finally started, I was able to focus enough to do the steps, but my mind kept wandering to Chandler.

                After my first ballet dance, I realized with dread that my tap dance was next. I normally loved tap, but I hated the dance and the song, and Chandler was in the dance, so I would definitely not be able to pay any attention to what I was doing.

                I sighed and ran to the dressing rooms to get my costume. I changed quickly, then met up with my class. I sat down to put on my shoes.

                “Shoot.” I said as I pulled the lace on my right shoe and it snapped, coming off the shoe completely. “Victoria!” I hissed to the first person I saw, who was also in my class at school. “The stupid lace broke.” I held up the shoe.

                “Holy mushroom,” she said, bending down. “Just tuck it inside the shoe. No one will be able to tell, and if you put it on the side it won’t bother you.”

                “Thanks.” I said, looking around to make sure Chandler wasn’t watching. I quickly pushed the lace inside of my tap shoe just as they called us to go onstage.

                I started the dance on the same side as Chandler. I walked onstage a girl named Amanda and sighed.

                During the whole dance, I tried to keep as far away from Chandler as possible and ran over the steps in my head, aware that everyone else in the dance was probably doing much better than me.

                Glad when the last word was sung, I rushed offstage to change for my second ballet dance. Adriana met up with me. She had been watching from the audience.

                “That was an awesome dance! I loved it!” She had on her orange sparkly dress for her jazz dance, Let’s Get Loud, which was later in the show.

                “I messed up the whole time.” I said, walking towards the dressing room. I looked around, hoping Chandler wasn’t anywhere near.

                “I couldn’t tell,” Adriana grinned. “And your costume rocks, by the way.”

                “Thanks. I don’t like it much. Too shiny.” I looked down at it. It was a black dress with turquoise slits on the bottom. “But your costume is cool.”

                “When’s your next dance?” Adriana asked.

                “Number 42. I have a long time.” I replied.

                “Cool. My dance is number 34. You can watch it before yours.” She giggled.

                “Okay. Just let me change first.” I ran into the dressing room.

                When I finished, I was surprised to see Adriana was outside waiting for me. “Shouldn’t you go find the rest of your class?” I asked.

                “Probably. I only have three more dances before it.” She waved to me and ran to the stage.

                “Break a leg!” I called, making my way towards the audience. I sat down.

                As soon as Let’s Get Loud started, I immediately fell in love with it. The costumes, which were different colors (three of lime green, yellow, blue, pink, and orange), the music, and the dance. I tried to watch Adriana, as I was supposed to, but couldn’t take my eyes of Chandler. He was wearing lime green, so bright and sparkly that it was hard not to look at him. I sighed.

                When the dance ended, I rushed to find Adriana.

                “That was amazing!” I said.

                “It was?” she asked.

                “Yes! I loved it!” I told her.

                “Thanks,” she grinned. “Come with me. I have to change for my tap dance. It’s right before yours.”

                “Funkytown?” I asked. “Isn’t that the song from Shrek?”

                “Yeah, it is.” She told me. “And it’s an awesome dance too.”

                “Who’s in it, besides you?” I asked her.

                “Everyone from Let’s Get Loud.” She told me.

                This meant Chandler was in it. I grinned.

                “Why are you grinning like that?” Adriana asked.

                “Aaaaah!” I screeched. Chandler was walking past the door, wearing the most sparkly silver vest I’d ever seen. “Save me!” I hid behind Adriana.

                “What?” she asked, finishing putting her hair in a side ponytail.

                “Uh, nothing.” I lied.

                “Come on!” she told me. “Watch from the wings.”

                “Okay.” I said, following her. I met up with some more people from my ballet dance and stood inside the right wing and watched the dance.

                Again, I only watched Chandler. He was absolutely amazing in Funkytown, too. After the dance was over, I shook my head and tried to remember my ballet dance.

                I did the dance better than my other two, or at least I thought so. When it was over, we still had another hour before the real performance was to start. Adriana and I still had to change back into our Isoline costumes, then we could hang out in the Green Room for a while.

                After we changed, we waited for our friend Sarah to arrive. She was in Isoline as well, but she wasn’t at the dress rehearsal. She arrived ten minutes later, and I suddenly remembered that Sarah sort of knew that I liked Chandler, while Adriana didn’t. I had made the mistake of hiding behind Sarah the last time we saw Chandler before the recital.

                As soon as she walked through the door, I screamed, “Hide me!” and hid behind her. Adriana gave me a quizzical look.

                “She’s been doing this all afternoon.” She told Sarah, who grinned and whispered something to Adriana, who immediately started laughing. “You’re hiding from Chandler?” she asked me, giggling.

                “Maybe.” I said.

                “You like him, don’t you?” Sarah asked me.

                “Sssh.” I said, putting a finger to my lips and pointing inside the green room, where Chandler was sitting on a table, eating a slice of pizza.

                “Let’s go tell him!” Sarah said. Adriana nodded enthusiastically. They high-fived each other and ran into the green room. I stared at them in horror, then rushed after them, grabbing Adriana and dragging her backwards.

                “Nooooooo! Nonononono!” I told her. She frowned at me. I ran back to grab Sarah.

                Just then, somebody called for Chandler and the rest of the people in one of his dances. I hid behind the open door as he ran out.

                I giggled, stepping from behind the door. “Looks like you’ll have to wait before you can embarrass me.”

                “Who says we can’t embarrass you?” said Sarah, grabbing Adriana. They ran up to Sydney.

                “Amelia likes Chandler!” they said, then ran up to McKayla. They repeated the same thing with random people until we got called to go to the stage for Isoline.

                I sighed and did my best. After all, it was the end of the year recital.

                Afterwards, I hurriedly put on my tap costume and went into the green room and nonchalantly picked up a program. Scanning the names of people in my tap class, I noticed that Chandler’s name was next to mine. I flipped the program upside down and went to find Adriana and Sarah. They were in the dressing room, talking. As soon as I walked in, they stopped.

                I ignored the suspicious behavior and said, “Come on!” They followed me, giggling.

                I held up the program to show Adriana.

                “What?” she asked, squinting.

                “That.” I said, pointing to the list of people in my tap class. Adriana’s eyes widened and she started giggling. She ran over to Sarah, who was suspiciously standing outside the door.

                Adriana ran back in, and I stood on the other side of the door, watching to see what she was going to do.

                The breath caught in my throat and my stomach lurched when I saw what she was doing. She ran up to Chandler, thrust the program into his hands, and pointed to my tap dance. She then whispered something in Chandler’s ear (which was “It’s meant to be!”, as I found out later) and ran away, leaving Chandler staring at the program with his mouth open. Adriana hissed something to Sarah and then ran back inside to Chandler. I backed up slowly, my throat dry. Sarah, still at the door, pointed to where I was heading. I heard Adriana yell, “Come on!” Without any glances back, I turned and ran into the dressing room and shut the door, hoping there was nobody who needed to get in. I hid behind the racks of costumes, not sure what Adriana and Sarah were up to.

                My stomach lurched once again when the door swung open. Sarah and Adriana were dragging Chandler in the door. They shoved him the rest of the way in. I gulped. The only sounds I could hear were my ragged breathing and Adriana and Sarah giggling. Chandler shrugged and narrowed his eyes, then ran out the door before Adriana or Sarah could stop him. They ran after him.

                After about five minutes, I opened the door again and peeked out. No sign of Adriana, Sarah, or Chandler. Just then I heard my tap class being called.

                As I waited onstage with my head down in the starting position for the dance, I could feel Chandler looking at me. I tried to calm my ragged breaths. The music started, and I tried to concentrate on dancing, not the fact that Chandler was only five steps away from me half the time.

                The rest of the night passed in a blur. I finished both of my dances, then ate a very late dinner with my parents. The next day was my birthday, and so I thought of that day as a very strange early birthday present from two of my very strange friends.

                And that is the very awkward story of how I came to have a crush on Chandler.

Author's Note

More rubbish! Don't you just LOVE rubbish?
Okay, you don't. ;)
Sorry it's so long. I can put it in two parts if you'd like. :)