I tried to be cool. For about five seconds.
“It was amazing!” I blurted out, smiling widely. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I want to do that! I want to be that guy!”
Santee laughed at my enthusiasm and patted me on the back. “Okay then.” She studied my face for a moment. “So…want to come in and give it a try?”
Six
“Okay, ladies, facing forward. This is John, and he’s going to watch what you do and follow along. It’s his first class, and he’s just another student today, so let’s go easy on him, okay? So everyone say hi and then forget he’s here.”
“Hi, John!” The girls giggled and stared at me.
Santee turned to me. “So traditionally, you’d learn to dance by following the older dancers and doing what they do. But since you’re the oldest person here, you’ll follow the more experienced dancers.” She waved a hand around the room while the girls laughed and poked each other.
“Hi.” I waved, my cheeks burning. They were all staring, so I tried to think of what made my sister laugh and did a low, theatrical bow to the class. They collapsed against each other in fits of giggles.
“Okay then,” Santee said. “Facing forward. You too, Taylor. So, John, just try to follow along. We’ll keep it simple and take it slow.”
I nodded, shifting my weight nervously from foot to foot.
“Great. Okay…music! And let’s start with a simple step and step and—knees higher, John. Good! Feel the music, class. I want to see everyone floating.” Santee stepped in front of me. “It’s a little different for men. Instead of that single step they’re doing, you want to do kind of a double step. Don’t put your heel down, but land on the ball of your foot. So lower your heel, but don’t let it touch. No, don’t let it touch. You’re letting it touch.”
“Okay, okay.” I looked up at her, then back down.
“Stop looking at your feet! Chin up. Shoulders back. You should be dancing with your whole body even when you’re just doing simple steps. And stay light on your feet. This is how we’d dance in a Grand Entry at Pow Wow.” She looked at me, probably trying to gauge how much I knew about Pow Wows, before continuing. “John, at a Pow Wow the area we dance in is called the arbor. It’s sacred. The arbor is a special place where all of your good thoughts come back to you. If you dance unselfishly—for someone other than yourself, for someone who can’t dance or who is suffering—if you can do that, you will truly feel the music and dance better than you’ve ever danced before.”
I nodded and tried to remember not to put my heels down. She turned away as the music sped up. I fixed my eyes on the girls dancing in a line ahead of me and did my best to mimic what they were doing.
I watched intently, but their feet were moving so fast! And, as it turned out, I had absolutely no coordination at all. I tried stepping as lightly as the girls, but the fact that my steps were echoing off the walls was a little off-putting. And I kept forgetting to add the second tap of my foot that the girls didn’t have. I thought I was starting to get the hang of it when Santee changed it up on me.
“And let’s spin! Same steps, John, but we’re going to add a simple spin…now!”
I looked up, panicking, and spun to the left as everyone else twirled right. I tried to correct myself at the last second, and my feet somehow got tangled together, sending me crashing to the gymnasium floor. I heard the girls laughing around me, but I couldn’t bring myself to look. A small hand reached down in front of my burning face. I glanced up at the tiny girl standing over me, her glossy hair in braids and a crooked grin on her face. She smiled bigger, still holding out her hand. As humiliated as I was, I couldn’t help but laugh. She reminded me of my sister.
As I reached out and took her hand, she leaned down and whispered in my ear. “Don’t worry. I fell down in my first class too.”
“Really?” I asked, smiling.
“Yep.” She stood with me as I rose to my feet. “Just watch me,” she said. “I’ll show you what to do.”
The rest of the class had continued without us, so I brushed myself off and nodded at her. “Okay. Ready. Wait! What’s your name?”
“Taylor. Okay. So bounce…just bounce.”
I bounced on the balls of my feet. This was easy! Once I got the hang of that, I nodded at my mini teacher to continue.
“Good! Now step…you want to almost skip. But it’s not a skip.” She giggled at her description. “So bounce and bring your foot up and then step.” I followed her. “That’s great! Now try it in time to the drums.”
I had completely forgotten to listen to the drums. I had forgotten everything except watching my little friend as she slowly started to turn.
“Whoa…okay. Hang on a sec.” I took a deep breath and followed. I did it!
“Good job!” I heard Santee call out. I beamed and kept dancing.
“Go, John!” Taylor clapped. I spun harder. The whole class was clapping now. I was feeling pretty cocky at this point and kept spinning. Kept stepping. Kept lifting my knees. Kept listening to the drumbeats.
“Stop!” I vaguely heard someone call out, but it barely registered. I was on a roll. I was dancing! I was doing great…until I hit a cart full of basketballs and went down hard, hitting my shin and my hip on the way down.
The class ran over, hovering and cooing over me like miniature mother hens.
“Are you okay?” Taylor asked.
I rubbed my leg, grinning despite the pain. “I’m good. Did you see that? I was doing it!” I couldn’t stop smiling.
Santee grabbed my hand and hauled me up. “Well done, John. It’s a good start.”
Taylor reached over and high-fived me. “Just wait until next week,” she told me. “We’ll try adding a jump.”
* * *
After an hour of me stumbling my way through a series of steps and trying my best to keep up with the whirling dervishes that were the little girls spinning around me, I felt like my head was spinning around with them. They giggled their way out the door at the end of the class as I gathered up my things and tried to ignore the growing aches and pains in my body.
“You did well today, John.” Santee was collecting her own things and getting ready to leave. “Did you enjoy it?”
“I did,” I admitted, stretching my back and feeling a twinge of pain. It was going to hurt a lot later.
“I’m glad,” Santee said, heading for the door.
“It’s just…” I called out to her back, then watched her turn and look at me quizzically.
“It’s just what?” she asked.
“Well, I think I’d like to come back, but I was wondering if there was a class for boys.”
“Ah.” Santee nodded. “I guess it must feel a bit awkward being in a class of little girls.”
“Kind of, yeah.”
“But unless you can drive into the city, mine is the only class around here,” she explained. “I’m sorry.”
“Okay. That’s all right. I just wondered,” I said.
She turned back toward the door. “See you next week,” I called after her.
I couldn’t see how I could get to the city to take a dance class. I supposed I could ask to borrow the car. But then I’d have to explain why, and I felt like I had to see if this was something I really wanted to do before I told my parents. I had run through a long list of hobbies and sports, only to grow bored as soon as my parents had shelled out for equipment and supplies. Art classes, drama, football, hockey, a short-lived interest in scuba diving… it was a long list. Other than soccer, nothing had stuck for me.
No. I was going to pay for these lessons out of my own money and see where the adventure took me before I told my family.
Seven
“Owww!” I limped into the locker room and immediately hit my already aching hip against a huge rolling bin full of towels. “Ouch! Damn it!” I hopped around on one foot, rubbing my leg furiously. I tripped over a gym bag and just barely missed landing in Raymond’s lap.
�
��Hey!” Raymond playfully shoved me away. “Get off me.”
I landed on the bench and rolled my eyes as the team laughed.
“Right where you belong, McCaffrey…riding the bench.” Tyler, our fearless goalie, threw a towel at my head.
I caught it deftly and threw it back. Tyler missed it and turned red as the team cracked up.
“Maybe John should be playing goal, Ty!” Raymond called out.
“Ha-ha. Very funny,” Tyler called back, throwing his cleat toward Raymond’s head. It went wide, and I reached out and caught that too. The team whooped with laughter and shouted catcalls at Tyler.
“Oh, shut up,” he told them as I took an elaborate bow, wincing at the pain radiating from basically everywhere on my body.
“Ouch,” I muttered. I opened my locker, pulled off my sweats and reached for my uniform.
“What the hell happened to you?” Aiden asked, glancing at the huge bruise on my leg.
“What…oh, that?” I shrugged and tried to think of a plausible explanation. I could only imagine the reaction my teammates would have to my dancing. “Pickup basketball game last night. Things got a little rough. I took an elbow to the stomach and went down hard.”
“Yeah. Apparently,” Aiden said, eyebrows raised. “You okay to play?”
“Just try to stop me,” I said, pulling on my uniform and sitting down to lace up my cleats, trying to pretend that my leg wasn’t throbbing.
Tanner stalked into the room, fully dressed, a scowl darkening his features. “We’re up against one of the best teams in the city today. We need to be better than them, right?” he yelled.
“Yeah!” we shouted back.
“We need to be faster than them, right?”
“Yeah!” we all yelled.
“We need to be smarter than them, right?”
“Yeah!”
“Then let’s get out there and win this game!” Tanner shouted.
“YEAH!” We jumped up and followed him out of the locker room and onto the soccer field.
Central Tech was tough. They were widely recognized as one of the best, if not the best team in the city—and they weren’t above playing dirty if it would help them win the game. We had played them before, and I had spent the better part of one of those games on the bench because one of their players had taken me out with an elbow to the face. I was sore today, but I was ready to play. Or I thought I was. I suddenly yawned so big, it felt like my face was about to split in half.
“Dude!” Aiden elbowed me in the ribs. “Don’t let Tanner see you yawning like that.”
“Yeah, sorry. Just nerves or something, I guess,” I told him, mentally slapping myself awake. Luckily, Tanner had been chatting with the coach, and neither one of them saw the yawn. I got down on the ground with Aiden and started stretching to warm up my muscles for the game. It hurt. A lot. But as I looked over at the other team and saw the little weasel who had taken me out of the last game cackling with his buddies, I knew that I was going to work through the pain if it killed me. I shot a dirty look across the field and tried to work out the kinks. I had a feeling that all the stretching in the world wasn’t going to make much of a difference today.
The game started, and I did my best to keep up with the rest of the team, but judging by the constant barrage of trash talk Tanner kept throwing my way, I wasn’t doing a very good job of it. I saw the guy from the other team heading right at me with the ball and a cocky look on his face. There was no way I could let him get past me. I veered off, and within seconds I was facing him. I put my head down and rushed toward him, fully intending to either steal the ball or take him down. The other player faked left, and I shadowed him, moving closer. No way was this guy getting past me!
“Stay on him, McCaffrey!” Tanner shouted. “Get the ball!”
I looked toward Tanner, and in that instant the weasel weaved around and shot right past me.
“Damn it!” Tanner screamed. “Get him!”
My face burned. It was Tanner’s fault for distracting me! I would have had him if Tanner had just kept his mouth shut for ten seconds! I changed direction and took off after the other player, who was getting dangerously close to the goal. My legs ached as I dug deep and tore across the field.
“Go, John!” I heard Aiden call out from somewhere off to the right. I didn’t look up. I didn’t even turn my head a little. I focused on the other player and kept running. I caught him about twenty meters away from the goal. The weasel saw me coming and paused slightly, gauging the distance to the net. I dove toward him, going for the ball just as he did a fancy side step and completely avoided me. I slid right past the ball as it flew toward the net.
“Noooooo!” Tanner screamed. I had a faceful of grass and what felt like a rug burn on my knee as I turned with the rest of the team to watch the ball soaring directly toward Tyler. Effortlessly, the goalie jumped and grabbed the ball out of the air.
“Yes!” I yelled, throwing a fist into the air in victory. Tyler had just won us the game. I hated that I had eaten dirt trying to get the ball from the idiot on the other team, but at least Tyler was on top of it. Literally.
The team ran past and crowded around Tyler. Aiden stopped beside me and offered a hand up.
“Good try.” He smiled.
“Thanks.” I took his hand and winced at the new bruise forming on my other leg.
The coach bounded over. “Way to go, boys! Good game.”
“Yeah, no thanks to McCaffrey,” Tanner muttered as he stalked past Aiden and me.
I opened my mouth to tell him he shouldn’t have distracted me, but the truth was, if I’d been playing well, nothing Tanner said would have kept me from getting that ball.
“Come on. I could use a shower,” I told Aiden, limping slightly as we headed for the locker room.
Eight
“Okay, girls, arms out! A little softer on your feet, Carli. That’s right. Perfect!” Santee weaved through the dancing girls, making her way toward me. I was trying desperately to keep up and copy what Taylor was doing effortlessly beside me. I grunted with pain as I lost my balance, thanks to my still-sore legs. I stumbled and was shoved back into position by Taylor, who grinned good-naturedly.
“Rough night?” she asked.
“Wise guy,” I gasped. “I was all sore from trying to dance and then I had soccer practice. Coach has been running us ragged to get us ready for the game tomorrow.”
“Excuses, excuses,” she called over her shoulder as she twirled away, sticking her tongue out at me playfully. That kid was a force of nature, I thought, sticking my tongue out back at her. She giggled.
“Very nice, Taylor.” Santee beamed at her. “Don’t forget—the shawl should look like a butterfly’s wings. Hold it softly, like this.” Santee demonstrated for the girls. “Now step lightly. Feel the music. Flutter, girls. Flutter!”
I stifled a laugh as the girls fluttered behind their teacher, colorful shawls held aloft as they danced in a long rainbow line. Then a lone dancer entered my peripheral vision. It was Taylor, and she wasn’t fluttering. She wasn’t following the line of girls across the room. But like the other dancers, she held her pink-and-blue shawl high above her head while she spun. Taylor turned suddenly and leaped through the air, her back arched, a look of utter joy on her face. She landed as the last beat of the drum sounded and stopped, her chest heaving as the entire class stared. I burst into applause, followed by the rest of the dancers.
Santee bounded over and hugged her, then held her at arm’s length. “Where did that come from?” she asked, smiling broadly at Taylor.
Taylor shrugged as she gulped for air. “I heard it in the music,” she managed to say.
I didn’t hear Santee’s response. I was too busy gaping at the clock. Soccer practice had started fifteen minutes ago. I groaned. If I left right now, I’d be half an hour late. Coach was going to kill me. Then the team would take turns kicking my butt on the field. I headed to where I had dumped my backpack and threw it over my should
er. The music started up behind me, and Santee called for the girls to start fluttering around the room again. I turned to the door just as she reached my side.
“Going somewhere?” she asked.
“Yeah. Soccer practice. I’m already late,” I told her, gesturing toward the clock.
She nodded. “Listen, John. I wanted to talk to you about something…”
“Okay. But can it wait?” I asked, glancing at the clock and shifting my bag to my other shoulder. “I’m sorry, Santee, but I really have to go.”
“All right, but just one thing.” She handed me a flyer with a photo of a fierce-looking man on it.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“It’s the Pow Wow the girls are performing at this weekend. We’d love for you to come and watch.”
“Come on, John!” the girls started calling out. “Please? Come!”
“Yeah. Sure. I think I can make it. But I better run. I’ll see you guys there,” I called over my shoulder, nodding at Santee and stuffing the flyer into my pocket.
I’d be lucky if I could walk tomorrow after the beating I’d be taking at practice.
* * *
I wasn’t wrong. Unfortunately.
From the second I stepped onto the field, the coach was riding me. Hard.
“McCaffrey, do you have concrete in your shoes? Run!” he yelled.
“McCaffrey, are you going to let another one by you, or will you consider actually stopping one?” he shouted.
“Damn it, McCaffrey. Are you playing for our team or theirs? Because you’re basically handing them the ball now,” he shrieked.
“McCaffrey, have you slept at all? Are you getting enough rest, son? You look like you’re falling asleep out there,” he called across the field sarcastically.
He Who Dreams Page 2
