A brief intro to this story:
- this is my first attempt writing short story
- this story was proudly presented the first prize in a competition
Enjoy
***
THE BIG NO
“I don’t think this is going to work. You guys
are great in the beginning, but now it’s a bit too much. What’s with the
holding hands and the movements of your body? This is an open event, where new
Form 6 students are welcomed into the school. We do not want them thinking that
all these…” Mr.Yeoh opened his arms to motion all of us. “…is agreed by the
school. Wei, you have to change this or else the whole dance will be banned.”
As he stood up and walked away from the rehearsal, bit by bit our hopes and
dreams went along with it.
Wei,
obviously still trying to convince Mr.Yeoh, ran towards him and tried to talk
things out with him. We followed her lead, but I was not as keen as the others.
I heard Wei trying to explain to Mr.Yeoh how this was THE tango, one of the
oldest ballroom dance there is and how it showed only poise and grace as some
of the dancers nodded earnestly in support.
“You
are not making my job any easier. I say alter the dance steps a little bit and
take away the ones with body contacts. It’s not that dancing the tango or
anything is not good; it’s just that we don’t want anything to happen. So I
have to say No.”
By
the looks of Wei’s face, she was preparing for strike two. But before she could
open her mouth, I did something that I thought was a good idea…at that time.
“Yes
sir!” All heads turned to me, in shock, in panic? I gathered as much courage I
could and I continued. “I think Mr.Yeoh is right, we should just change the
dance steps. As the tango part’s the only thing that caused us so much trouble,
we should cancel it, to save trouble.” At the finish of that sentence, Chris
threw me a dirty look and Wei’s face grew three times darker.
“Yes, finally
some sense into you guys, you should listen to your head prefect. Come up with
something simpler and I’ll approve it if it fits. I have to go now.” Mr.Yeoh
took the chance to escape as Wei and some of our friends followed him close
behind, still trying to convince him.
“Gosh
Wendy, must you do that? Well, I know that you can’t dance the tango, but must
you stop us too? Don’t you think it’s a bit too much?” May, Sheng’s tango
partner, scorned at me.
“Yea
Wendy, I thought you would at least be a team player. Now you betrayed us!”
Chris joined in.
I
could only look down on my feet, feeling the angry eyes of my friends judge me.
I was pulled away from the scene by Jason who knocked my head once, followed by
Sheng who knocked my head twice.
“Ouch!
What’s that for? Don’t they see that I am trying to help them?”
“Well,
not like this.” Jason looked at me with an emotionless face.
“Congratulations
you idiot, now you made yourself the enemy of our group. You know how much
effort they put into this…”
“Shut
up Sheng, what do you know? Their efforts are already wasted; at least they
should do the sensible thing and give in. It’s not that hard.”
The
voice in Sheng changed into a calm tone. “Listen to me. I know what you are
trying to do; you are trying to help them so they could see how wrong they
were. But sometimes, when a group of people are trying to pursuit their dreams,
do not stand in between them. Let them take rejection from the teacher; there’s
nothing you can do about it. Learn to not take everything into your own hands
will ya?”
I
looked down in silence as I realized that he made perfect sense.
***
CONVINCE
Which
bring me back to my comfortable sofa with the TV in front of me. I was enjoying
my peaceful night of ‘the day I betrayed my dance group’ when Sheng rang me up.
“So?
Do you want to dance with me?”
“What
are you saying?”
“DO
YOU WANT TO DANCE WITH ME?” Sheng’s tone was stressed as he repeated the
question.
“Why?
What about what Mr.Yeoh said? What about May? I thought she’s your dance
partner? What would she become? Even if I did, there’s only 1 week left, the
time’s not enough for us to practice at all! What about the others? I thought
our friends hated me…”
“Do
not worry about others. Think for yourself. Put everything aside and just
answer the question, do you or do you not want to dance with me?”
“I
don’t know…” I felt as if my heart itself was breaking down, having a furious
war with my brain. To follow dreams or to follow what was right… Images of
prefects, school teachers, friends and dance members flew through my head and I
was getting dizzier by the second. “I’m just, I’m not sure about anything now.
I’m very confused.”
The other line
went silent for a while. I thought that this is it. He’s going to hang up on
me. It’s what I have wanted right? To not make a fool of myself?
“Which
would you choose: to regret the things you've done, or to regret those you did
not do?”
His
statement stunned me. I have not thought of it from this point of view. To put
dancing the tango in this light made me think. Would I regret doing something
that I have done or will I regret not doing something that I want. I think that
made my choice much easier…
***
THE FINAL WEEK
I
stood face to face with Sheng. He was looking at me so intensely that I was
feeling butterflies in my stomach. He was 20cm taller than me, still wearing that
baggy school uniform with his messy hair spilling down from his head. I had to
look up to meet his gaze. His eyes were somehow different from others, tired
eyes enveloped in long eye lashes that are hard to read, eyes that had seen too
much. They were matured eyes perhaps. I was wondering the amount of stories
stored behind these eyes…
“Oh
my… I was up all night playing online games! My eyes are so tired now. They are
even swollen! Anyway, why are you starring at me?” He yawned and asked me
cheekily.
Damn
my easily flushed face, now I am turning red.
“I
was not staring at you! Just, tell me how to dance. We don’t have all day you
know?” It was true. I was late for
practice by half an hour just to convince Mr.Yeoh. It was not easy. I had to
pull every string to pull this through. But in the end, he gave us a much desired
chance. Everyone was over the moon when I told them the good news.
“Hmm,
I think you have to hold my hand now.” Sheng cut off my thought and he held up
his hand. He looked as if he was as nervous as I am, but he tried to maintain
his cool by attempting indifference. Everyone was looking at us now. Great,
more pressure.
I
placed my hand into his grasp. He held me tight and slowly turned me around. I
stopped in front of him and once again, stared into his eyes.
“You
are going to do a back bend with my arms supporting you. Can you trust me?” His
eyes stared softly at me, as if asking for permission.
“I
guess so.” Is the only thing I could manage. I closed my eyes and held my
breath as I bent backwards slowly. My muscles tensed as I turned to my
flexibility for support. The free falling felt like a thousand hours. I kept my
eyes shut as I waited for my body to topple. Just as I was about to touch the
ground, I felt a slender arm holding up my back. I gasped and opened my eyes.
“You
are heavier than I expected…” Came a strained voice inches above me. He laughed
but I noticed the appearance of green veins under the skin. Other dancers giggled
as I scrambled upwards and scowled at him.
“I
thought you’re strong! Damn you.” I tried to look crossed but a small grin
crept to the side of my mouth.
“Alright,
alright, let’s try this again…”
***
FINALE
He
was, undeniably, very handsome in his grey dinner shirt with white collar and
cuffs, black and polished leather shoes and his wild hair was tamed by wax into
a modern looking hairstyle. He was standing proudly at the other end; his hands
were held up in some sort of a Spanish bullfighter pose. He turned his head and stole a smile at me as a bead of sweat flowed down his face.
Ignoring
the crazy disco party my heartbeat was doing, I put one foot in front of the
other and I walked in cat-like steps towards him. I remembered the dance steps
by heart…
Starting
with the boleo as the legs whip in a circular motion, a twist of the hips,
lapis as the leg is extended with toe pointing to the floor, back bent and
pulled up in a furious manner, turn in a circular motion as he holds my hand,
then we walk and do the amague fake by changing direction at the last second,
then we pause in a pose, move in to a close embrace and we both do a giro turn,
we doubled frente with his hand holding mine in a reverse embrace and he held
me tight as I bend my back once again and lift my leg up 180 degrees with the
toe facing the sky…
“…nobody, nobody but you!” The world seemed to
have paused when Wonder Girls sang the last of the lyrics. He placed his warm
arms around the small of my back as I wrapped my arms around his nape. I felt
his warm breath on my face as he looked at me with his brown, magnificent eyes.
Emotions flowed as we stood there transfixed into each other’s glace. I felt my
heart beating fast once more, my blood pulsing, my face flushing… Is this where
the kiss happens?
Obviously
not...
ROARING
thunder of applauses appeared out of nowhere, and we were brought back to
reality. The crowd was cheering loudly and clapping their hands red. I looked
around at my dance members as they flashed their teeth at me smiling. I was
overjoyed and within minutes, we were hugging each other on stage. The moment
was purely magical. We lined up in a single file and we bowed.
***
2 YEARS LATER
“…so
mom, that’s how I met Sheng.”
“That’s
a sweet memory my dear. These memories are treasures… Smile on the ones you
create.” I looked at my mom as she smiled at me.
“So, how about
dinner? Are you joining us?”
“Yes,
but can I invite Sheng too?”
“Sure
dear.”
END
***
*characters/scenes from the story are altered to suit the criteria of the competition, if I've said anything to offend anyone, I sincerely apologize for the discomfort caused*
Thanks guys for all the support given.
I would like to extend a special thanks to NYS, without his kind guidance and suggestions, I would not have completed my story. My heartfelt gratitude to Jason, Hannah, Bangrou and some of my friends for proof reading my story. Thanks to my blogger friends, especially Rach and Ruii Lynn for reading this piece of crap. And of course to my mom, for being there for me.
I love you guys. :)
JCG
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