The Quiet One

Chapter Twenty - Recital

I stare out the window stretching my legs, my heart starting to pound more and more. Today is the day of the dance recital and I'm already starting to get nervous about it even though its hours away.

"Dawn, Breakfast!" I hear my mom yell from downstairs. She took the day off to spend it with me for the recital and has no stopped talking about how proud she is of me that I'm doing a solo.

I walk down the stairs and sit down next to my brother. My mom starts to go off about how amazing it is that I'm finally doing a solo but my mind is in another place. Last night I had a dream about the night of the dance and my first kiss with Jack, it seemed so real. I dreamt that the next day he did figure out what I was and asked me to be his girlfriend right in front of the class. He pulled me up and kissed me again but then suddenly we were on the beach where Kat and I went to. The sun was setting and we were having a picnic in the sand and Jack kept taking a bite out of his sandwich and complaining about how much sand was in it. We ran into the ocean and just as my head was about to go under the water I woke up.

I poke at my breakfast a little more with twists and knots in my stomach either from the dance recital or the dream I'm not sure.

My mom stops talking and gives me a look to see if I'm alright leading my brother to elbow me in the side.

"Oww!" I jump in surprise and yell at him. He ducks as I go to hit him back.

"Daydreaming about a boy?" He teases me just making my cheeks red and anger me more. This time I get up from my chair and start to run after him.

Zack laughs at me, "I was right, wasn't I??"

This is when my mom steps in, "Zackary leave your sister alone! She has a big day today and you need to leave her be!" As angry as I am that my mom stopped me from hitting him at least Zack can't try to figure out what I was actually thinking about.

I walk out onto the back porch to avoid my brother who would never guess that I would hide outside over my room. I turn on some music on my phone and start to relax. While I know that the dance solo isn't that big of a deal but I still feel so nervous about it. So, I decided to do the exact thing that is making me so nervous... dance. I feel the beat in my body and start to dance around the yard practicing my moves for the solo and adding my own in. I hear the song come on that I danced to with the show-off kid at the dance and I start to do the dance that I did with him. I smile feeling silly dancing it on my own so I go over to a tree and start treating it as my dance partner.

By the time I go back inside, I feel much better and see that I should start getting ready soon. I go take a shower and my brother is just coming out of the bathroom when I go upstairs. I turn to go in after him and get hit by the worst smell ever.

"Oh my god Zack, did that smell come from your body?" I ask while plugging my nose.

I hear my brother laugh in the room over and yell, "I would give it a minute in there!"

Turning on the fan in the bathroom I head into my room to pack my dance bag before taking a shower. I practice my less than stellar singing skills nice a loud so that my ass of a brother can hear it.

Before I know it, Zack is dropping me off at the recital to get ready and my dance coach pulls me inside to make sure that my hair and makeup get done so we can do a run-through of the routine. My costume is a black flowing dress with my hair in a high ponytail curled down my back and Kat was able to convince me to wear bright lipstick on top of slightly more makeup than I normally wear so that I match the rest of the group. All the rest of the group is wearing bright red outfits and I stand out as a contrast.