Shimmy by Kari Jones

Author:Kari Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV031020, JUV039060, JUV039220
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2015-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

Eleven

That night I dream of dancing again. This time I’m wearing the right costume, but when I walk onto the stage, the bra snaps open and falls off, and I’m left topless in front of everyone I know. I wake with a start. My sheets are all tangled at the bottom of the bed, and I’m drenched in sweat. My heart is racing. It only takes me a second to scroll down to Angela’s name, but then I stare at my phone for a while before turning it off and lying back down. I want to talk to Angela more than anything. I’m not sure if she’ll want to talk to me.

In the morning I get up in time to catch the bus, and I sprint to the stop and hop on a second before it pulls away. I make my way down the aisle and wait for Angela to get on at the next stop.

“What are you studying?” I ask as she pulls out her books. Her stuff spills across the seat, so I have to squish myself in next to her to sit down.

“English,” she says.

“Oh no! I totally forgot about the English test. Something more to worry about.”

Angela sighs. “What are you worried about?”

Now that she’s asked, I’m not sure I want to talk about it, so I say, “Dance.”

“I figured, but what specifically?”

She still sounds grumpy, almost like she was expecting me to complain, so I don’t say anything until she says, “Lila? If you don’t have anything to say, I’m going to get back to studying.”

“It’s the costume,” I say. “I hate it.”

“I thought you always loved Dana’s costumes,” Angela says.

“Usually, yeah, but this one’s different. It’s all white and gold. It’ll make me look like a ghost. Plus, the skirt has a huge slit up the side, and”—I take a deep breath, because this is really the part I have a problem with—“the top’s a bra.”

I expect Angela to gasp or something, but she blinks and says, “A bra?”

I nod.

“Ouch,” she says.

“Yeah.”

“I like Amala’s costume better,” I say.

“Yeah. I love it,” Angela says. “It’s not really professional-looking though.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. Forget it,” she says. She points her nose back into her book, and I am left staring at the top of her head.

Angela isn’t sympathetic in the least. How’d she feel if she had to wear a stupid white skirt and a bra?

* * *

The English test is hard, and I know I haven’t done well. When it’s over I head to the garden to wait for Angela to join me, but today when she comes, she’s with Jonas and Nini. So I guess she hasn’t said anything to Nini yet.

“You finished quickly,” Jonas says to me.

“Yeah.” I don’t want to talk about the test, because I know I failed, so I don’t pay much attention as Nini and Angela and Jonas go over the answers they gave.

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