Jenni James - Pride and Popularity

This time it was a gigantic white teddy bear that dwarfed the whole deliveryman. When he walked in with it, all we could make out were his two jean-covered legs beneath it. The bear had a large card wrapped around its neck with a ribbon. The front of the card read, “Mine?”

The guy carrying the bear walked cautiously into the room and then stopped. I looked down at his shoes and thought they looked familiar.

When I heard Alyssa gasp, I looked up to see Zack’s head as he peeked around the bear. Just then the whole room gasped, and I could hear exclamations of “Zack Bradford?” and “No way!” or “It can’t be!”

Alyssa’s chair scraped against the floor as she ran to throw her arms around Zack’s side. Immediately, he dropped the bear at his feet and scooped her up in a hug. He even spun her around and everything. The smile on her face could’ve outshone the sun. Then Zack did the most unbelievable thing ever. He set Alyssa’s feet on the ground and kissed her, right in front of the whole class and Ms. Bailey. It was awesome. We all hooted and hollered and caused such a disturbance that some students from the other classes came in to see what the commotion was about.

Thank you, Taylor Anderson. I was so happy for Alyssa, I almost cried. I looked at Ms. B., who was discreetly wiping at her cheeks. It would seem our teacher had a romantic side we never knew about.

Alyssa wasn’t the only one to be surprised on Valentine’s Day. Collin had also planned something special for Madison. Since Zack intended to drive Alyssa home—he let us know he was never letting her out of his sight again—Madison and I took off right after school. She was really excited and wanted to get changed before Collin got to her house. Apparently the time of the surprise wasn’t a surprise, because she knew he would be there at precisely 3:35.

Once I got home it hit me that I had nothing really particular to do that day except teach my dance class. I was so happy for my friends and their Valentine dates that it left hardly anything for me to pity myself over. Okay, I am human, and I did wonder what it would’ve been like for me, had Taylor been my boyfriend. Would he have surprised me with loads of gifts like Zack, in front of the whole room? Or would he have taken me somewhere nice and romantic that didn’t cost a dime? Personally, I am for the nice romantic stuff, but a card or box of chocolates wouldn’t have gone amiss. What am I thinking? There’s no use regretting something I can’t change. Besides, he’ll never notice me again anyway. Why would he when he has a whole slew of girls waiting to be his?

Obviously, my little pep talk would’ve worked a whole lot better if I didn’t have a new reminder of Taylor to contend with twice a week. My own personal Valentine surprises consisted of two very separate things:

Surprise one: Ms. Chavez had told me as soon as I walked into the studio that she had received a phone call that morning from her friend, who said the audition committee had recently reviewed my audition tape. I had been accepted into the ballet scholarship program in Arizona State University next fall!

Surprise two: I also had a charming new four-year-old ballet student by the name of Georgia Anderson. Luckily for me, Mrs. Anderson enrolled her daughter in my dance class the one day I found the hardest to dismiss Taylor from my thoughts. Really, this whole “fates set against me” thing is getting a little hard to live with.

The little blond girl was adorable. She only reminded me of Taylor when she smiled, laughed, or looked at me with her sky blue eyes. And it took about four weeks for my heart to stop beating erratically in simultaneous dread and hope that Taylor might decide to drop her off or pick her up from class. Since he never showed up and his mother always did, I eventually began to chastise myself for ever thinking he might’ve shown an interest in his sister’s ballet school, or more importantly, her teacher. I never stopped looking out in the hallway for him, but I did stop expecting him to be there.

As the days passed I got attached to Georgia, who had fast become one of my favorite students. Not only did she amaze me with how quickly she picked up ballet, but I also loved how kind she was to the other girls. The longer I taught her, the more I saw in her a reflection of her family.

I had to admit I had probably misjudged the Andersons. Not only did it seem that they taught good principles to their daughter, but she never once looked down on the other children and she was constantly encouraging them with compliments. Many days I would watch little Georgia share with or bring presents to her new friends. One week, she brought pretty princess ballerina stickers for all of the girls. Another week it was sparkly ribbons for their hair. And for the week of St. Patrick’s Day, it was a plateful of four-leaf-clover-shaped cookies that she and Taylor had made.

“Wow, Georgia.” I gasped as I held the plate. “Did you and Taylor really make all of these?”

“Yep.” Her blond curls bounced up and down. “Taylor even let me stir ’em an’ frost ’em!”

Curious about this different side of Taylor, I asked, “Does he always make cookies with you?”

“Yep, when he’s home he does.”

“When he’s home?”

“Yep. It’s been wheelly fun, cuz he’s home more now cuz he broke-ed up wif his gill-friend.” She bounced from one foot to the other.

“Did he have a new one?” I asked.

“Not since Kylie. She didn’t not like me anyways. She never let me frost da cookies if Taylor wasn’t not lookin’.”

“Really? That’s not nice.” I frowned. Maybe Kylie is more mean than I thought.

“Yeah, Taylor found out ’bout it an’ he got mad.” Georgia did a little spin in place and watched her skirt twirl around her.

“Because she wouldn’t let you frost cookies?”

“No, cuz she didn’t not like me.”

“Oh.” Yeah, I can see that not going over very well with Taylor.

Georgia held one of my hands. “I like you, though.”

I looked down at her smiling face. “You do?”

“Yep. I told Taylor you should be his gill-friend, cuz I likeed you so much.”

I choked out, “Y–you did?”

“Yep.”

“Does he know who I am?”

“Oh, yeah. He says you’re da best dancer in da whole world!”

“He did?”

“Yep. That’s why I told him you should be his gill-friend, cuz you can dance so good.”

“What did Taylor say?” Oh my gosh. What did he say?

“About what?” Georgia dropped my hand.

“Um, about you wanting me to be his girlfriend.”

“Oh, he said you didn’t not like him.”

“He did?”

“Yep. Is that true? You don’t not like my brov-ur?” Her Taylor-blue eyes pled with mine.

“I, uh, no, it’s not true.”

“So you like him!” Georgia began to jump up and down.

“Um, of course. Your brother’s very nice.” I gently placed my hand on her head, trying to calm her.

“Yeah. He does nice stuff for lots of people.” She began to sway back and forth under my hand as she watched her skirt swish.

“So, um, do you know why your brother doesn’t have a girlfriend?”

Swish, swish. “Nope. He says he can’t not have one wight now.”

“Why?”

She shrugged. “I dunno. That’s just what he says.”

“Is that why your mom comes and picks you up and not Taylor?”

“I dunno.” Georgia began to jump again. “Can I pass the cookies to ev-we-one? Please, please, please?”

So much for getting more info. I laughed. “Sure.”

It was the end of March when I noticed Georgia had left her dance bag at the studio. After a brief hesitation, I decided to take it over to the Anderson home. I knew Georgia would be really upset if she didn’t have it. At every ballet class, she told us about her practices at home. She would have a hard time practicing without her shoes.

I remembered vaguely where Taylor lived, but it had been years since I had been in his neighborhood, so I took the address with me just in case. After a few wrong turns and a couple of U-turns, I eventually made it to his street. The three-story plantation-style house had seemed big before, but now it was simply breathtaking. I can’t imagine living in a house like that! It’s like a fairy tale.