Emelia was sitting on one of the tables in the cafeteria during fifth period. She was watching some of the EastField High Students perform some songs using Mr Beatbox (the talking boom-box), to play the music, and sometimes as a guide. Some of her friends went up to go dance for a bit, but Emelia herself was never interested.
She wasn't the most popular girl in school, and was often called Lesbian-Girl, because she could beat up all the guys in her year and the years above, and preferred sports among all else. Since Dancing at her school with Mr Beatbox was sort of a Religion, she was even further penalised for being further different.
Someone had just finished dancing to I Know You Want Me by Pitbull, on Hard: the coolest guy in school, and the best dancer. Mo. He walked out of the circle and took a seat at the side of the crowd. He pointed to someone adjacent to him and showed off a crooked smile.
"Miss Aubrey, you're up next. Pick your song." He called out, leaning back and lowering his arm.
"Oh, Mo," Miss Aubrey: the local bitch. She was the best female dancer, and because of that she thought she was better than everyone else. Not many people got along with her on a personal level, but High School Students are shallow. "You should know what song I want." She stepped into the circle. "Mr Beatbox, play me my favourite song."
"You got it Miss Aubrey!" Mr Beatbox started playing Evacuate the Dancefloor by Cascada on Hard. She finished the song with 5 Gold Stars, as usual… She played the song far too many times.
"Bet you no-one could beat me." She boasted after finishing her dance. "Now who to pick…" it's a tradition in EastField High School that when someone gets 5 Gold Stars on a song, they pick the next song and the person to dance to it. They have to dance to it, and they can't back down. Miss Aubrey traced her finger across the crowd, until she reached Emelia. "Lesbian-Girl."
Emelia jolted backwards when her 'nickname' was called out. She pointed at herself, eyes wide open with shock.
"Yeah you, Lesbian-Girl. You're dancing to Evacuate the Dancefloor on Hard. Get up here." The crowd separated between Emelia and Miss Aubrey. She had to step through now, there wasn't any choice in the matter.
She hesitantly stepped off the table and made her way for the middle of the circle, next to Mr Beatbox. She was shaking near violently with fear. She had never danced before in her life, and had severe stage-fright. Why had Miss Aubrey called her up to dance? It must've been because she had been beaten by Emelia at hockey a few days prior. That must've been it.
Nonetheless, she was up in the middle of the circle now. There was no backing down. One of her friends cheered her on, but was quickly silenced. The entire audience was waiting for Emelia to start up a riot with Miss Aubrey, but it wasn't happening.
Miss Aubrey stepped to the side-lines and ordered Mr Beatbox to start the song.
Immediately as it began to play, Emelia loosened up. She felt the rhythm and remembered watching Miss Aubrey dance to it, remembering the places where she had messed up, and how she had corrected herself later. Emelia seemed to flow through the entire song, even the Freestyle she had no problem with, and that was the part that people seemed to have trouble the most with. Even Mo and Miss Aubrey had problems with Freestyle the first time they played through songs.
But Emelia was a natural, Flawless from Start to Finish.
And to be expected, the crowd was stunned. No-one had any clue that she could dance, not even her closest friends. Mr Beatbox spouted out the score: 100%! That beat even Miss Aubrey's record of 99%.
One of her friends started chanting her name, keeping with it until some of the crowd followed her. Before long the entire room was chanting her name, not her nickname, her actual name. This was the first time that anyone in school, besides a teacher or her close friends, called her Emelia and not Lesbian-Girl.
She blushed and bowed her head. She wasn't embarrassed, she was being bashful. When she won in a fight, she gloated, but anything she thought she couldn't do and she suddenly became good at, like dancing, was a different story.
Miss Aubrey became red-faced with anger and stomped out the room. Mo, instead of clapping like a normal person, nodded his head and smiled. He was impressed, and Emelia caught him smiling and blushed all the more.