May I Have This Dance…?
The graceful dancers passed Berry while she stared at them in wonder.
'I wonder if I can dance like them?' she thought.
"Berry! Berry!"
Berry snapped out of her daydream and heard Tasuku call her name.
"Huh? What?"
"Psst!" hissed Tasuku. "Not so loud!"
Berry's attention was still divided between Tasuku's voice and the amazing dancer daydream.
"Berry…" Tasuku warned. But it was too late. Berry looked up at the sound of footsteps and met eye-to-eye with their classroom teacher, Mrs. Rupert.
"Berry Shirayaki…" she began, her voice dead calm. Mrs. Rupert advanced on Berry and rapped her desk with the ruler she was holding onto.
"Berry Shirayaki." She repeated. "I'd like to see and talk to you privately after school today."
Berry groaned when she was finally let out from school. As faithful as ever, Tasuku had waited for her till the end. Tasuku joined her as she changed her gym shoes into her outdoor shoes. Hard as he tried, Tasuku couldn't keep his amusement from creeping onto his face. Berry rolled her eyes as she got up from her seat and said, "Fine, I'll tell you. Mrs. Rupert said something about children needing to learn more discipline of whatever. AND she gave me detention for tomorrow."
Tasuku managed not to laugh and covered it up with a VERY fake cough. Then he remembered something he had wanted to ask Berry earlier on that day.
"What were you daydreaming about anyways?"
Berry sighed dreamily and Tasuku snorted warily and said, "If it's about a guy, I'm not interested. Sorry."
Berry shot him a look but didn't say anything about his behavior. "Don't worry Tasuku. I didn't daydream about a guy. But I was daydreaming about our school dance team…the one that you're in. You're so lucky to have been qualified!"
Tasuku snorted again and replied," Yeah, but I just barely passed the audition."
Berry argued. "But still! At least you got in!"
"Oh yeah?" Tasuku dropped down his voice to a whisper and leaned into Berry's ear. "I saw the result paper, and you were right after me: me with 60/65 points and you with 59/65 points! If there was room for one more person, you'd been the one to come in to the dance team, not Ichigo."
Ichigo had been the best dancer with the score of 65/65.
Berry laughed and replied," Yeah right! Berry's the best dancer! I'll never be able to get in!"
Tasuku shrugged and just said, "Not if you think like that." And under his breath (so that Berry couldn't hear) he mumbled, "But you never know Berry. Things change." And with that he walked Berry to her house and entered his own right next to hers.
The next day
A voice on the intercom made its way through the school building, but Berry scarcely had paid attention to it before, until today. "...and Berry Shirayuki, please report to the office at the end of the day." And with a click, the voice was turned off.
All throughout the day, Berry's excitement had hardly been contained. As she made her way through the throng of people, she thought to herself 'Yes! This will cut my detention time!' When she entered the office, she found Ms.Hazuki, the dance teacher, waiting for someone. As she noticed that Berry had come in, she smiled and gave a look and the secretary. The secretary nodded and winked at Berry. Berry returned her smile, but didn't have a clue about what was going on. As. Ms.Hazuki ushered Berry down the hall, she realized that they were heading for the dance room. Berry became puzzled, but decided not to say anything.
When they entered the gym, all the students (9 girls and 10 guys) turned to look and Ms.Hazuki and the new student. Ms.Hazuki gave Berry a reassuring smile and announced: "Class, from now on, Berry Shirayuki will be joining us for the rest of the year. Please give a warm welcome for her!"
The dance team clapped and cheered as Berry saw her dream unravel before her eyes.
Ms.Hazuki leaned down and whispered in Berry's ear.
"Berry, if you don't want to do this…"
Berry eyes gleamed with excitement. "Are you kidding?! This was my life-time dream ever since I came to this school last last year!"
Ms.Hazuki laughed at her enthusiasm. "All right then. If you haven't already noticed, our star dancer, Ichigo Momomiya, is not here. She broke her leg last week, and she can't attend rehearsals for our end of the year performance. We needed someone to be the princess, and we found you! Although she won't be coming to practice, she will still come to watch out final product."
Berry smiled gratefully and asked," Ms.Hazuki? How come I couldn't get in the first time? Why was my score not high enough?"
Ms.Hazuki thought for a minute and replied," No…it's not that, but somehow they found your dance…well, they thought that you weren't really dancing the dance you wanted to from your heart. But don't worry about that now. What happened is what happened in the past. All that matters is what you do NOW."
Berry nodded and said, "I understand Ms.Hazuki."
Ms.Hazuki patted her head and smiled. "Good girl. Now let's start on warm-ups!"
night of play
The backstage was crowded and loud as Shiriki Middle School got ready for their play/dance. When they were all set, the crew members raised the curtains and the show was on. As the narrator recited the memorized line filled with expression and enthusiasm, Ms.Hazuki gave a pep talk to her dancers.
"Guys, we've been practicing for a longtime for this moment! Let's give it our best!"
"Yes Ma'am!"
"Now go on stage Berry!"
Berry waltzed onto the stage. The narrator went on.
"There were two different kingdoms. One called Scarana and the other Cosmos. One day, there was a grand ball in Scarana and everybody in the kingdom was invited. At that time, there was a war between the two kingdoms, and anybody seen from the opposing land was put in chains and brought before the king. But the prince of Cosmos, Prince Tasuku, sneaked into the ball with a mask decorated with glossy raven feathers on his face. ----
"There was also the princess of Scarana, Princess Berry, at the ball. The two met and it was Prince Tasuku who spoke up first."
(here Tasuku held out his hand to Berry and said," May I have this dance?"
Berry smiled and replied," It would be my pleasure. Tasuku swept up Berry to her feet and they twirled around the stage, accompanied by other dancers. )
"But when the King found out that his daughter was dancing with a fellow enemy, he had the prince put in chains and dragged to the dungeon. The Princess found out and…"
After the narrator had finished the last lines of the story, the audience clapped, cheered, and whistled for them. Berry saw Ichigo in the crowd and she was smiling triumphantly.
After they bowed, Berry left the stage, leaving the many claps and cheers behind her.
Berry was still remembering all the applauses from the crowd when Tasuku started creeping up behind her. She had been daydreaming (again) and that was why she jumped up when Tasuku yelled from behind ,"BOO!"
"Tasuku!"
Tasuku smirked and inquired," So how did you like performing in the play?"
Berry's eyes glittered. "It was wonderful! It's just so cool to see all your hard work come to life!"
Tasuku chuckled and held out his held while bowing. "May I ask this lady for a dance?"
Berry laughed and replied," Yes!"
"…and so the story ended happily when the royal couple got up and danced under the safety of the moonlight, their silhouettes joined together as one."
---- You might notice that I took the story from one of the movies for Cardcaptor Cherry