This story is for the "Hairspray Challenge"
It meets the "Other Pairings"
Hope you enjoy it and I hope to see stories from everyone to meet the challenge!
Inez looked across the studio. When she got there the first time, she remembered how big she thought it was. Her mom had just gotten the job to host "Negro Day". Everyone was thrilled. Yes, Momma had been running her own record store back in the neighborhood, and they were pretty well off for a colored family in 1960, but this much bigger than all that. Momma would be on tv representing the community. Momma would be a star. To a 10 year old girl, this was the best thing that ever happened to them.
Inez watched Seaweed and his friends dance on that show. They were beautiful. She remembered seeing them move in that studio the first time. In the beginning, they did the dances that they did in her own livingroom or in the store downstairs. It was natural, it would flow. With the money they made, their clothes got brighter, shoes better made and with that came a pride that could not be contained. Maybe in the white houses, no one watched them, but back in the neighborhood, they were well loved. Ladies who spent their days washing floors and changing babies' diapers, suddenly wanted to help make those kids look as good as the white kids. Inez remembered stifling her envy when Mrs. Johnson brought Momma a package. Inside, a beautiful green caftan for Momma and a silk tie for Seaweed. Momma tried to tell Mrs. Johnson that she couldn't accept her gift, it was too much from this lady who slaved as a housekeeper across town, but she would hear none of it. The Stubbs family belonged to all of them. Mrs. Johnson couldn't hide her disappointment at her mother's words and so Momma conceded. She accepted the gift with the grace she always held and swore she would wear it with pride, right there on Baltimore tv for everyone to see. However, there was nothing for Inez. Never anything for her.
Inez knew, although tears came to her eyes that day, her time was coming. She could dance with the best of them. She had been dancing since she was a tot. Music was constantly in her head and her feet moved with it. Momma had tried to come up with the money to send her to ballet class. She wanted to put on the pink tutus and spin like those Russian ladies she saw on tv. She could see herself being lifted, high above a boy's head. She could fly. But the money wasn't there and she resolved to dance her way. While the other girls tried to emulate those teens who were on the show, Inez ignored it. She had her own way and her way only. One day, when it was her turn, other little girls would look at her and try to dance the way she did. She didn't want to be a carbon copy of the big girls. She wanted to shine. When she talked to Jesus during her nightly prayers, she never said the word "if" connected to being on that show, she always said "when".
"Please Jesus," she would pray, kneeling by her bed, eyes squeezed shut and hands clasped together, "When I make it on the Corny Collins Show, please let us be seen more than once a month. Please let me be at the front in the roll call. Please let me have dresses that are as nice as the other girls. Please…."
And Jesus came through. He came through in a much bigger way than Inez could ever imagine. She, Inez Stubbs stood on that soundstage, under the lights and before the cameras for all of Baltimore to see and was crowned. She became Miss Teenage Hairspray. She would always be at the front of the roll call, she would be seen every week. She would dance her own dance and sing her own song. Every eye would be on her. But when she received that crown, although she thanked Jesus for His gifts, her mind was not on any of it. As if a veil was lifted from her eyes she suddenly saw the person who put her there. Inez fell in love that day.
Okay, so he was older than she was. Okay so he was white and she was colored, but that didn't stop her from loving him. She would watch him dance and her heart would melt. He was amazing. He moved like no one else. Oh, she knew that lots of girls were in love with him. She wasn't a dumb girl. She knew that she had tons of competition for his affections. But she was different. She wasn't watching him on her tv in her house. She wasn't standing outside in the cold to catch a glimpse of him. She danced with him, she walked by him, sometimes intentionally brushing just to feel him. He seemed not to see her except when she came in. They would exchange hellos and she would walk away. But from time to time she saw him looking at her, then smile. She was sure that she held a special place in his heart. One day she would tell him how she felt and he would feel the same. She was positive. All her dreams would come true.
She doodled on her book covers and wrote his name. Small, so no one could see but her. When she had told her best friend Simone about her love, Simone laughed. Everyone had a crush, everyone felt what Inez did. Although it remained secret between the two of them, Inez never told another soul. She was afraid that girls would make fun of her for her feelings. And she knew she was right. He may have been older, but that didn't mean a thing. Many women were married to older men. To Inez, time would make everything right. She would grow up, be tall like her Momma, her waist would be defined, her budding breasts would grow and she would be a colored Jayne Mansfield, ready to give herself totally to him. She would be gorgeous; he would be handsome as they walked down the aisle to the preacher at her church. Friends, both black and white would be there to wish them well. It would make the national news and the society papers. White man marries colored girl he met on the show. She would be a Princess that day and he would be her Prince. They would become the First Family of Baltimore. She was sure of it.
When she watched Penny with Seaweed, she knew the world was changing. If a white girl could love a colored boy, why couldn't a white man love a woman of color? She didn't see, or didn't want to see the problems that Penny and Seaweed lived through. Since they were married, they were pushed away in both communities. Seaweed was definitely not accepted in Penny's neighborhood. They avoided it altogether accept when they picked Tracy up for the show. But many people in Inez's own neighborhood were less than happy with their marriage. Penny wasn't always treated as the other girls were. Oh, there was a respect because she was the daughter-in-law of Maybelle Stubbs, but behind her back, people talked. Sometimes people took their frustration about the years of being oppressed, out on this poor innocent white girl. She saw Penny in tears as Seaweed held her. She saw his anger at his own people. But for Inez it would be different. Because of who she was, because of who HE was. They would be accepted everywhere.
So as she danced she watched him. During breaks she would gaze at him speaking with the other kids. She shivered when he put an arm around her and spoke into that microphone announcing the commercial breaks.
One day she would tell him what he did to her. And on that day, he would say, "Inez, you are beautiful and I love you."
One day, she would be Mrs. Corny Collins.