Here's the next chapter. This one is from Jeanne's POV. I'm swapping Jeanne and Carmen around for the rest of the story. You'll see why in this chapter. Thanks for your review, Dana.
There was a reason why I'd stayed behind. Amber had glanced at me, but not said a word, even though she'd denounced Carmen's and Crystal's clothes. It was strange, and I wanted to speak to her, so I hung around until she and the other kids were allowed to go. They had to go to school, since it hadn't finished. The other councilettes didn't really speak to Amber, and she walked alone. I fell into step beside her, waiting for her to notice me. Finally, she glanced up at me. "Oh, hi." she said in a careless tone.
"Hi." I said, trying to think of something to say to the girl. Finally "OK, first things first. Why did you say those things to Tracy and the other girls?"
Amber shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I was just following Mom. She's always saying things like that about Shelley and them." She gave me a curious look. "Who are you, anyway? I've never seen you before, I don't even know your name, and now you turn up here out of nowhere, defending the Whale and a bunch of fashion disasters."
I scowled at her. "Amber Von Tussle, stop being so catty. You could at least refrain from telling them in that way. How would you feel if someone told you that they thought you couldn't even dance? Oh, and my name is Jeanne."
Amber flushed, knowing exactly what I had just implied. "I can dance! If I couldn't dance, I wouldn't be on the show, would I? Jeanne." she added my name. I could tell I'd hit a weak spot. She knew very well that she was no natural dancer, and was ashamed of it.
"Amber," I said quietly. "You don't have to be perfect. Do you really want to dance?"
She nodded. "Of course! I want Mom to be proud of me. And I don't want to lose Link. He means everything to me." So that was it. I remembered that she lost Link to Tracy anyway. But she wanted Velma to be proud of her. Was that all she wanted?
"But do you want to dance because you love it?" I ventured.
Amber hesitated, then admitted "Not dancing itself. But I like being one of the nicest kids in town. You know what I mean?"
I nodded. She meant popularity. "Shouldn't you be on the show because you actually want to dance, though?"
It was obvious Amber hadn't thought about this at all. She didn't blush this time-in fact, she went paler, for a moment, then recovered. "Whatever. Anyway, leave me alone, loser." I shot her my best guilt-trip look, then ran to catch up with Tracy and the others.
"What did you say to her?" Carmen asked curiously.
I wasn't sure I wanted to tell what had passed, but I gave my friend a little summary. "I found out that she doesn't really want to dance as much as she wants to be popular. I think I hit a nerve when I implied that she couldn't dance."
By that time, we were at the school. We all ran into the class we had at the time. (We all enrolled at the school with the same classes as Tracy.)
The teacher didn't even turn around as she spoke. "Cutting my class, girls? I trust it was for something really important?"
"It should've been." muttered Tracy, sounding pretty depressed-well, for optimistic Tracy. We all got detention slips (except Penny, who was in a different class and didn't get caught), which led to the scene where Tracy learns the dance from the black kids that got her on the show. Me and Carmen were happy to watch, but Crystal tried to copy.
"Can you show me another one?" Tracy was asking the boy, who I remembered was called Seaweed. Of course, he did the dance introduction I remembered. Tracy did her own, then Crystal did a little dance improvisation on her own. "I'm Crys-tal, Cas-san-dra, John-son!" she said, doing a step for each syllable.
The group kept dancing. I was so caught up in it, that I jumped when the door opened to reveal Link. Then I smiled when I remembered the movie storyline. He went up to Tracy. "Hey," he said. "Corny's hosting the Hop tomorrow night. If he saw you dancing like that, he'd put you on the show." On his way out, he accidentally bumped into her. "Sorry, li'l darlin'." he said, in a way that could melt a girl. "Hope I didn't dent your 'do." And with that, he walked out, Tracy staring after him, as the bell rang for us to get out of detention.
Penny walked up to walk besides. "Hey, guys. Trace, I was looking for you."
Tracy wasn't listening. "She can hear the bells." Crystal whispered to me, in perfect sync to Tracy singing those words.
"What? What are you talking about?" Penny asked her.
"Well, don't you hear them chime?" Tracy sang.
Penny shared a glance with Carmen. "Chime's not exactly how I'd put it."
"More like grate." Carmen grinned.
"Can't you feel my heartbeat keeping perfect time? And all because he..." The song went on. Tracy was thrilled that Link had actually said more than one sentence to her, and complimented her dance skills.
As Link had told us, the school dance on the next day was hosted by Corny. Some of the boys off the show were acting as a band, Link among them, since he was the most popular among the girls. I recognized the song as a song written for the movie called "Ladies' Choice", and as I listened to the lyrics, I felt like all the other girls in the school that wished they were in Amber's place in that respect. Link wasn't really my type, but I had to admit, he knew how to draw a girl in, and his voice blew me away. I noticed Carmen and Crystal watching him, spellbound, although Crystal looked a little more distracted.
There was a cord separating the black kids and the white kids, but that didn't stop Tracy from talking to Seaweed. He gave her permission to borrow his dance to wow Corny and get on the show. As she began dancing, I saw Link watching her, and at the back, Amber was clearly appalled at the way her boyfriend was watching my friend. "Link!" she cried. I went to stand next to her, trying again to talk to her.
"Painful watching your boyfriend watching another girl, huh?" I whispered.
"What are you here for?" she asked, annoyed. "I'm not interested in talking about why I'm on the show."
"I'm not asking that." I said calmly. "I'm simply trying to talk to you."
"Well, what makes you think I'll talk to you?"
"Maybe because you don't have anyone else except your mom who actually chooses to talk to you? I know for a fact that the council girls only hang out with you to stay on the show." No sugar-coating. It's time Amber had a few home truths delivered to her as well as doing some of the deliveries herself. Not that she even bothered to aknowledge them.
The dance began Tracy's fame in Baltimore.
