Today was the day we celebrated Black History Month. Everybody was ready to either perform or watch us perform. I was ready to dance, speak, and act in front of everybody. I had gotten everything settled on my end.
The step, the dance, the character, and the lines were all memorized. I know I had a lot of things to do but I was able to work it out with my teachers. I even had gotten the volunteers off my back. They had all agreed they were going to make their own step in a short amount of time.
I was glad when they laid off a little. If they do better than me and my group then I don't mind shaking their hands. As rude as they were to me I can't hold that grudge against them. Plus I might like what they have planned.
I was about to go on stage with the speaker once everybody was settled. The people that were performing had gone all out with the effects and costumes. I had a way of getting dress very quickly for each performance I was going to do. My first one was going to be the step, the dance with Olivia, then with Austin, and to close it off the play.
One of the members from the A.F.R.O Association Club was fixing the speaker for me. I had to have something pinned to my clothes so it would be easier for me to talk on stage. I rather have the microphone so that way I can just put it down and go change, but I had to have a little one attached to me.
The girl that was attaching it to me seemed like she didn't want to do it. I'm not sure if she was having a bad day or if she was just irritated. Now that I look at the girl I don't think I've seen her around here before. She was an inch shorter than me, with light brown skin, dark brown eyes, she had a toned body, deep curly hair, and glasses.
"Okay all done," she said finishing up the last touches. "Thank you!" I said fixing my outfit. "Umm no problem and good luck," she said a bit unsure. I went out on stage and I could hear people talking until they saw me in the middle. "Shhh!" I said into the speaker as I heard some people giggling.
"Welcome to our first Black History performance, we have our students who were nice enough to come to perform for you guys. First, we will welcome the King of Pop, MJ!" I spoke before leaving the stage. I know that was short but that's what the teachers told me to do. We have limited time to give a long speech, so we have to keep it under 30 seconds they say.
The lights had gone off and then the music started playing. It sounded like Billie Jean that was playing. The question was who was going to be dancing to it? Huey said something about Riley and Ceasar's songs of choice.
When one of the lights came on it was focused on Riley, who had on a white shirt, sparkly jacket, gloves, tap shoes, and the hat. He actually was dressed like Micheal Jackson. The only thing he was missing was the hairstyle. All of a sudden another one of the lights came on to focus on Ceasar. He was wearing the same thing Riley was wearing.
I guess Huey wasn't kidding when he said he'll assign them to the same song. Ceasar and Riley just looked at each other confused at one point until they started taking turns dancing. It's like they were trying to outdo each other. The audience seems like they were enjoying the little competition they both had.
Their dancing couldn't top the king himself, but they were still doing good. People behind the stage were even moving to the beat. Some of the boys and girls varsity basketball players had come up behind me with one basketball. Cindy was in the front along with Austin who was silently laughing at Riley and Ceasar.
"Me and Jazmine's are gonna be better," I heard him say to Cindy. I forgot to mention, Austin and I are also doing a Michael Jackson dance as well. Unlike Ceasar and Riley, we were the only ones that picked one of the songs they didn't pick, which seemed to require a partner. We're going to be performing 'The Way You Make Me Feel' which shouldn't be hard. We had to keep the dance short since we are on limited time.
"Okay, I can't wait to see you two dance," Cindy said excitedly. "What exactly are you and the basketball players doing?" I asked her. "Oh we're going to do that basketball scene from Scary Movie 2," she said now spinning the basketball on one of her fingers. I hope she doesn't drop that!
"The one with the Wayne brothers?" I asked as she nodded. "Hell yeah with the Wayne Brothers," Austin said excitedly. As soon as the song ended, Riley and Ceasar did some type of move that made the audience go nuts, then they started to walk around each other saying they did better. Riley walked off on the opposite side while Ceasar walked off where we were at.
"I know I was better," Ceasar said hyping himself up. "Yeah, you were dude, good job!" Austin said trying to give Ceasar a high five, but surprisingly, Ceasar had ignored it and walked off. That's odd, Ceasar never ignores a friendly gesture. "Is there something I missed?" I asked him as Austin just shook his head.
"Okay!" I said before I left to the stage again. "Let's thank Ceasar and Riley for performing Billie Jean by Michael Jackson. Now let's welcome our basketball team who will be doing a scene," I said before walking off again. Before the basketball team ran onto the stage Cindy had given me the ball and told me to just pass it to Austin. I hope he won't be far away from where I'll be at.
They were all kinda in a semi-circle and when the crowd settled down I had passed the ball to Austin. It wasn't that good of a pass since it bounced a little. Austin grabbed the ball then looked around at everybody and shrugged his shoulders. He started to do some of his basketball moves and then he passed it to Cindy.
When they weren't bouncing the ball or doing some type of trick with it they were dancing, but I could still hear the sound of a ball bouncing. How is it making sound if it's not bouncing? I started to kinda look around to spot Hiro at the top controlling the sound. I forgot Hiro was in charge of that station.
I then had looked behind me to see the other steppers. They were dressed up in some pretty outfits and looked ready to perform. "Oh hi Jazmine!" one of them greeted me with an evil smile. That person was none other than Makayla, Ceasar's envious ex-girlfriend.
"Hi, Makayla!" I greeted back with a smile. I don't feel like dealing with this today. "I see that you're in your performing outfit," she said looking me up and down. "Oh no this isn't my performing outfit, this is my speaker's outfit," I said correcting them.
"Huh, we'll see," she said. "Good luck!" I said as she looked at me confused. "Why are you so nice even after all that has happened throughout these past couple of weeks?" she asked crossing her arms. "There's no point in being upset with you guys for a lifetime as you do with me. If you do better, then you do better. I will proudly congratulate you for your performance, time, and hard work," I said as she and the other girls just looked at me still taken back.
"Okay..." she said a bit unsure as the rest of the group was still shocked by my comment. The basketball team seemed to be done with their performance and left the stage. I got back on stage to announce the next group coming up. "Let's give our Varisty Basketball team another round of applause," I said as everybody started clapping and cheering again. "Now you will be presented with a performance by the Panthers," I said leaving the stage as the girls came onto the stage.
I had to go change out of my clothes into my dance uniform. Since this was on short notice, we had to use our old uniforms from one of our previous dances. It was a green camouflage overall that consisted of a black crop top, hat, and combat boots. These uniforms were used to celebrate Military Appreciation Day!
I rushed to the dressing room to quickly change into those clothes while the dance team was ready. They seemed to be going over the counts, as they should have. I had to remove the speaker and clothing from my body to switch over to the other set. When I had finally got all of it on I had to put black stripes across my cheeks. Before I left the dressing room, I looked in the mirror to see if I had looked good before leaving.
The speaker was in my hand because I had to pass it off to somebody. I couldn't find the person who was supposed to take my place. I felt like I was about to stress trying to look for this person until I had bumped into Huey; who was caring a clipboard and had headsets towards his ear. I would ask why he can't just place it over his head, but that reason is already shown.
"Huey!" I nervously said smiling at him. "Jazmine, is there something I need to help you with?" he asked as I nodded. "I don't know where the other speaker is at, and I'm supposed to be going up next with my group," I told him as he just took the small speaker away from me. "It's alright, I'll just notify Hiro to introduce your group," he said pulling out his phone.
"Thank you so much, you are a lifesaver," I breathe a sigh of relief. "No problem, by the way, what is your group called?" he asked me as I proudly said: "The Crocs!" he then seemed taken back. "I don't mean to be slow, but do you mean the animals or the shoes?" he asked as I rolled my eyes. "The crocodiles silly! At first, we kept debating with the animal we were going to choose and we didn't think we could do panthers since it was taken, so we went with the crocodiles. It matches our uniforms and it's part of Africa," I explained.
"Okay, I can't argue with that point in choosing the animal...but break a leg!" he slightly said until he just quickly said the last part. "Will do so," I said before heading off to my team. They were all watching the other girls step while the helpers were getting the fog machine ready. I got right in front next to Olivia to see the girls stepping still. "I ain't gonna lie they not bad," Olivia said a bit nonchalant. The girls started to agree with her and I could tell they were kinda nervous.
"You guys don't get nervous, I feel like we worked hard on our step in a short amount of time, even with all the drama that was going on throughout that time," I simply said. "Easy for you to say, we had to deal with them and our other upcoming routines," one of them said a bit frustrated. The dance and cheer team started to agree with that statement and I couldn't blame them all for being stressed out.
"Ladies!" Olivia said as they all quite down. "We shouldn't have no excuses as to why we can't complete our step. We have been in similar situations like this and I'm disappointed that you're having self-doubt," she sternly said.
"Yes, I know that it might be odd for us to be doing something like this for this specific celebration, but we can do this! If we stick with what we have learned over the past couple of weeks this will be open and shut," I said as I saw them smile. "If you're loud and put attitude to it as we do in our other dances then will get past this, capeesh?" Olivia said making her point as everybody nodded.
The Panthers had seemed to be done with their performance because they left the stage. The crowd was cheering for them and then you could hear Hiro start talking. "Okay everybody settle down, we have another group coming up, give a round of applause for the Crocodiles," he said before the lights dimmed a bit. The helpers started to turn on the fog machine causing it to be a little on the ground.
"You ready?" she asked as I nodded. "Let's do it," I smiled as we slowly started to stump on beat to the center of the stage. We were silent for a few seconds until Olivia nicely projected her voice chanting: "Ladies!" she said as the others started to slowly step to the stage on the beat. Once again we stood there in silence with our fist connected and up to our torso. Formation by Beyonce started to come to rile it up a little.
We needed a starter song, to begin with, and everybody agreed on this one. Once it got to her singing that's when we begin our dance. I seen in some videos that they begin with a little dance first. When the song had stopped the girls were instructed to throw their hats off so we can get started.
There's no point in keeping our hats on if later on their going to fall off with what we do next. We started to heavily step away from each other and Olivia chanted something. I don't exactly know what she said but I knew what to do. She started to do a step that we were going to follow along with as soon as she got done.
This led us purposely to fall to grand flawlessly. Then we had to do the count that was on the ground and we had to sit up at the end to give a little attitude. The crowd started to cheer again until another song came on and we had to get up off the ground and dance.
When we were almost to the end we had to line up to do an exit dance. The lineup took a lot of flexibility for us to transition in. I was glad when we were finally off stage because that was one of the performances I was stressed about. Judging based on the crowd cheering I think we did a pretty good job.
"We did it!" one of the girls said in relief. Everybody just started to kind of hug each other because all the hard work had paid off. Now I must go get ready for me and Olivia's duo dance. I jogged to the dressing room to go change into the clothes that were laid out for me.
I went to the small one, which is the one nobody ever goes in because of some rumor that somebody died in there. Normally, I would be afraid to go in, but since there will be people around the area I'll be good. Plus, I kinda want some alone time.
I was about to strip off my clothes until somebody came in. That person is none other than Huey! "Huey, what are you doing in here?" I asked a bit surprised. "Making sure no pervert comes in here and does anything funny with you," he said a bit nonchalant. "I'll doubt that will happen," I rolled my eyes while unstrapping my overall. "You know someone had died in here right?" he asked me.
"I'm aware, but since there would be people around I thought it would be okay to come in here, plus I wanted to be alone. Knowing me I would be in the locker room socializing with other girls," I said as he couldn't argue with that. I was about to remove my overall but I had to look at him. "Would you mind?" I asked wanting him to turn around.
"Why you act as if I haven't seen you naked before," he said. "I know but it's weird for me because you tend to get a little horny at the moment," I nervously told him. "I don't get that horny, but I'll turn around out for your sake," he simply said as I smiled at him.
"Thank you!" I said kissing him on the cheek. "Okay, see this is how it gets started," he said exaggerating a little bit. I giggled at his mumbles as I started to take off the clothes I currently had on still. I grabbed the clothes I was going to wear for my next dance and quickly put those on because I felt like Huey was peaking.
"Okay you turn around now," I told him as he turned around to look at me. He didn't seem too happy with what I was wearing. "Something wrong?" I asked. He looked like he wanted to lie so bad, but knowing Huey, he will say the truth and nothing but the truth. "Yes, I don't like the outfit," he simply said.
"Why it's cute," I sadly said observing myself. "It is on you, but don't you think it's showing a little too much skin?" he asked crossing his arms. "This is the type of stuff I wear when I'm performing," I told him. "A leotard, but don't you guys sometimes wear leggings and a shirt?" he asked me.
"That's when we're practicing, but why don't you like it?" I asked him as he observed it. "For starters, it shows your figure, gives your ass a perfect shape, and there are a bunch of perverts around here," he simply said. "Other than that I like it, I just wish I can only see it instead of other people," he said looking away from me.
"What you want to do some nasty things to me later on?" I asked getting a bit closer to him. I was literally in his personal space trying to go for a kiss. "I mean I wouldn't exactly mind doing anything later on," he said obviously had no problem doing it. He leaned in to kiss me and he got a little into it.
I didn't want this to escalate, so I had bit his bottom lip. "The fuck!" he said pulling away as I licked my bottom lip. "What was that for?" he asked rubbing his bottom lip. "To stop it from escalating," I said before walking past him to exit. That was until I felt a hard slap on my behind. "Ow!" I jumped by surprise. "What was that for?" I asked him as he simply said: "A little payback for teasing me," then he had left out of the room.
I couldn't help but rub my butt a little bit. I don't know why, but that felt nice. Like I want him to do it again but at the same time, I don't want to ask him. I always wondered why horny couples on social media would do this to each other because it looked like it hurt. The girls wouldn't mind their girlfriends or boyfriends coming by to slap their behinds.
I found that annoying to watch until Huey and I had coitus. Since we weren't going to add sex into our semi-relationship at the time, I had been having dirty thoughts and easily get turned on. I remember every time Ceasar came by and would be affectionate with me, I would get a little turned on. I didn't want the others, especially Huey, to find out I was feeling this way.
I know it's normal for teens, but I never wanted to have that type of mindset in my head. So I would try to avoid it the best I could. I left the room to see Olivia was leaning against the wall, most likely waiting on me. "Finally, you made it out," she said.
"Yeah, I was talking to one of my friends," I said as she smirked at me. "You mean your boyfriend, right?" she asked as I was taken back. "Excuse me?" I questioned her. "Come on Jazmine don't play dumb. I was waiting by the door for you and I heard you guys chatting with each other. Plus it's obvious you two are dating," she exclaimed.
"How'd you find out?" I asked her. "For starters, I saw you guys at the museum with each other, then you had your little glow up in November, and it was obvious he liked you," she said stating the obvious. "How are you able to read people?" I asked a bit confused. "It's my special power plus my dad is a detective and I find it fun to observe people," she smiled. That explains a lot!
"For a second I had gotten confused because I didn't know if you and Huey were dating or if it was him and that other girl," she chuckled to herself. When she had said another girl my ears had perked up. "Other what now?" I requestioned her. "Oh you didn't know, that new student that transferred, who's in the same club as him definitely has a crush on him," she said as it was so obvious.
"Which student?" I asked of course curious. I at least want to know who has permanent eyes on Huey. The reason I say permanent is because it's odd for a girl to like him for a long time. They look at his looks before he shows them how he truly is towards people. "I can't even think of her name but she was the girl that was fixing your speaker before you went on stage," she said thinking about it.
"Are you sure, she looked like she didn't want to be anywhere near me," I had definitely found that hard to believe? "Yeah, she doesn't like to be around anybody, honestly she reminds me of Huey. Just how mean and political they are," she said comparing the two of them. The way she describes her does sound like Huey.
"It's not that he's mean, he's just very truthful, and knowing the people he's surrounded by could give a rat's behind with what's he tells them. In some cases, the truth hurts, and sometimes you just don't want to hear the truth," I simply said as she nodded.
"To be honest, it kinda gets on my nerves when she preaches about it and tells me and other kids we're going to die early because of our life choices on what we eat and do daily," she said quite offended. "Like does it look like I give a fuck, I rather die hot and young," Olivia exclaimed. "Olivia quite down, we don't want people to hear how offensive you're being," I said as she seemed to calm down a bit.
Quite a few kids were looking in our direction though. I was hoping they weren't listening too much to our conversation. "But to answer your question I think her name is Aaliyah," she said now remembering it. Aaliyah, huh!
We were the next dancers going to go up on stage after Ming and her group were done reenacting Waterfalls by TLC. It was her and two other girls with her on stage. They had the same hairstyles and clothing in the music video. I was surprised Ming wanted to participate in the show, but she did tell me that she wanted to dance to Waterfalls.
The song sounded like it was coming to an end as they were dancing off stage. "Okay let's give another round of applause for the TLC group," Hiro's voice had come on. "Now let's welcome our dance captains to the stage who will be performing some iconic songs," he said as Olivia and I had got ready.
He has to begin the song for us to enter on stage. We heard the song Humble come on and we came onto the stage as we heard people cheering again. This song always got everybody riled up before a game. We came onto the stage flipping and landing on the beat. Then you could hear Hiro remixing it a little bit letting us know its transition time. Then you heard Every time the Beat Drop come on and we had to do the little dance to that song until he did another transition to the song Tap In.
Honestly, we're just doing dances to songs that were trending last year since we're not far into this year. This next song was probably going to get us suspended. The song WAP came on and you could hear the crowd get a little bit louder. I never did this dance because my parents said I couldn't, but since my parents weren't here I decided to do it. They shouldn't be too mad because we weren't going to do the inappropriate version.
After that Body had come on which means we were halfway there. Only five more to go than I was going to be done with this dance. The next five that had come on before we left the stage was, Swimming Pools, Up, Obsessed, Savage Remix, and last but not least I Bet U Won't. Two more to go and then this will all be over.
Before people could come up to congratulate us I went to go change once again. When I passed by Austin I could already see he was in his suit. I had to go get into my black tight-fitting dress and heels. We were going to be next after the other group that was about to go up and perform. I think Austin and I were going to be the last group to go up before we have to switch to the play.
I'm glad that all I have to do is transition and say a short monologue. I'm going to be playing Florence Griffin Joyner. If you're wondering, yes I do have the outfit, and the other girls that run track are a little upset they didn't get her. I was able to get in and out of the dressing room with my dress on.
I went over to where Austin was at so we could go up next. I'm not surprised that the group didn't last long with their performance. What they did was reenact a scene from a Tyler Perry movie. It was basically open and shut for them.
They had left the stage and Hiro said "Let's thank those kids," he awkwardly said. I don't think he knew the group's name. They looked upset when they left the stage. "Okay next we have our last MJ duo," Hiro said. "Is everybody doing a fucking goddamn MJ song," I heard somebody mumble under their breath. I looked from who it was coming from to see it was Aaliyah who commented on it.
I just rolled my eyes and walked onto the stage with the song playing. This was going to have a little attitude in it. I turned around as Austin did his thing and I waited for mines to come up. I usually don't like to be overrated but in this case, I had to.
I turned around and did my thing in my heels. This was hard for me to master within a limited amount of time. I had tripped so many times trying to do one specific move at a time. Austin had to help me balance myself at some points. I don't think the audience noticed because we did so smoothly. There was this one move I wanted to do the splits on the ground but with the type of dress, I was wearing I couldn't do so. So instead Austin had to pick me up and swing me around.
My feet started to hurt a little bit in these heels but luckily the song was almost over. I could hear it about to end so Austin and I had casually walked off stage as the lights went off. Last but not least the play. I just went back to go change into my pink track outfit and wait in line for my turn to go.
As I passed by most of the people who ran track were looking at me upon envious. They can hate on me as much as they want but they won't break me down. I went on that stage feeling no shame and said my biography I wrote about Florence Griffith Joyner. The teachers and the club still wanted us to look back on what the actual heroes and inspirational people made an impact on.
I went to the center of the stage when it was my turn and said: "This is a biography about me, Florence Griffith Joyner, and how I made history. I was a normal little girl that hadn't found my talent yet, until the age of seven when I realized I had the gift of speed. As time pass by I ran in a lot of races at school or even outside of school.
I got a scholarship to California State University. I made it to the Olympics and before I retired, I made a world record in the 100 and 200-meter dash. And the good thing is that nobody hasn't broken my record yet.
I got married and retired the year after that. In the 1990's I had a daughter and a few more years later I decided to get back into the game with the track in fields. When I made the world records much thought I was on drugs or steroids, but I proved everybody wrong by taking eleven drug tests. I retired once again and on September 21, 1998, I unexpectedly died of a seizure. And that's my story of how I made history." and that was the end of my performance for the day. I was finally done with everything. Now I can go home and relax!
When I left the stage to let the other person after we go next I couldn't help but notice Aaliyah talking to Huey. When she was chatting with him she seemed a bit flirtatious. I don't know if I should pretend like I didn't see anything or say something about it.
Whatever she is doing I just hope Huey doesn't fall for it!
Thank you for reading! Sorry if you noticed, I'm not that good at writing performances.