"Jessi! Dinner!"
Jessi. That's me. (Jessi is short for Jessica Ramsey.) The person calling me to dinner was my mama. I finished my grand plie, and did a quick temps leve across the room for good measure (Mme Noelle would be pleased). Then I changed out of my ballet clothes into my outfit for tonight.
I looked in my full-length mirror. I hoped my bell-bottoms and my tight icy blue polo shirt were cool enough for the circus. I'm no fashion maven like Claudia and Stacey. I'm still eleven, and my parents still treat me like a baby. (So do my best friend Mallory's parents.) Most of what Claudia and Stacey wear, my parents wouldn't even dream of letting me look at in the store! But I thought my new jeans and shirt would pass. The blue looked nice against my coffee-colored skin.
"Jessica Davis Ramsey!"
"I'm coming!" I called back. My bun was messy from practice, so I quickly fixed it and then ran upstairs from my basement studio.
Mama had made "breakfast at dinner." She was putting plates onto the table, which were piled high with toast, eggs, and bacon. My sister Becca was almost drooling just looking at the plates. I almost drooled myself. I try to watch my weight for ballet, but I'm not too serious about it (yet), and Mama is a great cook.
"Hi, honey," she said to me. "You need a good dinner. Tonight's your big night!"
"Thanks, Mama." I sat down, grinning at my baby brother Squirt, who was banging two spoons against his tray. Daddy joined us. Mama passed around glasses of milk and orange juice and sat down herself. I looked around and smiled. It was a nice family scene.
"So," said Daddy in his booming voice. "Are you excited about the circus, Jessi?"
"Very," I replied. "I couldn't even concentrate in school today!"
Mama smiled at me, showing a tiny dimple. "You'll have fun."
"Yes," I said. I took a tiny sip of my milk. Becca scowled at me from her seat. She was a little upset because Mallory managed to get her two youngest sisters tickets to the circus, and Kristy got her stepsister Karen a ticket. But by the time we tried to get Becca a ticket, they were sold out.
"It isn't fair that Rosie Wilder is famous and I'm not!" Becca whined.
I laughed. "You're too shy," I reminded her. (Becca didn't inherit my love for performing. She once fainted onstage during her class play!)
"So!" Becca protested. "Why does she get to be in the circus? It's not fair! It's-"
"Enough, enough," interrupted Daddy.
We finished dinner. At about six-forty-five, Daddy and I climbed into the car. He was driving me to the Stoneybrook Convention Center, for… the circus!
"Bye, Daddy," I said after he dropped me off. I kissed his cheek.
"Bye, baby," said Daddy. "I'll pick you up at 10 o clock!"
He drove away, and I ran inside the building. It was pretty crowded, but down the hallway I could see a sturdy figure with a mass of frizzy hair standing around looking lost.
"MALLORY!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. She ran to me. "Jessi!" she said. "Hello! You look so dibble!" (Dibble is a word my friends and I made up. It means very, very cool.)
"You look dibble, too," I told her. Mallory was wearing blue knee-length spandex, and a baggy red cardigan over a white T-shirt with little red hearts on it. Her white push-down socks had little red hearts on them, and she was wearing blue high-tops. Mallory and I couldn't look less alike – I'm tall and graceful and black, with hair the color of coffee and eyes the color of deep cocoa, where Mallory is shorter and stockier, with red curly hair, glasses, braces, and pale skin. She hates her nose and overall doesn't think she is very pretty, but sometimes I look at her and I can see that one day she'll be a real knockout. I wasn't just being polite when I said she looked dibble in her outfit!
"Claire and Margo are back in Rosie and Laura's dressing room with the other girls," said Mal. "Let's go!"
We walked down a hallway and found the door that said in tiny black letters, LAURA AND MARY ROSE WILDER. I knocked on the door. Miss Jewell, Rosie's manager, answered.
"Why, hello, Jessica and Mallory."
"Hi," we murmured.
"Most of the girls stepped out for a minute," said Miss Jewell. "But some others are here, as you can see. Come on in! Make yourself at home!"
I looked into the room and saw Stacey busily smearing lipstick onto Rosie Wilder's lips. Stacey noticed us at the same time. "Hi," she said.
"Hi," Mal and I said back in unison, just a little shyly. Stacey likes us, but she likes Claudia and Dori and Dawn better.
Just then, Kristy burst into the room, along with her little stepsister Karen (who's seven) and Mallory's sisters Margo and Claire (who are seven and five). "Yo!" Kristy greeted us. "We had to take a trip to the bathroom."
"Ooh," cooed Karen. "I am at the circus! I am in a dressing room. I am gigundoly excited!" She hopped from one foot to another.
"I am gundoly excited," Claire tried to imitate.
Abby, Mary Anne, Dori, Dawn, and Claudia straggled in, and soon we were all back in the dressing room. I was enchanted. I might be a ballerina, but I love everything that has to do with the stage. Operas, plays, singing, dancing… Becca wasn't alone. A part of me wished it were me singing the National Anthem at the circus.
But just then, Miss Jewell said to me, "Jessi, I know you have a lot of experience onstage. Would you like to lead Rosie and Laura in their rehearsal?"
Would I? My face lit up as my friends all patted me on the back. "Okay, Rosie and Laura," I said, trying to cover up my nervous. "Let's start with a warm-up."
"I know one," Shannon contributed. She looked at me questioningly and I nodded. Shannon began to sing up the scale. "You-ee, you-ee, you-ee, you-ee."
Rosie and Laura echoed her. "You-ee, you-ee, you-ee, you-ee." Then I taught the girls a strategy of doing push-ups to get rid of their stress. Together, we led the girls in a wonderful rehearsal!
Half an hour later, the circus was about to begin. The BSC was seated in the front row. I was nervous. I didn't know why. But I felt like I was a part of the girls' performance.
Mallory clutched my hand. I clutched hers and squeezed it as the lights dimmed. A ringmaster's voice came over the loudspeaker.
"Hi everybody, and welcome to the best show in the world, Markie's Circus! Today we have bareback riders, tightrope walkers, trapeze artists, acrobats, and much much more! But right now, with our National anthem, heeeeeere's … Rosie and Laura Wilder!"
