Sarah was in her typical studying position. She was lying on her bed, flat on her stomach, with her feet in the air. The bedside cassette radio played the top 40 hits at a lower volume as she studied. Sarah's parents never could understand her need to listen to the radio while she studied. It was more or less white noise to help drown out the sounds of the other occupants in the house. The resonance of the evening news on the living room television that her dad watched after work, drifted up. While Karen, her stepmother, prepared supper and the pots and pans clanged from time to time. Her little brother, Toby, was thundering down the hall, with this little feet. He made whooshing noises with his wee voice as he played with his toy air plane. Usually Sarah thought he was so cute but hearing the child's constant stomping on the floor grated on her nerves this evening. She was studying for her senior final exams. High school graduation was just around the corner and she needed top marks to qualify for a scholarship. The noise of the house was distracting her. Her mind began to wander not really seeing the text on the pages in front of her. A distant memory of a vivid dream that she once had drifted into her head. Masked men and women swirled around in dance and merriment. Sounds of laughter and music replayed in her mind. Just as she began to recall a certain male voice and the touch of a strong hand on her waist, another bout of Toby's pounding feet interrupted her daydream. She shook her head, groaned a big sigh and face planted into her chemistry book. "I can't focus", she groaned.

"I need a break! Maybe some cookies and milk will help?" she thought out loud.

Sarah made her way down to the kitchen. There Karen was preparing spaghetti. She tsked at Sarah for helping herself to a few cookies. "Sarah! Dinner's almost done, and if Toby sees you with cookies he'll throw a fit till he gets one. He barely eats half of his dinner anyway." Well if you didn't cook everything out of a box, the kid might actually want to eat. Sarah thought to herself. Karen was not an apt cook. She was too busy with work and social activities that she and Sarah's father often attended. Just like most big sisters, she watched Toby on a regular basis. If Sarah wasn't studying, she would often crack open the cook book that Karen and her dad received as a wedding present. She wasn't a bad cook. She had no problem with Toby cleaning his plate.

As if they were speaking of the Devil himself, the little three year old boy came around the corner. Sarah quickly dashed the cookies behind her back in hopes of hindering the possible series of badgering by the child . Toby, like most small children, was like a bloodhound when it came to cookies. He saw the glass of milk in Sarah's hand and instantly knew the association between the fluid and the sweet treat!

"I want a cookie!"

Karen shot Sarah an annoyed glare of 'I told you so!'

"No baby, dinner is almost ready."

"But I want a cookie!"

In seconds the stand off of wills between mother and child began to ensue. Sarah could see Karen's look begin to darken as her patience was already running thin. Toby had a fearless resolve when it came to what he wanted and didn't think of the circumstances for his stubbornness. Sarah often mused that the stubbornness must have run in the family. Sarah quickly produced her hidden cookies and handed one to Toby.

"Here, you can have one of mine!"

Toby snatched it and ran off. Sarah diffused the bomb that was the making of a terrible tantrum.

"Sarah!"

"What?"

"Why did you give him one? You know I didn't want him to have one!"

"He was about to throw a fit! What's one little cookie going to do?"

"It's the point of the matter! He's got to learn that he can't get everything he wants! Also I don't appreciate how you undermine my authority."

Sarah was beginning to get flustered. The stress of her studying and now Karen getting on her case about Toby had fanned the flames of her close to the surface temper. Karen kept on...

"I am his mother after all!"

"Well if you were home more often then maybe he go to you more!"

That did it, Karen's temper was inflamed.

"How dare you! Go to your room, forget about dinner!" Karen seethed as she pointed to the stairwell.

"Fine." Sarah huffed.

She pounded up the stairs up to her room and slammed the door. After flopping on her bed, she could hear her dad's voice ask Karen what had happened, and Karen's excited voice in reply. Soon she heard a knock on her door. "Go away!" Sarah yelled. "Sarah," it was her dad, "what you said was too far, you need to apologize to your mother."

"Stepmother!" she yelled.

"Well you need to apologize and you're grounded."

That got the girl's attention. She bolted from her bed and ran to the door. Swinging it open to find both Karen and her dad standing on the other side. "What about prom? That's coming up this Saturday!" Karen's eyes narrowed in delight, she knew she had Sarah in a corner and now she's going to pay for being a brat to her. Karen's steely gaze nailed Sarah to her spot. "No Prom!'

"What?!"

"You heard me! Perhaps this will teach you a thing or two about respect, especially in this house!"

"Dad!" Sarah whined as she looked to her father.

"Karen's right, you went too far, you have been very disrespectful lately."

"Disrespectful? How? I just told the truth! You guys are never home and you force me to babysit all the time!"

"Well if you have plans, just tell us!"

"I did have plans to go to Prom, and now I can't go, so thanks a lot!" Sarah was steaming mad now and shut the door on the two adults. She ran to her bed and screamed into her pillow all of her frustrations. All the high emotions and stress fueled the tears to fall. The girl curled herself into a ball. Exhaustion sank into her body. With tears still weeping from her closed lids, she made one conscious thought out loud before she fell asleep, "I wish I wasn't here right now..."

Half asleep she heard in her ear a familiar deep voice, "Where do you want to be?"

Sleepily Sarah replied, "Dancing..."

(A/N)

Hi y'all! Here's my disclaimer, I don't own any of these characters, I just play with them like mental dollies! This is kind of a song fic, for David Bowie's Let's Dance. I don't think that this is going to be too long, well see!

Also If anyone is interested I could use a beta please!

Thanks FFM

Ok, so, it's been a while and I was reading my first chapter and and I was thinking, 'OMG, this needs a rewrite!'

Soooo, 8 years later...I am thinking of playing with this again. I am trying to figure out how to wrap this story up. Say that I finished a story and I don't want to give it a crappy ending either, perhaps as I rewrite this it will come to me again. Thanks for your patience.

FFM