I had spent almost four years hidden in high school, with no one knowing anything about me. Every lunch hour at the School of Industrial Arts, the students organization called the G.O., held dances in a make-shift gym and lunchroom.
____The school building was old and rickety and the gym/lunchroom was cluttered with pillars supporting a low ceiling. There wasn't much you could do there in the way of sports. In a normal school you'd be able to use the gym for basketball and other sports. But not in S.I.A. If you had to jump more than two or three feet, you'd find yourself in the classroom on the floor above.
____Being very short for my age and extremely thin, my self-image suffered. With the little confidence I had, I thought I couldn't do anything well. But there was one thing I knew I was very good at, and that was dancing. It was my older sister's fault. When I was younger, she would use me as her partner to practice dancing techniques.
____Eventually, I learned how to dance as well as she did. Yet, I never danced - not for the three and a half years I was at S.I.A. Insecure? Shy? No. I was just plain scared to death to take my first step onto the dance floor. But, oh how I wanted to.
____Every lunchtime, the kids in school would see me standing around the periphery of the gym watching the others dance. After awhile no one paid any attention to me. I become just another one of the many supporting pillars of the building. The music would tug at my heart until I felt it would burst if I didn't dance. If only I could, just once, show how I could dance with the best of them.
____In my sophomore year, I was still painfully short. I began to fear I was going to be a midget. Miraculously, the summer before my junior year, I grew at such an alarming rate that I couldn't judge distances anymore. My mindset was that of a smaller person. But when I returned to school that Fall, it was a different world. Girls began to notice me, giving me second looks. By the time I was a senior, there were a few times I came very close to taking that first step onto the dance floor. But I never did.
____Then one day, I was electrified by the sweet charms of a girl - a Spanish girl with black eyes. Yes, black eyes. I had never seen anyone with such eyes. Her long, wavy hair matched the color of her eyes and framed her dark, creamy skin. She was held together by a perfectly balanced figure. Whenever I'd see her by chance I would swoon inside. When I passed her in the narrow halls I would breathe her into my arms.
____It was about five weeks before my graduation. While I was watching the dancing during a lunch break, I suddenly had a cold awakening that this was it. There would be no more tomorrows. If I was going to prove myself, it had to be now.
____She was standing at the other side of the room, sneaking a flirting glance at me, when something inside me pushed me across the room. My mind was reeling. This wasn't me standing next to her. How did I get here? Who was this stranger standing under my thoughts? Her friends had seen me approach and tried to warn her, but she couldn't read their eye signals.
____The music began. It was Johnny Ace, singing to a slow 'Fish'. I took her hand. She turned quickly. Seeing it was me, she softened and became more nervous than I was, which made me feel more confident in what I was doing. We didn't say a word to each other. She just slipped into my arms. The curves of her body melted and reformed, molding into mine.
____We moved as one onto the dance floor. I felt the heat and softness of her naked arms. My thighs rubbed against hers to the rhythm of the music. We were so close that I could feel where her thighs met and where her soft, hot mound pressed hard against me, throbbing, clouding my mind. I couldn't tell if it was my heart or hers pounding against my chest. Each exhale felt like a blowtorch on my upper lip. My legs weakened and began to lose the beat to the music. It took all my willpower to stop from shaking. But all was lost. I had no control over what was happening to me.
____For a brief moment I was able to look away from her and saw the other kids in one blurry swoop. There was shock and surprise in their faces - shocked to see me out on the dance floor and surprised that I danced so well and so sexually. I had achieved the affect I had dreamed about. Except I didn't count on one thing. During one short, sweet dance, I had fallen in love with this wonderful girl.
____After the dance, I walked away and never saw her again.

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