The Ghost of Lizard's Rock (18 page)

“How does she keep doing
that?” said Oliver to Jacob and Dan.

“Doing what?” replied
Jacob.

“Ms. Kelly always seems to
know what I am doing,” Oliver walked across the floor toward Allie
and me wondering how the principal continued to be one step ahead
of him all the time.

Jacob shook his head
slightly as he looked across the floor at Michele laughing
hysterically with her best friends. He knew exactly what was going
on.

Michele looked at Jacob
and placed one finger over her lips. She was absolutely having a
great time setting up her little brother.

Jacob nodded his head and
smiled in return - Oliver would just have to figure this one out on
his own.

“Enjoying some bonding
time with the principal again?” I couldn’t help but laugh at
Oliver. “It’s only the first week of school and Ms. Kelly acts like
she has been around you her whole life.”

“Yea,” replied Oliver.
“She’s right there every time I do something.”

I looked over at Allie. We
both knew Ms. Kelly was getting some inside help to catch Oliver at
just the right moment.

“Let’s dance!” shouted
Oliver loud enough for half the people in the gym to
hear.

It seemed like the entire
gym full of students went silent all at once and turned to look at
Oliver. Although they were looking mostly at Oliver, I felt
incredibly self-conscious as every eye continued to stare at
us.

I noticed Michele standing
by her friends in total disbelief over what her little brother had
just done.

I’m not sure what happened
next, but it seemed Oliver pushed Allie and me from behind to the
center of the floor.

“Come on guys,” shouted
Oliver back to Dan and Jacob.

I could see there was no
way either of them was going to come out on the floor with
us.

Oliver turned to the DJ at
the end of the gym and gave him a look that said, “Let’s
go!”

Right on cue, the DJ
brought up a Lady Gaga song and pointed his finger back at Oliver
as if he were saying, “Back at you kid.”

Oliver kicked it in gear
and began to dance like something I had never seen before. He
wasn’t just good – he was fantastic!

Allie and I stood stunned
side by side watching him do his stuff.

Out of nowhere Michele
joined Oliver in the dance. She was absolutely incredible as
well.

“Come on Kati,” encouraged
Michele. “Do what I do?” She then looked over Allie. “Follow
me!”

“
Oh well,” I looked across
at Allie and began to follow Michele.

What happened next was
totally amazing. The center of the floor immediately filled up with
students of all ages. Many were watching Michele and Oliver from
the side; others did their own version of dancing. No matter what,
everyone began to have a whole lot of fun.

My eyes scanned the gym to
look at all the faces surrounding us. I could say that I was just
looking at everyone having a good time, but the truth was, I was
looking for just one face.

Allie moved closer to me
as she danced, “Look behind you.”

I didn’t want to look too
obvious in my effort to check out who it was, so I decided to do my
version of a spin move. I lost my balance and started to
fall.

Two hands caught me in mid
air and gently stood me back up.

“Hey,” said Troy as he
slowly pulled away his hands. “Good move.”

I wondered if Troy thought
that I did it on purpose or that I was some kinds of
klutz.

Troy looked at me with
those beautiful long dark eyelashes without saying a word for a few
moments. It was as if all the sounds in the room had been muted and
everyone had disappeared - leaving only the two of us all alone on
the dance floor.

“You okay?” asked Troy.
His voice seemed to bring me back to reality from my dream
world.

“Sure.” The reality of the
music and all the bodies on the dance floor came back
again.

“Join us.” I tried to be
as casual as possible, but I don’t think he actually bought
it.

“Sounds good,” said Troy,
as he continued to dance in front of me for the next three songs in
a row.

Troy leaned forward to me
between two songs, “You look nice tonight.”

I thought my heart jumped
right out of my chest, “Uh thank you.”

It was then that I noticed
other kids starting to notice Troy and me. You could tell by the
looks on their faces and the whispers to each other.

“Ignore it,” said Troy
calmly. “Don’t let it bother you.”

I was amazed that he
actually had an idea what I was thinking.

The next half hour was
totally fun! Allie relaxed and I even noticed Eric working the
edges of the older girls. At one point, he gave me his charming
look and winked at me.

The music stopped at the
end of the song. We all stopped what we were doing and looked
toward the DJ.

Ms. Kelly took the
microphone from the DJ, “I’d like to welcome all of you tonight to
our dance. If I can get each of you to move to the sides, I will
turn over the introductions of the football team to Coach
White.”

Coach White stepped out of
the crowd and took the microphone in his hand from the principal.
Coach White was not only the head coach of the football team - he
was also the biggest cheerleader ever. In just a few minutes he had
everyone giving loud tumultuous cheers.

Then, out of nowhere, the
cheerleaders ran into the gym with their bright red and blue
uniforms followed by the band.

Something gently touched
my hand. I looked down as Troy gently took my hand in his. I looked
back into his smiling face and tightened my grip a tiny bit, and
then looked back at the coach.

All the while, my heart
skipped with joy. I made eye contact with Allie, who looked at me
with a big grin on her face. I knew there would be lots to talk
about after the dance.

The coach began to
introduce each player of the football team to the audience. The
cheers were almost deafening.

Finally, it was Eric’s
turn to be introduced. It was a whole level higher in sound. I knew
he was popular, but I never thought he was that popular.

I turned to make a comment
to Troy about Eric, when I noticed Maddison glaring at me from
across the room. She had seen the two of us holding hands and was
flipping out.

Maddison pointed to her
cell phone and mouthed the word ‘picture’ at me.

“Oh no,” the words escaped
from my mouth. “What is she going to do?”

Allie turned toward me to
see what I was talking about.

Ms. Kelly took the
microphone back from Coach White. “We’ve been taking pictures all
week around both the high school and the middle school. I think
you’ll get a kick out of these.”

A bright light popped onto
the gigantic screen behind the DJ.

Instantly, I knew what
Maddison had done! That’s why she was hanging around all the
equipment after school.

I wondered if I was going
to be thoroughly embarrassed by the first picture on the screen.
Much to my relief, the first picture was Oliver in his red
sunglasses and multi-colored hat. The entire room went into an
instant uproar of laughter.

Oliver just bowed to the
students and enjoyed all the attention.

With each picture on the
large screen, my stress went up and up. Allie suddenly figured out
what it was that panicked me. She looked across the room at
Maddison and knew exactly what was about to happen.

I glanced back at
Maddison. The look on her face told me that it was the next
picture. I took a deep breath and tightened my grip around Troy’s
fingers.

The picture on the screen
was actually a picture of Maddison at her fairy tale birthday party
in her beautiful gown and magic wand. The room went silent for a
moment as everyone wondered why the picture was being
shown.

At that quiet moment,
Maddison’s voice was heard, “What? That’s not the picture I placed
in there.”

“No its not,” said Ms.
Kelly. “Come with me.” The principal led Maddison out of the gym
and down the hallway.

Everyone that knew my
situation with the picture began to clap and cheer loudly. I didn’t
know whether to laugh or die of embarrassment, but I felt so
good.

Troy let loose of my hand
and stepped back to clap his hands as well.

“Who?” I knew someone had
switched the pictures and talked to Ms. Kelly. I thought about who
I had seen in the room after school, and then it struck me! I
quickly scanned the students until my eyes found Michele staring
back at me.

I mouthed the words,
“Thank you!”

Michele’s smile told me
everything I needed to know.

The DJ placed the
microphone back in front of him at the table, "Here's a slow one to
get us started again."

It was the first slow
dance of the night. I took a deep breath as Troy held my hand and
walked me to the center of the floor. He gently released my nervous
fingers and placed both of his hands on my waist. I responded by
slowly placing mine on the tops of his shoulders.

Our eyes remained locked
on each other, unaware of the other couples dancing near us. I
tried my best to hide my nervousness from him, but found myself
slowly calming down.

I wondered, "Is this what
it's like to have a boyfriend?" I tried to keep myself from
thinking about it, "Stop it Kati! Do you want to jinx the
moment?"

My eyes looked across the
floor to Allie standing by herself near Oliver and the other boys.
"Oh my gosh!"

"Would you like to dance?"
said a voice from behind Allie.

Allie turned to see who
had asked the question. She found herself stunned and unable to
answer.

Eric quietly repeated the
question, "Would you like to dance?" He slowly reached out his hand
to Allie.

Nervously, Allie took
Eric's hand and walked out onto the dance floor with him. He gently
placed his hands around her waist and began to quietly talk to
her.

Allie and I made eye
contact. I smiled at her with a look that said it was okay to dance
with my brother. For the next few minutes, Allie was the envy of
every girl at the dance!

Who Are We?

I awoke to the sound of
birds chirping outside my bedroom window, crossed my arms behind my
head on the pillow, and stared at the ceiling above me. The entire
night replayed in my brain over and over again. With each wonderful
thought, the smile on my face grew larger and larger.

"This must be what real
fairy tales feel like." I rolled over on my stomach, buried my head
in the pillow, and tried to suppress my giggles.

It's hard to describe just
what I was feeling at that moment, but instead of being tired from
a wonderful night of dancing and hanging out with my friends – I
was actually bursting with energy throughout my entire body and
couldn't wait to get going.

I turned back over on my
side facing the window and enjoyed this new feeling.

I whispered, "I suppose it
could have something to do with Troy,” and giggled some
more.

My eyes glanced at the
clock on the nightstand. It was just after 8 o'clock. I threw back
the covers, jumped out of bed, and ran into the bathroom. If I was
going to pick up Allie and meet the others at the old cemetery by
10 o'clock, then I’d better put on the jets and get
going.

A half hour later, I was
dressed and heading down the stairs with the old journal under my
arm. Mom was pulling a weekend shift at the hospital and Eric was
still asleep in his bedroom. I quickly grabbed an apple from the
bowl on the counter, looked at the clock, and hurriedly walked out
the front door.

I had always liked
Saturday mornings. People just seem to calm down and enjoy each
other more.

“Good morning sweetie,”
yelled Grandma Grace from the flowerbed in her front yard as I
passed by. “How was last night?”

I shouted back, “It was
like a wonderful dream!” I waved at her with the apple in my hand.
“I’ll come back after and tell you all about it.”

“I’ll bake some cinnamon
rolls,” shouted back G.G. “Bring Allie with you.”

I nodded my head at her,
took a big bite out of my apple and continued down the street to
Allie’s house.

It only took me about ten
minutes to get to Allie’s house. She was in the front yard playing
with Josh and James.

One of the twins ran up to
me and put his arms around my legs. I looked carefully at his
eyebrow, “Good morning James.”

“Hi Kati,” replied James
shyly. He turned to run back to Allie, “She knows me.”