“Morning,” the teacher stated as the boys and girls sat on the floor. She was clearly a substitute; she was an older woman who didn’t look all that fit, or like she had ever done much dancing. “Ms. Conway is out, so I’m going to be here today.” The room’s whiteboard had her name, Ms. Cobb. “I’m gonna take roll, so please let me know where you are.”
The names were at least a chance for Jonni to figure out who was who, particularly given that next to nobody looked familiar in the room. “Hayden Alice? Jacki Belle?” It was hard to tell the girls from the boys, especially in a class like this one. “Corinne Black?” Everyone was pretty. “Jasmine Cooper? ...Brennalynn Coppersmith?” Cute name, Jonni thought. “Jade Duncan?” Wow...Jay, a dancer? Feels like something from another world. “Callie Hill?” Wait, what? What about— “Jonni Marina?”
“H-here,” Jonni stammered, caught off guard. Jonni Marina? Realizing that, like before, he wore his ID on a lanyard around his neck (typical at many schools these days), he decided to give his student ID a close examination. There it was, Jonni Crystal Marina, plain as day. He also noticed his ID photo was him in his bra.
The substitute teacher continued to rattle off names. Dakota McKenzie, a boy who was all dolled up. Sugar Moss, a Black girl with poofy hair and dangling hoop earrings. Lauryn Rice, Aubrey Sherwoman, Alyssa Vine, Michaela White, Mycah Wildrose.
“Alright, looks like we’re all here, ladies, so today we’re going to be watching our film from our last meet.” Jonni was happy to not have to dance right away, but it was going to be interesting to see what they actually danced competitively. The lights were turned off and their performance played over the projector. It was actually a nice, hip-hoppy routine with high-energy (yet feminine) music, and it was very clear who the two lead girls were: Corinne and Dakota. Jonni was in the front row, but this squad definitely had two leaders. It was enjoyable to watch, and the ladies all wore flowy outfits that accentuated their moves. The performance was played several times at different angles. Jonni wondered what the others were like. Obviously this was a crew that had mostly been together for years.
When that video ended, and it seemed like it was quite some time later with the replays and slow-motion views to look for missteps and errors, Mrs. Cobb played another.
“This is Mount Valley,” she explained. “Ms. Conway wanted you to look at them because they’re not just our natural rival, they’re our toughest competition.” It was another performance, with a different style, but the footwork seemed a little better. “He wants you to notice the footwork of their lead dancer; he thinks that’s why the judges favored them last weekend,” she read off a piece of paper. Indeed, after the full performance, there were a lot of slow-mo shots of their solo section. “Ms. Conway says he believes that if we can get to this level, we can beat them at regionals.” Jonni had not noticed until then that even the dance teacher, a boy, was being called Miss.
His unease at trying to follow all of this was jolted when the bell rang. The students grabbed their bags and purses and filed out.
As Jonni walked toward English class, one of the ladies from dance began walking alongside him...
