who cuts whistles out of the trees and dances ecstatically to his own tunes.” He continued down the street and did not look back. “Dance with that!” Justin said as he picked up his pack. “Oomph,” he managed to mumble.īones, looking terrified, placed both his hands in a strategic position to protect himself, but Justin just glared at him. Zac, all two hundred pounds of him, crumpled in a heap on the sidewalk. He wheeled around, tightened his right fist, then, with a whump, he planted a direct blow to the center of Zac’s gut. “Your mama twice the man you are,” Zac sneered. Justin was not in a mood to play the dozens. “Your mama so stupid, she tried to put her M&M’s in alphabetical order!” Bones sniped, still standing safely behind Zac. His mother had died less than a year before, and it felt like yesterday. A surge of rage and sorrow coursed through him. “Don’t you talk about my mother!” he hissed. He tossed his backpack on the ground and spun around. “Your mama wears a tutu too!” Zac and Bones hooted with laughter. “Got your shiny pink toe shoes stuffed in that bag? Who braids your hair-yo mama?” Bones asked, laughing loudly with Zac. Justin wondered, amused, why Zac was so interested in his butt. “Look how he twitches those hips!” Zac jeered. And none of them knew how much he loved it. But most guys seemed clueless about the athletic skills required for the leaps and lifts he had mastered. He was as tall as Zac, more muscled than Bones. Guys had been teasing him for years, ever since he started taking dance lessons. Justin tried to ignore the idiots behind him. Justin knew Bones would be hovering just a few steps behind Zac, safe like a shadow. Zac Patterson, the wrestling team’s “sultan of the slam,” was known to brandish both his biceps and equally massive ego. “You heard me, dancing queen! Don’t be tiptoeing away, now.” He did not turn around-he knew who trailed behind him. Sixteen-year-old Justin Braddock, wearing his favorite Timberland boots, tromped down the rain-slicked sidewalk, book bag slung over his left shoulder, heading to the bus stop. “ ‘Dark and sinister man,’ Peter answered, ‘have at thee.’ ” “ ‘Proud and insolent youth,’ said Hook, ‘prepare to meet thy doom.’

I found these websites to be helpful and informative: To my family who supports me as I work to do what I do:Īlso, please be aware of the dangers of teen dating abuse as well as predators who stalk our children.

This book is dedicated to dancers everywhere, but especially to Miss Crystal and the wonderful students of Kinetic Expressions Dance Academy in Daytona Beach, Florida ()Īll the KEDA families who support their children as they learn and grow through dance.Īll the KEDA students who work so hard and perform so beautifully.

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