10. Dancing Girls

Chapter 10 Dancing Girls At our next lesson, Miss Trixie said we could borrow her "Mice and Elephants" music CD for the talent show. We decided that Emma would dance the mouse part for the talent show. And I would be the elephant. Because I am a talented stomper. Every chance I got, I practiced my stomping. I practiced stomping so much that Dad said maybe he would have to send my tap shoes on a

long vacation to somewhere very far away. I practiced so much that when the morning of the talent show came, I wasn't even hardly nervous. On the playground that morning, Emma and I worked on our dance. Even though our tap shoes were in our cubbies, we hummed the music while we tapped on the blacktop near the basketball court. Gus watched us while he swung from the monkey bars. When we were done, he yelled, "Way to go! Do it again, guys!" We tapped again. "Mrs. Herman is going to love this," Emma said. "I can't wait until she sees us!" Some other kids gathered to watch.

It was kind of fun, having an audience. We tapped and stomped and twinkled. When one of us had a solo part, the other one stood and watched. You could tell whose turn it was from the sound of the music. My elephant part was loud and stompy.

Emma's mouse part was quiet and twinkly. "Look at the two little dancing girls!" someone yelled. Two older boys were staring at us. And laughing. In that special mean way only big boys know how to do. "No, wait! One of the girls is a guy!" said the biggest big boy. "Twinkle-toes over there? No way! That is a girl for sure!" said the other one.

Gus jumped off the monkey bars. "Of course he's a guy!" he yelled back. "He has short hair and his name is Roscoe. DUH." The boys just laughed and walked off. It was nice to have Gus defend me. But suddenly I felt exactly like I had those first few minutes at Miss Trixie's. When I'd realized I was a guy surrounded by a gigantic roomful of tapping people who were definitely not guys. Ms. Diz walked over. "Roscoe," she said, "I hope you'll ignore those comments. You understand that tap dance is for girls and boys, right?" "I guess," I said quietly. Emma was watching me with her worried face.

"I'm kind of pooped out from practicing," I said. "I think I'll go swing for a while, Emma." I headed for the swings. It was one thing to get teased by Wyatt. He makes fun of everybody. But those big guys would be in the audience that afternoon. Along with lots of other big guys. Maybe even bigger guys. I started swinging. And thought. I swung higher and higher. I liked being an elephant. But I didn't like getting teased.