Post by Sweet Meat aka CC on Sept 20, 2006 22:44:02 GMT -5
On Friday afternoon right after my last class, which was Art History, I quickly made my way outside while dialing Mian up.
“Hey,” she smiled when my name came up on her display.
“Hey, sis. Listen are you nearby?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I wanted you to come with me to see if I got one of the parts,” I excitedly replied as I strolled over to my ride.
“Aight. Where are you now?”
“Right outside of the Visual Art building. Where are you?” I proceeded to open my door and take a seat behind the wheel after tossing my backpack in the passenger seat.
“Oh, I’m near you. If you gimme like 5 minutes to walk there I’ll be in the parking lot to ride with you over to the other side of the building.”
“Okay, coo’,” I smiled with a nod of my head. “Bye.”
“See ya.”
After ending our call, I noticed Charli walking with another female who happened to be in her filmmaking class. I climbed out and yelled her name while waving my arms to get her attention.
“Excuse me,” she told her classmate before heading in my direction.
“W’sup!” she smiled after reaching me.
“Hey, girl! I’m finna go see if I made the cut and wanted to know if you wanted to take a ride ova there with me and Mian?”
“Sure! That’s where I was headin’ anyway,” she grinned as she climbed in the back of my ride although she had to say something smart as usual about it. “Girl, we have seriously gotta take this heap-of-junk-jeep of yours on ‘Pimp My Ride’ because…damn!” she huffed while settling in her seat.
“Now look if you gon’ talk shit about my shit, then you can gon’ and walk,” I smirked while climbing back inside to sit sideways so I could see when Mian would come around the corner.
“Yeah, your shit IS shit,” Charli mumbled loud enough for me to hear.
“Keep playin’!”
“Anyway, Cass told me that Mario’s pissed that you haven’t called him yet. Why you keep playin’ with that boy, girl?”
“Ain’t nobody playin’ with him,” I smirked as I turned my head to glance at her. “I juss haven’t had time to call him. Plus I know he’s not lonely with all the friends he has. Ol’ playa nicca,” I chuckled with a shake of my head as I turned back around.
At that precise moment I saw Mian heading over to us while taking her precious time. But I guess she had to since she was wearing her favorite pair of shoes: some black 3-inch high stiletto Prada sandals. And all eyes were on her too as she strutted towards us like she was a runway model. Today she was wearing her hair in a sideways ponytail that was thrown over the front of her left shoulder, a gigantic pair of silver hoop earrings, a Baby Phat halter top and some Baby Phat jeans. You can’t tell her that she ain’t the shit…well I can, but nobody else could or that would be their ass if I had anything to do with it.
“Miandra NaShay Jackson, hurry the hell up! We ain’t got all day!” I began to loudly beep my horn.
“You are so dumb,” Charli laughed.
“Whateva,” I smirked.
“Do you think you could have a lil’ more class, Kian? Damn!” Mian huffed while tossing my backpack on the backseat next to Charli before flopping down and yanking on my seatbelt to fasten it.
“Girl please; you one step away from bein’ ghettofabulous your damn self with your Baby Phat outfit, Louis Vuitton coach bag, and Prada shoes all thanks to the damn swap meet,” I huffed back while pulling out of the parking lot.
“But I look damn good though! So don’t hate,” she laughed while turning around to give Charli a high-five.
“Hate? Ain’t shit to hate on,” I smirked with a shrug of my shoulders as I drove us around to the other side of the building.
“Yeah, right,” Mian sighed.
Several minutes later after walking into the hall of the Drama building, Charli, Mian, and I noticed that some students were walking out happy, some were walking out pissed off, some had indifferent looks on their faces, and a few were even crying.
“Damn, is it really that serious?” I asked when a dude actually walked past us crying.
“Yeah, I think so…for him anyway,” Charli chuckled with a nod of her head.
“W’sup, Kian?” Mario smiled as he approached us.
“Oh hey. W’sup?” I smiled back. Charli and Mian proceeded to head further down the hall to Professor Kutledge’s room so Charli could see if she got a part.
“I was juss wonderin’ why you hadn’t called me yet.”
“I honestly haven’t had time to. I’ve been busy studyin’ for two tests I had on today in World Philosophy and Art History. I think I aced those. And then I had to work on Wednesday night after I left the auditions,” I replied with a nod of my head. “But enough about why I haven’t called you. Did you get the part you wanted?”
A slow grin spread across his lips. “Yup! I got the role of Joe which was the one I was goin’ for!”
“Congratulations!” I exclaimed while clasping my hands together. Then before I knew it, I reached out and hugged him which he had no objection with as he tightly wrapped his arms around me. However, when I realized what we were doing, I quickly unwrapped my arms from around his neck while trying to back away although he was hesitant to let me go at first. But as soon as he did, he spoke.
“Maybe we can go out to a movie, the club or somethin’ to celebrate,” he grinned.
“Maybe,” I smiled with a shrug of my shoulders. “I’m goin’ to see if I made the cut. ‘Scuse me,” I chuckled as I stepped around him.
As I made my way down the hall towards Mian and Charli, I noticed that they didn’t look all that excited.
“Did you make it?” I grinned while looking at Charli.
“Yeah, I got the part of Frankie,” she faintly smiled with a nod of her head.
“You go, girl!” I proceeded to give her a hug. “I told you singin’ solos all those Sundays in the church choir was gonna pay off!”
“Thanks,” she smiled before cutting her eyes over to Mian the moment I walked up to the roster to check for my name.
“Now let’s see where Kiandra LaShay Jackson is listed at up here on this badboy,” I grinned while running my finger down all five pages. Because I was so excited the first time, I went back over all five sheets once more since there was a possibility that I had missed my name. But when I did it for a third time, it hit me that I hadn’t made one part. Hell, I would’ve settled for being an extra in the show.
I felt Mian wrap her arm around my shoulder after walking up next to me while I blankly stared at the first page of the roster. “It’s okay. It’s just a dumb play anyway, so…”
“Stop, Mian,” I sighed while fighting back the tears welling up in my eyes. I found out soon enough that it can be that serious when you don’t get something you’ve been hoping and praying for. I felt Charli taking my hand as she stood on the other side of me. She didn’t say anything, but she did give my hand a reassuring squeeze as I stood in between her and Mian with my head hung down while chewing on my bottom lip.
Several seconds later, I felt a large hand wrapping around my free one. When I looked up out of surprise, I saw that it was Mario. Without either one of us saying anything, he led me into the empty classroom and closed the door after telling Mian and Charli that we’d be out in a few minutes.
After we took a seat on the steps leading up to the small stage at the front of the room, Mario took my hand in both of his while clearing his throat.
“Kian, just because you didn’t get a part doesn’t make you any less talented. You danced your ass off the other day and I enjoyed every minute of it. Maybe your not gettin' a part is makin' room for somethin' even betta to come your way.”
I nodded my head as a few tears streamed down my cheeks. I continued to hold my head down.
“You believe me don’t you?”
Once again I nodded my head although a small smile formed at the corners of my mouth.
“Look at me,” he whispered while placing one of his hands underneath my chin until I was facing him. He lifted his thumbs and slowly wiped away some of the tears that were still falling from my eyes while leaning in closer to me. He planted a soft kiss on my forehead.
“You gonna be okay?“ he asked after taking both of my hands back into his.
“Yeah, I‘ll be fine,” I sniffed with a quick nod of my head. “Listen I hate to run, but I’ve gotta be takin’ my sis home and get over to my job. Oh, but before I leave…I’ve decided that I’ll give you my number if you still want it.”
“Aight, coo’,” he smiled while pulling his phone from his belt clip. “At least I’ll know how to get in touch with you since you’re havin’ such a hard time tryin’ to get at me.” He proceeded to throw me a wink while grinning.
“Whateva,” I laughed before giving him both my home and cell numbers as we stood up.
“Thanks for everything.” I stood up on my tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Anytime.”
When we stepped back out into the hall, I told Charli and Mian that I was ready to be out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later on that evening after arriving at my job downtown where I worked as a part-time dance instructor as a part of my work study program on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights, I walked into the room filled with my busy-bodied female students that ranged in age from 10-15. They were all dancing to “Chicken Noodle Soup” that was blasting from the stereo system.
I placed my backpack on the floor near the door and walked over to my full-time coworker named Tessy that I was relieving for my evening shift. Now Tessy has the classic looks and moves of a graceful dancer. She stands at about 5’10, has smooth milk chocolate covered skin, wears a perfect size 3, and always wears her jetblack wavy hair in a bun. If one would see her, they wouldn’t believe that she was going on 38. Hell, she looks younger than I am!
“Girl, they been in rare form ever since they came in,” she chuckled as she began to gather her things together.
“I see!” I burst out laughing when I saw my youngest student, Naja, showing up the older girls as she did the “Chicken Noodle Soup” better than the rest of them. She was a natural-born dancer and my sassiest student.
“So how did things go?” Tessy asked as I went through my selection of CDs to see which one I’d use for class tonight.
“I didn’t make it,” I sighed while giving her a solemn look after looking up from what I was doing.
“Oh, I’m sorry, hon.” She proceeded to place her arm around my shoulder.
“Thanks,” I faintly smiled.
“Okay, so ummm…I guess I’d better get going. I’m meeting my family for dinner and I need to get home to get ready for that. Call me if you need me though.”
“Okay, I will. Have a good time with your family.”
“Thanks. Bye.”
“Bye.”
For another minute or two, I went through my selection of CDs and decided that I’d teach the class some classic hip-hop moves to Janet’s “Damita Jo” CD. As soon as I hit the stop button on their music, they all began to protest at once although Naja’s voice stood out from the others as always.
“Awww, c’mon, Kian. What’d you do that for?” she asked while placing her hands on hips that hadn’t shown up on her skinny frame yet.
“Because class has officially started, that’s why Miss Busy Body,” I smirked as I waved my hands for the girls to come over in the center of the room. “Tonight we’re gonna go through our regular warm-up routine and I’ma show yall some old school hip-hop moves. Now c’mon and let’s fall in place.”
Over the next 20 minutes, the girls and I did a few stretching exercises followed up by some jazz moves I taught them from our last class. Immediately afterwards, I went right into teaching them a variety of dance moves to Janet’s “R&B Junkie”. The thing I love most about my students is that they always catch on quick to what I teach them. Before I knew it, our hour was over as most of the parents waited outside in the hall or in the lobby of the dance studio.
“Awwww, do we have to stop now?” they all seemed to whine at once in protest.
“Yes, my lil’ prized pupils. But you can’t leave without some homework to do over the weekend,” I grinned with a wiggle of my eyebrows. Again more protests filled the room.
“Look, guys…I promise it’ll be harmless. I just want you all to go home and practice what we’ve went over this week. When you come back on Monday night, I’ll give you a simple quiz on naming each dance step we’ve went over this week. And if you want some bonus points, you’ll have to give the year each dance originated. That’s easy enough, right?”
They all agreed that it was.
“Okay, ladies. I’ll see you all on Monday. Have a good weekend.”
After everyone was gone, I closed the door since I had another half-hour to spare before locking up for the night. I walked over to the stereo system and took my Janet CD out replacing it with one of my many mix CDs and grabbed the remote. Then I pulled a mat from the corner of the room and placed it in the center of the floor. After taking a seat on it, I sat up on my knees, leaned forward placing my hands out in front of me on the mat, and closed my eyes to meditate for a few minutes.
Close to ten minutes later, I stood up grabbing the remote to turn the stereo on and choose my selection before placing it back down on the mat and kicking the mat out of my way.
As the intro prayer to DMX’s “Lord Give Me A Sign” began to play, I stared at my reflection in the mirror out in front of me with a look of determination. Then I let everything go as D began spitting his 16 bars. I gyrated, leapt, and spun my body around and through the room as hard as I could while feeling as light as a feather. And even though the room was well-lit, in my mind it was dark except for the spotlight that followed me around as I danced. When I was done close to 5 minutes later, I was drenched in sweat as I fell down to my knees on the wooden floor. While catching my breath, it was as if the lights slowly faded back on around me returning everything to normal.
“Hey,” she smiled when my name came up on her display.
“Hey, sis. Listen are you nearby?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I wanted you to come with me to see if I got one of the parts,” I excitedly replied as I strolled over to my ride.
“Aight. Where are you now?”
“Right outside of the Visual Art building. Where are you?” I proceeded to open my door and take a seat behind the wheel after tossing my backpack in the passenger seat.
“Oh, I’m near you. If you gimme like 5 minutes to walk there I’ll be in the parking lot to ride with you over to the other side of the building.”
“Okay, coo’,” I smiled with a nod of my head. “Bye.”
“See ya.”
After ending our call, I noticed Charli walking with another female who happened to be in her filmmaking class. I climbed out and yelled her name while waving my arms to get her attention.
“Excuse me,” she told her classmate before heading in my direction.
“W’sup!” she smiled after reaching me.
“Hey, girl! I’m finna go see if I made the cut and wanted to know if you wanted to take a ride ova there with me and Mian?”
“Sure! That’s where I was headin’ anyway,” she grinned as she climbed in the back of my ride although she had to say something smart as usual about it. “Girl, we have seriously gotta take this heap-of-junk-jeep of yours on ‘Pimp My Ride’ because…damn!” she huffed while settling in her seat.
“Now look if you gon’ talk shit about my shit, then you can gon’ and walk,” I smirked while climbing back inside to sit sideways so I could see when Mian would come around the corner.
“Yeah, your shit IS shit,” Charli mumbled loud enough for me to hear.
“Keep playin’!”
“Anyway, Cass told me that Mario’s pissed that you haven’t called him yet. Why you keep playin’ with that boy, girl?”
“Ain’t nobody playin’ with him,” I smirked as I turned my head to glance at her. “I juss haven’t had time to call him. Plus I know he’s not lonely with all the friends he has. Ol’ playa nicca,” I chuckled with a shake of my head as I turned back around.
At that precise moment I saw Mian heading over to us while taking her precious time. But I guess she had to since she was wearing her favorite pair of shoes: some black 3-inch high stiletto Prada sandals. And all eyes were on her too as she strutted towards us like she was a runway model. Today she was wearing her hair in a sideways ponytail that was thrown over the front of her left shoulder, a gigantic pair of silver hoop earrings, a Baby Phat halter top and some Baby Phat jeans. You can’t tell her that she ain’t the shit…well I can, but nobody else could or that would be their ass if I had anything to do with it.
“Miandra NaShay Jackson, hurry the hell up! We ain’t got all day!” I began to loudly beep my horn.
“You are so dumb,” Charli laughed.
“Whateva,” I smirked.
“Do you think you could have a lil’ more class, Kian? Damn!” Mian huffed while tossing my backpack on the backseat next to Charli before flopping down and yanking on my seatbelt to fasten it.
“Girl please; you one step away from bein’ ghettofabulous your damn self with your Baby Phat outfit, Louis Vuitton coach bag, and Prada shoes all thanks to the damn swap meet,” I huffed back while pulling out of the parking lot.
“But I look damn good though! So don’t hate,” she laughed while turning around to give Charli a high-five.
“Hate? Ain’t shit to hate on,” I smirked with a shrug of my shoulders as I drove us around to the other side of the building.
“Yeah, right,” Mian sighed.
Several minutes later after walking into the hall of the Drama building, Charli, Mian, and I noticed that some students were walking out happy, some were walking out pissed off, some had indifferent looks on their faces, and a few were even crying.
“Damn, is it really that serious?” I asked when a dude actually walked past us crying.
“Yeah, I think so…for him anyway,” Charli chuckled with a nod of her head.
“W’sup, Kian?” Mario smiled as he approached us.
“Oh hey. W’sup?” I smiled back. Charli and Mian proceeded to head further down the hall to Professor Kutledge’s room so Charli could see if she got a part.
“I was juss wonderin’ why you hadn’t called me yet.”
“I honestly haven’t had time to. I’ve been busy studyin’ for two tests I had on today in World Philosophy and Art History. I think I aced those. And then I had to work on Wednesday night after I left the auditions,” I replied with a nod of my head. “But enough about why I haven’t called you. Did you get the part you wanted?”
A slow grin spread across his lips. “Yup! I got the role of Joe which was the one I was goin’ for!”
“Congratulations!” I exclaimed while clasping my hands together. Then before I knew it, I reached out and hugged him which he had no objection with as he tightly wrapped his arms around me. However, when I realized what we were doing, I quickly unwrapped my arms from around his neck while trying to back away although he was hesitant to let me go at first. But as soon as he did, he spoke.
“Maybe we can go out to a movie, the club or somethin’ to celebrate,” he grinned.
“Maybe,” I smiled with a shrug of my shoulders. “I’m goin’ to see if I made the cut. ‘Scuse me,” I chuckled as I stepped around him.
As I made my way down the hall towards Mian and Charli, I noticed that they didn’t look all that excited.
“Did you make it?” I grinned while looking at Charli.
“Yeah, I got the part of Frankie,” she faintly smiled with a nod of her head.
“You go, girl!” I proceeded to give her a hug. “I told you singin’ solos all those Sundays in the church choir was gonna pay off!”
“Thanks,” she smiled before cutting her eyes over to Mian the moment I walked up to the roster to check for my name.
“Now let’s see where Kiandra LaShay Jackson is listed at up here on this badboy,” I grinned while running my finger down all five pages. Because I was so excited the first time, I went back over all five sheets once more since there was a possibility that I had missed my name. But when I did it for a third time, it hit me that I hadn’t made one part. Hell, I would’ve settled for being an extra in the show.
I felt Mian wrap her arm around my shoulder after walking up next to me while I blankly stared at the first page of the roster. “It’s okay. It’s just a dumb play anyway, so…”
“Stop, Mian,” I sighed while fighting back the tears welling up in my eyes. I found out soon enough that it can be that serious when you don’t get something you’ve been hoping and praying for. I felt Charli taking my hand as she stood on the other side of me. She didn’t say anything, but she did give my hand a reassuring squeeze as I stood in between her and Mian with my head hung down while chewing on my bottom lip.
Several seconds later, I felt a large hand wrapping around my free one. When I looked up out of surprise, I saw that it was Mario. Without either one of us saying anything, he led me into the empty classroom and closed the door after telling Mian and Charli that we’d be out in a few minutes.
After we took a seat on the steps leading up to the small stage at the front of the room, Mario took my hand in both of his while clearing his throat.
“Kian, just because you didn’t get a part doesn’t make you any less talented. You danced your ass off the other day and I enjoyed every minute of it. Maybe your not gettin' a part is makin' room for somethin' even betta to come your way.”
I nodded my head as a few tears streamed down my cheeks. I continued to hold my head down.
“You believe me don’t you?”
Once again I nodded my head although a small smile formed at the corners of my mouth.
“Look at me,” he whispered while placing one of his hands underneath my chin until I was facing him. He lifted his thumbs and slowly wiped away some of the tears that were still falling from my eyes while leaning in closer to me. He planted a soft kiss on my forehead.
“You gonna be okay?“ he asked after taking both of my hands back into his.
“Yeah, I‘ll be fine,” I sniffed with a quick nod of my head. “Listen I hate to run, but I’ve gotta be takin’ my sis home and get over to my job. Oh, but before I leave…I’ve decided that I’ll give you my number if you still want it.”
“Aight, coo’,” he smiled while pulling his phone from his belt clip. “At least I’ll know how to get in touch with you since you’re havin’ such a hard time tryin’ to get at me.” He proceeded to throw me a wink while grinning.
“Whateva,” I laughed before giving him both my home and cell numbers as we stood up.
“Thanks for everything.” I stood up on my tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Anytime.”
When we stepped back out into the hall, I told Charli and Mian that I was ready to be out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later on that evening after arriving at my job downtown where I worked as a part-time dance instructor as a part of my work study program on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights, I walked into the room filled with my busy-bodied female students that ranged in age from 10-15. They were all dancing to “Chicken Noodle Soup” that was blasting from the stereo system.
I placed my backpack on the floor near the door and walked over to my full-time coworker named Tessy that I was relieving for my evening shift. Now Tessy has the classic looks and moves of a graceful dancer. She stands at about 5’10, has smooth milk chocolate covered skin, wears a perfect size 3, and always wears her jetblack wavy hair in a bun. If one would see her, they wouldn’t believe that she was going on 38. Hell, she looks younger than I am!
“Girl, they been in rare form ever since they came in,” she chuckled as she began to gather her things together.
“I see!” I burst out laughing when I saw my youngest student, Naja, showing up the older girls as she did the “Chicken Noodle Soup” better than the rest of them. She was a natural-born dancer and my sassiest student.
“So how did things go?” Tessy asked as I went through my selection of CDs to see which one I’d use for class tonight.
“I didn’t make it,” I sighed while giving her a solemn look after looking up from what I was doing.
“Oh, I’m sorry, hon.” She proceeded to place her arm around my shoulder.
“Thanks,” I faintly smiled.
“Okay, so ummm…I guess I’d better get going. I’m meeting my family for dinner and I need to get home to get ready for that. Call me if you need me though.”
“Okay, I will. Have a good time with your family.”
“Thanks. Bye.”
“Bye.”
For another minute or two, I went through my selection of CDs and decided that I’d teach the class some classic hip-hop moves to Janet’s “Damita Jo” CD. As soon as I hit the stop button on their music, they all began to protest at once although Naja’s voice stood out from the others as always.
“Awww, c’mon, Kian. What’d you do that for?” she asked while placing her hands on hips that hadn’t shown up on her skinny frame yet.
“Because class has officially started, that’s why Miss Busy Body,” I smirked as I waved my hands for the girls to come over in the center of the room. “Tonight we’re gonna go through our regular warm-up routine and I’ma show yall some old school hip-hop moves. Now c’mon and let’s fall in place.”
Over the next 20 minutes, the girls and I did a few stretching exercises followed up by some jazz moves I taught them from our last class. Immediately afterwards, I went right into teaching them a variety of dance moves to Janet’s “R&B Junkie”. The thing I love most about my students is that they always catch on quick to what I teach them. Before I knew it, our hour was over as most of the parents waited outside in the hall or in the lobby of the dance studio.
“Awwww, do we have to stop now?” they all seemed to whine at once in protest.
“Yes, my lil’ prized pupils. But you can’t leave without some homework to do over the weekend,” I grinned with a wiggle of my eyebrows. Again more protests filled the room.
“Look, guys…I promise it’ll be harmless. I just want you all to go home and practice what we’ve went over this week. When you come back on Monday night, I’ll give you a simple quiz on naming each dance step we’ve went over this week. And if you want some bonus points, you’ll have to give the year each dance originated. That’s easy enough, right?”
They all agreed that it was.
“Okay, ladies. I’ll see you all on Monday. Have a good weekend.”
After everyone was gone, I closed the door since I had another half-hour to spare before locking up for the night. I walked over to the stereo system and took my Janet CD out replacing it with one of my many mix CDs and grabbed the remote. Then I pulled a mat from the corner of the room and placed it in the center of the floor. After taking a seat on it, I sat up on my knees, leaned forward placing my hands out in front of me on the mat, and closed my eyes to meditate for a few minutes.
Close to ten minutes later, I stood up grabbing the remote to turn the stereo on and choose my selection before placing it back down on the mat and kicking the mat out of my way.
As the intro prayer to DMX’s “Lord Give Me A Sign” began to play, I stared at my reflection in the mirror out in front of me with a look of determination. Then I let everything go as D began spitting his 16 bars. I gyrated, leapt, and spun my body around and through the room as hard as I could while feeling as light as a feather. And even though the room was well-lit, in my mind it was dark except for the spotlight that followed me around as I danced. When I was done close to 5 minutes later, I was drenched in sweat as I fell down to my knees on the wooden floor. While catching my breath, it was as if the lights slowly faded back on around me returning everything to normal.
[glow=green,1,200]***Part 3 Comin' Soon***[/glow]