Aisling's Diary

Chapter 32

Thursday 22 December (continued)

3:15p.m.

Thanks to being boinked on the head by everything falling off my pin board, I found a leaflet that Kennedy gave me way back when. Because guess what was on the back of that? Only details of the World Championships that are going to be held in the USA. All I have to do is dance my way back into Kennedy’s team and into a place in the World Championships and I don’t need anyone to buy me a ticket to the USA. I can get there all on my own.

So I now have a revised plan for getting things back on track. I am calling this one Operation U S of A. And it goes a bit like this …

1. By hook or by crook get back into Killer Kennedy’s class.

2. Do whatever it takes to learn the moves the way the judges like ’em.

3. Win a place in the Irish team going to the World Championships in the USA.

4. Go back to the USA, get my love back of Irish Dance, make Mum and Dad proud again.

Be back to good old Aisling Louise Fitzsimons. Hooray.

I have stuck the leaflet back on my pin board BUT the other way round as a daily reminder of where I’m going.

And to those who say it can’t be done ... just watch me.

Sooooooo, getting back into Kennedy’s class. Oh, how I wish I had Ali’s magic wand. I would stand on the stage, wave my cape and say …

And for my next trick I need: an empty classroom, one CD of Irish music (not Michael Bublé), one box of the boom variety and one pair of arms that stay by my side and don’t start going all like that character from the Mr Men books with the really long, really wobbly arms–oh yes, Mr Tickle–arms that don’t go like him at the first sign of a bit of music with a beat.

But instead I’m going to practise every day in every spare moment until I’m so good Kennedy would be mad not to take me back.

In order to do this I, Aisling Fitzsimons, promise to go to bed early, to eat nothing but healthy food like yoghurt and apples like an Olympic gymnast, to practise everyday until I can dance the proper traditional Irish way and to have no distractions. No ice cream, no Bebo, no break-dancing, no hip-hop music. No messing around with Rory. And no Murphy. No Murphy? No Murphy.

Them’s the rules. I’ll tell Murphy tomorrow.

 

Friday 23 December

(Operation U S of A. Day 1)

Sooo tired. Number of hours spent practising Irish Dance today: 5. The only reason I stopped at home was because Rory came in saying that I was ‘giving him one of his heads’. That boy! I know it’s because I won’t let him join in. I can’t – the time for messing around with the rules of Irish Dance are over.

Monday 26 December (Day 4)

3:50 p.m.

This is going to be more difficult than I imagined. No matter how much I try, I just can’t make sense of some of the moves.

5:10 p.m.

Decided to email Murphy today to ask him to leave me alone for a bit. When really I don’t want him to leave me alone at all. But with him involved and the way he feels about Irish Dancing, he’s too distracting. Operation U S of A needs all my best attention, and even then there’s no guarantee it’s gonna work. I have to give it everything.

Wednesday 28 December (Day 6)

Bingo. Thank heavens for Anya. Apparently she’d seen me dancing alone in the classroom struggling with the first few moves of a step yesterday. So today she got behind me so I could see how she did it in the mirror and with her help I had it. Then I messed it up again, but for a moment, I had it!!! And that is the most important bit, by far.

In fact it almost made up for the fact that Siobhan and Ali are still ignoring me. I mean I know I really messed up but still? I don’t know but maybe it’s time they got over it? They can’t still be really, really angry, can they? Did I really mess up so bad?

Murphy called tonight. I watched his name flash on my phone and I felt really sick. I really wanted to answer it, but I must be strong otherwise I’ll never get home.

Monday 2 January (Day 11)

Nothing much today. School and practice. Just like it’s gonna be tomorrow and Wednesday and Thursday and ...

Wednesday 4 January (Day 13)

I saw Murphy today after school – just for a minute as I was walking over to the dance room. It was the best minute of my day. Better than ice cream, and that’s saying something.

Thursday 5 January (Day 14)

A couple of the other girls from class came and joined in with me and Anya when we were going through some steps today. Poor Kerry-Ann couldn’t join in because she’s fractured her ankle. YIKES. I guess it would be pretty difficult to do the Sean Nos with a fractured ankle.

It felt really great to be dancing as a group of girls again. At one point I caught a glimpse of how we looked in the mirror and we looked ... well we looked … we looked like winners.

If we’re allowed to dance together, we CAN win this, I just know it. And we won’t need Ali’s magic wand to do it.

So let’s step it up! It’s time for Kennedy to see what I’ve been up to while her back was turned. Because while she’s been home sharpening her tongue and practising shouting I’ve been dancing my batters off.

7:00 p.m.

Just found myself hanging out at the top of the stairs just by the landing window at the time that Murphy normally gets home. Bad Aisling. This is not on message. I see I must be on my guard at all times against slipping back into bad habits. I even found myself suspiciously near to the freezer as well. No ice cream till we ace the competition.

Monday 9 January (Day 18)

All the practise is really starting to payoff. Loads of the girls were there to watch today and they were all really enjoying it. It was a proper craic (lol). I didn’t even notice when Killer Kennedy joined the crowd, although Anya said her jaw dropped right to the floor like a cartoon character (DOING!) when she saw who it was everyone was crowding round. I just kept on dancing and then I looked up and there she was, just staring at me. Turns out Kerry-Ann’s broken ankle means there’s one spare place to dance in the competitions. Mrs Kennedy says if I make practise every day (on time!) and make sure I do everything by her rules then the place could be mine.

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