Sofía

Learning to dance

March 24th, 2012. Saturday. Long Island, NY.

Scarlett's pov:
A couple of weeks ago, Sofía and I were invited to a party of Erasmo's family. It's the 60th birthday of Mrs. Carmelia, Maya's grandmother.

Sofía could not be more excited of seeing maya again, even tho they saw each other less then two weeks ago and they spent the entire weekend togheter; and they also talk on the phone every single day, but they are best friends and they really love each other.

Maya has also told about how partys in her fmily are like. I have been to one of their partys before, I sometimes don't have that much free time so I unfortunately I have not being able to attend everytime they invite me; but I can tell you they are so much fun. They are all mexican, so the music and dancing is a big thing, as well as the food. The food is amazing, Mrs. Carmelia tamales are so delicious.

Erasmo also told Sofía and I that is a requisite to know how to dance, specifically cumbia, salsa, merengue and... norteña, or something like that.

Maya and Fabiola know how to dance, so Sofí told me she is a bit scared she might not be able to learn the steps, but I've seeing her dancing, goofing, around before and she hassome rithym in there, I should be the one worried. The only type of dance I've ever actually done is tap, kinda, and I was not bad but also not good.

~Sofía come on, we have to go~ I say loud enough from the living room so she can hear me. I think she is in her room.
~Wait, I'm coming, one moment~ she yells back.

Two minutes later she comes running in her pretty purple dress and purple shoes, can you tell she likes purple? I ask her what took so long and she shows me a purple bracelet, again, notice the patern. Maya and her have matching bracelets, except Maya's is blue because that's her favorite color. It's very cute to be honest.

Sofía's pov:
~Maya!~ I scream as I let go of Mama's hand and run to my friend.
~Sofí!~ she screams back and runs to me.
We hug, and then she goes to hug Mama and I go to hug her Mama and Papa.

Of all the people at this party I only know like 8, including Mama, so at first I just sit at the table, next to her holding her close. There are too many people and I'm felling shy and anxious, I don't like to feel like this.

~Sweetie what's wrong? Don't you wanna go play?~ Mama asks putting some hair behind my ear.
~Too much people~ I mumble against her chest.
~Oh I get it, you are feeling a bit anxious?~
I just nod in response.
~Look at me Sofí. You are going to be okay, everybody here is very friendly,I know so. Besides you know Maya and Fabi, they will help you play with the other kids. So just take a deep breath with me okay?~
I follow what she says and it does make me feel better, so we decide to look for Maya and Makena, so we can each spend our time with them.

There is a bouncy house, so Maya and I go jump and play there. First we are just jumping but then we both start doing tricks, like attempts of back tucks and back handsprings; which then both our moms tell us to stop because we could hit someone.
Then I meet some of Maya's cousins and we all start playing tag around the yard. They are very nice, even tho most of them are older than us, like closer closer Fabi's age than ours, so only by a few years.

Maya has a lot of cousins, and she is one of the younger ones, not like me who is the oldest, but that because I'm adopted. Mama's siblings don't have kids yet and some of her cousins, my other aunts and uncles, only have tiny baby's, and the same happens with her friends; except for Uncle Robert and Uncle Mark, they have sons who are older then me but I've only met them twice I think.

Scarlett's pov:
I was on the table with everybody, having a great conversation with Mrs. Carmelia while we finished eating, but I had to go to the bathroom. When I came back I found the table empty, but you can hear the salsa music from miles away so I knew where they were.

I walk to the dance floor and I see one of the sweetest thing ever. Erasmo is dancing with Fabi while Maya is dancing with Sofí, this last two trying to follow the steps of the older ones. They keep messing up but all they do is giggle and try again.

When Sofí sees me she calls me to dance with them. I try to follow the rhythm of the music, but as I said I suck for dancing and Erasmo is very aware of this, he has seen me drunk dancing before so.
When Fabi starts dancing with one of her uncles, Erasmo comes take my hand and he starts trying to teach me how to dance salsa or cumbia or whatever we are trying to dance.

Sofía and Maya laugh everytime I accidentally step on one of his feet, which makes them almost trip every single time.
But after a few more tries I get the steps and rhythm and I'm able to follow up with him, until he tries to turn me around and I lose count.

We then switch and each of us is with the corresponding daughter. At first Sofí and I try to actually dance but we end up just moving around and twirling until it's time to cut the cake.

After hearing everybody singing the Mexican happy birthday song, I help cutting the cake and the girls help taking all the plates to the tables.
The cake is a tres leches chocolate one, so it's obviously delicious. Sugary, but delicious.

The rest of the evening/night is spent with everybody dancing, singing and talking. We dance from cumbia to merengue to just be jumping at the beat of the music, all of us wearing heels ending up barefoot. It gets pretty wild, in a good way, after most of the younger kids fall asleep on the chairs, so only the teenagers and adults are left.

It gets pretty late and I finally decide it's time for us to go. Eramso and Makena offer us to stay for the night  but I have a meeting tomorrow kinda early and Sofí has a dentist appointment so I kindly decline the offer. I do have to drive for about an hour and a half to get home, but thats mostly because of the traffic, and since it's late there shouldn't be too much of it.

I danced so much, I bet tomorrow I'm going to be so sore. Muscles I didn't know exist are already hurting. Sofía is most likely gonna be okay, I bet she will have a bruise somewhere as she always does, but apart from that she will be as active as always.

Hi!

I really miss going to parties and dancing until your feet hurt so much you end up dancing barefoot and then you get stepped on because you end up dizzy for so many turns, so I decided to write this to maybe miss it less.

I really need to make more friends so I get invited to partys lol

Hope you like the chapter and that your week wasn't that bad :)

Stay safe <3