The last thing I remember is the look of horror on the faces of the audience. But what had caused me to feel the most humiliation was when I noticed Blake Jansen, the coolest boy in our class, staring down at me in disbelief. My memory of that night still fills me with shame. Everyone says that I was lucky to get away with only a mild concussion and a huge lump on my head. But the disgrace I had felt at being the laughing stock of the whole school was still very fresh in my mind. I'd really like to try and forget that entire day, erase it from my memory banks forever, but right now it keeps coming back to haunt me. Loser with a capital L! That's the way I feel about myself right now. I still can't believe the events of that fateful day. If only it were a nightmare I could wake up from and never ever have to think about again. But unfortunately, that is just not the case! Mom says that time heals all wounds and that everyone else has probably completely forgotten the incident, but I think it's going to take quite a while for me to get over it. For some reason though, I suspect that one particular girl in our class had something to do with it all. Call it gut instinct or intuition, but I have a sneaking suspicion that somehow she was involved. Thinking back before that doomed day, life had been pretty good. My best friend, Millie and I had auditioned for the school musical and we were both selected for major roles. Being in grade seven gave us an advantage over the younger kids, that and of course the fact that we were both dancers. The best part was that we'd also been asked to choreograph sections of the performance and this was a huge honor. Miss Sheldon, the performing arts teacher who was in charge of the production, had given us the responsibility of coming up with some routines and teaching the other kids the dance moves they needed to learn. We were so excited about this, especially because we'd been left in charge. Miss Sheldon is the coolest teacher ever! There are some great dancers in our grade; even some of the boys are particularly good. One boy named Alex has been dancing pretty much his entire life and is probably the best dancer in the whole school. When he was younger, he said that the other kids had bullied him and called him a girl as well as a heap of horrible names that he really didn't want to mention. But I could see that everyone had finally developed a huge amount of respect for Alex and those who were still unaware of his talents were in for a big surprise. Hip hop is his specialty and he's so cool to watch. I kept telling him that when he's old enough, he should audition for "So You Think You Can Dance," and he told me that he'd really like to. As well as Alex, there's another kid in our grade who is kind of overweight and dorky looking. But it turns out that he has an awesome voice. I had no idea that our school has so much talent and it certainly came as a huge surprise to find out that Liam can actually sing really well. The look of amazement when we heard his audition pretty much spread like wild fire. I even caught the teachers raising their eyebrows in astonishment. It just goes to show you that you can't judge a book by its cover! I never really understood what that meant until hearing Liam sing. Now, I don't think I'll ever look at him in the same way again. It's also a really big lesson for me. From now on, I will never judge a person by their looks alone. I'll wait till I get to know them because I've found out that until you do get to know people, you really don't know what type of person they are or what hidden talents they might have. Anyway, the musical was shaping up to be a huge success. The dance troupe we had put together was really coming along and we rehearsed during every lunch break and sometimes even after school. Then one afternoon, an amazing thing happened; Blake Jansen, who I've had a secret crush on since the fourth grade, turned up at rehearsals with his friend, Jack. At first I was embarrassed to see them watching us and to make matters worse, some of the girls actually starting to giggle and carry on. One girl was even fluttering her eyelashes! I'd heard about that sort of thing but had never seen it in action before. Talk about humiliating! I just tried to ignore the boys at first but after about ten minutes of observing our routine, they walked towards Millie and I and actually asked if they could join in. I couldn't believe it! Blake Jansen really wanted to join our dance troupe! I was sure it was because Alex was involved and everyone was starting to hear how cool he was. But I didn't care about the reason. Having a couple more boys included would just make it so much better! Although, I was reluctant to admit to myself that I was particularly glad one of the boys just happened to be Blake. Millie grinned at me and whispered quietly, "Julia...can you believe Blake is joining us!" I pretended I didn't hear her and went into a spiel telling the boys that if they wanted to be involved, they'd have to commit to rehearsals and put in one hundred per cent effort. Much to my surprise, they were really enthusiastic about the whole thing and couldn't wait to get started. I thought it was awesome they were keen to take part. And surprisingly enough, they turned out to be pretty good. It was shaping up to be a highlight of the musical and I began to really look forward to every rehearsal. Of course having Blake there helped to keep my enthusiasm levels high but I just had to make sure I didn't give him too much attention. I didn't want him thinking that I actually liked him. That would just be too embarrassing! But, apart from Blake Jansen and constant rehearsals, I really had no idea what was ahead for us. If I had only known at the time, I probably would never have volunteered to take part in the musical at all.
