Sunday 29 January (continued)
2:10 p.m.
I have a sneaky suspicion that my Irish Dance career might be well and truly over. Oh well, I’d better get my make-up off and take my hair down then. I can’t start my new life with this amount of facial glitter on, can I? From where I am backstage, I can hear the results coming through. I have my fingers crossed. For Anya, that is!! Why, what did you think I meant? Oh no, here comes Siobhan. I’m sure she’ll have something to say about ‘my performance’. Well, whatever she says I hope she’ll like the present I’ve got her –well, at the very least I can use it to defend myself against her Hard Stare.
2:15 p.m.
Siobhan said I was amazing. Her words. Ali too, he said what I did showed I had guts, because I did it my way. I guess it’s true, I finally did what I wanted to do rather than what everyone else thought I should do. ‘No,’ Siobhan said, ‘I meant being seen in that outfit.’ Lol. They even want to work with me again on the Transition Project, which is sweet. Siobhan said, ‘maybe, if we saw you in half two Aislings can cope with the workload’ but I realized there’s no need. If I’m not running around trying to please everyone then I should have plenty of time to do everything.
Siobhan was really touched by her backgammon set. Hopefully she’ll be able to play with her Mum and Dad now. It would be great if she was involved with her family’s hobbies like mine are. Well, my old hobby anyway.
Talking of families, Mum, Dad and Granny Nora were right behind Siobhan and Ali. Granny Nora could not stop smiling. I had to stop Rory from selling the rights to my performance to a big music label, he’d definitely got a little bit over-excited about the possibilities for Irish Dance Fusion. Dad looked really proud and Mum apologized loads for putting me under so much pressure. The thing is, I really don’t think it was her fault. Her putting me under pressure only made me work harder at the Irish Dance and without knowing Irish Dance back to front there’s no way I could’ve funked up the Irish Dance with Fusion. Without that and Murphy, anyway.
Two more people I needed to see before I awarded myself a Queen-sized ‘Aisling Goes Bananas’ ice-cream sundae. First, Killer Kennedy. Gulp.
I didn’t have to look far for Kennedy, she stopped me on the way out of the theatre. Amazingly, she said the judges were willing to overlook my ‘little experiment’ and she wanted me to come back to class on Monday. But I know deep down, Irish Dance is over for me. Thanks for asking, Mrs Kennedy, but no thanks. You won’t be seeing any more of Aisling Fitzsimons in the Irish Dance classes. My dancing destiny lies else where.
So that just leaves …
… Murphy.
3:35 p.m.
I didn’t have to look far for Murphy – he was waiting for me in the corridor. He did, as usual, look off the scale of gorgeousness. But I played it cool, because after all, how hard is it to deal with just one Murphy when you’ve danced mad hip-hop fusion in front of an audience of hundreds? I was the coolest in this particular set-up, thank you very much. My play it cool attitude lasted all the way down the corridor. It lasted all the time it took to stand next to him and I was still working the cool stance right up until the time he came up really close to me, and looked me straight in the eye. Then it seemed to melt away, and I found myself rambling like a mad woman, again. This time though, I didn’t care what I looked like or what he thought, I was just being me.
He said he wanted me to join his crew again, they’re gearing up for another competition. Just because I’ve given up Irish Dance for the time being, it does not mean I’m taking up flashmobbing full time. Oh no. I’m still not over ‘the library incident’. But hey, that doesn’t mean that nothing Murphy’s got isn’t of interest to me. If you know what I mean! In fact I’m really hoping that dancing isn’t the only way we can spend some time together. After all, we are neighbours.
I did very kindly offer to show him a couple of my Aisling Fitzsimons patented moves: one a variation of one we did on the beach, and one new one which I’ve called ‘On the Back of a Vespa’ and it includes jumping piggyback on to Murphy’s back and having him run me around. Not sure Kennedy would like that one, but we did, all the way down the corridor, all the way outside and all the way out of the school gates towards … well, towards … well, who knows what’s next for me and Murphy. Oh and by the way, just in case you’re interested, we kissed. For the first time and how was it? Oh I’d say every bit as good as dancing my heart out in front of an auditorium full of people.
Saturday 4 February
9:00–11:00 a.m.
At the gate for the flight. At least I think it’s the gate, they haven’t actually announced the gate number yet. Apparently although it says to be AT LEAST two hours before your flight, four hours is ‘overkill’. Well, at least I’m gonna be on time for my flight. Because if I missed my flight I just don’t think I could stand it. Like Dad said he couldn’t stand me going on about being at the airport in plenty of time. Very funny, Dad.
Things have been loads better between us all since Dad’s been made a director in Fitzsimons Plumbing. In fact everyone seems loads happier and Dad’s director wages meant he could afford for me to go back to Boston fora week of the holidays. Hooray.
Some where over the Atlantic
I’m counting the minutes until I see everyone in Boston. I’m staying with Amelia, and Lauren and Colleen are all coming over on Monday and everyone’s going to the ice hockey game. It’s gonna be a celebration. If I get my way it’s going to be fajitas and Ben and Jerry’s all round too.
I’m glad I told Amelia about me not really doing Irish Dancing any more. She said some of the older girls were trying out for the cheerleading team at Charlestown High and that she was thinking of doing that too. She said she was worried about telling me that, because she knows how much I was into Irish Dancing. Ha ha. To think I was really worried about telling her my news. Colleen sent me an email as well saying she was really looking forward to seeing me again. She said Phil and her were only ever friends as ‘she’d never really felt right about it’. Well, I guess that’s OK then. I don’t mind, really. The whole Phil Donnelly episode seems like lifetimes ago. Hey maybe Phil and I could be friends too, that would be kind of cool. Because … well, because …
Murphy came round to see me just before we left for the airport, he brought me this cute little rabbit to take with me on my trip in a bag with loads of stars-and-stripes balloons and loads of my favourite candy bars (Star Bars) as he knows I can’t get them in the States and he wanted Amelia and everyone to try them. I told you he was cute! He went all shy and said he thought I’d forget all about him in Boston. As if! Don’t tell anyone but I’ve actually got a couple of pictures of Murphy to show Amelia, and I can’t wait to show her all the footage of the flashmob. I was on Murphy’s Bebo again – just to leave him a message – honestly, and I saw he’d changed his relationship status to ‘seeing someone’. Know what Eavanne’s says? ‘Single’. Ha ha.
Rory has set up a whole website dedicated to the ‘i-breaks and beats’, as he calls the dance moves we invented. It’s totally wild. He answers people’s problems if they write in to him, and he’s even got a blog. I swear I heard him on the phone to some Irish music label last night trying to ‘secure sponsorship’. He’s even talking to Murphy about getting his crew to donate some footage of their moves to show the main influences on i-breaks. But that’s Rory.
It feels strange to think that I’m going home, I mean to Boston. I think about all the things that have happened to me in such a short time. Then I look out of the window over the Atlantic Ocean and I catch sight of my own reflection. I think I do look a bit different. Maybe I can see a little bit of Granny Nora in me.
How exciting not to know quite what’s in store for me when I get back home to Dublin after my trip. Maybe Fitzsimons Plumbing will become the most successful plumbing business in Dublin. Hey, now we’re all settled, maybe Mum will retrain as a plumber like Granny Nora. Rory could become the first internet millionaire in the Fitzsimons clan. Maybe i-breaks and beats will catch on and I’ll get the opportunity to open a chain of i-breaks schools like the David Beckham Academies.
But first, before any of that can happen, let there be ice cream, and lots of it.
Ais xx
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