Ten third and fourth graders fall to the ground in complete exhaustion, "MISS we neeeeeeeed a break." I laugh, but willingly agree a break is in order. Dance rehearsals in a 106 degree room are never fun for the sweat glands. "Miss I can't EVEN stand up no more. This jam is hard and I'm hott as all," exhaled Leanna. Twenty minutes into the hard knock life routine and there was no denying this was going to be a smelly rehearsal.
"Ladies, we can take five, but then it is back to work, I'm serious!" I spoke is my best drill Sargent voice. However it's impact was cancelled out by the smile that immediately followed.
"Water, I need water!" La-a (proun. La-DASH-ah) whaled, "Miss you got them bottles like you had yesterday? I be needin one of dem." She spoke as she pulled her limp body across the carpeted floor toward the box fan. "Ahhhhhh-ehhyyyy-eeee-ohhhh-ooooou," she sang into the fan blades, creating a choppy sound with her voice. "Miss you hear that? Kiana come," she beckoned her friend to join in the exciting new activity. It's truly the simple things that bring the most pleasure.
"Can't....move....show me....later," was Kiana's honest reply. I laughed, but was in concurrence with the sentiment. The girls all laid there for a good solid three minutes, Kiana groaning, La-a singing her vowels into the fan blades and me tapping out the new choreography I knew the girls were going to hate (it involved some gymnastics and that meant more sweat.)
All of a sudden Jada perked up; her head jolted into an upright position and she turned to face me. Her braid clips clacked into each other as she turned. "Miss!?!" She yelled, wide eyed (and when I say wide eyed I mean her eyes are quite possibly the largest I've ever seen.)
"Yes Jada?" I answered.
"You got a baby?
"What?" I thought maybe I misheard the random question.
"You got a baby?" She asked again, this time with emphasis.
"Haha, " I laughed, "No girl, I'm not married. I don't even have a boyfriend."
"WHAT? What you mean you don't gotta boyfriend?" All the girls popped their heads up in unison and stared at me.
"I don't have a boyfriend." I repeated. This, of course, was enough to set the girls off.
"You don't got a boyfriend?!?" Jada yelled. even more shocked than before, all the girls chimed in..."Miss why you don't got a boyfriend?...Miss Why?...You don't like men?..."the comments came all at once. As the questions poured in, so did the girls. Not only were they all talking at once, but they were all crawling toward me.
"Ladies, seriously, it's not that crazy. Lots of people don't have boyfriends." I threw my hands over my head.
Jada stopped moving and threw her hands up, halting the girls from continuing their descent, "Wait." She looked at me with pity in her eyes, as if to say, you poor thing. "Miss you know what? It don't even matter." The girls all chimed in agreement, just copying her reaction to everything. "Yeah, don't matter Miss, don't matter...."
Jada shushed them with another hand signal then looked straight into my eyes. At that point she was right up in my face, both her hands holding my knees, "Miss, you don't need a man. Uh-uh, you don't need nobody. You can do it on your own," she said with her best third grade Dr. Phil voice. "They be out there cheat'n, leaving you at home, homegirl don't need that!" The others are all 'no miss, you don't need that, uh uh, no way' in the background. "Them boys Miss? They can go back-to-Jupiter," she diagonally snapped in my face, "get more stupider!" she crossed her arms triumphantly.
I told her to hold onto that philosophy till after college. School first :)
