JULIA JONES - My Worst Day Ever! - Book 1: aged 9 - 12 (2 page)

It turned out that Sara was very good at
hip hop. Actually, she was not just good, she was pretty incredible. The moves
that she knew how to do were some that I had never seen before and she was
extremely flexible as well. I looked on in amazement while she demonstrated a
routine that she’d been working on before she left her old school.

As I glanced around our group, I noticed
that everyone else was also looking on in awe. It was hard not to. Her long
blonde pigtails swung from side to side as she flipped and turned. And the cargo
green outfit that she wore was so cool, a perfect hip hop style that matched
her clear complexion and blonde hair beautifully.

I glanced down at my shabby shorts that I
had quickly changed into before rehearsal and for the first time felt aware of
how uncool they were. Usually I didn’t worry too much about things like that,
especially just for a rehearsal. But having Sara in our midst, looking so
perfect, really made me think twice about the way I was dressed.

When she finished, everyone congratulated
her and told her how amazing she was. She certainly deserved it and I thought
about how lucky we were to have her join us. By incorporating some of the moves
that she knew, our dance was sure to be a stand out performance.

We decided to get Sara to demonstrate and
everyone was concentrating quite intensely as some of the interchanges were very
tricky. Then just when I thought everyone had got the hang of it, Sara moved
over next to Blake and grabbed his arms to show him how he should be moving
them.

“It’s more this type of action, Blake!” she
explained to him as he looked at her with those big brown eyes of his,
following her demonstration closely.

“You’ve almost got it, you just need to
make your movements more abrupt and deliberate,” she continued. And when he
suddenly mimicked her movements to perfection her squeal was full of obvious
delight.

“That’s it!” she cried. “That’s perfect!”

And with a proud grin, Blake replied,
“Thanks heaps, Sara! Thanks for your help.” Then obviously very pleased with
himself, he continued with the remainder of the routine before joining in with
the rest of us to put the new version of our dance together.

“That’s such a cool dance, Sara!” Alex exclaimed
when we had finally finished. “It’s awesome to have a girl who’s so good at hip
hop at our school.”

“Yeah, that was great, Sara,” Jack chimed
in, obviously not wanting to miss out on getting her attention.

“Thanks!” Sara replied in a modest manner.
“You guys are really good dancers too!”

As I packed up my gear and headed on over
towards them, I couldn’t help but notice the smile on Blake’s face as he
chatted easily with Sara. They looked like they were getting on really well.
And as I watched her talking happily with the group of boys, I guessed that
Sara would probably get along with just about everyone.

“Oh my gosh!” Millie exclaimed. “Look who’s
sitting down at a table in McDonald’s right now!” I followed the direction of
Millie’s gaze where to my surprise, I spotted Blake, Jack and Alex, the three
boys from our dance troupe at school. Their undivided attention was cast
towards a girl whose back was towards us. But I knew that I would recognize
that flowing long, blonde hair anywhere.

“What are they all doing here together?”
asked Millie, curiously.

“I have no idea!” I replied, “But let’s go
find out.” And I strode quickly over towards their table.

Millie and I had decided to spend Saturday
afternoon at the mall. I’d had my eye on a really pretty top that had recently
come into stock in my favorite store and I had decided I would use my birthday
money to buy it. However, to my huge dismay, on entering the store a few
minutes earlier, I had discovered that there were none left in my size.

When Millie realized how hugely
disappointed I was, she offered to buy me a thick shake at McDonalds to try and
cheer me up. That was when we happened to notice our friends from school.

“Hey guys,” I said in a friendly manner.
“What are you all doing here?”

They had been so absorbed in Sara’s
conversation, that they had not seen us approach and got quite a start at the
unexpected sound of my voice.

“Julia!” Sara exclaimed, “And Millie! What
a surprise to see you here.” They all shuffled over to make room at the booth
for us and although the boys welcomed us without hesitation, I kind of got the impression
that Sara did not feel the same way. An uncomfortable tension seemed to appear
out of nowhere but then I decided I must be imagining things. So I started
chatting aimlessly about it being such a coincidence to run into each other
like that. The boys explained that they had been to see a movie and had then
bumped into Sara afterwards, just as they were entering McDonalds.

“I was shopping with my mom,” Sara said. “When
I saw the boys, Mom told me I could meet up with her in about half an hour so I
could have some time to hang out with them.”  Grinning in Blake’s direction she
continued, “The boys said they might even come to my house tomorrow so we can
do some extra rehearsals. You girls can come as well if you want, but if you’re
too busy, then that’s ok. We can just practice at school on Monday.”

“I can’t make it tomorrow,” replied Millie,
obviously disappointed. “We’re going to visit my grandparents so I’ll be out
for the whole day.”

“Oh, that’s too bad!” answered Sara. “Never
mind, we can all get together on Monday.”

“Julia can probably go, though,” Millie
quickly responded. “You were saying earlier that you had nothing to do
tomorrow, Julia!”

Looking towards Sara, I replied, “Only if
that’s ok with you, Sara.”

“Oh, that’s fine, Julia. Of course you can
come. I’m planning on teaching the boys some other dance moves that I know. So
I can teach you too, if you like.”

“That sounds great,” I answered, trying to
muster some enthusiasm. For some reason though, I didn’t feel completely
welcome and sat there quietly while Sara continued her animated conversation;
with the boys as her main audience.

I suddenly noticed a familiar looking carry
bag sitting on the seat between myself and Sara and then recognized it as
coming from my favorite clothing store.

“Have you been shopping at Dream
Warehouse?” I asked Sara curiously. “That’s my favorite store.”

“Yes,” Sara replied brightly. “I just bought
the prettiest top, only about fifteen minutes ago. As soon as I saw it, I just
had to have it and I’m so lucky because it was the last one in my size! Do you
like it?” she asked, pulling it out of the bag.

I gasped in surprise when I realized that
it was the exact same top that I had intended to buy for myself and when I
looked at it more closely, I spotted the label and realized that it was also in
my size. Sara had beaten me to it. “What are the chances of that?” I sighed to
myself as I commented on how pretty it was.

I decided not to mention that I had actually
planned on buying that very top, but then out of the blue, Millie exclaimed,
“Sara, that looks like the top you wanted to buy. Isn’t it exactly the same one?
And it’s in your size as well!”

Seeing my expression, Sara responded, “Oh
Julia, did I beat you to it? I’m so sorry!”

For some reason, I felt that she really
wasn’t being sincere, but I told her not to worry about it and decided to put
it out of my mind. I didn’t know what was bugging me. “Perhaps I’m coming down
with something?” I wondered. “Or maybe I’m just being silly. Sara is a really
nice girl, it’s obvious how much everyone likes her and we’re really lucky to
have her in our class.”

As Millie and I sat on the bus heading home
later that afternoon, I decided to push all the crazy thoughts about Sara from
my mind. We really were fortunate to have her come to our school and to actually
have her talent included in our dance troupe was something to be very grateful
for.

I decided to focus on attempting some new
hip hop moves myself that I could share with the guys the next day and tried to
remove all the uneasy thoughts from my mind. But for some reason, I just couldn’t
shake the foreboding premonition that seemed to be tingling down my spine.

As I lay in bed on Sunday night, thinking
about the afternoon that I had spent at Sara’s house, the previous thoughts
that I’d been having on my way home from the mall the day before, were furthest
from my mind.

It turned out that the boys couldn’t make
it as some other stuff had apparently come up, but in the end I was glad. It
was so nice to spend time alone with Sara and I found that when it was just the
two of us, we got along really well.

She lives in the coolest house. It’s really
big and super modern. They even have a spa bath in the bathroom as well as a
jacuzzi out by the pool. We talked about spending time sunbathing in her
backyard as soon as the weather was warm enough. The lounge chairs that were
scattered around the sides of the pool were so inviting that I had to try them
out. Then when I found that they reclined right back, I lied there picturing
myself during the summer months, just relaxing by that beautiful sparkling pool.

Sara is so lucky! She seems to have pretty
much everything a girl could wish for. Her bedroom has the prettiest pink
wallpaper with a gorgeous white flower print as a feature wall. And her
furniture is all white. She has a huge comfy bed with matching bedside tables. I’ve
never known a girl our age to have a queen sized bed though. Even my parents
only have a double bed and Sara’s bed seems enormous in comparison.

The two hot pink chrome lamps that sit on
her bedside tables are the coolest design and I just love the fluffy pink rug
that spreads across the middle of her floor. And she even has a window seat
that looks out through a big white framed window, across the landscaped back
yard and pool area. I’ve always dreamed of having a window seat like that, it’s
just like in the movies.

It’s pretty difficult not to feel just a
little bit jealous of Sara though. She has so much cool stuff and she is so
pretty. But I guess being an only child is the reason why her parents spoil her
so much. It would probably be hard not to spoil an only child. I only met her
mom briefly but she seems very nice. Although, Sara said that her parents are
rarely at home and I was actually lucky to meet her mother. Apparently her
dad’s office is in town but he has to travel a lot and her mom is always out
doing something or other, Sara isn’t really sure what.

I thought that was pretty strange; not
really knowing what your mom does every day and hardly seeing your parents.
Sara said that it’s good not having parents to annoy her because she can do
whatever she wants when they’re not around. It’s a bit of a weird situation,
but I guess everyone is different.

They’re certainly very different to my
family, that’s for sure. There’s no way I’d be allowed to have all that
freedom! My parents want to know what I’m up to all the time. They check on
where I am and what time I will be home and who I am spending time with. And we
always eat meals together, breakfast and dinner anyway; as well as that, we have
regular family time where we play board games or watch a movie or go on an
outing together somewhere.

My brother, Matt is getting sick of family
time and often complains because he would rather be hanging out with his friends.
I guess boys his age are like that, but I still like being around my family.

I rolled over and stared out the window and
into the night sky. There was a full moon shining and its light was beaming
into my room, making it hard for me to go to sleep. I didn’t want to close the
curtain though, as I love watching the stars at night time, especially from the
comfort of my bed.

As I finally started to drift off, visions
of Sara came to mind. She was dressed in the most incredible hip hop outfit and
was bowing to applause from an adoring audience, her wide smile beaming across
her face. I pictured myself sitting amongst the crowd and cheering her on as
well.

Then abruptly, I sat up with a start. A
cold shiver had run right through me and I could feel the hairs on my arms
standing on end. Unsure of what had caused the sudden disturbing feeling, I
looked around my room and realized the window was wide open so I jumped up to
close it. Hopping back into bed, I rolled over and closed my eyes. We had an
early rehearsal planned in the morning before school so I needed to get up
early. I pulled the covers up to my chin and fell into a deep sleep.