Sandra Elvin

        

After moving all her life from Asia to Africa Sandra Elvin and her family finally settle in Belgium. Sandra comes from a family of 7. She has 2 sisters younger and 2 older brothers. She herself is 15. Sandra decides to go to St. John’s International School because they have a very good dance program since one of her greatest passions is ball room dancing. On her first day of school she was so nervous because St. John’s was much bigger than any other school she had ever gone too, as a matter of fact 4 times bigger. Sandra was running through the hallway to the main office to pick up her schedule because she was late. After getting her schedule she was looking through it carefully and in a hurry at the same time. She wasn’t looking where she was going and bumped into a rather small teacher and spilled his coffee and knocked his papers out of his hands. She noticed his shoes as she helped him pick up his papers, they were polished with black shoe polish, they had a fine tip and had a short heel. She recognized these shoes as ballroom dancing shoes but she thought it was impossible for him to be the dance teacher. He didn’t look anything like a dancer, too sturdy. As her eyes followed him disappear around the corner she saw how elegantly he was walking and how straight his back was. Ashamed she walked away towards her fist class which was math, her least favorite class. After math she sat down on a bench outside to eat her apple and appreciate the peace and quiet because her math class was a disaster. This guy sitting next to her would not stop talking and interrupting the teacher. Knowing dance was her next class she decided to go find the class and not be late. As she walked into the dance room she turned completely red because the short teachers whose coffee and papers she knocked out of his hands, was standing in front of the mirror stretching. What did fascinate her was how big the mirror was, as big as the wall, she had never seen something like that before. At her previous dance school there was a small mirror one a small part of the wall.

“Good Morning! Em… what’s your name”? The teacher asked.

 “Oh yes I'm Sandra, Sandra Elvin I’m a new student at this school… oh yeah and em… I’m sorry about the coffee and the papers, not too good of an impression for the teacher of my favorite class.” she answered.

 “Very nice to meet you… you said your name was Elvin right…”? He asked.

“Yes that’s right” I answered politely.

“I’m Mr. Ralf and forget about the coffee and the papers, so dancing is your favorite class huh? Interesting, oh well, we don’t have time to get to know each other right now. If you have your things with you today you can go change.”

“Could you tell me were the changing room is please”? Sandra asked.

“Oh rite over there” he said pointing at a big red door “Left for the ladies.”

“Thanks”

While she was changing she met a couple of the girls. Lizzy was a punk with many piercings, she looked kind of scary and Sandra didn’t get why she was doing ballroom dancing, she thought Lizzy looked like someone who would prefer voodoo dancing. Then there was Nina who looked just like a typical Barbie girl who was scared to break a nail. The third girl Sandra met was wearing black tights and a red top, her name was Tessa. She looked like the kind of girl she would hang out with. As class started Sandra met the guys Jack, Tony, John and Laurence. They all looked like really nice guys, except for Tony whom she had already met in math class as the talkative and interruptive neighbor. He was wearing baggy pants and a white tank top. Rather strange clothes to change in for ballroom dancing, she thought.

            During the first class they started with the waltz because everyone knew it, so they could decide who would be partners with whom. Sandra first danced with John. He was a good dancer but a little too careful for her. Then she danced with Laurence, she found him a very elegant and gentle dancer. She really liked dancing with him. Then she danced with Jack whom she didn’t find very interesting at all, he was trying his best too much to impress her. Last but not least she danced with Tony. He was indeed a very good dancer, but she didn’t like him because of his personality. And unlike the other guys he said something to her.

“Oh and we meet again but this time hand in hand, you didn’t look like a ballroom dancer… you’re not bad.”

He annoyed Sandra so much she didn’t even bother to answer him. After everybody had danced with everybody, Mr. Ralf told everyone to line up and said he would pair the couples. The first couple to be together was Nina and John. Then Laurence and Tessa, and Jack and Lizzy. Sandra was disappointed that she was put together with Tony and at the end of the class came to Mr. Ralf to talk to him and see if she could change. But all he said was:

“Your personalities go together, you’ll see, don’t worry. Oh yes I met your mom today she’s a very interesting women, it was nice meeting her.” and he left the class to go to lunch. Sandra was very confused and annoyed.

            During lunch Sandra sat next to Tessa. They started talking and became friends. It turned out Tessa was also new, so they had something in common. The next dance class was more fun for Sandra because she had a friend in class. But then in the end of class she remember what Mr. Ralf said about meeting her mom and she wanted to know what happened. So the first thing she did when she came home was ask her mom what happened.

             “Hey mom, I’m home, I hear you talked to my dancing teacher, what you guys talk about”? Sandra asked.

            “Hey sweetie, your apple is on the table and what your dance teacher and I talked about is irrelevant.” She answered in her regular tone.

            “Come on just tell me what it’s about, it can’t be that bad, come on.”

            “Well it’s a long story.” She said in an annoyed tone.

            “Oh jeez I got time I don’t have home work”.

            “Ok sit down, look I’ve wanted to tell you this a long time ago but I didn’t know how.” She sounded rather awkward. “You know how when you were small you were baptized”? She asked.

            “Mom what are you getting at”? Sandra wondered.

            “Well… em… I don’t know how to say this but em… he is your godfather and uncle; he’s your dad’s brother. But he has a different last name… Wait before you say anything, I apologize for not telling you earlier.” She answered her sentence out of breath.

            “Wow ehhh I didn’t expect that but ok I guess, I didn’t know I had a god father… and mom…its ok you didn’t tell me anything. I can imagine I mean it’s a weird thing to say I guess.” Sandra answered a little shocked.

            “Jeez that was weird” Sandra said to herself laying on her bed unable to fall asleep “ this is so weird, my flipping dance teacher is my godfather and he didn’t tell me, man this is weird, what if I found out later, what if I didn’t find out. Oh well I found out, but how am I going to be able to have a normal class tomorrow without I don’t know being weird. I should walk in the room and just tell him ‘hey I found out about who you are to me’ nah that’s just dumb, I guess I should just be me and yeah well I’ll see” Sandra’s thoughts went on much longer. “Why did dad never tell me anything about him… it’s weird I mean he is his brother after all I mean why though… why… Well I guess since he is never home much, that explains it all… dang I miss all the times we danced together. Oh… he would always pick me up and twist me around in the air… that is till I was to heavy…. It’s probably never going to happen again, oh well… I’m going to miss those days…”

            The next day in dance class she had no clue how to act so she just decided to be normal, well in a way. But when she saw Mr. Ralf, she couldn’t help but talk to him about it and since she was early they had a couple of minutes.

            “Em… Mr…Ralf… I kind of need to talk to you em… my mom talked to me yesterday and told me that you were my godfather and I just, I  wanted to know why you never called or anything, and why I never knew you… I mean you are my dad’s brother.” Sandra said in one breath.

            “Ok well em… yes it’s true I am your godfather… Oh you were so cute when you were small, not that you’re ugly now or anything” he said while smiling and while he smiled I caught my father in him. “you never knew me because me and you dad had a fight and I left… but I don’t know why your parents didn’t tell you about me… sorry. I didn’t call because you moved so often I didn’t know you number. I didn’t even know what country you were in. Look we can talk later I promise, how about I get you a coffee or something after school ok?” he offered.

            “Yeah sounds good” Sandra said while giving Mr. Ralf a hug. This was a weird moment for Sandra. She was so happy to know she had an uncle, especially an uncle who danced.

            While Sandra and Mr. Ralf had a coffee they talked about so many things. Sandra found out that she had 2 cousins older than her, one19 and one 21. She discovered his wife, her aunt, had died 3 years ago of lung cancer. She was disappointed to hear that. She also learned things about her uncle. For example that he won many dance competitions etc… She also found out why her dad had a fight with her uncle. It was all because of money. Her uncle owed her dad money but her uncle didn’t have the money and so her dad got really mad about it and that’s how the fight started. After that, they never talked again. Sandra told Mr. Ralf about where she had lived, what she had seen and just generally about her life.

            A couple of weeks into the school year, the dance class started with tango. A dance which is very intimate. Overall Sandra wasn’t good at tango and especially didn’t like dancing tango with Tony because she knew he liked her. But at some point in the dance Sandra looked Tony straight into his ocean blue eyes and he looked straight back and  something had changed in the way she thought about him. His all of a sudden seemed gentler and more pleasant to be around. And suddenly it was as if the whole dance worked out. As if she knew all the steps although she didn’t, her feet were just doing it. That same day after the lesson Mr. Ralf asked Sandra to stay after.

            “See now that’s what I’m talking about you’re doing great, you could enter the competition at the end of the year if you continue this way!” he said.

            “What…? There’s a competition?! I didn’t know that.” She answered surprised.

            “Well now you know” he said as he left the room.

 “Oh my god.” She thought “Dad is going to be so proud of me now, I better tell him.”

            When she came home she looked in every room, every corner of the house but ... she couldn’t find her dad… She was kind of disappointed because she thought he would be proud of her but now she didn’t have a chance of even telling him. She went to her room to check her calendar because she wrote all the dates her dad was supposed to be gone, but today he wasn’t supposed to be gone…

 “Oh well.” She thought “it could have been a meeting or something.”

That night after what had happened with her tango Sandra lay thinking in her bed about how great dancing really was and how magic it was. But then she thought about Tony, things were really awkward between them, they only danced together which was amazingly fun but they didn’t talk to each other out of class. So Sandra thought about going to get an ice cream somewhere with him to get to know him a little better.

So the next day of school, the first thing she did was go tot Tony’s locker. She slipped a letter in his locker that she had written the night before, about their get together after school. During dance class it seemed as if Tony didn’t get the letter yet. She was disappointed. That class it felt like she had forgotten everything. Since she asked him to meet her in the dance class she was waiting there. 10 minutes passed, 15 minutes passed. He wasn’t there yet. Sandra decided to wait only 15 more minutes and while she was waiting she turned on the music and practiced the waltz. Tony slipped into the room so quietly that Sandra didn’t notice because of the music. At the right moment Tony slipped in, put his hand in hers and his other hand on her hips. Sandra was surprised but enjoyed the feeling of dancing in Tony’s hands.

            On their way to the ice cream café Tony and Sandra were talking about random things, about their families, previous school, hobbies etc… Then at some point they started talking about the competition at the end of the year.

“So you think we could try entering the competition this year…”? Sandra asked.

“Well there is one problem… I can’t dance in front of other people so I don’t think it’s going to work out. Sorry…Sandra” he answered looking me straight into the eyes.

“Oh come on you’ll get over that, I know you will cause it’s really not that hard… you know what we’ll practice out side of school, well I mean if you didn’t know yet Mr. Ralf is my uncle so we could get lessons just on our free time. How about it?” Sandra suggested.

“Really I didn’t know, but em I guess that’s cool and well… I’m not sure… I mean…well… fine” Tony answered in a sigh “Now what flavor do you want, my favorite is Passion fruit.”

“Really, passion fruit is your favorite, mine too.” Sandra said with a smile on her face.

After finishing their ice cream, Tony walked Sandra home. He gave her a hug and a small kiss on the cheek when he said goodbye. All Sandra could think of was to thank him for the ice cream. Before she closed the door, she looked back at Tony and saw that he was looking at her, she just smiled and closed the door. That night she couldn’t fall asleep, she had so many things to think about. Her life had just changed so much in just a couple of days. She felt so happy.

The next day at school seemed like the best day of her life. Her tango turned out perfectly, during lunch she walked around the track with Tony holding hands and just laughing about the most random things. That day in her literature class she had to write an essay about something that made her feel free. At first she had no clue what to write about but then she thought to her self. “Dance…Dance…Yes of course how come I didn’t come to that earlier… dance makes me feel so free, its like I can do anything I want, I can go anywhere and well I guess it makes me feel so happy.” In that essay Sandra put all her feelings. She expressed how she feels, how she feels every time she is dancing with Tony and how it’s just so great to dance. She got a 7+ which is an almost impossible grade to get. She was so proud of herself.

The dance lessons Sandra and Tony took together with Mr. Ralf or as Sandra would now say Uncle Ralf went very well. Tony got very confident and because of that Sandra danced better. Uncle Ralf taught them little tricks and showed them the best of the best. For fun Sandra and Tony would go for a walk and then just randomly start waltzing around the park.

But on a beautiful Sunday morning Sandra’s mom came downstairs to see Sandra sitting in the couch in tears. Sandra’s mom didn’t understand what happened…

“Hey sweetie what happened? Oh come here.” She asked.

“Em… its dad… dad left this morning with his suitcase and took the car. A strange woman got into the car with him at the drive way… I don’t think he’s ever coming back again mom….” Sandra answered in tears.

“What… your dad left with …with another woman and you don’t think he’s ever coming back… oh my god.” She cracked up in tears and went upstairs to her room. Sandra didn’t see her all day until she came downstairs to open the door for the pizza delivery. She sat with us at the table. My brothers and sisters already got the news and didn’t really know what to think about it.

“Hey sis, you know I saw this coming… I’ve seen dad with that same woman a couple of times but I was scared to tell mom … I mean she wouldn’t have believed me…what should we do now … like to make mom feel better or whatever, cause she won’t eat or anything she wont even talk to us…” Michael, Sandra’s older brother asked

“Are you sure it’s that same woman.” Sandra asked suspiciously.

“Yeah I’m positive. I was looking out of the window when they left because I heard the car start.”

“Well the only thing I can think of right now is just to give mom time and leave her alone… when she wants to talk to us she will.” Sandra said calmly. “Alright then good night.”

Sandra’s thoughts were going all over the place… she tried to take her focus off her dad by dancing around the room. But she just couldn’t concentrate at all and got all the steps wrong. She got even more frustrated. “Damn you dad…why do you have to do this…. Mom didn’t do anything wrong…. I mean she even did everything right. Just so you know for me you’re not welcome anymore… never… you left mom and so you left everyone of us.” Sandra’s thoughts kept on rattling about how she thought she hated her dad and how much she wish he would be whipped out of her memory.

At school Sandra was very quiet; she didn’t even enjoy her dance lessons anymore. She didn’t now what to tell uncle Ralf and Tony. In dance class she got everything wrong and she didn’t go to her private lessons anymore… she just wouldn’t show up. Sandra kept using the excuse of “My stomach hurts” for not doing well in dance class of not going to her private lessons.

“Sandra, Sandra, wait talk to me… please I can see it’s not your stomach please just tell me what’s going on, we can talk about it and I won’t tell anyone.” Tony asked after dance class while he was holding her hand stopping her from leaving.

“Look Tony its really complicated. Ok I mean you can’t change it anyways. Please just for forget about it.” Sandra answered while looking at the ground.

“Hey look I might not be able to change anything but I can sure talk to you about it and make it easier on you… please Sandra I really want to help you.” Tony begged.

“Well my mom hasn’t talked to me for weeks and she won’t eat, my little sisters are like depressed and my older brothers are just going crazy…all our grades are going down just because my damn father left my mom with some other … some other woman …. Oh my god I can’t believe it, he actually did that, he left my family for some… some other dumb woman.” Sandra said in tears not able to believe it.

“Oh my god.” Tony put his hands around her. “Oh my god Sandra I am so so sorry.” He said while stroking his hand on her head. It was quiet for a while when Tony said “How bout we got get something to eat and talk about it because I see you haven’t eaten much yourself.” Sandra accepted the offer and spend the rest of her evening talking to Tony about what had happened. She felt so much better after being able to say all those things that were stuck on her mind.

Now all she had left to do was to work on her dancing which became very hard emotionally, because her dad was always the one proudest of her. He was also the one who introduced dancing to her when she was only very little. He was the one she would dance with at parties or weddings but now all of that would change. The first lesson was the hardest because as she was waltzing she would see her dad in front of her, instead of Tony and just let go. After class that day she told Uncle Ralf about what happened with her mom and dad. Uncle Ralf took her home and stayed for dinner. Surprisingly he was the only one who could get her mom to talk. He stayed late into the night and just sat in the sofa and talked to my mom.

The competition was coming up soon and Sandra didn’t have much time left to get ready. Each dance class got better but she still had trouble with memories about her dad. On a Monday morning Tony and Sandra went to dance class early, to practice dancing with no one around to see how it would work out. They couldn’t dance because they caught Sandra’s mom and Uncle Ralf dancing a very intimate tango…Sandra found it a pity they noticed them watching because it was one of the best Tango’s she had ever seen, even better than her dads…

“Mom where did you learn how to dance, you never told me you knew how to dance… your pretty darn good and em…Uncle Ralf… yah no comment…” Sandra said laughing aloud.

“First of all” her mom answered. “I learned how to dance when em… I first met you dad but ever since our 2^nd anniversary I never danced again because I just couldn’t dance I just couldn’t remember the steps, it just wouldn’t work and so I thought it was a sign stop… you were only small you don’t remember although Michael might still remember…”

“Right ok we’ll em… I think well leave you two alone…come on Tony we’ll find our own little area to dance.” Sandra suggested.

“All right now… but you still have to come to class on time, no excuses.” Uncle Ralf quickly said before we left.

Sandra and Tony, especially Sandra, couldn’t stop laughing about seeing Sandra’s mom and Uncle Ralf together. They found it so funny how Uncle Ralf was the one blushing… not Sandra’s mom… After not skipping class that day, Tony went home that day with Sandra. Together they looked through a whole bunch of photo albums. Sandra told Tony all about her dad and everyone in her family. He could almost write a research on her family.

“You know I never knew you were so close to you dad when you were small, you never talked about him before. By the way… let’s stuff the competition I prefer just dancing with you for fun… I don’t want to make it a competitive sport.” Tony said.

“About the competition yeah I don’t even want to do it anymore. My dream was to win a competition for my dad, not for myself and since my dad is gone, I would prefer to just dance for myself, with you. Concerning my dad…well when I was really small he was home a lot more, but now well about 2 years before he left he wasn’t home so often… he always had business trips or meetings… no more time for his family I guess, although now I know what he was really doing…no work but pleasure.” Sandra answered. “But this is really weird, it seems like with Uncle Ralf mom is happier now… when I come back from school she is making muffins or something else and she is always smiling… I guess our teacher Uncle Ralf doesn’t only magically dance but he can also magically change my mom’s world.” That day Sandra went to sleep with a smile on her face and finally forgave her dad because she realized they were both happier this way, especially her mom.

Author's Note

Just so you know I wrote this 2 years ago so its not my best