![]() ![]() It was then I realized how extremely mean your peers can be. I wasn't that afraid of Miss Cassandra, although she was tough, led an entire class to be tough by being mean and didn't offer up the slightest bit of sympathy. So when Miss Cassandra closed up shop on her Thursday night class, her wild pack of nasties walked by me and stared, some of them offering up evil laughs. I ran out of the room and hid in the foyer which turned out to be the worst hiding place as my mom never got the message to pick me up early. "Places ladies!!" She clapped twice and the bun heads sprang into a head-bending swirl of pink hues. Without skipping a beat, she floated towards the record player and steadied the needle. "Now go on to the secretary and ask her to clean this up." I looked up to see Miss Cassandra's arms crossed, and her eyes never broke its squint on me. NO IT'S NOT OKAY I PEED ON THE FLOOR LIKE A DOG. I started sobbing and raised my elbow, then my forearm and just stared at the floor. "Class.raise your hand, did someone pee on the floor here?" She stared me down, and the rest of the mean pink tutu eyes never left me. If Miss Mary sneezed rainbow and glitter glue, Miss Cassandra coughed up flat bike tires and the avian flu. Cassandra, her nose getting pointier and black hair getting blacker, stood at their helm.Ĭassandra lifted her head gracefully toward me, like a wicked evil swan. They snapped their stiff donut hair to the door and narrow-eyed-stared as I entered the room. Mortified, I walked back to the studio, and there it was: 15 she-devils in slick-backed buns investigating the corner of the studio, pointing their pink-slippered hooves ominously at a puddle. "You better hurry back, You don't want to miss her class!" "Hi Sarah! How's it going in Cassandra's class?" She was genuinely sunshiney-happy to see me. As I opened the bathroom door to peek out, Mary was waiting. I'm sick? I'll go to the office and call my mom? I surveyed my leotard and praised Jesus that the pale pink hid the pee pee stain extremely well. She let out a firm "Ok." as she lowered her gaze and before she could lecture me, I ran as fast as I could to the nearest bathroom. In a panic, I stood behind my guilty puddle and screamed, "CAN I GO TO THE BATHROOM?"" holding myself like kindergarten potty dancers. Cassandra looked baffled, then narrowed her rat face stare. I looked around like a wild junkyard dog, but no one noticed at first. On a Thursday while we were practicing leaps, I had to go, bad. She won't let you go." (She didn't add that she resembled that of the Rat King from The Nutcracker.) She can seem mean but she's really just preparing you to be great. "Miss Cassandra expects her students to be serious about ballet. But as she prepared for some of our transition to her younger sister's class, she warned us. ![]() I loved her like I loved my Sunday school teachers, because like them, she radiated sunshine and candy canes and glitter and she smelled like Hair Insurance, hair stuff my mom used. Don't let that fish wiggle you out of position!"Īnd we would giggle and she would giggle and then it was back to business. "Now when you're in first position, pretend your feet are holding down a long wriggly fish. When there were new positions to learn, she always paired it with a funny story to remember. ![]() I don't remember her face, but when I think about my first year of ballet, Miss Mary has a sunshine happy face where her face should be in my memories. She talked just like a kindergarten teacher and was extremely relaxed and easy. My first ballet instructor was a mild mannered 30-something named Mary. I also got moved up to the older class after my first year. We were the "Dancing Emeralds" and I felt like a star. My first dance recital was amazing, all decked out in a green tutu. I loved how light I felt flying in the air and how easy it was for me to pick up routines. I was pretty fast seeing as though I was tiny but I really really loved ballet. ![]() I really enjoyed softball, especially since my dad was such a good dad-coach and would always ensure that I ran first base out. It's not that being a Longfellow Honey Bear softball player was terrible. I tell people that I quit to play softball but it was really because I peed my leotard in the studio. I quit ballet in 4th grade because I peed all over the floor. ![]()
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