Chapter 14

“You bet your ass I would!” As quickly as K said it, she turned eleven different shades of pink and peach. “Gosh, I’m so sorry, everybody,” she said with her eyes moistening quickly.

“You cannot talk like that on the TV show, Kalista honey. Now’s the time to get that out of your system,” Claire responded, but giggled anyway.

“Charles & Claire,” Annie said, tapping her phone, “Charles, put down the little girl ... sorry Kalista, and head on to the check-in, Kalista go with them, be their chaperone.” I heard a snort behind me on our way out.

We got to the check-in and they confirmed whom we were and that we were performing last and that they had our music.

I had asked for the order of the dancers and they said, first the Cha-Cha, then the Tango, the Foxtrot and lastly us, with our Jive.

Mom showed up, saying that Jimmy was joining the rest of our group in the stands.

I got a nice hug from Special K, Annie, and Sarah, who pulled me in really tight and said, “You are very talented, and you dance well too.”

Her flirting may be the death of me, but ‘What a way to go!’

Less than ten minutes later, the Announcer came on:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, dancers of all ages. Tonight, is a real treat. Besides the terrific competition that’s about to take place, NBC has decided to tape tonight and show it on one of its sister networks in the coming weeks. Be kind, this isn’t a football game, this is a dance competition, we have higher standards, don’t we?”

The whole auditorium yelled, “HELL YEAH!”

“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, you restored my faith in dance competitions just then. TONIGHT, we start with four and we will end with two. Give a big shout out to each of our remaining dancers,”

“Seventeen-year-old — Jaylyn Williams and Jeffrey Rodriguez.”

A lot of noise came from the audience for Jeff and Jay.

“Eighteen-year-old — Kim Chang and William Jennings.”

They had their share of support from the crowd as well.

“Seventeen-year-old — Wendy Smithson and George Gonzales.”

A very strong sound of support came from the house for them.

“And, our leaders, after three dances — Still thirteen years old — Claire McArthur and Charles Newman, better known as ‘Charles & Claire.’”

To use a grossly overused expression, the crowd went wild. It was so intimidating, to hear all those people shout out our names, almost surreal. We waved, I spotted a camera with the red light on and so I directed Claire to wave into it with me.

The Announcer released everyone, except the first dancing couple of the afternoon, Jay and Jeff, who were doing an American Tango. They were dressed in shades ob blue.

As before, we decided to listen, but not watch the competition. We went to a relatively quiet spot and talked.

“Claire, we weren’t expected to be here tonight, somebody else was ... so relax — remember to breathe and enjoy the music and the dance. If we do this as well as we have before, this is our competition to win, nobody else’s.” “Get it?” “Got it.” “Good!”

The first couple was finished. The next couple up was Kim and Will, doing a Cha-cha. They had red and mauve outfits. Their music started and about halfway through there was a shriek, not loud enough to be heard very far, but we heard it sounding like someone was in a great deal of pain.

We wandered over to where the noise was ... George Gonzales, the dancer, was laying on the floor in what appeared to be a great deal of pain, grabbing his left leg below the knee and Wendy was standing by him waving her hands around for some reason; I guess they’re out of the competition.

“Claire, get ready, we’re next,” I at once realized.

She said, “I feel so bad for George and Wendy, they have worked just as hard as we have, probably harder ... she told me, she’s been dancing since she was five years old. They are from Fort Wayne, Indiana.”

I grabbed her hand and said, “How does Claire Newman sound about right now? When we dance for our first Internationals trophy, we should be married, Mrs. Newman.”

She looked over at me and that dimpled smile was back. She squeezed my hand, just as Kim and Will came off the floor. We smiled at them and they smiled back.

The announcer came on and said, “There has been an incident. Wendy and George won’t be performing tonight, so the remaining three couples will be First, Second, and Third, but who will win? We have one more set of dancers.”

He went on: “Accumulating the highest comprehensive score in the NDCA History of the Rising Star competition, that goes back thirty-seven years, are the youngest competitors ever to participate. Ladies and Gentlemen, performing a Jive to the song “Footloose” are thirteen-year-olds Charles & Claire.”

We went out to the middle of the floor, got in our opening pose, but first Claire leaned over and gave me our kiss and we started, clapping, and getting the crowd quickly into it, I was looking at my girl, my dance partner, as we moved to the music. Our new opening Half-Windmill was very popular, that ‘thing ‘happened again, where the place went dead quiet and all I heard was Kenny, who was singing the song.

Our quick spins drove the people crazy. I saw people dancing in the stands, we heard people singing in the stands. It was truly a moment I never thought I would be part of.

But we were, getting ready to end this and Claire’s hips were going wild, we did another Half-Windmill, which got everybody excited again.

Our hips were together; our arms were together — it felt amazing.

The last measures were coming up and we ended it like never before, with Claire ending on my lap, in tempo. Only those who had known our choreography could have told you it wasn’t designed that way, but it sure is now.

Claire started laughing about the mistake, but she didn’t give it away ... That’s how we intended it to end, if anybody asked.

The stands, I understand held over twelve thousand people, the most ever at a Rising Star competition and every one of them was screaming their bloody heads off. I heard a few ‘Your de man, Charles’ and ‘Just one more!’ from some other people.

The Announcer tried to start talking a couple of times but was drowned out by the huge clarion of sound. We just kept waving to everyone, the excitement was ... just amazing.

Finally, he said: “Ladies and Gentlemen, it certainly is too bad they can’t dance for an Open Championship for two more years, but that means, two more years of what we just saw, and they are only thirteen-years-old.

“The scores are in ... Charles & Claire have such a lead in points, they could NOT dance tomorrow and still win, so Ladies and Gentlemen, you have been witness to the genesis of a National Championship Dancing team — Charles Newman and Claire McArthur, Charles & Claire — have become the Rising Stars of the NDCA!”

It sounded just like an explosion. A wall of sound!

“If you will all calm down, they have a dance in reserve for tomorrow, if they had won. How’d you like to see that right now?”

Another roar came from the masses.

“Yeah, you would — make some more noise, for Charles ... and ... Claire!”

As the crowd settled down, Claire gave me a kiss to start, I wasn’t sure which piece of music this would be. I saw a look from Mom that was her pretending to be playing the piano — oohh ... that must mean, ‘Sunrise Sunset.” Eventually, it was finally quiet enough to start.

We snapped to close, Claire gave me a kiss and we started to dance. It was so quiet now, you could hear our feet slide across the floor, our spins felt effortless and our promenades were perfectly together. The crowd wasn’t making any sound either. I could hear a few faint whispers, people trying to be quiet, so others could enjoy us dancing.

Our waltz was our favorite of all dances we had learned so far and this one was no different. Annie had recorded it for us and had played it as perfectly as she had our first competition.

The end of the music was near, and I added a Double Reverse Spin, which we had never done before in a competition, but Claire handled it like a professional. The music was over, and we were through dancing.

You may have heard stories of people who were caught in the eye of a hurricane and they would tell you it was peaceful, but they knew that one hell of a storm was just moments away.

Breaking into the silence was the Announcer:

“Wasn’t that just the most magnificent slow waltz, that you have ever seen in your life, people — tell them how much you liked it, it’s OK, make some noise!”

It went from blissfully quiet to sounding like a jet engine, in a matter of seconds. Mom came out to join us and started waving with us. She leaned over and said beneath the swell of the crowd, “The Disney People have agreed to take all four finalists to Disneyworld if you two will do their spot for them. Oh, and David Letterman himself called back and would like ALL of us there on Friday and they will take all eight of us, instead of the original five. Damn, kids, I could get used to this!”

Although Claire and I did the ‘We’re going to Disneyworld’ promo in a single take, we ended up going to Disneyland in California for four days instead. (Our ‘Big Five’ would be going. Sarah, Annie, Super K, Claire and I)

The trip to New York and being on The David Letterman Show was quite a journey. We were both very happy to have gotten back home in our own beds for a couple of days, before starting back up at school.

School had been really different with every single student along with every single teacher stopping us and congratulating us for our Dance Award and the coolness factor of having been on Letterman.

It all seemed to have ‘raised our stock’ at Independence Junior High School. We would walk everywhere hand in hand occasionally running into Brian and Susan, who were also always in each other’s grip. I saw a ring on Susan’s hand, good boy!

School went well with the last two months going by very fast. We were both anxious for it to be over and to re-start going to the Bradshaw Family Cotillion again for our second year there. It feels like déjà vu talking about dances and steps all over again.

Last year, being thirteen-year-olds meant we danced on Tuesday, but this year (2013) since we both will be tuning 14 in late July, we’re probably moving to Thursday nights.

We hadn’t scheduled out trip to Disneyland yet.

However, we got a letter from Jimmy with the upcoming Cotillion schedule. Things have changed considerably; Monday is now 17/18-year-olds, Tuesday 13/14-year-olds, Wednesday 11/12-year-olds, Thursday 15/16-year-olds, Friday is the 9/10-year-olds, and Saturday at ten am, will be the 7/8-year-olds. This was explained by an almost 400% increase of new students wanting to attend the Bradshaw Family Cotillion. Maybe we should have asked Jimmy for a piece of the action?

Jimmy had moved out of the building they had been in since his great grandfather started the business over 60 years before.

Having found a new larger place, the Cotillion will now start at six pm for ninety minutes for the younger age and at seven-thirty, the older age will attend. Newbies and Returnees will be lumped together now.

Also, inside our envelope from Jimmy, was a personal invitation for both Claire and I to be as available teachers for the Friday evening classes of the 9/10-year-olds with commensurate privileges instead of payment for purposes of maintaining our amateur status.

RING

Without looking, I said. “Hello Claire — how’s my girl?”

“Did you get a letter from Jimmy?”

“Yes, ma’am ... I did.”

“Don’t ma’am me, Mr. Newman, or I will reach through the phone line and hit you over your pointy little head.” She couldn’t suppress a giggle.

“I was just kidding Claire. Interesting, how we will still be going on Tuesday nights and Kalista will be on Friday night, when we have coincidentally been asked to teach that class?”

“Jimmy must have gotten a whole bunch of new students in, after we won our award,” Claire said. “I am so happy for him ... What time?”

“What time, what?” I asked, feigning knowledge of what she was asking.

“You ... butthead, you know what I am asking ... school is out, what time tomorrow do you want me there to practice? We haven’t danced together in almost four weeks.”

“How about you and Special K come over at nine am and bring your go-bags?”

“I will be there promptly at nine o’clock, for my boyfriend to teach me something new.”

That sounded a little hinky?

“See you two, tomorrow then. Bye Claire, Love you.”

“Bye, Charles ... I Love you.”

I went downstairs and saw Annie, poring over a number of documents, scratching her head and looking very serious. She heard me enter the room.

Without looking up, she said, “Hi honey. What time are Claire and Kalista coming over tomorrow morning?”

“Mom ... how could you possibly ... Were you listening in on the phone?”

“No, dear ... this is Sunday, two days before the start of Cotillion. You and Claire haven’t danced in about four weeks, so I put two and two together and figured it out. I’m not stupid, you know.”

“I’m sorry, Mom, what’s all this in front of you?” I asked.

“I am just trying to organize this upcoming season’s competitions. They start in one week, there are eleven in all, at least the ones that are during your ten-week summer break.”

“Claire and I don’t have to go to them all, you know,” I reasoned. I was interrupted by her...

“I know dear, but I still need to be better organized. Your father leaving us, has given me the time to really focus and plan these events better than last year.”

Putting my hands on her shoulders, I asked, “Mom? Are we doing all right? I mean moneywise?”

With a huge smile on her face, she said, “Honey, that stupid sonofabitc ... your sweet ... dear loving father, is paying us plenty of money each month, to live and play like we want to.”

“Yeah, but how’re ‘you’ doing, Mom? I love you. Claire and all the rest of them love you so much. Kalista lights up when she sees you, now that she understands the connection the two of you have. I just want to be sure that my Annie is happy.”

Mom got up and stood before me, opening her arms to accept mine, “Charles ... you have gotten taller since you first started dancing. What are you now, six feet tall? Honey, I am very happy. My youngest son is a nationally recognized dancer, who has the girl of his dreams as his dancing partner. Things couldn’t get better than that. Why don’t we go over there, unannounced, and pick up Claire and Kalista? Right now.”