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I stared at myself in the mirror his morning for an unusually long time.

Boy, was I nervous.

Today was the day of my first public performance. Today, the whole student population would be seeing me like they’ve never seen me before — flailing my arms and legs as if tehy’re independent from my body, making a grand fool of myself, for sure. Honestly, a million and one things could go wrong. I could miss a step or miss all the steps. The CD could skip, and we could end up dancing to nothing or getting thrown off. My moves could look totally awkward and funny, and it could turn out that I was asked to be part of the dance club just so everyone else would look good next to me. Everyone could very well brought tomatoes with them to the program. They all might even have great aim.

By the time I got to school, I was wondering whether I could ever look good with tomato juice streaming down my face. Jill was jumping up and down, “I can’t wait, I’m so excited! We’ll finally see our Britney in action!” I managed a tiny smile, thankful that she’s supportive, and terrified that she is.

“You and the whole world,” I said, pained. And then I realized that the ‘whole world’ included AJ.

For sure I didn’t get into dancing just to be in the spotlight for AJ. But I have to admit, he played some part in my decision, or at least in my determination to do really well today. Here was the chance for him to see me, really notice me. Of course, he’ll probably be noticing the seven other girls onstage with me, but what the heck. For that one little possibility that I can outshine everyone else and let AJ see me in a new light, I was excited.

Maybe that’s why I felt like throwing up.

But first things first — practice till the show starts. The first run was uneventful because, surprisingly, I didn’t mess up. Then I started thinking, hey, maybe I can do this. The second time, we upped the intensity to performance level, and amazingly, our choreographer proudly exclaimed we were breathtaking. By this time, the show was to start in 10 minutes, and we were set to do our third and last run.

When it comes to unfortunate events happening, some people are really psychic. They have a sense for these things. They can feel bad luck coming a mile away. I, on the other hand, am like a deer caught in bad luck’s headlights. I have no idea it’s coming till it runs me over.

And run me over, it did. During one particularly tricky step with complicated footwork, I felt excruciating pain shoot up my leg. Before it had dawned on me that I’d twisted my ankle, I went on to put my whole weight on it and had to hit the floor, fast. tears welled up in my eyes, mostly in pain, partly in frustration.

I had to be sent to the clinic. On the way there, when I wasn’t thinking about whether I ahd torn any ligaments, I was feeling sorry for myself. My day of glory was over before it even started. Before they opened the clinic’s door for me, I was sure I could almost see the glint in AJ’s eyes from up on stage.

And when they did open the door, I could actually see the glint in AJ’s eyes from where I was standing, in hop scotch fashion, just outside the hall. If I weren’t in pain, I would’ve done a double take.

The school nurse did her job on me before she had me plop down on the bed next to AJ’s.

“So what are you in for?” AJ said, grinning, as he raised his upper body from off the bed and leaned on his right elbow to face me. His right ankle was plastered like mine, and he had his basketball jersey on.

“Flat feet,” I simply said. At this time, I’m amazed I’m capable of wit.

He watched as the two other club members I cam with left, muttering that we were probably going to be cued soon. He looked at them, then back at me, before he said, “Too bad, I was going to ask you to dance,” and winked.

And we burst out laughing.