The Dance

CARNABY HIGH

Where you are only limited by

Your imagination

THERE it is, that familiar sound of ringing in the ears. Sam knew that feeling only too well. The only positive thing is that it usually signals the end of the beating.

Sam was thin, very thin and a little vertically challenged as he liked to call it. He was built like a chicken wire fence and God love him, an asthmatic sneeze would knock him over on a calm day.

Today, however, was going to be different, today was not an ordinary day, for today was Sam’s birthday. 16 years old and for the last 4 of them subjected to the ritual punishment and embarrassment at the hands of one ‘BEANY’ Mulligan. ‘Meany Beany’ as more commonly known was already 16 years old and was as tall as Sam’s front door or at least that’s how it appeared to Sam.

Sam thought, today, Beany would leave him alone, there has to be some perks to being your birthday after all, surely? No, Beany was busy giving Sam his usual slapping egged on by all and sundry. The teachers seamed to put it all down to rough play and Sam was too embarrassed to tell anyone how it made him feel.

RING.RING. The school buzzer went off, saved by the bell. This time at least.

The school Senior Dance was just around the corner and Sam was full of excitement, even now as he stood slumped against the assembly wall, hair tussled and full of dust, with his shirt pulled around his body resembling a badly wrapped Christmas present.

One night of music and dancing, two weeks to prepare for it. Sam knew only too well how lucky he was, not having to worry about dresses, make-up, and all that other stuff that drives girls into crazed emotional lunatics,  before leaving the house and that’s just to go up to the shops, never mind getting ready for the ‘Senior Dance’ which just happens to be the dance of the year.

Still, He wanted to look his best, let everyone see how lucky they would be to have Sam on their arm, whisking them away from the dance in style, well he’d at least pay for their bus fare. Sam knew he had one advantage over all others, one which will get him a girl, he could make people laugh!

Admittedly, he was still trying to work out if there were laughing with him or at him, don’t care either way, it gets them talking to him and that’s half the battle, right? 

Teachers loved Sam and although he never looked like securing the title of academic of the year he certainly commanded a crowd. People stopped and listened to him when he’d be telling yarns and make them laugh. The problem was they stood and laughed when he was been pushed about the place by Mulligan too.  Attention, it’s all about attention, Sam convinced himself there was no such thing as bad attention, evidence that the title of brain box was well out of his reach too.

Snappy comebacks and one liners just pop into his head as if was a second language he naturally spoke and didn’t have to study for. Just as well as French and Spanish seamed all too foreign to Sam. 

Birthday cake, presents and special dinners all ensued but the only thing Sam could concentrate on was who he would take to the dance, how he would ask them and how he’d avoid Beany Mulligan long enough to talk to a girl in the first place without been made look like a discounted item in Morrison’s, tempting but no one wants to be seen with it in their basket. 

Right, I’ll come to school early and avoid Beany, Yeah, that’ll work he convinced himself.

For a week and a half Beany Mulligan came to school early and left school late, determined to disrupt Sam’s plan. No, No, What? Thought Sam, How am I going to get any girl alone without running into the school bully everywhere I look? Is Meany Beany doing this on purpose? Either way I may do something else or I’ll be going to the dance on my own. That will never do.

Let’s see, Caroline, Carley, Lyndsey, Lisa, Gemma, all lovely girls and all without boyfriends and one of them may actually say yes. They always smile at him, especially Gemma, she’s lovely and she really likes me he tells himself, but why, recently, do they always walk away in a hurry whenever they seen him approach? Is it anything to do with that awful Meany Mulligan? This is not going well, why can’t Meany Beany leave him alone? It’s almost as though Meany is deliberately trying to stop girls from going to the dance with him, is that what’s happening, Meany Mulligan applying a new form of torture?

Day of the Dance. If not now, then when thought Sam as he practically ambushed a startled Gemma Ryan. Bloody Hell Sam, are you trying to scare me to death, why jump out from behind the gym wall like that? She stammered. Sam, busily scanning the immediate area whilst trying to reassure Gemma that he wasn’t the next Sweeny Todd, explained to Gemma that he wanted to take her to the dance that very night. “Oh Sam, I’d love to” “Oh but I can’t.”  “Why ever not?” Replied Sam, not quite understanding. Gemma was a sure thing, what’s going on.

“Well” said Gemma, “You are off limits, everyone knows that.”  “I’d be too worried about what Meany Mulligan would do to me if I went with you. All the girls are”

Right, that’s it, I’m going to stand up to Mulligan once and for all.

Sam spent the rest of the day angry, bemused and searching for Mulligan determined to put an end to whatever it is that is going on but without success. Looks like I’m going to the dance on my own thought a dejected Sam.

He still made the effort to look good as he still had an image to uphold even if was that of a skinny, funny guy. Hair gel, body spray, extra minute on the tooth brush, nails trimmed back, shoes polished. Oh yeah, even if no one else can be with him, at least Sam knew he looked good.

7pm, time to go. Sam got dropped off around the corner from the school. It wouldn’t do to be seen getting out of the family car, getting a final hair flick and your cheek been wiped with a hanky that’s just been licked by your mother in an attempt to make you look ‘presentable’. No, that wouldn’t do at all.  Anyway, Sam was meeting his single friends by the drinks machine just inside the hall entrance. All he had to do was get in before Mulligan sees him and maybe, just maybe, some poor brave soul might actually dance with him.

As stealthly as an SAS Commando, Sam slivered around the red brick wall of the school entrance, keeping tight to the verge of conifer trees lining the path to the front doors. Nobody would see him slinking in the shadows. Nobody at all, except one person, Yes, that’s right, Meany Beany Mulligan.

Waiting right there, next to the big double doors to the schools entrance stood Beany Mulligan, suspiciously looking around as though waiting for someone.  Sam stopped and stared eventually persuading himself to leave the safety of the shadows and face his nemesis.  He prepared himself mentally, persuading himself over and over that he was capable of doing this as he slowly walked in the direction of Mulligan. Step by step he manoeuvred ever closer, never moving his eyes from Mulligan’s frame. 

Something’s different though, not as frightening, more amenable he thought. The closer Sam got to Mulligan the more confused he became. Mulligan had even made an effort for the dance. No longer adorned in torn jeans, ‘ALESTORM’ T-Shirt and Doc Martin boots, those were somewhere else tonight. 

Sam stood directly in front of Beany Mulligan, face to face, no longer afraid just confused out of his mind.  

Mulligan was the first to speak. “Sam, I’m sorry for giving you a hard time for so long. I just didn’t know how to speak to you. I wanted to be friends for so long but you were popular, making everyone laugh and busy been nice and I was afraid.” 

Of all the slaps Sam had got over the years, this one was without doubt the one he would never forget and definitely the one he struggled to understand. Beany Mulligan was afraid of HIM, really? I hadn’t seen that one coming he thought to himself.  It took a few minutes for Sam to respond “but why did you warn all the girls to keep away from me tonight?” Beany gave Sam a suggestive look “Really, isn’t it obvious?” Oh my word, Sam clambered to take it in, Beany Mulligan, of all people wanted to go to the dance with SAM!!!

You know, thought Sam, life’s funny, I really did not see that coming but the biggest surprise of them all was that Sam could not stop himself from smiling. Relieved, Yes, not only that, he was thinking that this could be a great night after all.  He had never before looked at Mulligan like that and was even more shocked by how much he liked what he saw. How had he never noticed the tall sculptured figure, long blonde hair, radiant blue eyes and beautiful red lips which somehow Beany, or to use her real name Bethany Mulligan, kept hidden all this time. Bethany held her hand out, exposing her slender fingers with French polished nails, to a bewildered Sam. He grabbed her hand as though she was pulling him back from the edge of a cliff and together they entered the hall. They proudly walked into the school hall together, hand in hand, leaving a trail of gasps, stumbles and exclamations of “ What the?” all around them, and that was just the teachers. 

This was one run in with Beany Mulligan, Sam was going to enjoy. 

Sam learned a valuable lesson that night, never judge a book by its cover and not everything is as it appears to be. 

Life has a great habit of surprising you especially when you least expect it.