Hola, all! I'm late on my Monday blogging but I was sans internet yesterday. This is an excerpt from my Young Adult novel about Jaisa Jamison a high school senior cross country runner. This is pretty far into the novel but all you need to know to get this part is that it's homecoming and Jaisa went to the dance with her bff Lydia and Will (a college sophomore), Lydia's date (he sees this date as non-romatic, Lydia would like it to be romantic). Cooper, Will's younger brother, is a super hunk on the cross country team and Jaisa's Physics partner.

          We go to dinner at Applebee’s. Will drives. Lydia pays. I sit in the backseat and I order chicken fingers for dinner. I should’ve gotten crayons and a kids’ menu to color on too. When we get to the dance, we have to shuffle through the breathalyzer line to make sure no one is drunk before they enter the dance. What the cops and teachers should be doing is patting everyone down before they come in because half the boys have bottles tapped to their ankles to sneak pulls of during the dance.

            “Come along my ladies!” As soon as were passed the chaperones and police doing breathalyzers, Will grabs our hands and marches us straight into the gym and onto the dance floor. There are not near enough people here yet for me to dance. No way. I try to pull away but, “No, Miss Jaisa. If you’re my date, you will dance. I did not come back to high school to be a wall flower.”

            Lydia is already trying to grind with Will, slinking her arm around his neck, but he turns his hips toward me and tugs on my arm.

            “Aren’t you afraid you’ll get in trouble for grinding with two of your cross country students?” I yell to him over the music.

            “Nope.” He shifts a little to put more distance between his man parts and Lydia’s gyrating hips. His man parts that are not interested in her lady parts. “I cleared it with Coach Q. I told him I had nothing going on, Lydia asked and what better way for me to keep an eye on you both.”

            I look at Lydia to see if she hears this, but her eyes are closed and she’s singing loudly. Will is still trying to keep distance between them.

            “Come on.”

          I roll my eyes, shrug, and move in closer. The song switches to country and with a yee-haw! Will starts swinging both Lydia and me around like toy tops. He has no problem juggling two dance partners and soon I’m so out of breath from spinning and laughing that I need to go out for a drink of water. Will whips me around one last time and I keep twirling toward the door of the gym, away from the dance floor and run right into Cooper’s solid chest. His solid chest in a tight black sweater. The smile drops from my face and I back away apologizing, but he catches my hand softly and pulls me back toward him. He places my other hand on his shoulder and slides his arm around my waist. His hand is shaking and a little sweaty but his eyes stay locked on mine and we start to sway to the slow song. Couples press together around us but we maintain a good six-inch barrier. My heart is racing so fast I’m pretty sure the entire space between us is charged with its energy.

The slow song ends and a faster one comes on, but we stay exactly the way we are.

            “You look really beautiful.” His voice is deep and has the same nervous but deliberate quality of his hands that guide me around the dance floor but quiver ever so slightly.

            “Oh, yeah, Lydia does a good job,” I say and look down at his dress shoes next to my hot pink toes poking out of my wedges.

            “You never take a compliment, you know that?”

            “I can to!” My eyes fly back up to his. “I just. Well, she does do a good job. And it’s not like it’s me.”

            He’s laughing. I frown and my eyes narrow. My feet stop taking their little steps with his.

            “It is though. You’re pretty in shorts and a ponytail. You are pretty in jeans and a t-shirt. You are pretty in a toga, pretty in a dress. And of course you would shrug off a compliment but get defensive when someone calls you out on it.” He’s still laughing and I don’t know whether to agree with him, say thank you, or get annoyed.

            I decide to just shut up. Silence is golden right?

            When it’s clear I have no response for him. Cooper says, “You know I’m not mad, right? I was just giving you a hard time.”

            I nod and before I can think of something to say, I see Josie bouncing toward us through the crowd.        

            “There’s my date!” She shoves herself between us and grabs Cooper’s shoulders. “Woops! Sorry, Jaisa.”

            I back away and Cooper still holds me with his eyes. I break his stare and finally leave the gym for that drink of water. After the drinking fountain, I head to the bathroom. I don’t really have to go but I walk in and face one of the vanity mirrors. My hair is starting to frizz out a little with the humidity from the heat of the dancing bodies and my sweat. I touch my face and lean closer to the mirror. Yes, this is my face. Yes, this is my hand. I am Jaisa. I am here.