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Dance for Me
- University of Georgia Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
dance for me The girls on Lexington had it the worst. Hated maroon skirts the color of dried blood. Navy blazers complete with gaudy emblem. Goldenrod blouses with Peter Pan collars. And knee socks. Actually, knee socks weren’t so bad. Knee socks served their purpose in the winter, keeping sturdy calves warm. The girls on East End wore gray or navy skirts, plain and not pleated, with a white blouse, sweater optional. Multiple skirts were another way to go. We had our choice of navy, gray, maroon, and an unpleated light blue seersucker meant only for the spring. The choices allowed us to pretend we weren’t really wearing a uniform. We hoped merely to be thought eccentric. Girls with a penchant for skirts with panels. But we fooled no one. Our uniforms, our talk, our walk, our avid interest in grooming and normal people’s clothing, and our daily preoccupation with what we would wear on upcoming field trips when allowed to be out of uniform filled our time and conversations. We had a special way of standing that was part lean, part slouch, as if posture was too much of a bother to consider. 92 | Dance for Me Nameless, faceless on a school trip, we stood out. Solid-colored blouses, pleated skirts, knee socks, and loafers, bluchers, or oxfords. Private school girls. Not to be confused with Catholic school girls. Or reform school girls (how many times did the kids in my neighborhood look at me in condescending pity?). Not to be confused with the girls from The Facts of Life. They were boarders. No matter how many times I tried to explain this, the kids in my neighborhood persisted in calling me Tootie. We attended a second-tier all-girls school. It wasn’t as illustrious as the private schools on the Upper East Side nor as seedy as the ones in Midtown. We clung to our small but unique differences. For example, having our choices of uniforms made us the envy of the other all-girls schools. Girls were sure to take it out on us during soccer games. Secondly, there was our partnership with a nearby all-boys school, our “brother” school two blocks away, which allowed us to have kissing partners whenever we put on a play. At school, there were the wasps and the japs. And me. Girls with last names for first names. Riley. Taylor. Haley. Morgan. Hayden. Girls whose names are meant for a boy or girl, depending. I’d never told anyone this, but I always felt naked in my pleated skirt, vulnerable. There was a trick to rolling the skirt that would take several inches off, a way of folding tightly and minutely that would allow one to hide the extra material beneath a shirt if tucked then pulled out just enough to camouflage the extra bulk. Only I didn’t know it. I’d seen it numerous times, jealously watching girls enter the bathroom with skirts that covered their knees and walk back out with skirts that skimmed their thighs, but I still couldn’t get it. The lines of my pleat were never quite right, always drooping in the front, making me look slightly off kilter. It was lunchtime and I was in the school’s bathroom with my stomach bared to the mirror as I tried to roll my skirt when Taylor and [54.224.52.210] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 07:47 GMT) Dance for Me | 93 Ashley entered and headed for the stalls, deep in conversation. Neither of them noticed me. “Well, I wouldn’t go with a guy from Buckley, that’s for sure.” “I might not get to go at all. We’re supposed to go to the Hamptons and my dad really has his heart set on it. How am I supposed to get out of it?” “I don’t know. I so need a new pair of jeans. Do you want to go to the Gap today after we get out of chorus?” “Um, yeah. Hey, did you hear Heather’s parents let Chase go to Cabo San Lucas with her for spring break?” “No.” “They even paid his way.” So caught up in eavesdropping on their conversation, I didn’t hear the squeal of the bathroom door the second time it opened. Heather walked in alone and went straight to the mirror. She frowned slightly when she heard herself being discussed. Then she went into a stall...