I had always held myself to be a good dancer, I could pirouette as good as the next girl. But in Jeanette’s eyes, I could be nothing more than mediocre. Jeanette could have been a model for the movie “Mean Girls”. She cared only about who was hot, who was not and what the latest fashions were. If you weren’t in the “In” crowd, she was basically a witch with a capital B.

Jeanette and her second banana Kate sauntered across the studio after practice. “There’s a dance competition at the center. I plan to beat you, if your brave enough to even show up. She threw a pink flyer at me, and I watched as it floated to the ground like a leaf on the breeze.

“I’ll be there,” I said defiantly. But Jeanette was good, better than good, and I was doomed to lose if I entered. So I made a plan…

~ ~ ~

During the week before the competition I practiced like I had never practiced before, creating a complex and challenging routine that I thought for sure was going to be a winning one.

On the day of the competition I snuck into Jeanette’s dressing room and took a file to the heel of her left shoe. It would ruin her, and I would emerge victorious, or so I thought…

~ ~ ~

Just as I had planned, I pulled off my routine effortlessly, but Jeanette was klutzy and had poor technique with her ruined shoe. The judges gave me a glowing report.

After the last routine had been danced, and the scores tallied, I stood four down from Jeanette and her second in command Kate. Kate had mostly likely entered to make Jeanette’s win all the more spectacular because it would add one more to the list of the losers.

A man in a tux stepped up the podium, and my heart began to beat a million times per second. In the few moments before the man had reached center stage I imagined what I would say, and how surprised I would act when he handed me the trophy.

In the man’s hand was a small envelope, and from it he produced a small whit card. “And the winner of the Xpressions Dream Dance Competition is…KATE SMITH!”

Oh. My. Gosh. Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! I couldn’t believe it. Across the stage, Jeanette looked mighty smug. And that’s when I realized that she had sacrificed herself to clear the way for Kate. There was some good in her after all.

And what did that say about me?