Free The Hard Kind of Promise by Gina Willner-Pardo

whispered.
    Usually this would have made Sarah laugh. But she didn't say a word. She was too angry. And she was sick of defending Marjorie when she did stupid things.
    "Will everyone please be quiet?" Mrs. Gretch said.
    Jesse Pike pretended to hold a microphone and sing the lyrics to "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes. All the boys around him laughed, because it
was funny to think of Mrs. Gretch singing in a rock band.
    "Boys and girls!" Mrs. Gretch said sternly into the mike. Everyone jumped.
    "Hey, not so loud!" Carl Estes yelled, clamping his hands over his ears.
    "Attention, please!" Mrs. Gretch said. "I need everyone's attention!"
    Finally everyone shut up. Sarah realized her heart was pounding.
    "Most of you know me as a teacher and an assistant principal," Mrs. Gretch said, "but what you probably don't know is that I am a ballroom dance aficionado."
    Everyone looked confused. A few boys yelled out, "What?"
    "I am a fan of ballroom dance," Mrs. Gretch said. "I have been dancing for years. And I like passing on my love of dancing to young people."
    She smiled at all of them. From the back of the room, one of the boys belched loudly.
    "You all know Mr. Finch?" Mrs. Gretch said, pretending not to hear.
    Mr. Finch waved. He was a PE teacher, and his face was bright red from having been hit by lightning. He was wearing a baggy black suit. Usually he wore shorts and a sweatshirt.
    "Mr. Finch will be assisting me," Mrs. Gretch said. "And so will our wonderful parents. Let's give our parents a hand."
    Everyone clapped dutifully.
    "Now," Mrs. Gretch said. "Our first dance is the waltz."
    Everyone began to talk again while she turned around and fumbled with the CD player. Lizzie whispered, "Oh, my God, her ass is enormous!" Sarah saw Alison Mulvaney pointing at Marjorie and whispering to Zannie and Yvonne. Marjorie held her head high, as though she were at the opera and trying to see the stage over a tall man in front of her.
    Old-fashioned music filled the room.
    "Who knows what makes a waltz special?" Mrs. Gretch asked.
    Marjorie and a few of the music kids raised their hands, but someone called out, "Three-four time!"
    "That's right!" Mrs. Gretch said. She began to rock slowly in time to the music. "Feel the beat.
One-two-three,
one-two-three, one-two-three,
one
-two-three!"
    "This is stupid," Sarah said. "We're never going to have to waltz with anyone."
    "You might at a wedding," Carly said. "Or if you ever go to a ball."
    "Mr. Finch?" Mrs. Gretch asked into the microphone. "If you would be so kind?"
    The kids all stared in embarrassed horror as Mr. Finch and Mrs. Gretch waltzed around at the front of the room. Mr. Finch was young. In his PE classes he let all the kids call him Chuck. Except for having a red face, he was handsome. It was weird to see them holding each other the way Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers did. It made Sarah realize that you didn't have to be in love to dance.
    While they were dancing, one of the moms came up behind Marjorie and put a hand on her shoulder. Sarah heard her whisper, "Let me take your hat, honey. So you won't put somebody's eye out." Marjorie untied her scarf and let the mom take her hat away. Without it, she looked small and sad, like a wet dog.
    "All right," Mrs. Gretch said. She was a little out of breath. "Girls, line up on this side of the room. Boys, line up over there."
    "This is it," Lizzie hissed. "Try to get across from someone cute."
    Sarah could see that everyone else had the same idea. Alison Mulvaney was shoving people to make sure she was across from Steve Birgantee.
    Even after they had all achieved a semblance of a line, a few boys kept pushing each other. Sarah could
see that they were the boys across from Marjorie, who didn't seem to notice, except for the way one of her eyes was twitching.
    Her twitchy eye made Sarah's heart hurt.
    "Boys, that's enough!" Mrs. Gretch said sternly. "Now, everyone, approach your partner, please."
    Sarah ended up with Dylan Dewitt,