Week 9 Story: Dance the Night Away

Once upon a time there was lived two separate and distinct schools. One school was made up of all girls, and the other school was made up of all boys. The students from both schools had never ventured outside of their school’s property and had no knowledge that either existed.

One day two girls, Agatha and Jenny, decided that they need some adventures in their lives and so they ventured off of the school grounds to see what they could find. It didn’t take them very long to come across a boy roaming the streets in front of them. They had never see a boy in real life before and they didn’t know what to make of him. They went over to talk to him. He seemed shocked to see them both out in town. He introduced himself as Tommy and asked them where they were from. The girls told him all about their school. They said that they went to an all-girls private school and never left the school grounds. He told them that he was in the same situation, but he went to an all-boys school. He asked the girls if their friends would like to meet up with the boys one night for a party. The girls told him that they would go back to school and ask, then they would meet him back at the exact same spot at the exact same time.

Agatha, Jenny, and Friends

So they both went back to their schools for the night. Agatha and Jenny told their friends all about the boy they met and how he wanted to have a party. Tommy told his friends all about the girls he met and how they should have a party with them. Both parties thought it was a great idea. So the next night Agatha, Jenny, and Tommy met back up and planned the party together.

The night came for the party to happen, and the students from both schools snuck out and met each other in a secret location for the party. The music was playing and the boys and girls were dancing with each other. One of Agatha’s friends, Sarah, had just gotten done with rugby practice right before they dance started and didn’t have time to clean up. She wanted to dance with Tommy and went over to ask him. Seeing how dirty and smelly she was, Tommy declined her request to dance. Saddened, Sarah ran back to school to shower off and do herself up. Once she was done getting ready she headed back to the dance. Seeing how beautiful Sarah was now that she was cleaned up, Tommy really wanted to dance with her. He went over to say hi, but Sarah walked right past him. He turned around to see Sarah walk up to Eric and ask to dance. Eric of course said yes, and so Tommy waited for his turn to dance with Sarah. However, every time Sarah was done dancing with one boy, she would ignore Tommy’s requests to dance and find a new partner. This happened throughout the entire night, and finally after the last song was done playing Sarah walked up to Tommy and told him that she wasn’t interested in him. 

Author's Note:

I took inspiration from a story from the Blackfoot Native Americans. The story was about a tribe of men and a tribe of women who had never seen each other before. One day a man and two women cross paths and they decide their tribes should meet up to pick husbands and wives. When the man gets to the woman's tribe he passes himself off as chief so that the chief woman would pick him. She is all dirty though from working so he refuses to marry her. However once she cleans up he thinks she is beautiful and wants her now, but she refuses and picks someone else. This story made me think of two schools will all boys and all girls who meet and have a dance party.

Bibliography:

Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell (1915).