Andlat's Story Spot

"Dalton! Get out of bed this minute!" Dalton jolted awake, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes. "Wha?" "Did you forget?" His dad asked incredulously. "Forget what?" That was met with a sigh. "You promised Emily you'd help with her parade float." "What? When?" "Don't you play dumb, mister. You're not getting out of this. If you promised her, you're doing it." "I didn't!" Why would he? Emily's ballet studio had a float in the town parade and why on earth, after everything that had happened, would Dalton want anything to do with that? "Uh-huh." "I swear!" "Why would your sister lie?" Because that's all she does. Dalton thought acerbically. He almost expected Emily to be peering at him with a smirk behind dad, but he could hear her laughing about something downstairs. Great. "Get dressed or I'll drag you downstairs." "I'm in my und...

Still mad about the ballet class he had had to take, the last place on earth Dalton wanted to be was at Emily's ballet recital. He had tried to tell his parents he had homework to do, but they had insisted he support his sister. "No one does homework on Friday night anyway." His mom said. So Dalton now found himself standing in the lobby, waiting to go inside as his parents had what sounded like the single most boring conversation in history with other grown-ups. If only they had bought his lie about homework, he could be at home, watching a movie or playing a game. "Oh! Dalton, would you quick run this backstage?" His dad handed him a duffel bag he had been holding. "What is it?" "Emily insisted she needs it and I forgot I had it until just now." Dad said with a shrug. "Just go quick. We'll be sitting down soon." He forced the bag into Dalton's arms, signaling the conversation was over. "Thanks, bud." ~ D ~ Dalto...

Dalton paced back and forth outside of the dance studio, waiting for his little sister to come out so he could escort her home. He thought it was so dumb that he had to do it just because his mom was working a little late. She was only a year younger than him, so why did he have to escort her home? He turned as he heard the door open, but it was just one of Emily’s friends. Courtney or something? He could not remember. “Hey, Dalton, Emily wanted me to come tell you that she’s running a little late, so she figured you could come inside and sit down to wait for her.” Dalton sighed. “Fine.” He walked past Courtney or whatever her name was and into the dance studio. He saw a few girls in yellow tutus standing around, but none of them were his sister. “Where is she?” He asked. “Changing.” Courtney replied. “I can take her there if you want.” Before he could even answer, she had grabbed his wrist and was pulling him along. “They won’t mind a boy being back there, I’m sure.” He tried t...