Grade 9 is tough for a lot of kids especially when you’re shy and quiet. My elementary school was very small and close to home. Matthew Hall High School was on the other side of town and I had to take the bus every morning. It was always crowded in the hallways as many of the older students would purposely bump into the ‘Niners’ as they called us. 

Cruz Abbott was the big man on campus. He and his flunkies ran the school. Cruz was a senior and captain of the high school football. He and ‘The Cruz Crew’ were able to do whatever they wanted both in and out of the classroom. They especially enjoyed picking on freshmen like myself. I knew it was only a matter of time before Cruz set his sights on me.  I wasn’t sure how I’d handle it but I had bigger things to worry about.

So why ballet you ask? I was always encouraged to be creative at home whether it be writing, singing, or playing music. I was never good at sports and so I decided to give ballet a shot. I instantly fell in love with it. It is not as easy as it looks. Under the watchful eye of former Prima-Ballerina, Kailo Nano, I had blossomed into a talented young performer. Ballet was an amazing workout as it pushed me both physically and emotionally.

I had been lucky enough to have avoided Abbott and his crew for the first month or so. But that would all change one fateful afternoon. I was running to catch the bus when I crashed into Abbott.
“Uh, sorry mister” I stammered. “Can I have my bag back?”
Abbott and his boys began to laugh as they played keep away with my bag.

“Whadda we got over here?” he began as he started going through my things. “Look at this, it’s a pair of dancing shoes. Hold on, there’s more. Tights! He’s got tights! What a wuss!” Abbott smirked as a small group of onlookers began to laugh.

I faked being sick the next morning so I wouldn’t have face the kids at school the next day. It was a Friday and so I hoped that by the end of the weekend everyone would have forgotten about that humiliating scene. I hung out in my room all day and moped.

“Edwin! There’s someone to see you!” my Mom called out from downstairs. I figured it was one of my friends bringing me my homework. But instead it was the star of Who’s The Boss? Tony Danza. Wait, Tony Danza?

“What are you doing here Mr. Danza?”

“It’s Tony. Everybody calls me Tony.”

“I know all about boys and dancing. Elton John has that song ‘Hold me closer Tony Danza’. You ever hear it?”

It’s actually hold me closer tiny dancer but I wasn’t about to interrupt

“In the 80’s I played a male housekeeper on a sitcom where the head of the household was a female executive. There was me, Angela, Mona, Samantha, Jonathan….”

“The point being?” I interjected.

“It was kinda shocking for its time but now we live in a world where boys and girls can be anything they want. Keep doing what you love Edwin.”

Tony Danza was right. I was so lucky to have found my passion at such an early age. So what if the other kids teased me? The only thing that mattered was that I had been given an opportunity to follow my heart and soul. I started putting in extra time at the ballet studio as I got ready to silence the naysayers. But most of all, I was doing it for me because it made me happy.

Every villain needs an origin story. Well, I wouldn’t consider Cruz Abbott to be a villain. But to his fellow students he was the arrogant, mean-spirited kid who made their lives miserable. In actuality he was a kid who had been relentlessly pushed by his father to excel at football. Cruz was good but he was never going to make it to the NFL. That didn’t stop his Dad from berating him in the locker room after every game, win or lose. I don’t know if Cruz even liked football. I kinda felt bad for him but being bullied doesn’t excuse you becoming one yourself.