Alexis Gets Frosted by Coco Simon Page A

lot, and I am obsessed with ballroom dancing. My dad and I love to dance together. And I love the Nutcracker Suite , which my mom takes us to see in the city every year. You would think the fact she’d danced for so long would have come up. It seems like everything else has.
    My mom waved her hand. “Oh, you know. I’m sure I mentioned it somewhere along the way. I didn’t bring it up much, because I didn’t want you girls to feel pressured to follow in my footsteps. You both tried ballet and weren’t interested.”
    That was true. But still!
    â€œShe was a wonderful dancer,” said my granny. “So graceful. So disciplined!”
    I laughed. “That’s not exactly a surprise!”
    Granny looked thoughtful. “I think she likedthe structure, the rigidity. It gave her confidence. Right, honey?”
    â€œSomething like that,” agreed my mom. “I really just liked to dance, though.”
    â€œMom! You should do it again!” I cried. “Why did you stop?”
    â€œWell, with ballet, you get to a point where you really have to commit to doing it full-time, and I didn’t want to do that,” she said. “Plus, a lot of the other dancers were mean.” She winked at me. “It wasn’t that healthy of a lifestyle, and very competitive.”
    â€œBut you’re competitive!” I said.
    My mom laughed. “Thanks . . . I think! I guess I just channeled my competitiveness into school and then work. . . . ”
    â€œAnd Scrabble!” I reminded her. She never lets us beat her at that game, even when we were young.
    â€œRight! And Scrabble!”
    â€œWow.” I sat there, shaking my head in disbelief. I’d learned a lot about my mom today. “We’ve got to do this more often!” I declared.
    My mom and my granny laughed.
    â€œAnytime!” said my granny. “We love having you here!”
    â€œWe love being here,” said my mom.
    â€œGranny, can I take a couple of these and scan them for a project I’m working on? I’ll return them to you,” I said.
    â€œOf course! What’s this project, now?”
    â€œA time capsule,” I said. “My friends and I are making one, all about ourselves and a little bit about our moms, too.” For some reason that second part was embarrassing. Like we were a fan club or something. I glanced sideways at my mom to see what she’d think.
    â€œThat’s so sweet,” she said, and I felt my shoulders sag in relief.
    â€œYou and your friends are just full of the best ideas!” said Granny.
    â€œI know,” I said with a grin. And I pocketed the photo of my mom as a ballerina, and the one of her all messy in the pear dress. They seemed to sum up everything anyone would need to know about her childhood.

    On the way home in the car, I was kind of tired, so I mostly thought. I was surprised by some of the stuff I’d learned about my mom today. Well, some of it was unsurprising, like the perfectionism and whatever, but it was weird to learn new things about my very own mom after all these years. It made mewonder what else there is that I didn’t know.
    â€œMom? What else don’t I know about you?” I asked finally.
    She laughed. “Oh, honey, I have no secrets. It’s just . . . Things come up as they come up, you know? It’s not like it’s easy to work things from my childhood into everyday conversation. They just come up as needed.”
    â€œLike Susan?” I said.
    She laughed again. “Yes, like Susan.”
    â€œHow did your dad die again?” I asked quietly. I can never remember this information. It’s like I block it out.
    â€œMeningitis. It was really sudden. They think he got it from a mosquito bite,” she said.
    â€œWhat’s meningitis?”
    â€œAn infection that rapidly travels to your spine and then shuts down your body. Its main