Theresa's Dancing Robot

Ep. 9 of The Belles of St. Anthony's

St. Anthony's actually has a pretty nice Maker club, full of young machinists, roboticists, and tinkerers from every grade level. A donation from a rich alumnus got us some great equipment, enough to give everyone plenty to do. This last week we'd been working on a dancing robot named Dolly (by which I really mean a couple of robot arms on wheels programmed to dance to an old boy-band song) to show off at Homecoming. The whole thing was Theresa Long's idea.

We'd been working on it for three solid weeks, the dance was only a few days away, and we had tested the robot so many times that I knew the choreography for "Bye Bye Bye" by heart. Theresa had become obsessed with getting it right.

So obsessed that it was starting to keep us here longer than we needed to. We'd been adjusting code and fixing bugs and getting the arms to practice, and still Theresa wasn't satisfied.

Now it was almost five, and Mike Sanders, one of the juniors, was getting up to leave. "I'm out," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, it's ready."

Theresa grunted, and he left. I didn't have it in me to disagree with either of them. I'd long since pulled off my tie and unbuttoned my shirt, with my Demon Slayer tee underneath. I wanted to go, too, but I didn't want to leave Theresa behind. As Mike left, I told her, "We'd better go, too. They're gonna lock up the school soon."

Theresa scrolled through her code. "There's just gotta be something."

"What else could there be? That last run was perfect."

"It still didn't feel right." She checked the cables connecting to Dolly. "Something's off."

"Nobody at the dance is going to know the difference."

"But I'll know. You'll know. Mike'll know. So'll Manny, Reye, Adam, and Kari. We're showing this off to the whole school. We can't afford any mistakes."

"There aren't any left. It's doing all the moves we put into it." Finally, I had to make the difficult choice between my free time and her lovely face. "Look, my mom's gonna be waiting, and yours is, too. I'm just gonna head out." I lifted my bag and headed for the door.

"Let me just do one more test. Then I promise I'll leave."

I lowered the bag. "One more."

She started the program.

Something came over me as soon as I heard the first notes of the song. Part of the reason I'd joined this club was to be close to Theresa, even if I couldn't say how I really felt, and her attention had been fixed on Dolly for so long. I wanted her to look at me for a change. So I started dancing.

Like I said, I knew the song by heart. I also knew the choreography. I'd studied N*Sync like a scholar. And I'd practiced the moves at home, when no one was looking. It's not hard to teach a robot to dance--we're just telling it what to do. But a human? That takes effort. And Theresa would have to notice me now.

And boy, did she notice.

And she was laughing.

Murky wells of shame overflowed within me. Was it good laughing? Bad laughing? Was I impressing her? Was I making an idiot of myself? Yet I couldn't stop dancing. The only way I could ruin this any more was if I quit now. Or if she started recording on her phone.

She laughed all the way to the end. I was so sweaty I felt like a fountain with legs. She wouldn't stop.

"Oh my gosh. That made... hahaha... That made my day. I wasn't even looking at Dolly."

That's right. She wasn't. How could I have danced better than a robot?

"You have to show everybody at the dance!" she said.

"No! No! No! That was just for this room!"

"Well, it was pretty amazing. A mistake or two here or there..." She froze as still as Dolly when it finished its program. "Mistakes."

"What kind of mistakes?" Maybe I could make it more amazing.

"Human mistakes." She jumped out of her seat. "That's the problem! Dolly's too perfect! I have to introduce some flaws! The way you did it--you were totally natural! That's what Dolly needs!"

"Okay, okay, I'm glad you're happy." I was overjoyed, really. "But we still have to go."

"Sure. I can put it all in tomorrow." She heaved her backpack onto her shoulders. "You're a lifesaver!"

"Glad to hear it." We walked together out the classroom door. "So after we're done showing off Dolly..."

"I am going to go straight to the bleachers and veg out the rest of the night! I am exhausted!"

"Right." You could see the strain in her face. Honestly, I'd had just about enough dancing for the rest of the school year. "That sounds like a plan."