I felt it in my bloodstream.
I felt it in my heart.
As much as my sister wanted me to give up on it, I could never bring myself to do so, and I knew I never would. I believed that the universe had a way of showing you the path you were meant to take, and even if you lost the map, you’d always find your way back on the road to where you were destined to be.
That’s dancing for me.
“Okay, now that we’ve stretched, how about I teach y’all something simple first. Are any of y’all familiar with the singer Dawn?”
They nodded, some saying that their children liked her music. I smiled as they continued to chat about their different opinions of the singer. Even though I still didn’t know much about her aside from how she looked and a few of her songs, thanks to the music Ginger had played, she was very talented. I could see why she was so popular.
I mean, she could very well still have a terrible personality, but for right now, the music was all I had to go off of, and she had a gift for it. Ginger told me all about how she wrote her own lyrics and even helped produce most of the tracks. It was admirable, and I had nothing but respect for how much she loved her craft.
“Okay, so, this is just a simplified version of choreo to one of her songs,” I said after hooking my phone up to the Bluetooth speaker. “I modified it so that it’s easy to follow. Should we try it?”
They agreed, and I began teaching them the steps. Even though most of them struggled, I could see that they were having fun, and that’s all that mattered. It filled me with so much joy to share what I loved with others who were interested in learning. Maybe being a dance teacher was my calling.
As they went through the whole routine one more time, I noticed a few people watching outside the classroom. I wasused to a few onlookers now and then, but they didn’t look like the usual curious community center patrons. Two of them were burly men dressed in all black, and the other was a woman with gorgeous curly hair wearing a sage tracksuit.
I couldn’t see her face because she was wearing a mask, but her eyes kept my attention. They were a deep shade of brown and reminded me of rich dark chocolate, almost hypnotizing. I couldn’t help but stare back because I was mesmerized by the twinkle in her eyes. She didn’t make any effort to stop staring, and neither did I.
Something felt familiar about her gaze, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
But right as I decided to head over and introduce myself, the music cut off, and my head snapped back to see my students taking a moment to catch their breath. I let them know they’d done a good job before turning my attention back to the window.
To my surprise, the woman and the men were gone. Had I been imagining things? No, definitely not. There was no way in hell I’d imagined her.
All I knew for sure was that I had to see her again. How? I wasn’t sure, but if I knew one thing, it’s that the universe loved a good joke.
Just watch…
I was going to see her when I least expected it.
CHAPTER 2
Sup, I’m Dawn.
Dawn Anderson - August 9th, 2025
I’d always dreamed of being in the spotlight since I was younger, but it always seemed like a dream meant for other people. Yet here I was, five years into living that very same life I’d almost written off as impossible to obtain. I was topping charts and breaking records, and it all still felt so surreal.
Never in a million years did I think that one little viral video of me covering one of my favorite songs fromHamiltonwould get me this far. Mainly because it was just something I did while I was getting ready for my shift at the clothing store I used to work at. One little video of me singingWait For Itand things were never the same.
Because of that video, I gained almost 200K followers in just a week, and people were asking for more videos of me singing. So, I gave them what they wanted, and every video after that went viral as well. I went from barely 5,000 followers to almost a million in two months. It was unbelievable, but it didn’t stop there.
I began to get invited on talk shows and had interviews lined up here and there. That’s when my Aunt stepped in as my manager, and I’m thankful for her. She’d been working in theindustry for years, so she knew what to do so people wouldn’t get over on me. She advocated for me and got me in the room with the right execs and producers.
When they learned that I wrote and produced my own music, they were beyond impressed, and this started my road to fame. It’s been a wild ride these last five years, but my hard work has been paying off. I was living the life I'd dreamed of since I was a child, and I was grateful to have achieved everything I had in such a short time.
All my life, I’d been working hard, helping to care for my younger siblings, and taking care of my voice in the hopes that I’d have the opportunity. Up until recently, I didn’t know what the word relax meant, and I still didn’t get to do much of it with my packed schedule.
And when I did get the day off, I usually spent my time hanging out with my family or my best friends, Sammie and Esmé. Being close to them brought a sense of peace to my suddenly hectic life, and I appreciated it. They grounded me in ways that I didn’t know I needed.
But when I wasn’t hanging with them, I was doing what I’d been doing today and just riding around town to see what kind of stuff I could get up to. My first stop of the day was a local community center to check out the location where a back-to-school concert was being held, since I was set to headline. It would also double the space for my announcement of my upcoming tour.
It had been a year since my last tour, and my fan base was consistently growing, so I knew we’d have to add more dates. But before I even announced it, I wanted to give back to the community that raised me.
For years, a local LGBTQ+ youth group calledLoveOverJudgement., had hosted a fundraiser concert around this time, and all proceeds went toward funding spaces wherekids and teens were safe to be themselves unapologetically without fear of being judged or mistreated.I’d always been a big fan of the organization, and knew this year, I wanted to be more involved.
