O_Cha Cha won_t be too out of the box

If I was a fly and bad boys were bug zappers, I would have died a long time ago. For a girl who won’t even run a yellow light, I’ve made a habit of surrounding myself with men who think of rules like plates at a Greek restaurant – breaking them is the best part.

This vicious cycle started in the fourth grade. My crush was an Italian boy who met my parents for the first time after they caught him TP-ing our house at 2 a.m. Years later, a different boy would pull me out of seventh period Spanish class after convincing my teacher that I was needed for student council duties. In reality, we were sneaking over to the local McDonald’s.

That being said, it’s only fitting that my routine of running with renegades would make its return on Dancing with the Stars. Case in point: Mark Ballas, the rebel of the ballroom. After making it through our first elimination (and a massive thank you to anyone who voted). Mark and I hit the studio hard. The challenge? To come up with a cha cha that is still bizarre enough to keep Ballas happy, while keeping Kanenball in the competition.

I was a straight A student in school and I want to prove to the judges that I can make the grade. Therefore, I have been abusing words like “conventional” and “traditional” to make sure that we don’t get penalized again for being too out of the box after last week’s jive. Unfortunately, my teacher’s pet vocabulary is being met with yawns and disapproving looks from my partner and choreographer.

On Friday, we finally reached a happy medium of meeting all the criteria while still staying true to Mark’s James Dean personality. Last week was fun and I was happy to sit in detention for it, but I don’t want to risk getting expelled. However, if this really were school, I would definitely be sent home because my costume, a gold rhinestone bikini, is not appropriate for campus.


Chels