Title: Can't Stop The Beat
Fandom: Hairspray
Rating: Gen
Length: 371 words
Content notes: Deals with racism
Summary: Inez just wanted to be a dancer


Inez had watched her Mama sing and dance for years. When she was eight, her Mama even got onto a TV show, and her brother Seaweed danced there too. She had always pictured herself dancing alongside him one day. After all, segregation hadn't stopped the rest of her family; why should it stop her?

When she was practicing in her room, or in the back of the shop, however, sometimes she got nervous. She pictured all of those faces watching her, and her feet froze, or her hands didn't move properly, or she lost the beat. She had spent years practicing, but imaging all those people watching her and judging her still made her hands shake.

Inez knew her Mama tried to shelter her from a lot of the bad stuff in the world; the stuff that she and Seaweed had to deal with all the time. But she wasn't completely naïve. She had heard Mrs. Von Tussle talking to her Mama during taping. And she had heard the woman threatening Corny when she was playing under the seats. She knew how hard it was for a black dancer to survive in this world, and sometimes she was afraid.

And then Negro Day was canceled. In one instant all of her dreams of being a dancer were gone. And in that moment, Inez realized how silly her fears had been. So what if she froze on stage? So what if hundreds of people would be watching her? At least they would have seen her! At least she would have had her chance, like Seaweed and the Dynamites and Rhonda and Tyrone and all the others. At least she would have tried. Now she had nothing to be afraid of, but only because she had nothing to look forward to.

HHH

As Link tugged her onto the stage, Inez felt like she was floating out of her body. All those moves that she had practiced for so long just flowed out of her like nothing. She didn't stumble, didn't make a mistake, and didn't lose the beat. Her fears and anxieties were burned away by the bright stage lights and the dozens of eyes on her.

Inez danced, and it was amazing.