Dancing With My Eyes Closed :•: A DANCE MOM FANFIC:•:

L - A - Z - Y

“WooHoo,” Abby yelled as we came into studio A for pyramid, “talk about a clean sweep girls. I’m proud of you for Hawaii, you all did wonderful in your dances. The whole week was a success.”

Alyce
Paige Maddie
Chloe Nia Mackenzie Brooke

In our group dance this we were bringing in older girls. Paige and Chloe both had solos, and I had a duet with Maddie.

My mom told me last week was more of a special extra episode. They had to do specials like that to keep viewers interested, I guess. I didn’t really care.

I got to go to Hawaii.

It was two days of the competition, and we finally got to learn the duet.

Everyone makes a big deal on the show about how we only have a week to learn our dances. In reality, we have hardly a couple of days, and only like an hour or two each day.

Our dance was lyrical, and it was called Beautiful Thing.

We got it down pretty quickly.

I hadn’t had a duet with Maddie in forever, so I was super excited.

On Thursday, I was at home rehearsing lines for the upcoming audition my mom was making me do. I didn’t see how I could even fit it into my already busy schedule, but my mom said she’d “find a way.”

David hadn’t been at our house in awhile, and I had heard my mom complaining to her friends about him. She said something along the lines of “hes done” and I hoped she meant it because he made me uncomfortable.

And he scared Asher a lot.

Speaking of my brother, Asher and Nate were both offered roles recently. They did auditions too, just not as much as I did.

Nate’s role was in some horror movie, that he seemed genuinely excited for, and Ashers was for a minor role in some movie about music. He was set to play the younger version of the lead.

So far, the only kid in our family who hadn’t done any acting was Chelsea, but I’m sure our mom would handle that.

On the morning of the competition, Maddie and I  ran the duet in Studio A with each other. Then we went outside to watch our moms give our suitcases for Jim the bus driver to load.

At the competition, up first were the solos.

Chloes was great. It was called an angry bird, and the costume was cool. During the dance her earring fell out, but luckily it didn’t cause a problem.

Christi, who was next to me, kinda freaked out a little bit.

“She’ll be okay,” I whispered.

“Yea, you’re probably right. Oh my God, but Abbys gonna freak,” I giggled quietly at that.

She probably would.

Then, Kendall was onstage, dancing for the candy apples.

Well, you know, not really. Just for the drama of it all. She still took ALDC classes.

Then the music skipped, and she kinda… fell apart.

I don’t know, but I hoped Paige did well so Abby wouldn’t yell.

Paiges solo was good. I liked the incorporation of the chair.

The only problem was that it wasn’t her solo.

She was performing a different dance. Apparently, Kelly choreographed it.

I mean, at least she didn’t dress Paige up in a red cowboy hat and make her look like a fool. It was the same song and everything, just different choreography.

But if Abby wasn’t mad before…

In the dressing room after the solos, Maddie and I were doing hair and makeup for our duet.

I liked our costumes. They were pretty.

Obviously, Abby had plenty to say about Paiges solo.

I was focused on the duet. I never really cared about status and such, but something inside me wanted nothing more than to be on top of that pyramid again and again. The more I got up there, the more I wanted to stay.

Like seriously, I would give up my kidney.

“Attention, now announcing the junior duet, this is Maddie and Alyce with Beautiful Thing,” Everyone clapped as we made our way onstage.



Running back into the green room, our moms hugged us and congratulated us.

“Hello,” Abby came in, “Girls. Maddie looked great. Alyce, the last leg hold before the roll, you looked like you were struggling. You better hope that those judges were looking at Maddie.”

I looked down at my feet, feeling tears well up in my eyes. I had tried so hard. I didn’t get it.

“No! No, no, no, uh, uh. We’re not doing that. You are 9 years old now. You don’t cry. You never cry, understand. I see you cry one more time, I’m kicking you off. I don’t teach cry babies. Save those tears for the pillow.”

I nodded, wiping away my tears, smudging my makeup.

“That’s real nice Abby, honestly,” my mom hugged, beckoning me over to do my makeup.

“Stop,” my voice cracked, it being barely above a whisper. It was only gonna make things worse if she spoke.

“Maybe, teach your child to take corrections. She could use some.”

“You know what Abby,” my mom shoved her chair back, pushing me out of the way. I covered my face in my hands, and Christi pulled me to her chest, whispering into my hair. Telling me it would be alright.

But she knew it wouldn’t. So did I.

“Why don’t you take just one second to say something nice about her! She wins first place, over Chloe and Maddie, you say it’s cause Maddies music skipped. She won 2 titles! She does EVERYTHING you ask, but we- Nothing is good enough!”

“Because she can always do better! Your daughter is lazy! LAZY! L-A-Z-Y!” Abby clapped her hands on every letter she spelt out.

“You would know all about being lazy!” My mother spat out. We were all taken into the hallway to run the dance.

I was glad to be away from the green room, and I never wanted to go back.

I wasn’t sure if I would be invited back.

All I wanted to do was dance.

During awards, me and Maddies duet placed first. I guess it want as bad as Abby made it out to be.

Or maybe they were looking at Maddie. Not me.