To Be a Broken Smile (sequel to Tumbling Down - DM Fanfic)

For the Love of Dance (Ch.38)

Me: I shared today.
Dad: How was it?
Me: Fine. I don't get what the big deal about it was.
Dad: You're the one-
Me: The stories are never alike. I hate that. But after I shared I felt the same. I didn't get anything out of it.

Dad doesn't reply.

My life finally starts to get back into a cycle. School during the week. Dance every single day except Wednesday. Group on Tuesdays. I'm up at 6. I'm in bed at 10:15. A phone call to Tyler until 11.

It's November and jacket weather before I know it.

Dance showcases and competitions for select dancers are coming up.

The dance show is mid-November, and by now everyone has it. But now it's time for competitive group members.

Mrs.Krad: We've been watching. And don't think if you really start working now, it'll get you noticed and put on the team. You must have been committed from the start.

I was. I smile.

Mrs: Krad: We also need dancers who can learn and perfect dances faster than most you probably have ever done.

I can do that too.

Mrs.Krad: We have a group, a duet, a trio, and three of you will get solos.

Excitement fills the air.

Mrs.Krad: You can be in up to three dances. But that's only possible for a max of three people. Only 5 will be in 2 dances. And only 8 will be on this team.

I know nerves are getting jumpy for people, but I'm not scared.

Mrs.Krad: We'll start like we started normal auditions. We'll teach you a combination, and you'll perform it. In groups of 6.

They go over it for like a half hour. And it's only 40 counts.

I'm in the third group, and from what I've seen before, these girls with me don't have the aptitude for lyrical as much as they do hip hop. And she told us it would be lyrical.

They do it over and over and over again. But I notice some girls, including me, are performing it many more times than other.

They have two day cuts again. They have us down to 10, and cuts are made by the end.

The next day is dress rehearsal for the dance show and then auditions for more competitive dances.

We are told the duet is contemporary, the trio is jazz, the solos are jazz, lyrical, and hip hop.

We all sign up for audition positions. As Mrs.Krad tells us the rules, I write on the paper on the clip board: Mackenzie Ziegler; duet, lyrical solo.

Again, we're taught a bunch of combinations, much shorter this time. Then we are to perform them one by one in a separate room.

When it's my turn, I enter with a smile.

Mrs.Krad: So you wish to be in the duet and lyrical solo I see.
Me: Yes ma'am.
Mrs.Krad: Are you sure you'll be able to handle all these dances? Along with your dance show dances?
Me: Completely. I have to have dances memorized for just-in-case reasons months apart from each other.
Mrs.Krad: Alright. So I want you do to the first combination, ending it with 16 counts of whatever you want.

I nod and perform to the best of my ability, ending it with a turn, drop to the floor, and roll into a chin stand.

Mrs.Krad: Impressive. Lyrical is definitely a strength of yours.
Me: Thank you.

She dismisses me, which is odd, because others are in there for at least ten minutes. Oh well.

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