Punisher, Dance Moms

002. Wildly Inappropriate

Every time Aurora looked up she couldn't help but think back to Saturday night, bringing a trophy back home in her tired arms during twilight and letting her dad put it up on a shelf impossible for her to reach without a chair. Something smaller in her went back to when she was six and came first to a girl named Harper (who Gianna noted had a "unfortunate" name) and her mother telling her that she was proud and that they'd have to get back into the studio and find somewhere else to compete, somewhere with older girls and actual competition. Aurora's picture smiling back at her had caused something in herself to smile, wide and difficult to contain, so she looked away from the top of the pyramid and behind her to Chloe instead.

"I'm going to make sure my headpiece stays on." She said.

"Could you have prevented that?" Abby asked, and Chloe nodded stiffly. "Yes. Good. The group number is will be called 'Electricity.' Can everybody say that?"

"Electricity." The girls repeated.

"Maddie because you were great this weekend, you didn't give me any trouble, and your mother didn't give me any trouble, you're gonna be in the front in the center for the beginning of the routine." Maddie smiled and Aurora made her face into something similar enough. "Aurora because of your first place win with your solo you'll be doing another one this weekend. Three more will be competing. Maddie, you will be doing one of your solos, Chloe you will be one yours, and Ivanna, you will be doing one too. Everybody up, Moms you are dismissed. Thank you."

After warming up Ivanna got up, this time with no displeasure for her absence from the group number. Her mom told her that Mariana was waiting for her, so she skipped out the doors and into a smaller studio. Tall and tan with thick, dark hair pulled back into a low ponytail, Mariana had stood with her back to her. She had dark brown eyes and just about the most dazzling smile Ivanna had ever seen.

"Hi, Maria!" As she said it Maria turned around, so light that it looked as though she might've toppled over herself. Mariana had danced since she was three and known Abby since she was sixteen when she apprenticed at the studio. She worked part-time at the studio specifically to choreograph for Ivanna, and sometimes when Gianna was busy, for Aurora too.

"Hey, excited to finally dance this weekend?" She asked and Ivanna nodded once in a big dramatic fashion that pulled a wisp of hair out of its place. "Good. We're going to start the season off strong and do something more mature, soft, something that shows off the flexibility and the technique that we've been working on perfecting. It's called 'Cupid.' So you'll walk out center stage, hands behind your back, feet in fourth. Flick the hands out, 1, 2, keep the fingers nice and pretty. Swing the right above your head, 3, fan kick, 4.."

Maria stood a bit behind her, her hands and legs shortening the movements while Ivanna did them full out to her counts. By the time Maria's next class came around an hour later, they gotten through about half of the routine and the group rehearsal was starting to wind down in time for the girls to get a water break. Aurora smoothed down her sisters hair with her warm palms.

"How was rehearsal?" Abby placed her phone down beside her.

Ivanna walked up to her, throwing herself onto the stretching mat that Abby usually sat on during rehearsals. "Good! My solo is really pretty."

"It's meant to be a little more mature than your past solos."

Aurora intertwined her fingers together and stretched her arms above her head like a cat. She sifted her focus to the blackboard by her mother, her headshot at the top, stacked above Maddie's, then she turned and walked out for a sip of water.