Leading Ladies

III. Cheerleader Blues

Whitney sits up as if burned. "Ukkk, how rude."

A whistle pierces through the air, and Bianca turns back to the game to see that the other team was cheering.

Kirsi glares at her.

"Opps," Bianca shrugs, smiling sheepishly.

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"Let's go, girls! Come on! Come on," Abby barks as the girls rush into the room. She stood by the blackboard as each girl sat down in front of her while the moms lined up to the side. "Vivi-Anne, where's your dance clothes?"

Bianca turns her head to the back, where Vivi-Anne was wearing a white blouse and skirt.

"It's in the car," Vivi-Anne replies.

"You need to be dressed and ready to dance when you walk into this building," Abby lectures. "Yes?" Vivi-Anne nods, and Bianca turns back to Abby. "I want to recap a little bit about the competition. Now there are some things that went on that maybe you don't even know about." Abby points at Nia. "Your mom was upset about the costumes," she points at Chloe. "Your mom was upset about the costume before you went on stage. But that cannot happen again."

"Let's talk about the competition this week. We're going to New Jersey, and we are going to do an acrobatic gymnastic routine," Abby turns the blackboard around. "Overall, I evaluated all of your performance. So, Maddie, you won that competition and the title, so you're joining Elsa here on the top. Yes?" Maddie nods. "Elsa, you had a run for your money against your sisters, and you came out on top; you were great. Brooke, I expect you to help the younger students. I expect you to know the choreographer first and be able to help everybody else."

Abby trails down the board until she reaches the bottom row. "All right, Nia, Paige, you'll be doing the tumbling part and the acro part. Sabrina, you will also be in this section. Vivi-Anne, because you're new here and you don't know all our terminology, I'm gonna work prIvately with you this week, so you're gonna do a solo at the competition this weekend," Cathy was ecstatic. "Chloe, Maddie, you will be doing a duet. Sabrina, Bianca, Elsa, you will be doing a trio. Alright, girls, let's go. Get up, get ready to rehearse. Moms, thank you very much. Vivi, don't forget-- you need to be in dance clothes whenever you walk into this room ready to go." Vivi-Anne nods. "All right."

Standing along with the rest of the girls, Bianca follows Abby's direction. Her body smoothly went down into a split; she bends her head forward to cover her frown. She felt kind of upset that she wasn't part of the tumbling girls. Yeah, she wasn't at Sabrina's level, but she was definitely above Nia and Paige.

It wasn't long before Abby started practice. "Girls, you're gonna enter with your hands behind your back, softly walking on to the stage..."

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"I need to know what it's going to take to get my daughter moved up on the pyramid," Kelly whined. "Why are Maddie and Elsa at the top?"

From her spot, Cathy looks around at the rest of the moms. "She actually pyramids the kids and puts them...?"

Holly nods. "Yes."

"Okay, so Vivi was... second line shit." Cathy laughs shortly. "And I didn't expect her to be on the top."

"I think there are a lot of ways she could assign assignments without having to put them in a pyramid," Holly continues.

Cathy nods. "Pyramids—absolutely."

"I mean, this is not the Egyptian era."

Cathy looks around at the moms. "Just been the new person coming in, then why do you guys put up with this?"