The Secret Friendship

Chapter Thirteen

Maddie POV:

Mom remained super furious with me after Tuesday night. I didn’t see what the big deal was. As far as I was concerned, Chloe was not a bad influence on me. If anyone was, it was Abby. She’d pushed all of my friends out of my life and I deserved to have them back. I was lucky enough for Chloe to give me a second chance. I’d probably never get that with Brooke, Paige, Kendall or Nia. I had to take the opportunity before it slipped away again.

I still hadn’t gotten my cell phone back and I felt so lost and out of the loop. I was only allowed to drive to dance and back. I was surprised Mom didn’t follow me there to make sure I was actually going. While she wanted to be sneaky, she didn’t have the motivation and would rather stay home and watch TV than follow me around.

When I walked into the studio that afternoon, I expected it to be just another day, nothing out of the ordinary. Jennine was sitting at the front desk as usual. Typically she’d always say hi and smile at me when I came in but today something was off about her. She looked at me weirdly, unsure of what to say.

“Hi…” I greeted. “Is everything okay?” She tried to play off her peculiar behavior, nervously fiddling with her dark hair.

“Everything’s good. Um, I think Abby needs to speak with you.”

“Okay…where is she?”

“Studio C.”

“Okay. I’ll get dressed and be right there.”

“Go now. You can get dressed in a bit.” This was weird. Abby never wanted to see us until we were dressed for dance. I reluctantly trailed into studio C to find her sitting in a chair alone, staring down at her pink iphone.

“Hi, Miss Abby.” I greeted unsurely. She looked up with daggers in her eyes, not even pretending to be pleased to see me. She didn’t say anything, but I already knew I was in for hell. “Jennine said you wanted to see me…”

“How dare you!” She shouted, her voice booming throughout the quiet room.

“I’m sorry?” She held her phone in my face, showing a picture of me on the Studio 19 Instagram page. I should have known the group picture we took after class would go on the internet. Without my phone, I hadn’t seen it and was completely unprepared for the wrath.

“How dare you go to another studio? Especially there! This is a slap in the face, Maddie! What the hell got into you?”

“Um…”

“And right next to Chloe! You are a disgrace to the Abby Lee Dance Company! How dare you!”

“It was just for one day! I’m sorry!”

“It’s too late, Maddie! You know the rules! You know you can’t go train with other studios without my permission! You’re not sorry you did it! You’re sorry you got caught! How did I know you weren’t telling them our secrets?! I can’t believe you! I’d expect this from a lot of kids but not you! You know better than this!” My throat was closing up and it took all I had not to run out of the room.

“I’m really sorry. It won’t happen again.”

“I told you that you were forbidden to see Chloe! Am I correct?” I nodded wearily. “You better beat her ass this weekend! Otherwise you’re done! You can pack your bags and move to Studio 19 for all I care! You will be dead to me!” She got up and stormed out of the room, concluding our conversation. I sunk down to the floor and curled up in a ball and cried. I couldn’t take it anymore. Gianna came in a few minutes later for my private.

“You okay?” She questioned concernedly, but kept her distance from me.

“No!” I sobbed. I couldn’t dance right now. I wasn’t in the right state of mind. I couldn’t tell if she was aware of what had happened or not.

“How about you go get dressed and go get a drink and then we’ll see how you feel, okay?” She spoke to me gently as if I were a kindergartener that had fallen on the playground.

“Gianna, I can’t do it!” She came and knelt beside me on the floor.

“Can’t do what?”

“I can’t dance right now! I need to go!”

“Please, we need to work on your solo. Please go get dressed, take a few minutes to relax and then we’ll start, okay?”

“Okay.” I finally agreed, getting up off the floor and heading to the den. I sobbed profusely as I put on my dance wear, not even caring what others thought. Several people asked me what was wrong but I couldn’t explain. I couldn’t tell anyone. Gianna was waiting for me to come back and she could immediately tell I was still upset.

“Just push whatever’s going on out of your mind and focus on the dancing, okay? That’s what you do best. You could do this.” Apparently she didn’t know. Otherwise she’d probably be yelling at me too. Though she’d always been one of my biggest cheerleaders and we’d always had a special relationship, she would also see this as a slap in the face.

I tried to dance for a while, but I was obviously struggling a lot. Gianna was trying her best not to get frustrated with me, but I could tell she was. About half way through the rehearsal after working on a certain part at least half a dozen times, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“I feel sick. I need to go.” I pleaded to Gianna. “I need to go!”

“Maddie, calm down please.”

“I can’t do this! I need to go!”

“Maddie, we’re almost done. Hang in there.”

“I can’t! I’m sorry!” I burst into tears again and ran out of the room. I didn’t bother to see if she chased after me. I just grabbed my bag and my keys and ran the hell out of the studio.