The next morning, I woke up on Zack's couch, curled up next to him, still in my costume from the night before. Brianna and Hadley were lounging on each other on the love seat, completely knocked out. Jordyn was at the end of the couch, curled up on the arm rest, so I'm assuming Alex found a ride home. I looked around, and saw the light coming through the sliding glass door, realizing it was earlier in the morning. I checked my phone, saw it was 7:30, and saw I had a missed call from my mom from 1:00AM, and panicked.
Mom: You're lucky Gina got home and found you all clocked out on the couch. Sweet dreams, be home by noon.
Thank god. She must have been a little tipsy at least to be this cool about me not coming home, but I wasn't going to question it. I relaxed back into Zack's arms, but I accidentally woke him.
"Shhh, I'm sorry, go back to sleep." I stroked his head and he quickly complied, falling back into his sleep. I sat there for awhile, replaying the night's events in my head, and couldn't fall back asleep. I slowly stood up, and grabbed a trash bag we had left out, and continued to clean what we didn't finish last night. I slipped into Zack's room to grab my backpack and put my AirPods in, and put on my benefit playlist on Spotify. I threw some cans and bottles into a garbage bag, but most of the loose trash had been taken care of. I put my hand on the counter, and it was oddly sticky. I found a bottle of Clorox wipes, and began to scrub the counters down. Why would he call me a bitch? I was always so honest with him. I understand he was hurt, but his problem was with Zack, not with me. I felt a hand lightly touch my shoulder, and I jumped, and paused my music. Gina was standing behind me, in a robe and her usual warm smile.
"Sorry sweetie, I didn't mean to spook you."
"No, no you're okay. I'm sorry I accidentally slept over, that was never the intention." I started to profusely apologize, but she cut me off.
"You have no need to apologize, Madison. Zack was still awake when I got back and told me everything. I'm sorry you had to deal with all of that, it was so unfair to you." She smiled sympathetically and I gave a small sign of agreement. "You five were watching movies when we got back, and you four had fallen asleep, and I felt so bad waking you, I texted all the moms to let them know."
"Thank you, I'm sorry if we ruined your morning." I apologized again and she brushed it off.
"You didn't, everyone else is still asleep and we had no plans today. You know you don't have to clean my kitchen, right?" She laughed and put her hand on the sticky counter, and made a disgusted face. "Oh, gross. Hand me one of those." She laughed and we continued to clean the counter. "So, be straight with me. How much did you all drink last night? You know I won't snitch, or yell, or be mad- unless you lie." She asked and I sighed, debating if I wanted to answer her question. She squinted and I broke within a second.
"Okay, Hadley drank a few red solo cups worth of "Liquid Courage" and I think Bri had two, maybe two and a half of those, Jordyn had nothing to my knowledge, and Zack had two beers, which I had a few sips of, but I didn't like it." I confessed and she nodded slowly. "Please don't be mad!"
"Oh I'm not. But I will make Hadley and Brianna's hangovers hell this morning. "Liquid Courage" is never good, I'm surprised Bri had more than half of one." She chuckled and grabbed the blender from the cupboard, to which I cocked my head. "They'll probably have massive headaches, which that alone will make them never want to drink again. But this is just a little reinforcement." She snickered and I laughed along with her. "I'll be nice and make a hangover concoction though. It'll smell like shit though, just for fun." She sent me back to the couch to gently wake up Zack and Jordyn. I stroked Jordyn's frizzy blonde hair until she slowly sat up, and then I did the same thing to Zack, but on his cheek.
"Is everything okay?" Jordyn yawned and Zack sleepily pulled me close to him.
"Yeah, but Mrs. Gina is going to have a little fun with those two." I pointed to a drooling Brianna and Hadley, right as the blender went off on full blast, sounding like a spoon in a garbage disposal. Hadley and Brianna launched up out of fear, but quickly grabbed their heads in pain, groaning. We all laughed and they threw their hands over their ears and heads, unsure of what to cover. "Good morning, sleepy heads." I smiled and Brianna threw a pillow at me.
Brianna and Hadley were gagging as they drank Gina's miracle hangover cure, much to everyone else's amusement. We ran through the night's events, after Travis, trying to catch them
"Wait, who did I make out with?" Brianna was so lost, and Zack laughed.
"William, the red headed junior on the football team." He explained and she still looked lost. "The one who's nose is always stuffed, and who makes the gross mixtures of all the cafeteria food at lunch." He explained and Brianna gagged, but not from the drink this time.
"Why would I ever do that?"
"Liquid courage." We all answered in unison and she groaned.
"And I have to face him at school tomorrow? This is so embarrassing." She buried her face into the pillow and there was a round of laughter. "Why do you always get the cute ones?" She lightly kicked Hadley who shrugged.
"I do not!"
"You literally had two cute ones last night." She whacked Hadley with a pillow, who tried to dodge it but failed miserably. I started to stand up and gather my things, but Zack pulled me back down, trying to wrap me in a hug and hold me down. I giggled and stood back up, and he pulled me back down again. We repeated that a few times, and Zack gave me a long, gentle kiss, until the pillow got thrown at me. "Stop rubbing your cuteness in my face. I have weird William, who plays with his food like a child." She groaned and threw her head back.
"You'll have beautiful red headed children, who also play with their food." Jordyn snickered and Brianna wound up a pillow, but Hadley snatched it out of her hand.
"Easy, catapult." She put the pillow down on the opposite end of the couch and Brianna crossed her arms. "No one said you had to date him, hell no one said you ever have to talk to him again!"
"That's fair, I didn't remember it until you guys told me. So maybe he won't remember it happened." Brianna shrugged and appeared more comfortable.
"You didn't remember it because you were drunk, but he'll definitely remember it because you're you." I reminded her and she sighed. "And he was a designated driver, so you're screwed."
I walked into my house, much to Rufus's delight. His tailed wagged as he followed me into the kitchen, which was covered in candy wrappers, and found Kyle at the table adding to the mess, and a face covered in chocolate. He looked at me and smirked as he popped a Twix into his mouth.
"Is this what the walk of shame looks like?" He said smugly, clearly proud of that one. I don't blame him, I was stumbling home the next morning wearing the clothes from the night before. It was almost textbook definition. I rolled my eyes and grabbed a pack of Sour Patch Kids from his pile.
"You're one to talk about shame. This is pathetic." I ruffled his hair and ran upstairs to shower and change before rehearsal. I washed away my makeup, the hairspray in my hair, the sweaty, and the dirty memories from the night before. I tried to get Travis out of my head, it was just making me angry that he caused such a scene. I let the hot water hit my skin, listening to my Spotify playlist, feeling at peace. I got out of the shower and quickly dried my hair before grabbing a pair of sweatpants and a crop top. I threw my hair up in a bun, leaning into the lazy look, but then my phone went off.
Ricky: Change of plans! It'll be your first day with the kids today, so the press will be there. Smile pretty!
I sighed and changed out of my lazy look, swapping it for a burnt orange cropped dance top, navy blue leggings, a high ponytail, matching shoes, and some simple makeup. I threw on a white zip-up jacket, and headed back downstairs to find mom taking a Tylenol.
"Fun night?" I smirked and she rolled her eyes.
"You're one to talk after not coming home last night." She argued and I threw my hands up in defeat.
"Everyone in this home is so snippy today, take a breath!"
We pulled into the parking lot thirty minutes before rehearsal was scheduled to start, so I could get a briefing on the days events. The front desk was empty, so we scanned our badges and headed up to see Ricky. Music was blaring around the studio, and Ricky was going hard with his choreography. He stopped once he noticed us and paused the music, greeting us with a hug.
"Hey superstar, hey mom." He smiled and led us over to the benches. "Here's the plan for today. Entertainment Tonight will be here around 1:30, and they're coming to interview you and get some footage of rehearsal. It's 1:00 now, so we have about a half hour of solo time, the other season one kiddos will be here around 3:00, and then the younger kids will join us at 4:00. Before the younger kids come, you and the other dancers will learn a group dance to Levitating, which will be fun, hip hop, and a little challenging. I figured it's a good one to show for the interview because it will show your versatility from the solos. Then for about a half hour before they learn the dance will just be you, rocking it out, having some fun with the younger kids, and letting them just be kids. Then you and the older kids will help teach a group number, to Shake it Off. It'll be high energy, fun, not super technical, an overall good time. We'll wrap it up around 6:00, and you'll be on TV by 8:00." He explained and my eyes grew with anxiety. "Don't worry, it'll be great. You'll be great, and you'll have all of us to back you up, okay?" He patted my knee and I nodded. "What's going on in your mind?"
"It's just, a really quick turnaround." My mouth was dry and he shook his head.
"You know you won't be editing the footage, right? You just have to do your thing, and they'll take care of the rest." He chuckled and I nodded. That was a fair point, they were essentially just going to be flies on the wall for the day.