"This is where pyramid is, right? I'm looking for my son," The woman who entered the studio looked like she meant business, with a nice dress shirt tucked into a pencil skirt with large sunglasses on made her look incredibly intimidating. So it was a massive surprise when she rushed to hug someone.
Sandy had never been more excited to see Max's mother, Juliet, possibly ever! All the other moms had their cliques and friends but Sandy was left to fight her own battles, not anymore! Finally someone who would stick up for Max and Amelia to make sure they didn't get the short end of the stick! Sandy embraced Juliet and held in the urge to squeal, knowing that it would look strange, well stranger than it already looked.
|| Who is this woman and why is she here? || - Joanne Paolantonio
Finally after letting go of Sandy, the woman turned to face Max, who was smiling at her. Well, not properly smiling but it was close enough. His mother was here, sure it was a couple week late and she probably wouldn't stay long, but at least she showed up, right?
The woman regained her composure, clear her throat and spoke clearly, "Hello, I'm Max's mother, Juliet. I've finally been able to take a small break from work so I decided to see how my son was doing here," Everyone, even Abby seemed confused as to why the woman was here.
|| On top of being CEO of Fevoro Tech and a mother to four other children, I don't get to see Max dance as much as I like to but I'm here now so it's okay! || - Juliet Fevoro
|| I forgot that Max wasn't Sandy' kid! So it's weird to see this woman! || - Lilli Ketchman
Abby seemed taken aback by the woman's sudden appearance, making it abundantly clear that she wasn't aware that Juliet would be coming. She tried to quickly get over the initial shock but you could see it in her eyes, "O-okay, moms going upstairs!" She cleared her throat and continued, "Be nice! Don't be scaring her off!" With a wave of her hand the moms swiftly exited the room, excited to interrogate the fresh meat.
|| I'm really nervous to be dancing with Lilli because she's a lot shorter than me, which makes her look really really young! And everyone knows the younger you are, the more impressive it is when you dance! || - Amelia Hatchet
|| Do I want Lilli to be doing another acro dance? No. Am I excited to show Abby that Amelia isn't all that? HELL YES! || - Stacey Ketchman
Abby was excited to see her old star and her new star compete for the title of best dancer. A little too excited. She was so ready to start choreographing this dance, "Okay! So to start this rehearsal, I want to see your best tricks! If you don't show them off now, they won't be in the dance!" Abby then signaled for Gianna to start the music as a signal to start improving.
Of course, the room wasn't empty, Abby had Max and Brady sitting in on the rehearsal to watch and both boys were completely in awe. They had both seen Lilli and Amelia dance but never like this, they were both pushing the limits of what they could do and it was incredible to watch. Lilli started off with a front aerial walkover into a side aerial and ending it with two backhand spring step outs, to which Amelia countered with four backhand spring into a back layout step out.
|| She's pulling out her best tricks so I'm just trying to prove that I can be just as good as her, if not better! || - Lilli Ketchman
|| This is insane! Amelia's doing tricks I haven't seen her do in like months! And Lilli's keeping her own against her which is dope! || - Max Fevoro
To say Abby was impressed was an understatement; she was in shock. She was finally starting to see the old Lilli reappear, the one who would go out and win, no matter what. She also saw Amelia smiling, having fun with what they were currently doing, which just made her tricks so much better. The two girls went back and forth trading tricks until the music came to an end and received an applause from Max and Brady and their dance teachers.
|| If that's the stuff I have to beat, I'm screwed! || - Brady Farrar
Upstairs though, someone was not impressed in the slightest. Stacey sat in Mommy Jail with a rather large pout on her face, "I just don't understand," She started loudly, drawing the attention to her rather than the choreography downstairs, "I thought we got over Abby' obsession with Lilli doing cheesy acro last season," Sandy and Juliet looked at each other and rolled their eyes, "It's just not fair that Lilli's dancing has to suffer because of Abby and Amelia!"
|| Lilli is a beautiful dancer, but if she turns out anything like Stacey I might die! || - Sandy Hatchet
|| I've been here for ten minutes and already the moms are whining? Seriously? || - Juliet Fevoro
The last sentence caught Juliet's attention, she knew people wouldn't like that Amelia would steal focus from their kids but blaming her on a dance style? "Why do you say that Stacey?" Juliet innocently asked, looking from Sandy to Stacey. Sandy was shaking her head knowing where this would lead but Juliet just continued going, "Why is it Amelia's fault that Lilli got an acro dance?" Stacey looked skeptically at the new mom, wondering what she wanted.
|| If this new mom wants to fight, she better be ready because I'm sick of holding back! || - Stacey Ketchman
Sandy knew this would end in a fight. It had to. Juliet was just as confrontational as these other moms and while she could keep a level head in an argument, if you pushed enough buttons she would explode. That's how her and Sandy differed. Sandy never purposely started arguments, feeling that they were childish but Juliet felt a rush whenever she argued. They balanced each other out.
Stacey was a little taken aback at Juliet's attitude, the sharp tongue was definitely get her in trouble with the moms, but still answered her question, "Well, last season Abby stopped giving Lilli little kid dances and when she did that Lilli started to win! Now that Amelia's here, Abby all of a sudden is back to giving Lilli acro! Is that a coincidence?" As Stacey spoke her calm demeanor started to crack. Sure, she couldn't voice these opinions in front of Abby in fear of Lilli getting replaced but with the moms it was easy, they couldn't do anything to her child.
|| Stacey' got her tin foil hat on! Not everyone is out to get her! She's not that important! || - Juliet Fevoro
|| I can see that the new mom isn't really liking how Stacey's talking about Amelia but I'm not gonna interfere, I'm not stupid! || - Michelle Georgianna
|| Can't we just have one quiet day? Is it that hard? || - Ashley Hosbach
Juliet rolled her eyes at Stacey's one track mind, couldn't she she that what her daughter was currently doing was helping her? To have Lilli dance with someone like Amelia, who was an older and more mature dancer, was a blessing, an experience to learn and grow. But to her it was Abby punishing her, for what exactly?
"Stacey could you look down there and tell me what you see? Because to me it looks like mature choreography that challenges your kid and it actually looks like she's having fun! Isn't that wild?" Juliet was already sick of Stacey and her behavior and thought that if she realized that Lilli was being challenged she would shut up. Obviously not. It just made her louder and more opinionated, which drove Juliet crazy.
|| Who does this woman think she is? She comes in here and thinks she can tell me anything about my kid? NO! || - Stacey Ketchman
|| These moms need to learn their places! I mean Sandy' been here for three weeks and Juliet's been here for all of five minutes and they think they tell us what to do? || - Joanne Paolantonio
Down in the studio Lilli was too engrossed in learning the choreo to even notice what was going on upstairs, she hadn't had a rehearsal without Abby yelling like a lunatic in what seemed like years, and she was loving it! The choreo was fun, it challenged her and dancing with Amelia wasn't the worst either. She was having a good time, which was something she couldn't very often say.
Amelia was also having a really fun time working with Lilli. It was interesting trying to learn Lilli's style so she could match it so the dance would look good, well even better than good. That's what made Amelia a fantastic duet partner, she was versatile and willing to adapt to her partner's style so that they could look their best on stage no matter if it wasn't how Amelia didn't typically dance. If it made whoever she was dancing with look better, she was willing to do it.
After an hour and a half of continuous acro tricks, Abby could see the girls tiring so she let them out to go to ballet and called the boys up to practice. The boys were feeling two completely separate emotions, which you could see on their faces.
Max was ecstatic to be doing hip hop! He thought that when he agreed to be on Dance Moms that he would have to give up on hip hop because the ALDC had never been known for their hip hop skills. And maybe he shouldn't be that excited after the hip hop trainwreck that Gia had been given last week but he couldn't help it.
|| To quote High School Musical: Hip hop is my passion! I'm so freaking excited for this! || - Max Fevoro
Brady was on the opposite end of the spectrum, he was dreading having to do hip hop, especially with Max! Max was cool and groovy and chill, all things that Brady wasn't and all things that made Brady awful at hip hop. Max would simply highlight all of his shortcomings and Brady was not excited for that. But he also knew that he would venture out of his ballet realm and what better time to do it than on national television?
|| I want to see if Max can draw something out of Brady with this duet, something we haven't seen from him || - Abby Lee Miller
The boys started back to back before Brady turned to face Max and the choreo only got harder for Brady from there. Firstly his opening trick was a turn sequence in second while Max just got to flip in front of him, then he had to trust that Max wouldn't mess up his side-flip and land on top of him and to top it off there was the dreaded standing back tuck that Abby knew he couldn't do! Of course there was also the actual hip hop moves inbetween each trick, but Brady could barely do those!
|| Why can't Abby just give Brady choreography that suits him as a dancer! Is it really that hard! || - Tricia Farrar
|| Is it mean to say that I'm kind of glad that Brady' struggling? Because last year it seemed like he could do no harm and this is a pretty big fall from grace! || - Michelle Georgianna
Upstairs Tricia felt like she was watching a car wreck, it was tragic but she just couldn't look away. It didn't matter. She needed to see what Abby was going to do with the two boys. To see what Abby was going to do with her boy. Tricia felt herself cringing every time Abby made Brady do a standing back tuck, it was the only moment she couldn't bring herself to watch, if he didn't land it properly she didn't know what would happen to Brady and she didn't want to think of it either.
"Juliet," Tricia started, her voice soft and almost broken, "How are you able to watch Max do all these tricks and just trust that he won't get injured? Because I can't and it kills me to have to sit here and just watch them," Nobody had quite heard Tricia voice these opinions before, they had only seen the Tricia that was confident in Brady' dance abilities. Right now though, she didn't seem remotely confident, at all.
|| Seeing Tricia so scared breaks my heart because she's one of the toughest moms here, she shouldn't be reduced to this || - Sandy Hatchet
Juliet sadly smiled at Tricia, understanding her pain and sympathizing with the woman, "It doesn't get easy, I'll tell you that," Juliet lightly laughed and brought her hands to her face, "And it pains me to know that he does crazier tricks when I'm not here," The woman looked pointedly at Sandy, the woman who was responsible for her son eighty percent of the time, who just shrugged with a smile on her face. Juliet took a deep breath in and smiled at Tricia before continuing, "But I've learnt to trust Max. He does dumb things all the time but I trust that he knows his limits and I trust that he will feel comfortable to tell his teacher when it's too much," With that Juliet gave a final smile and turned back to the window to see Brady stick his back tuck and run to hug Max.
|| I understand Tricia's pain, so much that it isn't funny! But one of the things I've come to accept about dance is that there's always a risk. Sure, Max's dancing has way more risks but it doesn't matter, I know my son and he knows when a trick is too difficult for him. I've just got to trust him || - Juliet Fevoro
|| That's... that's actually really smart || - Ann Colin
For once the Abby Lee Dance Company was at peace. Everything was calm, there was no fuss about the duets or even the group dance which Abby had already started to everyone's surprise. There was a certain calm that came with the quiet but there was also a sense of dread because it was never quiet at the Abby Lee Dance Company, so something big was coming.
Something very big was coming.
Howdy! How is everyone? So this chapter doesn't have too much drama, mainly because I wanted to balance out the amount of drama the next two chapters have! Be prepared! Anyways, we finally got to know a bit about Juliet and I'm so excited! I can't wait to fully flesh out her character and make her someone you either love or hate! Also how would y'all feel about a Next Step fic? Because I have something in the works! I hope you have an excellent Christmas if I don't update before then and have a great new year!
Question: What do you think of Juliet?
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