It had been a while since Lilli had been in the studio without the entirety of the group in there with her sure, Pressley was in there as well, but it was better than nothing. Now, she only had to hope that her mother wouldn't ruin this for her, which was easier said than done. Lilli had spent the entirety of the car ride home with her mom yesterday; just listening to her rant about it wasn't fair that she had gotten an acro duet, especially with one of the least flexible people on the team! Lilli didn't see the problem, though. Her last duet was an acro piece, and it was mature and won!
Neither Pressley nor Lilli had heard the song 3, so they spent some time listening to it at the start of their rehearsal, and they couldn't deny that it was a cute song for a duet. That was precisely what Lilli and Stacey hadn't wanted, cute. Cute was what Lilli had done since she was six, and she was a little sick of it, but it wasn't like she could do anything about it. She just had to suck it up—a lesson her mother had yet to learn.
Upstairs, all the moms could see that this was getting to Stacey, and they were enjoying the show. However, they weren't enjoying the bitching that went along with it. And there was a whole hell of a lot of bitching. Stacey couldn't shut up about how much she hated this dance, which made the rest of the moms hate because they couldn't stand listening to Stacey whine for much longer.
"Lilli is a beautiful, technical dancer! Why can't anyone see that! My daughter is maturing, and no one seems to care!" Stacy didn't even bother to breathe between her sentences, "It's not fair! Lilli could be doing an amazing lyrical solo, filled with so many emotions and win, but instead, she's being forced to do some cheesy acro duet! Lilli could be doing so much more than what she's doing right now!" This is where Ashley started to care.
|| Shame Gianna and Abby for giving your daughter crap dances but don't you dare bring my daughter into it because Lilli is no better than Pressley! || - Ashley Hosbach
|| Why can't we all just mind our own business and shut the hell up? It's not difficult, I promise! || - Juliet Fevoro
The moms knew not to engage with Stacey for the most part when she got like this. When Stacey was upset, she got vicious. But, at the moment, Ashely didn't seem to care. All she cared about was how Stacey talked about her daughter like she was trash. And Pressley was not trash.
"Stacey, you better watch your mouth when you're talking about my kid, okay?" Stacey just rolled her eyes and got her phone out to do god knows what, and that just pissed Ashley off more. "Very classy, Stacey! Ignore me! That's what we all do to you when you start throwing a temper tantrum like a two-year-old! It makes sense that your next static is the silent treatment when whining fails!" Stacey was barely holding onto her tongue, knowing it would get Ashley angrier.
|| Ashley' just like white noise, her voice goes in one ear and out the other || - Stacey Ketchman
Which it did.
"You run around here like your kids, the best dancer in the world! NEWS FLASH! SHE'S NOT! OKAY! You think just because your daughter's been here the longest, she should have everything she wants to be handed to her! That's never gonna happen! Wanna know why? Because she's not the most talented kid in the room!" All the moms were listening intently; sure, Ashley had gone off before, but never like this. They were loving it!
Pressley was not. Hearing her mom yell at Stacey like that was embarrassing, seriously. Her face was now dusted light pink as she danced, not only because of the blood rushing to her head when she went upside down but also because of the total mortification she was experiencing. But, at least Gianna wasn't torturing her as Abby would've by making her stand there and listen to it, so that was a bonus, she guessed.
|| It's uncomfortable listening to my duet partner's mom screaming at mine. I kind of just want her to stop, if I'm being honest || - Lilli Ketchman
|| Why can't my mom be normal and just be quiet! It's embarrassing to listen to this! || - Pressley Hosbach
Upstairs, Ashely was still going off at Stacey, and she was fed up with it. She was so close to screaming in her face, but she came up with a much more evil idea. Stacey simply stood up and walked away. This way, Ashley wouldn't have the closure of finishing yelling at her or, even better, getting her to apologise. It was genius!
|| I don't have to sit there and listen to some clearly deranged woman shouting in my face, especially when I didn't do anything to the lunatic! || - Stacey Ketchman
"Ash, you know you shouldn't have done that," Surprisingly, it was Tricia who spoke up after a few beats of silence, who used the most motherly tone imaginable. When Ashley didn't respond to Tricia, a few of the moms turned to face her, only to see tears streaming down her face and Ashley silently sobbing. Sandy, who was sitting furthest away from Ashley, immediately wrapped her into a hug, feeling her pain at being goaded by Stacey.
Ashley went to say something, but she was stopped by sobs racking through her body, effectively shutting her up. Several times over. When her tears had finally subsided, she turned to Tricia and whispered, "I don't know what I was supposed to do," It could have been the broken look on her face or her destroyed tone, but Tricia hugged her so tightly. As Ashely sat there, the tears returned to her eyes, but this time she tried much more challenging to control them. Ultimately she failed to do it, but it was the effort that counted.
|| Everyone in that room has felt the exact same as Ashley, and I'm just so surprised that Ashley was the one to break || - Michelle Georgiana
|| Watching Ashley's breakdown hurts my heart because I know how long she's been bottling those feelings up, so this thing with Stacey must've really hurt her || - Tricia Farrar
|| I thought Stacey was my friend, but hearing how casually she was trashing Pressley, just makes me remember that some people here don't want your kid to succeed. Some people want to see them fail hard. And the fact that she had nothing to say to me proves that she's also a coward || - Ashley Hosbach
Nobody knew what to do when Stacey walked into the rehearsal room with Lilli's bag in her hand, especially when she grabbed onto her daughter's arm and started to softly move her out of the room. Lilli was bawling her eyes out as her mom slowly dragged her out of the room, but Gianna wasn't reacting. It was like she was utterly blind to what was happening, but she just continued teaching Pressley the duet long after Lilli was out of the room like it was normal.
Pressley, on the other hand, was a little shocked. If Abby were in the room and this was happening, there would have been much more yelling and screaming, and no way in hell would Pressley get to finish learning her duet. But, with Gianna, she completed the duet within forty minutes of Stacey leaving the studio, which would've been great if she hadn't taken her duet partner with her.
"Now, it's your responsibly to teach this to Lilli, and if she doesn't pick it up quickly, you might not be doing a duet anymore," Gianna reminded Pressley, making the little girl even more nervous than she was when she saw her mom yelling at Stacey.
|| Why did Stacey have to take Lilli out of rehearsal? I need my duet partner to do a duet! I can't perform tomorrow without her! || - Pressley Hosbach
|| I know I'm making it sounds like if Lilli doesn't learn this dance, then Pressley won't do her duet. That's because she won't! If Lilli doesn't learn it, Pressley will do it as a solo! But she doesn't need to know that! || - Gianna Martello
Pressley walked out of the studio shaken. Very shaken. Now, whether or not she got to do her duet didn't rely on her being able to do it well. It relied on Lilli not sucking at it. So until she came back, Pressley would just have to stress about Lilli being able to pick up the choreo quickly. Preferably in the half an hour time slot they were given tomorrow before they got on the bus, which was meant to be used for polishing the dance.
Now Pressley had to go to Mississippi without knowing whether or not she was going to do her duet. Fun. But, it's not like it could get any worse, right?
authors note!
Hi guys! How are we today? So this chapter basically has no focal point and so many focal points, that it's not funny! Anyways, I'm in my last month of being in my school's production and I'm really nervous, so if I'm not updating as much as you would like, I'm sorry but I am trying!
On to other things, if you look at my profile, you'll see that this book is my only published work but I want to change that! I have a few stories in my drafts and I really love them all, so I wanted to ask what story you want to see!
A Glee book, about a band who hates the glee club,
A The Next Step book, about an airheaded Elite dancer,
A Wilbur Soot book, about a sweet Irish streamer,
Or
A Criminal Minds book, about possibly my favourite character I've ever written!
Those are the options, please let me know what you want!
Question: Who do you think will win in the next chapter?
Anyways please remember to:
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