season 2; episode 2
return of the candy apples
"I PROMISE WE WILL HAVE THE MOST AMAZING TIME WHEN I GET BACK."
Venus sighed as she listened to her father's voice through the phone. He had got called into work during the middle of the night to solve a new case and Venus hadn't gotten a chance to say bye or good morning, or even get a hug from him. Both her and Christina were missing him. "Do you promise?"
"I promise." Nathaniel smiled without hesitation, which put his daughters at ease.
"Okay, we have dance now so we have to go." Christina said and waved at him in the camera.
"Alright, have fun girls. Tell your mom I love her."
"Love you, honey!" Jennifer semi-yelled for him to hear as she pulled into her parking spot.
"Love you, bye." With that, he hung up the phone.
Christina placed the phone back in her mother's hand and everyone got out of the car, walking into the ALDC for another day of dance rehearsal. They waved Gianna morning at the front desk before making their way into the den. It felt good to be able to walk in without a crowd, knowing that they were here to stay.
"Hello, everyone." Jennifer greeted and sat down on the bench next to Kelly.
"Hello." "Hi." "Good Afternoon." The moms greeted back.
"Vee!" Mackenzie roped Venus into a hug before dragging her to corner of the room, where she deemed "her spot."
"Hey, Christina." Kendall smiled along with the rest of the girls.
"Hello." She plopped down onto the bench next to Chloe and placed her dance bag onto the space next to her. "Before I forget, I brought the stroopwafels." She pulled the treat out of her bag and passed some around for the girls to share.
Maddie moaned at the taste. "Mmm, this is actually good."
Nia nodded as she licked the caramel off her fingers. "Can I have another?"
"Me too."
"You guys can just take the rest." Christina passed the girls the ziploc bag and they dug in. It brought a smile to her face, seeing her friends enjoy food from her culture.
"How did you feel about your first competition with us?" Brooke asked.
"It was pretty good actually. It got kinda crazy at the end but I could handle that."
"Oh you haven't seen crazy." Paige shook her head.
"Yeah that was pretty tame." Nia added on.
"Let's go! Come on, girls! Let's go!"
At the sound of Abby's voice, the girls raced into the room, their mothers trailing slowly behind. After the girls settled down, Abby began pyramid.
"I want to start off by talking a little bit about Dance Troupe in Greensboro, North Carolina. That was not the group from Lake Tahoe that just won a national championship. Obviously, cute still works in the Carolinas. Kendall, you did your solo scared to death. That was face was not an Abby Lee Miller face, that's for certain."
"Well, Abby, that was her first time out." Jill cut in defensively.
Abby placed her finger to her mouth. "Uh, shh. We don't get to talk. It's my turn. This weekend, we are headed to Columbus, Ohio. You know who lives in Ohio."
"Candy Apple!" Chloe cheered while waving her hands around.
Christina and Venus tilted their heads simultaneously in confusion. The what apples? Christina furrowed her brows.
"We are going there, and she will be at the competition." Abby explained. "I don't want any squawking between the mothers. You are all on the same team, and we are all going to take a bite out of that big apple. All right, we're gonna start with the pyramid."
Pyramid? God, Christina had so many things to catch up on.
Abby tore the first piece of paper off at the bottom, revealing Kendall's headshot. "On the bottom, Kendall. You are on probation. That means that I'm watching you like a hawk. Do you understand me? Mackenzie, I keep giving you little parts. Your dancing is not up to where the rest of the girls are. When Maddie was seven, she could've done the choreography. Brooke, you knew the number, but the crying and the hysteria, that's not a young adult. Paige, you did a nice job this weekend. Then, coming home on the bus coming home, we told you to sit down thirty.. two.. times. I counted. That's thirty-two too many."
"Every single one of them was playing on the bus." Kelly clarified.
"It doesn't make it right!" Abby yelled at her.
"So tell them, yell at them, too!" Kelly screamed back. It was clear that Abby was just making excuses to put the people she favored closer to the top.
Abby turned back to the pyramid. "Nia, I left you here in the same spot that you were last week. Maybe somebody from Nia's family could show up at the competition to watch her and clap for her. Next we have Venus. You did good. I was impressed and you won, which was great. Next, Christina. You're with your sister. You also impressed me. You went against kids that were two years older than you and you blew them out of the water, that's an ALDC dancer." She glanced over at an offended Jill at that part. "However, you, your sister, and your mother, you're all still on probation. I need to know that you can do what you did more than just once, okay?"
Christina and Venus nodded. It was fair.
"Next, we have Chloe. Chloe, you did a great job. And on top of the pyramid... Maddie. You also did a great job. I've seen you dance better. Every single person is gonna be in the group dance. It is called 'Bad Apples.' It's a little forties, has a little novelty with a bit of Katy Perry, it's a little kicked up."
Abby turned her focus to the moms. "So I want the pin-up girl look. We have the rat, we have the snood. If you don't know what a rat and a snood are, go on Google and figure it out. When you go on stage for the competition, you better be on fire. Brooke, you will be doing a solo. Cathy has a girl entered your age; I want you to make applesauce out of that kid, backstage freak that kid out. I want that kid in tears before she ever steps on that stage. Alright, Candy Apples- applesauce. Squish em. Alright, moms you're dismissed. Girls spread apart. Let's warm-up and start doing the number. Music!"
The moms left the room and walked up the stairs to the viewing room.
"I just want to stay 'stand up tall." Jill muttered to herself as she took a seat.
"So what did you think of your first pyramid?" Melissa asked the new moms.
"It's definitely different, I've never seen something like that before but I'm pleasantly surprised by Christina and Venus' placement, I didn't expect it." Jennifer shared.
"Neither did I." Jill said before sighing. "Yeah, you never know- I didn't know what to expect. I really didn't think she was going to be on the bottom."
Jennifer decided to brush off the passive aggressive comment and instead face forward to watch the group dance.
Christi raised her eyebrows slightly. "Yeah, but Jill, you're new."
"I know. I-I know. But still, I thought that that was a lot of pressure on a little kid." Jill noticed Christi's annoyed expression and jumped to defend herself and her daughter. "In three days, she learned a solo; they switched the music the night before."
"That's what we do every week." Melissa informed in a way that told her to get used to it.
"Welcome to our world." Christi added on sarcastically.
"My kids still have no music." Kelly piped in.
"I just don't understand why she couldn't have thrown her a little bone." Jill dragged on. "I just don't think it's fair for her to put the new kid, she did a solo and did well at the bottom of the pyramid. How is it that Christina and Venus are up there? I mean... they're all in the same boat. Kendall should kinda... be up there too, right?"
"Woah, don't drag my kids into this." Jennifer spoke up. "I don't know why Abby put them up there but if I had to guess it's probably because they won. They're still on probation though, we all are. Take it easy, it's been one competition. It seems like you're the one putting pressure on Kendall."
"No- I'm not pressuring her. It's Abby." Jill swore. "She did a solo all the same, is what I'm saying. Some of the other girls didn't even do that so she should be up there."
"But do you think it's okay for a kid whose been here for nine years to be put at the bottom of the pyramid?" Kelly asked.
Holly decided to jump in before Jill could respond. "Basically, Nia, Chloe, or Nia have to bumped down in order for it to be okay, is what I'm hearing?"
Jill hesitated. "Well..."
"That's what I'm hearing."
"Yeah. It's so subjective."
Holly had a sneaking suspicion of who it was that Jill thought should have been bumped down. Luckily, Christi did too and decided to ask.
"Well, you saw Nia. Do you think she's better than Nia?"
"Well, I think had Kendall and Nia competed directly against each other, I-I do." Jill stammered. "That's- I'm just being honest, Holly."
Jill wanted Kendall to be up there, like how Chloe and Maddie were. The stars of the studio. It did, in fact, bother her that Kendall, Christina, and Venus all showed up at the same time yet they seemed to be getting better treatment. The treatment that Kendall deserved to get.
Christi shook her head. "You say you want to be excepted and you want to be part of the group, but you come in here and- like, you can't lay down the gauntlet, saying, 'My kids' better thank all of your kids.' I kind of think of this group a little like a sorority. You pledge a little bit, you kind of, like, mm, you sit back, you pay your dues, and then you get to the top. I don't think you can come in here expecting to be like, boom, 'I'm at the top because I say so.'"
"I think she deserves it." Jill shrugged.
Jennifer rolled her eyes. Christi wasn't speaking some foreign language, it was clear that Jill should earn the spot at the top, earn to be one of Abby's favorites. But all Jill got from it was that 'Kendall deserved it.'
"They all do."
"I can't worry about your kids. I gotta worry about mine."
"Don't worry about my daughter. I'm just telling you-"
"I can't."
"-she not gonna give you everything 'cause she doesn't give me everything, and I've been here a whole hella of a lot longer than you. But wait a minute, you're in the honeymoon period. Both of you." Christi glanced at Jennifer before turning back to Jill. "You guys could probably get away with talking to her. Whereas the rest of us could never say a word, you might be able to catch her ear, and, like, speak your piece."
"Do I interrupt this class?" Jill asked.
"Yeah, sure, go for it."
Standing up, Jill exited the viewing room and made her way towards the studio.
"No, thank you. I have nothing to say to Abby. I have no problems. I think I'll just... sit here." Jennifer told herself out loud.
"Good choice." Kelly responded back.
"Does anyone having any popcorn?" Christi asked rhetorically as she prepared to watch Jill experience what Abby was truly like.
Downstairs Abby was leading an acro class with the girls in preparation for the upcoming competition. Jill poked her head into the room. "Abby, I need to talk to you. Can we- two minutes? Two minutes?"
"Wait- I know, but you shouldn't be here with those shoes on." Abby scolded her. "You should really go stay with those other mothers."
"I just wanted to talk to you about Kendall; give me a minute." Jill pleaded.
With a sigh, Abby walked towards her but not before pointing at Maddie. "Maddie, count it out." Then she was gone.
"Kendall, what's your mom doing?" Paige asked.
Kendall shook her head while biting her nails nervously. "I don't know, she's so embarrassing. I wish she'd just stop."
Christina awkwardly glanced at her and then the door that Abby just left through. She scratched the nape of her neck.
Maddie decided to change the atmosphere. "Let's just keep dancing. One, two, three, four..."
«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»
Christina looked around the crowded cafeteria. She felt out of place as she walked slowly past the groups of chattering kids. Her eyes scanned the room for an empty spot until she landed on one in the far corner. She started her journey over there but was stopped by a girl in front of her.
"Hey, you're new right?" The girl asked.
"Yeah."
"Wanna come sit with my friends and I?" She gestured over at the table of about four other kids who were all looking their way.
Christina nodded, trying to hide her excited smile. "Sure."
The girl took her hand and walked her over to the table. "I'm Kayla, by the way." She said as she took a seat.
"Oh, I'm Christina."
Kayla pointed at the boy on her right. "This is Miles," then her left, "that's Kai and the girl beside you is Jada." She introduced.
The table was overcome by a wave of "hey's."
"You're in my class." Jada jump started the conversation. "How are you doing with Miss Hart?"
"I think she seems really nice." Christina shrugged. "It's been pretty easy so far."
"I thought so too but that was until she started doing the most annoying things to make everybody mad." Jada rolled her eyes.
"Like what?"
"Like putting up notes and then give us thirty seconds to write them down." Kai jumped in. "Giving out homework like I don't have a life. One time she called a kid stupid."
Christina's eyes grew wide and she glanced around the table for confirmation. "Is it too last to switch?"
"She'd probably get offended to be honest, but don't worry, I'll try to switch seats so I'm next you. That way we can do it together." Jada told her with a smile.
"This food is garbage." Miles suddenly pushed his tray away from his body.
"It's garbage every day and we always tell you to pack something." Kayla said to him.
"Short-term memory loss." Kai mumbled and the other snickered.
"Shut up... but it's true Kayla, you should know I'd forget." Miles told her.
Kayla pulled a sandwich out of her bag and passed it to him. "You're lucky we're friends."
"Thank you, Kay." Mike's smiled.
"Whatever, stupid." She rolled her eyes jokingly and Christina smiled at the interaction.
"So, Christina, what's your middle name?" Miles asked suddenly.
It caught her off guard and she raised her eyebrows. "My middle name?"
"Yeah."
"It's weird as heck but he likes knowing peoples middle names." Jada explained.
Christina nodded before answering. "Oh, it's Lisa."
"Why does everybody have a decent middle name besides me?" Miles groaned.
"What's your middle name?"
"Barnard...."
Christina held her hand up to her mouth to mask her giggles. "Oh, um... it's not..."
"It's stupid." Miles said.
"Yeah just a bit but, hey, when you get older you can always change it."
Miles looked up at her. "Can I actually?"
"Yup."
"Oh my God, I'm doing that. I think I'll change it to... Conrad." Miles nodded to himself.
Jada bursted into laughter. "Um, no. That's not the improvement you think it is."
Miles rolled his eyes. "Shut up, it's so good."
"It's so not." Kayla shook her head.
"Whatever, you're all just jealous." Miles told them.
Christina giggled along with everybody else. Maybe Pittsburgh wasn't as boring as she thought it'd be.
«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»
When the team arrived at the competition sight, the sun had set and the breeze was picking up.
Venus shivered and clutched her sisters hand. "It's so cold."
"It's so different from Cali, right?" Christina asked and Venus nodded. "I know." She pressed her sister closer to her side so she could warm up a bit.
After Abby signed everyone into the hotel, the moms got their keys and went towards their rooms. Christina sighed at the warmer temperature and took her shoes off before throwing herself onto a bed.
"Christina stop laying on the bed with your outside clothes." Jennifer said while taking off her jacket.
"Sorry, mama." Five minutes later she out of her clothes and into her pajamas, knocked out under the big hotel comforter.
The next morning, everybody walked towards the dressing room. At the sight of another team further down the hallway, Abby glanced at her team behind her. "There they are. Keep your heads up high. And remember no running, hugging, kissing. Just, 'Hi, how are you?"
"Those are the Candy Apples, they're our rivals." Chloe explained to Christina.
"Oh, okay." The girl nodded, eyeing the team in mention.
As they neared the Candy Apples, Abby waved. "Hi, how are you?"
"Hi." Cathy greeted back. "Love the curler." She gestured to Abby's hair.
"Oh." Abby pulled a lone roller out of her head and chuckled in embarrassment. "Nobody can tell me?"
"So fashionable." Cathy snarked and continued her journey down the hall towards their own dressing room.
Christina entered the dressing room and made her way to the best vanity she could see. "Claimed."
Jennifer shook her head softly before looking down at Venus. "Wanna do hair first?"
"Yeah." She nodded and pulled out a chair next to Christina.
"Think about everything I yelled at you five day ago, four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, yesterday, and go over that dance in your head. This is really important to me personally. It's really important to your moms." Abby began to lecture the group. She walked over to Jennifer and Jill's makeup stations, which were back to back. "Christina, Kendall, Venus; this is about you guys getting an Abby Lee Dance Company jacket or going back to your regular classes. You understand?"
"Yes." The girls responded.
Abby looked at their moms. "Yes. Moms, you understand that?"
"Understood." Jennifer nodded.
"I do." Jill answered. "So, in order to do that, you expect...."
"I want your corrections that I've corrected, fixed." With that, Abby left the moms to let their kids get ready. Five minutes later, she spoke up again. "Let me go over this whole hair thing."
Jennifer heard Christi mumble a thank you to Holly for the snood before Abby spoke up.
"Wait, wait a minute." Abby said, grabbing a hold of Paige's head. "This is a snood."
Jennifer glanced over at the little blonde girl and then back at her own child. The snoods looked identical and she was glad she had met up with Kelly days before to verify which one she was getting.
Holly nodded. "I know."
Abby let go of Paige's head and turned to the woman. "But we have to... you can't wear different things on stage. You guys know that. Why am I finding out about this now?!"
"I couldn't find any snoods."
"Go change, Vee." Jennifer whispered to her daughter and Venus hopped out of the chair and headed for the big red curtain in the back of the room.
"I'm gonna go change too. Can you do my hair after?" Christina asked her mother after finishing her makeup.
"Yeah, sure. Help your sister if she needs it."
"'Kay." She walked to the back of the room and followed Venus behind the curtain.
Jennifer turned around when Holly slammed her hair straightener down onto the vanity. "You know what, I'm getting sick and tired of hearing about these snoods. Okay?"
"I want the thin ones that Holly brought in everybody's hair, and I want this in Nia's hair." Abby declared as she held up the snood. "We have to have the same thing."
Jennifer took a deep breath to try and maintain her frustration. She had just finished Venus' hair for God's sake. When her girls came back out, Christina had her arms crossed over her chest. "What's wrong?"
"No offense but this costume is kinda... weird." Christina whispered.
"I know right, but you gotta do what you gotta do. You still want the jacket, right?" Jennifer asked and Christina nodded. "So let's get this over with."
"Alright."
"Im going to re-do Venus' hair then I'll do yours, you're more than half done anyway."
"So, what do we think about Cathy last night?" Christi asked around the room.
"She invited us to her room." Melissa informed Abby.
"We had a soirée." Kelly added. "And she was the only person there."
Abby waved her hand around. "Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. When I left last night, you all didn't go up to your rooms?"
"Nope."
"We went and we changed."
"Well I think that's really going behind my back, and I don't appreciate it." Abby shook her head. "Well, what did she have to say? 'Cause that's solicitation."
"She was asking us why we stay at your studio." Kelly responded.
"She just had some not nice things to say about you." Christi added on.
"I would never go and invite a bunch of moms from another dance studio and then talk about their teacher." Abby stated in total disapproval.
Half an hour after that the girls were ready to go on stage. They watched as the group before them finished up with routine.
"Alright, wanna do our thing?" Maddie asked the girls.
"Yeah, let's do it." Chloe nodded along with everyone else.
"What thing?" Christina couldn't help but feel dumb asking. It just seemed they had a big inside joke and she forcing herself to understand it.
"It's like a ritual we came up with over the summer." Nia explained.
"It's kiss, kiss, knee, knee, knock, knock." Maddie said as she did the actions. "Let's all of us do it."
"Kiss, kiss, knee, knee, knock, knock." The group said in unison, ending with two knocks to the hardwood floor beneath them.
"That's us." Venus pointed out after she heard the announcer call their group number.
For what it was, the girls did a great job with their routine. It was cutesy and fun and energetic and Abby was glad to say not too many people made any silly mistakes.
They got off stage and stayed back to watch the Candy Apple's performance.
Christina's jaw dropped slightly. For one, these girls looked ten times older than them and for two, their routine was extraordinary. She could see her teams lose coming from miles away and she was not thrilled about it in the slightest.
"Come on." Brooke mumbled and led the girls back to the dressing room.
"Well, that went down the tubes, didn't it?" Abby asked rhetorically as she stepped into the room.
"What?" Melissa turned around. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well, when Kendall goes early and doesn't hold and doesn't listen to the music..." Abby trailed off in frustration. "Kendall, do you play an instrument?"
"No."
"You need to. You need to learn how to read the music. You need to learn to hear it. You have to step up the face. If you're standing next to this one," She gestured over to Maddie. "then your face can't be subpar. And now these two..." She then gestured to Christina and Venus. "Over the top, did you see them? Girls, this was an easy baby dance."
"Abby, don't you think those girls were much older than ours." Jill questioned, brushing off the earlier comparison. "They looked much older."
"That's my job. I need to worry about that." Abby told her.
Christina zoned out and put down her used makeup wipe. She took out her bobby pins and carelessly dropped them on the vanity before removing her snood. Dark hair tumbled down her back and she gathered it, tying it with a black hair tie. She zoned back in when she heard her sister going on about something to her mom.
"There's this boy at my school, Scott, that's really weird." Venus said. "He's always acting smarter than everyone else. He was like 'Venus is a planet, not a name' and 'You spelled phone wrong, it starts with a p not an f.' He's annoying."
"Phone does start with a P, Venus." Jennifer chuckled slightly at her worked up seven year old.
"It does not."
"It does." Christina jumped in.
"That doesn't even make any sense..." Venus huffed, annoyed at the fact that Scott was right once again. "But he's always talking about my name and correcting me. I don't tell him that he was named after toilet paper because that's embarrassing and I don't want to make him feel bad."
Christina and Jennifer traded a look before stifling their laughs. Everyone else in the room wasn't in as good a mood as they were.
"I think you should tell him that, Vee." Christina nodded and Jennifer smacked her arm lightly.
"Don't encourage that but Vee, if he says something mean about your name then I give you permission..."
Venus crossed her arms. "Mmm and there are these girls that wanna be my friend but I can't be friends with them."
"Why?"
"Because then I'd have to leave Brandy all alone and I don't want to do that." She explained, referring to her twin brother.
"Aw, how cute. You can always split your time or include Brandon." Christina offered.
"Only if he wants to. I don't want to make him hang out with a bunch of girls."
"He lives with a bunch of girls."
"It's not the same, he doesn't have a choice at home." Venus mumbled, making Christina giggle.
"Okay, Vee."
"Come on, girls, it's awards." Christi called as she opened the door for the swarm of girl to exit.
Venus held her sisters hand as the emcee went down the list.
"Third place number 47, 'Docked of the Bay.' Second place number 44, 'Vela Espinola.'"
Christina deflated a bit but clearly her sister hadn't as she was now clutching her hand even tighter than before.
"And our top junior small group is number 43, 'Apple Tree.'"
Christina hid her shock and placed a smile on her face as she got up off the floor with everyone else. Routines like this one would be a joke in California but maybe the rules were different on this side of the country. Anyway, it didn't matter anymore. She lived in Pittsburgh now and a win was a win.
Instead of going to the dressing room, she and Venus waited in the audience with Jennifer for Brooke's solo. She saw Mackenzie fiddling with her team jacket zipper. I'm so getting that jacket... She couldn't help but think.
"Next up, an Abby Lee solo, 'Garden of Eden.'"
Brooke was stunning. Her flexibility, her costume, her technique, her everything. Christina personally loved it and it was fun to see her dance for the first time.
"Next up a Candy Apple solo, 'Though the Looking Glass.'"
Christina had a hard time focusing on how great Erica looked due to the grating music, it was truly awful.
When everyone got back to the dressing room they congratulated Brooke. Then the room broke into discourse when Christi had alerted everyone that Erica's age was being questioned. The competition director came in soon after and verified Brooke's age before explaining that her competition, Erica, would be disqualified.
Maybe Erica would have won or maybe she wouldn't have but her disqualification worked in Brooke's favor as she came off stage with a first place trophy.
"Hi, guys."
Christina looked away from where she was hovering over her mothers shoulder at her phone. Cathy had strolled into the room.
"Hello." Abby greeted back.
"Is this normal?" Christina whispered into her moms ear. She'd never heard of dance rivals coming to each other's dressing room but maybe that was just the norm here.
Jennifer shrugged and put her phone down. "Maybe."
"I just wanted to tell you that your red was such a nice tribute to Candy Apples." Cathy said.
"My colors have been black and red since 19- whatever- 80." Abby guessed.
"Oh, better give me a birth certificate on that." Cathy commented, earning a quiet chuckle from Jennifer. "Mine have been red and white since..."
"Wait a minute!" Abby stopped her as she finally caught onto the earlier comment, making the moms laugh behind her. "The moms were telling me that you were really kinda dissing me and wondering why they're still with me..."
Cathy placed her hand on Abby's shoulder. "Oh, you know what? I'm gonna tell you. Just questioning..."
Christi cut her off. "Cathy, something tells me that you would love to have us."
"Oh, you think way too highly of yourself," Cathy immediately denied. "Especially the way you dress."
"Listen, Granny, take it out the hallway," Christi replied.
"You know what Christi," Cathy held onto Christi's arms. "Listen nose." She let go. "You've done nothing but complain about her forever. You need to take your cheap dress and mosey on out."
"My dress is not cheap," Christi disagreed. "It's Ralph Lauren there, honey."
"Oh, I highly doubt it."
Christie shooed her off. "Go back to junior high, Grandma. Begone, witch! You have no powers here!"
Cathy swiveled around on her heel and exited the room, leaving the ALDC to pack up their belongings.
"Odd, so odd." Christina muttered to herself as she picked up her suitcase.
THE POETRY OF DANCE
A/N : I love writing authors notes but just wanted to say that you should enjoy the peace for the first few chapters because it's not going to stay like that...
Anyway, fun fact that nobody cares about : Scott is based on a real person that I went to kindergarten with and he actually corrected me on my spelling of the word phone and I used to hate him. And, yes, I did actually tell him his name was based on the toilet paper brand 'Scott,' so there you go. Shoutout to him, he was actually super smart
btw did anyone else notice that the emcee stated a different group dance name than the one abby said?
wear a seatbelt, fight for what's right, love you all. bye bye!