"Okay breathe." Lin told me before I stepped out of the car.
"I know." I walked around the car and grabbed Lin's hand.
"They'll love you." He said.
"Okay."
"Just stay by me," He insisted, "There's a lot of people and you might forget their names but it's okay, I can repeat them to you if you need it."
"Why are you panicking?" I asked laughing.
"I'm not." He replied, punching in the code to get in.
"Yes you are."
"Shush." Lin said, jokingly. "FRIENDS!" Lin shouted, leading me up a flight of stairs.
"Hi Lin." Someone said, I don't know these people.
"Hey." I stepped behind Lin, and he gently pushed me to his side, "This is my foster kid, Bailey, Bailey this is Jon."
"Hi." I whispered.
"Entertain her." Lin pushed me towards Jon. I have Lin a 'are you really doing this to me?' look. "Have fun." Lin kissed my forehead and disappeared up the stairs.
"Hi I'm Jonathan Groff." Jonathan said dramatically.
"Bailey West." I say trailing off, not knowing if I wanted to tack Lin's last name onto mine.
"What do you want to do?" I shrug at the question. "Wanna see the stage, some other people should be out there."
"Okay." I said, following Jon down a Hallway and into two doors before we walked on stage.
"Entertain me." Jon said jokingly. "You have the entire stage just do something."
"Like what?" I asked rubbing my arms DM standing in the middle of the stage.
"I don't know do a flip or something." Gymnastics, I thought, the only thing I'm good at. I smiled at my self and asked Jonathan to move to the side, as I walked to the back right corner of the stage, I pointed my toes to the front left.
Step. Step. Front punch. Hurdle. Front walkover. Roundoff. Back handspring. Back tuck. I walked my self through what I would do and went. Extend your shoulders out. I reminded myself in the back hand spring and then did a back tuck, I almost stumbled backwards after the tuck so I just did a back extension at the end, hurting my neck in the process. I stood up and saluted at the empty chairs. Old habits. I smiled and faced Jonathan.
"That was so cool!" Jon exclaimed.
"Thanks." I blushed a little and rubbed my arm.
"Hang on. I want more people to watch." He said and pulled out his phone. "I'm calling Lin to bring everyone." I nodded a little bit.
"Lin?... Come watch your daughter... no she's fine... just bring everyone she's really cool... okay bye."
"He'll be down in a minute." Jonathan said.
"Hey kid, what's up." Lin pulled me into a side hug and whispered, "I told you they would love you." I rolled my eyes.
"Everyone sit." Jon commanded pointing everyone to the empty chairs. I realized there were about 20 other people I didn't know, jumping off stage and finding a seat. "Ok go." Jon said pointing me to the corner. You used to compete in front of strangers. I reminded myself and did the routine. I did the back extension again but added a back handspring after that, just for fun. I saluted to the front again. Then went straight next to Jon. Everyone clapped and Jon picked me up and held me in front of everyone.
"Put me down." I laughed, noticing Lin had his phone out, I glared at him jokingly and Jon put me down.
"Anthony! You have competition now." Lin laughed then explained Anthony had been trying to do a back flip for a while. "Anthony go do yours verses Bailey's." Lin ordered Anthony on stage and pulled out his camera again and pressing a button. This man and his camera.
"How do you do that." Anthony asked, laughing.
"Just pull up and go back." I explained, demonstrating.
"Ok." Anthony took a big breath and everyone laughed.
"3... 2... 1..." Lin counted down.
Anthony and I did our tucks, I landed and saluted. And Anthony, he almost landed, he fell on his knees but for the most part it was good.
"Ant! Baileys wearing skinny jeans and you're wearing basketball shorts." Someone pointed out and everyone laughed. I hid next to Jon again as everyone walked back on the stage.
"Can I post this on Twitter?" Lin asked, opening a blue app.
"Sure." I said and noticed he had two videos, one of me vs Anthony, another one of my first pass.
'This is Bailey. She's cool.' Lin typed, attaching the video of Anthony and I.
"Are you going on tonight Lin?" Someone asked, "or do you want Javi to go in?"
"I want to go in." Lin said then turned to me, "Do you want to watch tonight?" I shrugged.
"If you want me to." Lin nodded.
"I'll try to get you close to the front." He says texting someone.
"It's currently 4 and the show is at 7." Lin whispers to himself. "We will be back at like 6." He announces and everyone nods.
"I didn't meet everyone." I point out as we walk out.
"It's okay, we will be back In like an hour and a half." He pulls out of the parking lot and turns away from the direction of the house.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"To the store. You don't have really any dresssy clothes and people dress up for this kind of stuff." He replies.
"Oh, okay." I mess with the hem of my t shirt.
"Plus you need more clothes anyway." Lin adds, making a turn. "Plus this place is like 2 seconds from the theatre." He laughs pulling into an empty parking spot.
We walk in and Lin leads me to skirts. "What about this one." He pulls out a mint green skirt that looked like it would go to about my knees.
"No." I said, looking through a different tack. "What about this one," I picked out a pink one similar in style.
"No, I like this one." He pulls out a red skirt with a red bow on the front.
"I like that."
"What size are you?" Lin selects the same skirt in a different size.
"I'm a 1 or 2." I reply, taking the size 1 out of his hands. "This should fit."
"Yeah this store runs small anyway. You could just get a black shirt to tuck into it." Lin shrugs, "It doesn't need to be too fancy."
"Ok." I walk to the t-shirts and grab the first black shirt I see in my size. "Will this work?"
"Yeah. I found these shoes that would go with it too." He shows me a pair of black wedges, not to tall, with a bow on the strap.
"I like those! They're 7 right?" Lin nods.
"And they're kind of casual too. I grabbed black flats too." Lin says holding another pair of shoes, "We can get both because you don't have any heels or flats." I rub my arm but nod. "I'll check out then." Lin takes the shirt and skirt out of my hand and walks to the register where I follow closely behind him.
Lin had a little bit of small talk with the employee and took the bag, thanking him.
"Let's go home so you can change."
"Ok, thank you." I say, and Lin tells me not to worry about it.
When we get home, Vanessa states, "You weren't gone for very long."
"I know. Bailey is going to see it tonight so we went to the store and got dress clothes, oh and watch this." Lin pulls out his phone and shows her the video of my first pass.
"Where did you learn that?" Vanessa asked.
"I did gymnastics for 7 years." I shrug.
"Do you want to do it again?" Lin asked- I shrugged again.
"I stopped because I hurt myself." I reply, and remember what happened and winced.
I was up next on vault. I was about to be competing my first time in Level 8 and I was so excited.
"Be careful." Ryan said kissing my forehead as I pulled down the Leotard sleeve. "Good luck, I love you."
"Love you too, Ry." I was 8 almost nine, the youngest level 8 at my gym. I walked up behind my friend Emily, who executed her fronthandspring off perfectly, saluting the judges with a smile. I rubbed my hands together as my name was called. I ran as fast as I ever had and as soon as my hand hit the vault, my elbow cracked, causing me to fall.
I broke my elbow in two places. I had to get three surgeries, and still had a dent in my elbow from it.
"We can talk about it later." Lin promised, handing me the bag.
I walked into my room and emptied the bag onto my bed. I got out my old Nike Pros and put them on first. Then pulled on a black bralette, because the way the black shirt was made it would show and if you're going to see my bra strap you might as well see a cute one. I don't remember buying it, Vanessa must have bought it, I remember her telling me she got me stuff I probably wouldn't want Lin getting. I pull on the black shirt.
I made sure the shirt was pulled down so I could tuck it in easier, then put on the skirt.
I flatted the skirt, and hurried to put on my minimal make up. I put concealer under my eyes and on my two pimples. I then applied a little bit of mascara. I put on some BB cream over everything to even put my skin. I pulled my brown hair into a pony tail on the back of my head. I then slid on the shoes.
The outfit was actually fairly comfortable. I walked back out to he living room where Lin was talking to Vanessa. I notice a half an hour has passed meaning we had about an hour.
"You look great!" Vanessa said once she saw me.
"Thank you!" I replied rubbing my arm.
"You look amazing!" Lin complimented. "Let's take a picture together." I nodded as Lin handed Vanessa his phone and walked over to me. Lin wrapped his arm around my waist pulled me closer to him. I smiled as the camera clicked. "Can I take your picture with Sebastian?"
"Sure, come here Seb!" I said and he walked over to me I squatted next to him to pick him up and already heard the camera clock I picked up Sebastian and held him on my hip, looking at him. Then turning to Lin an smiling.
"Ok let's go." Lin said putting his phone away. "We have Chinese to pick up."
"Bye Sebastian." I said kissing his forehead. "Bye Vanessa." I waited for Lin at the door as he said his good byes.
"Were ubering right now because it's faster." Lin explained and I nodded as someone pulled up to the curb. "Let's go." I didn't say much because I'm bad at small talk, but Lin is great at it. Lin and I got out of the car to pick up the food, and then we were dropped off at the theatre.
The stage door was already packed. "I hold my hand don't let go." Lin said as we pushed our way through the crowd. I held on tight through the pushing. "I HAVE FOOD!" Lin yelled when we were inside. Lin walked up the stairs and set the bag on a table taking out Chicken and Broccoli with fried rice. I wasn't really hungry, so I picked at Lin's food, I had food, but didn't feel like getting it out.
A bunch of people came up to me saying names. I knew I wouldn't remember them all.
"Hi I'm Pippa! I play Eliza."
"I'm Thayne also known as Samuel Seabury."
"I'm Renee nice to meet you."
"Hi I'm Leslie."
"Nice to meet you I'm Daveed."
"I'm Oak, how are you?"
I stopped remembering there. I just stayed close to Lin and didn't plan on leaving for a while. Until the girls dragged me off wanting to do my make up. I had pretty much no idea what they were doing. I only knew lipstick eyeshadow and foundation.
I hardly recognized my self even though it was natural. I wandered off to find Lin after thanking the girls.
"There you are kid!" Then he looked closer, "Did the girls do your make-up." I nodded and he laughed. "Hey it looks nice don't worry."
"They did do a good job." I admit laughing.
"Let's find you're seat." Lin smiled.
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This is how I imagine Bailey with way darker hair and a little bit darker skin. Thanks for reading I've been updating a lot oops.