A word of warning: this chapter is twice as long as normal. Comment if you prefer it or dislike it.
***
I walk into pyramid to find everyone already there, including a very nervous Amy.
"Glad you could make it today Aurelia," Abby mutters passive aggressively. I squeak a small apology and stand between Kendall and Nia.
"On the bottom of the pyramid, Kendall. Your duet placed third and you added no special element to the group dance, and forgot to point your toes on numerous occasions." Kendall nods her head as though she's been expecting it.
"Next to her, Lilliana. You placed the lowest in all your dances of the ALDC. Next is Jojo, then it's Kalani–"
"Hang on," cuts in Jessalyn. "I want to know why my daughter is down so low."
Abby raises her eyesbrows."She came second in her trio, there. Moving on, Kalani."
Kalani's face is stone cold as she stares at her instructor.
"I gave you three dances last week, maybe it was more than I thought you could take." Abby looks disappointed. "Either way, fourth is not acceptable, and as a dancer of your level, neither is second. However you did lead the group to victory." Abby pulls off the next three covers and everyone takes a sharp intake of breath.
"Slap bang in the middle is Maddie, Mackenzie and Nia. Maddie and Mackenzie both placed second, however I though Mackenzie brought a lot off vibrancy to the group. Personally, Nia I loved your solo, and I would've wanted it in first place had Aurelia's solo not have been even better. I admit, you did not receive the best choreography, but I've talked to Gia and we've decided to work on it." Nia looks over the moon at the moment, but Maddie looks like she's just fallen off it.
"Elliana was our overall highest scoring mini soloist, so naturally she placed higher, and she beat Kendall and Lilliana in the duets. Brynn, you got a perfect score on your duet and were very dramatic in the group dance. Which leaves us with the top of the pyramid. Aurelia! You were our overall high scoring soloist and got a perfect score in your duet, which brought tears to my eyes and you were a great asset to the team!"
The girls all hug me and I hug then back, but quickly regain my cool composure.
"However, you will not be receiving a solo. We have a duet for Elliana and Lilly, and if you win this then I'll consider taking both of you to nationals. It is an acro contemporary piece called Scars for Beautiful."
All the mothers look rather perplexed. My mother steps forwards. "Sorry, Ms Abby I don't quite understand why Aurelia doesn't get a solo."
"If you're patient, Idella, you'll find out why. Anyway, girls who prefer jazz step forwards here." Abby motions to in front of her and Nia, Jojo and Kenzie join her.
"Wait," butts in Amy's mother. "I don't see Amy up there at all."
Abby rolls her eyes,"That's because she isn't in the team–" Amy gasps and her eyes instantly water –"I clearly told her last week that if she came in the top two I'd give her a second chance, but no she came third. If she wants to make it she has to be better than bronze. Goodbye!" Abby points to the door surly and Amy runs out crying with her mother following her.
Abby rolls her eyes again, muttering, "Silly girl." But Amy's mother hears this and looks back.
"Maybe Abby," She hisses lowly. "If you keep rolling your eyes you might just find a brain back there." She stalks off hurriedly. Abby looks infuriated and we all mentally laugh at the burn in our heads.
"Okay," Abby completely brushes it off and turns back to Nia, Jojo and Mackenzie. "you three will have solos each. Nia, yours will be musical theatre entitled Better Than This; last week you were very impressive, but can you improve? Jojo yours is hip hop entitled Cold Gaze and Kenzie's will be acro entitled You've Forgotten Me; you're no longer cute Mackenzie, you've grown up and people need to start remembering you not just because of your past cuteness. You five," She waved at the rest of us, not including the two minis. "Will be doing the group routine - actually –" Abby cuts herself off thinking. "Five is too many. Kalani," her head whips up from its gaze on the wooden flooring. "Kalani how do you feel doing an acro duet with Mackenzie instead of the group dance?" Kalani nods her head, knowing that she can't exactly refuse it.
"Hang on, that means she is taking an opportunity away from Mackenzie for her to shine," Melissa says, glaring at Abby in disapproval.
"Melissa," my mother decides to back up Kalani. "Surely it is helping you two both because Kalani can renew her winning streak and there will be less competition for first so you have a higher chance of winning." Kira smiles at Idella in appreciation.
Melissa does not look satisfied, however. "Are you saying that my kid wouldn't be able to beat Jojo and Nia?" She asks rhetorically.
"Are you saying that she can?" Holly snaps back. Mackenzie has her hand on her head and is frowning.
"Why can't my mom accept that I don't mind doing a duet with Kalani?" She whispers to Nia. Nia shrugs.
"Shut up moms! You've taken this far enough. Mackenzie will have a duet with Kalani and that is final, unless they don't want to do anything at all," Abby silences everyone and I lean my head on Kendall's shoulder. "Moving on, the group dance is ballet and is called For My Juliet, it is about two rivals - males and females - who unite together to become stronger so they can fight bigger enemies. Now, you're probably all wondering why there are only four of you, but that's because I'm holding an open call audition tomorrow for four extra dancers–"
"Abby don't you think it's a bit soon to be bringing in more dancers, I mean we just got Aurelia," Holly points out.
"I've heard enough from you, Holly, today so shut your trap and listen." Holly looks simultaneously shocked and outraged. "The four dancers will be boys, and they will be in the group dance only just for this week, unless I decide to keep them. Is that clear?" Everyone nods and we all filter out, except for Nia because she has a private on her solo.
*
"Oh my gosh, I can't believe we have a whole hour of conditioning next," complains Mackenzie as I braid her hair.
"Well your lucky, back in Ohio we had to do conditioning every day." Mackenzie looks appalled and we all laugh.
"Hey," says Brynn. "Mads, Lia, you might want to come see this." Brynn holds up her phone and shows up an article. The picture is of Maddie and I walking together.
Is Dance Moms star Maddie Ziegler and celebrity sister Aurelia Ellery the new rivals on the reality TV show Dance Moms? Is Aurelia the new replacement for Chloe?
Maddie shakes her head in disgust. How dare they assume that when it's so obvious of our friendship?
"I think we should post a video to clear this up," Maddie suggests, but I am reluctant to agree.
"We are always told not to mess with rumours though."
"But this is ridiculous, they're trying to turn us against each other and mistaking our friendship for rivalry."
"Fine, but make it quick, we need to go to conditioning soon."
Maddie quickly gets out her phone and goes on Snapchat.
"Hey guys! It's me Maddie and I'm with the one and only Aurelia. So, lately there have been a lot of rumours about rivalry between us and..."
"We'd just like to say that it's not true at all. We are absolute besties! Also, I've never had the pleasure of meeting Chloe, so I'd just like to make it clear that I'm not trying to replace her either."
"Thanks guys! Bye!" Says Maddie and we both hurry to conditioning.
*
After that we have hip hop, and Nia and I are completely killing it. Halfway through our teacher makes us change partners because we're barely dancing and more laughing.
"Hey! I'm Aiden Oslen," my new partner greets me. "My sister's Katrina Oslen, and your brother is Eben Ellery right?"
I recognise his sister's name. "Oh my gosh, is your sister starring in a movie called Our Winter Story?"
"Yes, and your brother is too! That's so cool," We gush and chat the entire rest of the lesson.
"Will you be attending the open call auditions tomorrow?" I ask him, but he shakes his head.
"I'm more of a hip hop dancer than ballet, but I'll see you tonight in tumbling class," he smiles at me and I smile back.
"Hey, do you want to come and hang out with me in the den, I have a free slot now until my private with Gia in half an hour," I offer and he agrees.
The den doesn't have anyone in it because Kenzie and Kalani are practicing their duet in Studio A with Abby, Kendall has a private with Ms T, Maddie, Brynn, Nia and Jojo are in a singing class and the minis are doing their duet with Gia in Studio B. The reason why I'm not attending the singing class is because I quit after I released my last album in December two years ago, and haven't sung since.
Aiden and I do musicallys together and we film a few vines as well.
"Do you want to make up a hip hop routine at lunch?" He asks me and I shiver, realising the fan turned up to high.
I turn off the hand and face Aiden. "I really like to, Aiden, but I have to go to the mall at lunch with Maddie and Kendall," his face turns into a playful pout and I sigh. "But we can do it right now if you want to; I've ten minutes until my private." He grins and we stand up in the den other begin.
Soon, Kendall comes in looking all pouty, but quickly giggles when she sees us practicing. "You want me to film that?" We nod our heads, too out of breath to speak. She grabs my phone and records us hip hopping. Our dance is only about a minute long but it's still awesome to do. I send the video to Kendall and Aiden and I post it on my twitter and instagram, tagging Aiden with the caption: met this loner in hip hop @KaidenOslenOfficial 👫
After my private, I meet up with Maddie and Kendall, and Jojo decides to tag along as well. Kendall is almost squealing as we walk to the mall; she has arranged for us to all meet up with the boys from last week.
"And you want to know what the best thing is?" Kendall giggled. "We have two hours before we have to go back; Abby said we can have a longer lunch break because we haven't got a dance to work on at the moment!" Kendall then gives a sideline glance at Jojo. "Oh yeah, sorry Jojo. But we can still have fun together!"
Jojo facepalms and we all smile. A few fans stop to take pictures and autographs with us, but fortunately not many people are out on a Monday so we make it to the mall swiftly.
"OMG there's Marcus!" Kendall sprints over to Marcus and they hug. Maddie, Jojo and I all exchange raised eyebrows and smirks.
Josue, Leo and Jack are just standing there awkwardly as we approach.
"I'm Jojo," Jojo announces her presence and the four exchange names.
"So, are you going to attend the ALDC boys open call audition tomorrow?" Jojo slings around casually and Maddie sends her a glare. We forgot to tell Jojo that they didn't know we were on Dance Moms.
"Oh yeah," says Leo. "We saw that kicking around, and we've considered it and we'll think it's worth a shot." He lowers his voice and points at the other three. "Or at least, it's worth it for them."
Jojo gives and odd laugh and we continue to chat and walk around the mall. We buy a smoothie, but Jojo has to go back to dance so we wave her goodbye.
"You want to go to the arcade?" Josue asks me, but I shake my head.
"Nah, I've got to supervise these two before they get themselves into trouble," I say, indicating to Kendall and Marcus who are laughing their heads off and Maddie, Jack and Leo who are in some sort of debate over how to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - in which Maddie is obviously in the wrong. "I mean," I recover, realising the rudeness. "We can walk to the fountain if it helps."
"Yes, I would like that," he says and I laugh. "What?" Josue looks dumbfounded as if he's done something wrong.
"No, it's just you sound so posh saying that. Anyway, when do you reckon Marcus is going to ask Kendall out," I quickly change the subject.
Josue has a knowing look in his eye. "Oh don't worry about that, he's planning to do it today. Did you know he was texting Kendall all yesterday?"
"Ah, that would explain why she was so happy yesterday and wouldn't talk to any of us," I murmur. We reach the fountain and I perch on the edge. I look down at all the quarters littered in the pristine water. "Sometimes I wonder whether anyone takes those coins out," I say and Josue looks at me weirdly.
"Yeah, I'd fish them all out for you if you wanted me to," he says quietly, muttering under his breath. I don't think I am to have heard that, so I ignore the comment. A long silence is stretching on like someone is pulling a curtain of silence over everything, we stare into the water at the money. The comfortable awkwardness is unfortunately broken by a squeal behind us.
"Oh my gosh! Is this for real!" A hysterical pair of fans shriek. I whip round and smile broadly.
"Do you want a photo," I say, knowing the answer already. I adjust my hair as they snap a photo on each of their phones.
"Who's this?" They ask, calming down more and bringing less attention to themselves. "Is he your secret boyfriend?" They begin fangirling again and I bite back a laugh.
"No, he's not my boyfriend, he's just a friend."
"Oh! Is it because Aiden is your boyfriend," they squeal again.
"No," I sigh, getting tired."I just met Aiden today because he was my hip hop partner, that's all."
The two girls look less excited, but they don't seem to be going away anytime soon.
"You're not famous then?" Asks Josue from behind while the two girls discreetly record. One of the girls looks shocked by his statement and goes to say something, but I put a finger to my lips with a cheeky grin. The girl smiles, happy to be able to share a secret with me.
"Well, I'd love to stay here longer," I say. "But we really must get back, our lunch break ends soon."
The girls nod in understanding. "Yeah, sure, we don't want Abby to be mad because of us. It's so happy to have met you in person."
I hurriedly walk away with Josue tailing behind me. "It seems you have a talent for getting out of situations with that excuse," says Josue, referring to last time we met.
"If you call it a talent," I reply, turning around and smiling as I walk backwards.
"Whose Abby," he inquires and I shrug.
"Just someone I know who has anger issues. Do you have social media?" I ask, knowing that Kendall would've told me by now.
He looks hesitant to speak. "I mean yeah, technically I do, but I haven't been on it in over a year. I just never have enough time for it, but lately I've been going back to it. My username is @Josue.insta13 it's very random because I was bored one day and I just typed that in. Hey, what's your—" Josue goes to ask me my username but is fortunately cut off by Maddie sprinting up to us.
"Hey, where have you been! Actually, never mind; Marcus asked Kendall out and she said yes! They're meeting here tomorrow! Can you believe it Lia?!" She gushes and skips around us.
"Seriously Mads, I can't tell who's happier; Kendall, Marcus or Maddie," I laugh when we get back there.
Out of the corner of my eye I see Kendall check her phone. "Oh puddleducks!" She shouts. "We should've been at the studio ten minutes ago!" We all exchange swift goodbyes and sprint to the studio.
Whole we run, I contemplate what has happened today. I befriended the younger brother of my brother's co-star. I made friends with Josue. Marcus and Kendall are now dating. None of the boys know who we really are. But one thing still lingered on my mind; what did Isaac mean by that comment?
Abby is absolutely infuriated when we get back. She tells us that we're lucky to still be in the group dance, but she brushes it off quickly as she sends Lilly and Ellie in to work on their duet.
We sit in the den as Kendall gushes on about her and Marcus.
"Hang on, did you tell them who we are?" Kalani inquires, and Kendall throws a guilty look my way.
"Well, actually yes. We waited until Aurelia went away before we told them because we knew she wouldn't have approved." She looks scared as if I'm going to shout at her.
Instead I grin. "Oh Kendall! You're a lot more clever than I think the rest of the girls give you credit for." Kendall beams at this, but my mind is distracted by other means.
I decide to check social media for a while. I scroll through the feeds of a few fan accounts and look at my comments. It seems everyone has absolutely blown up about the post from earlier with Aiden. I realize that I don't actually follow Aiden, despite knowing his username and as soon as I do so fans begin fangirling about it.
A few minutes later I receive a text from Eben saying:
Eben: since when was Aiden you're boyfriend?🤣👅
Aurelia: OMG! He's not, I just met him today in hip hop and I was bored so I hung out with him afterwards😡
Eben: geez, peace. Anyway, you know my new movie Our Winter Story?
Aurelia: yeah? Btw apology accepted for now
Eben: well, the premiere is on Wednesday from six to ten and I've been given three passes. One for mom, one for you and you can bring one extra because Hiram is on tour and Finnie is shooting in Australia.
Aurelia: thanks so much big bro! You're the best!😘
Eben: I know😒😉
I ignore his sassy last text and jump up and run all the way to the benches. "Mother, did you get Eben's text! I can't believe I can bring someone with me!" I tell her, and all the other moms look confused.
"Yes, I did Aurelia. Although don't shout about because not everyone needs to know," She whispers harshly. "I regret that I can not make it, so you can take two friends if you want to." She says and I hug her. "Although you should probably invite Ms Abby." My mother gives me a pointed look and I sigh, my excitement suddenly subdued by the thought of bringing Abby along too.
I decide it's probably best if I ask her now, since I'll need to skip dance for a few hours on Wednesday anyway.
"Ms Abby can I please talk to you?" I reprimand myself for being so confident when I'm asking for permission.
Abby looks annoyed. "I'll come, but can't you see that I am trying to teach a class right now?" She demands rhetorically and pulls me off to the side. The cameras are whirring, impatient for Abby's reaction.
"Umm, well my brother invited me to his premiere and gave me two extra passes so I was wondering if you would like to come with me on Wednesday." Almost instantly Abby rolls her eyes, which seems to be something she does an awful lot.
"Obviously I can't come because my first commitment is to this studio. I understand how large the offer is and I thank you for asking me but I must refuse. I am assuming you will have to leave early?"
I give a timid nod of the head. "I'll need to leave at five because it starts at six."
Abby shakes her head. "Your an amazing dancer and I don't want to take this opportunity away from you but I have to trust that you will still work hard on the group. If I let you go I want to see you practicing at lunch or in your free time and not messing around, rehearsing with or without the others everywhere, in a spare studio, in the hallway, in the den I don't care as long as this is perfect. Unfortunately you will be missing the slot on Wednesday where we will be rehearsing the group dance so you will miss out on some of the choreography." Abby holds a hand to her head. "Right, go call the girls in, I believe we have an announcement to make."
Relieved, I run back and fetch the girls and the moms.
"Okay girls, you're probably wondering why I brought you all here." Abby begins and motions for me to continue.
"I have been invited to bring along two extras with me to the Our Winter Story premiere on Wednesday," I say and the elite girls and mothers look bewildered while Ellie and Lilly look like they're going to have a heart attack.
"Two of you will be allowed to go. Who, however, depends on which of you work the hardest tomorrow." I give Abby a questioning side long glance and she adds, "and if Aurelia agrees of course. It will be at six so the two lucky girls will be decided at five, so no slacking at all!"
*
After jazz I have tumbling class.
"Aiden, I've missed you already," I say running up to each other as we hug.
Aiden chuckles. "It's been five hours, but sure. Do you still remember our dance?" I nod my head and we both reenact it. We walk into the tumble track room, where there are three tumble tracks and thirteen other students waiting.
"Right, dancers I want you to all be working on your whips today. There will be five people per track and I want you to start off with a roundoff and a back handspring and then onto how may whips you can do. As you progress, I want you to start with only a roundoff and keep going until you can do five whips in a row without a roundoff or back handspring at all," says our instructor, and Aiden and I join a group with three girls called, Ezra, Jana and Kimberley - who seem pretty good tumblers.
"So do you do other dance outside of tumbling?" I ask Ezra, who nods her head.
"I do a bit of hip hop and acro, but Jana only does contemporary and ballet while Kimberley literally does everything," She says, smiling. As Jana and Kimberley start practicing, Ezra asks, "Hey can I take a selfie with you?"
"Sure," I say and she smiles really widely and runs off to get her phone, a moment later she comes back and she takes a photo. "Do you mind if you send that to my phone as well?" I ask and she nods, I give her my number and she squeals.
"Oh my gosh, the real Aurelia Ellery gave me her number!" She seems absolutely flabbergasted. "Oh don't worry I won't tell any one else, but please can include a group chat with all four of us in?" She asks, pointing to Jana and Kimberley who have just come of the track.
"Hey, let's have a competition," Aiden says and I narrow my eyes. "If I can do more whips than you by the end of the day I get to..." He trails off thinking. "I get to go on your phone for ten minutes and do whatever I want on social media which you can't delete afterwards. If you do more then you can do whatever you want on my phone and social media for ten minutes, deal?"
"Deal," We shake on it. The only reason I'm doing it is because I am fiercely competitive - to a fault - and I also know I will win.
Aiden begins and manages three whips in a row, but I go on and do four, however I wobble on my landing and I curse myself for his smirk. We continue on like this for a long while until our instructor announces we have five minutes left.
She comes round and watches as I do seven in a row. She smiles and says, "Aurelia, you have more potential than that, because your height is amazing in them and you could go on for much longer. I think what is preventing you from doing that is your fear of not being able to land it properly, but you shouldn't let that stop you." She then motions for Aiden to do so.
He starts with four and keeps going, five, six, seven, eight. He comes down but lands on his butt.
"Ha, I win," he says and I shake my head.
"No you don't, I win. You didn't land it properly therefore it doesn't count." I snap back.
"We never said we had to land it," he smirks. "So, either way, I've won."
I sigh. "Good for you," I mutter, handing over my phone.
I watch as the other three girls completely smash us by doing ten in a row.
*
"Hey Ezra, Jana and Kimberley. Do you all want to have a sleepover round mine tomorrow?" I ask. In the ten minutes I've given Aiden to mess around on my phone we've really been growing closer.
"Sure," they all agree. "I can't believe this is happening." I smile at them all and then quickly go to Aiden.
"It's been eleven minutes now, Aiden. Give it back." I demand and he holds up his hands defensively as he returns it.
"Peace!" He chuckles.
I look down at my phone to see he's completely disabled it's for twelve hours. "Are you kidding me?" I ask, and incredulous expression on my face. "I will kill you tomorrow," I shout as I get in the car.
*
"Hey Bro, whatcha doing?" I crash into his room. He's the only one in the house at the moment, other than my mom.
"I could say the same about you. I've only seen you yesterday, and that was for the fist time in the whole week. Anyways, I'm shooting a you tube video where I Google myself. Do wanna join?"
Eben and I spend the next hour Googling ourselves before it turns midnight and I have to sneak back to bed.
***
So next chappie will be the auditions and then the premiere and group dances with a touch of drama added in! Btw this chapter is completely unchecked and unedited because this took two days of just sitting there to write it. Please tell me whether you prefer small but more chapters or few but large.
Please feel free to comment, vote or ask questions because I love getting feedback and constructive criticism.
By the way, none of my chapters will have been properly edited so please point out errors
Thanks,
anon-sirekl20