"Hello everybody!" abby greeted as she came into the room, earning a chorus of hi's in return, "how are you doing?" she asks. "good, good, good, good"
all the moms and children lined up in a row abby in front of them. "all right welcome to Pittsburgh" everyone cheered, I turned to look at lilly beaming down at the slightly shorter girl "this is exciting you all worked really hard to get here and now you're here you did it give yourselves a round of applause-" we all started clapping I turned to sarah beside me and clapped to her, her slightly bowing in return, we both lightly chuckled at that.
"all right you kids have been given the chance of a lifetime now i have been given a second chance, another chance at life, another chance to put my name on map.
"so i'm grateful for the second chance i've been given and i think all of you should remain grateful for this opportunity. don't think for one minute that you have a permanent spot on this team." lilly and i turned to each other, looking down at our jackets.
"i've given you this opportunity and as quickly as you heard the news you could you could be headed home. boom it could all be gone don't blow it, understand?" we had all nodded at her.
"without further ado, do you know what this is behind me?" we all nod at her.
"yeah, it's the pyramid" i stated along with everyone else. "the pyramid, so we're gonna do this a little differently today since it's our first day back, now this is my way to chart your child, but guess what? there's nothing to chart because they didn't do anything yet so that means no pyramid today." miss abby said as she went on with her explaining.
"i want everybody here starting out on the same playing field, we're all on an even keel, it's up to each and every child to rise above the rest understood?" we all yet again nod signalling that we are understanding what she is saying to us.
"speaking of which lilly, embry, you're the only ones wearing your aldc jacket right?-" lilly and i nod back at her "-you're the only ones that has one, this is a new competition season everybody's gonna start out fresh, on the same foot yes?" she made a come hither motion with her finger towards me and lilly "so give me the jacket."
lilly and i smiled making our way to abby taking off our jackets and handing them to her. abby giving a thank you in return. both lilly and i made our way back to our mother, sarah wrapping her arm around me giving my shoulders a squeeze.
"this weekend we are headed to red bank new jersey, we will attend starbound talent competition. the group routine everybody is in the group routine, the title is broken heart, the group is going to be a test for you dancing together in unison as one is what it takes to win in the group division. i need fruit dancers not a soloist so you got to get that out of your head right now. this week we also have two trios, a duet and a solo.
"the first trio is entitled the favorite and it's sarah, lilly and pressley, the second trio is entitled dance with the devil, gianina will be my devil and two little angels will be savannah and hannah. the duet is entitled gravity this duet goes to embry and brady and the solo goes to embry! your solo is entitled never enough." i turn to brady to see him already smiling at me, i shot him a smile in return, i am excited to dance with him.
"now the heart routine i want blood, i really mean i want blood, moms you need to figure out how blood is going to be in this costume and how the blood is going to burst and be all over the costume." i turn back to smile at my mom her smiling and patting my head in return. "all right, right now today we are looking towards nationals, i want a winning season, there's a hundred, maybe a thousand, maybe ten thousand other kids just like you. the same height, the same look everyone's replaceable remember that. moms get out of here let's go, kids spread apart start warming up."
•••
we had just finished stretching when abby called us over to her "here's my heart! ever hold a heart in your hand?" she questioned bringing the heart closer to me and a smiling pressley both of us shaking our heads. "okay so let me tell you something, as a performer you put your heart out there everyday and i'm telling you is somebody is gonna stab it and you have to have tough enough skin that it doesn't bother you that's what makes the stars, but you know you're gonna have blood on you right, it has to break, it bleeds through the costume. now let's - everybody spread apart get to where you would be and let's look at this. go ahead."
we spread out and started to rehearse the group number, i thought we were doing really well, i felt proud of us all for making it this far.
"there you go, k can we do it again and again and again and again so it's ingrained in your bodies let's go." we all got back in starting positions and re ran the dance again. after about two more re runs of the dance abby had sent us out to get a drink.
"hey press wait up!" i called out said girl stopping and turning to me, "are you excited for your dance?" she smiled at me and started to jump up and down.
"yes! yes! yes! are you excited for your duet with brady?" she wiggled her eyebrows at me teasingly "yeah it should be fun! he's a good dancer!" i nodded at her deciding to ignore what she was insinuating.
"do you think he's cute?" she asks her grin growing wider.
"how does his cuteness affect how he dances?" i asked raising my water bottle to my lips. she gave me a confused look but as soon as she saw my badly hidden smile she laughed causing me to start laughing with her.
"um can we have pressley, sarah and lilly in studio a? we are rehearsing your trio, everyone else to studio b and practice the group number some more."
i smiled at pressley and made my way up to brady. "so you excited for this comp?" i asked smiling as he jumped a little.
"oh uh yeah, i mean the duet sounds fun!" he stated cheerfully.
as we entered studio b i see gianina, savannah and hannah stretching smiling at us as we walked in.
"i just wanted you guys to know that so happy you are here" i told them, getting aww's in return all three girls running to give me a hug. "get in here brady!" i called to him, he rolled his eyes but gave in and joined the group hug. "okay okay let's rehearse the group yeah?"
•••
we all stood in the dancers den packing our dance bags and getting ready to go home for the night i turned to pressley who stood beside me "hey do you want to sleep over? lilly is bringing sarah over and mom said i could bring someone" she smiled at me "yeah let me just go ask my mom!" i nodded at her and watched her run up the stairs to her mother.
"hey brady! how was your first day so far?" i asked.
"oh it's pretty good i mean i get to dance for abby and with all of you so i don't see how my day could have gone bad." he laughed
i staggered backwards a little bit as someone jumped on my back. "pressley told me to tell you that she can come over she's just talking to her mom about things." i looked up at the smiling blonde on my back "thanks lils!"
"girls lets go!" mom called to us, lilly not hopping off my back as i grabbed both of our bags and linked arms with sarah. "bye brades!" i cheered to him.
"bye girls!" he cheered back chuckling to himself.
"what are the girls going to do about clothes?" mom asked me. "they can borrow mine and lilly's! this is going to be so much fun! thanks for letting them come mom!"
"it's alright honey just don't stay up late okay?"
"we won't!"
•••
once we arrived to the house we had dinner then decided to go live.
"hey guys it's me embry! i'm here with pressley, sarah and lilly! say hi"
"hi"
"hey"
"heyyyy"
we decided to start reading random questions when a name popped up.
"guys brady joined!" i cheered "hey brady"
hey em
"oooo it's brady!" pressley teased, nudging me slightly
haha hi pressley
"everyone is asking why brady and the other girls aren't over, oh well only two people were allowed over and only sarah and pressley could come also press is my bestie and so is sarah! dont get me wrong the others are too!" i told the people watching the live
haha i'm your bestie too right?
"you sure are brady" i teased rolling my eyes
haha
lilly then started to run around doing turns and flips me filming her, laughing at her with pressley.
lilly oh my god! brady typed
sarah then started to join in purposefully doing them bad.
sarah what are you doing?
"she's having fun bradykins! anyway we have to leave night everyone, night brady!"
night em! night girls!
i turned the live off and started getting comfy on the mattress on the floor, we had moved the mattress to the floor in the living room putting them together so it would be as if it was one huge bed. "night everyone!"