At 7:00 A.M., Brooke heard the obnoxious ring of the telephone in their room. It was the wake up call. Paige scrambled out of bed as fast as she could, grabbed her clothes, and ran to the bathroom to shower. Brooke, on the other hand, buried her face into her pillow and pulled the covers over her head.
About ten minutes later, the blankets were yanked off of Brooke's head and thrown to the end of the bed. Droplets of water started to land on her face, so Brooke looked up to see what it was. She saw Paige leaning over her with her sopping wet hair.
"Ew, your hair is dripping on me. Get away!" Brooke exclaimed as she rolled to the other side of the bed.
"I'm not going away until you get up," Paige insisted. "Abby needs us all in the lobby at exactly 8:00, and if you make us late I'll get in trouble."
"Fine," Brooke mumbled. After getting out of the bed as slowly as possible, she stood up and felt a shooting pain in her knee. Brooke looked down and winced. Her knee had become even more swollen and bruised. Abby was not going to be happy.
Brooke trudged over to her suitcase, and grabbed her ALDC yoga pants and T-shirt. She went to the bathroom and hopped in the shower. The cold water immediately woke her up, and she was out of the shower in five minutes. Brooke and Paige both blow dried their hair and pulled it back into a neat ponytail.
When they came out of the bathroom, Kelly was just finishing up getting ready. Brooke and Paige threw everything that they needed into their pink light-up mirrored suitcases and grabbed their dance bags. By 7:50, they were waiting in the lobby with the rest of the dancers and moms.
Abby arrived at 7:55, and everyone started heading towards the hotel ballroom. The competition took place at the hotel they were staying at, so their commute was very quick.
All the kids and moms walked into the ballroom to scope out the stage while Abby checked the team in and found the dressing room. The stage was perfect. There were large red curtains tied to the sides of the stage, and stunning blue and green crossing spotlights. After looking around for a few minutes, everyone went to meet Abby in the dressing room.
When all the kids and moms had arrived, Brooke found Nick. She hadn't spoken to him all morning. After she approached him, Nick opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Abby.
"Okay everyone, listen up. Today's the big day. You have all been working extremely hard this week, and I want to see perfection out on that stage. First up is the group number, then Kendall and Paige's duet, then Brooke and Nick's duet, then Maddie's solo, and Chloe's solo will be last. Brooke, how's the knee feeling?" Abby asked.
Brooke hesitated. "Um, it's alright," she lied.
Abby gave her a skeptical look, but then proceeded on with her speech. "Well if you say that you're fine, I have no reason to not believe you. Alright girls, its time to get your hair and make-up done, and then you can change into your costumes. It's 8:20 now, and the group dance goes on at 9:50. As for Nick and Brandon, we don't need you two right now; you'll just get in the way. Go get something to eat or hang out in your rooms, and you can come back around 9:30."
Nick and Brandon nodded, and then left to get some breakfast with their moms. Brooke was disappointed because she still hadn't gotten to talk to Nick, but that couldn't be her focus right now. She had to concentrate on getting ready.
Brooke started to put on her stage make-up while Kelly fixed Paige's hair into a french twist. When they were both done, they switched. It took about 30 minutes to get everyone's hair and make-up done perfectly, and then all the girls put on their costumes. Each girl wore a silver spaghetti-strapped leotard that had a skirt attached at the waist. The skirt was very flowy and was barely long enough to cover the girls butts. Sequins covered the entire costume. All costumes were the same, with the exception of Maddie's. Since she had the lead role in the dance, her outfit was gold.
Once everyone was completely ready, Abby had them stretch so that they could run the dance a few times. Brooke slipped on her knee brace and kicked up into a handstand. After stretching, the girls ran the dance about 10 times. When they were done, it was around 9:35.
Brooke heard the dressing room door burst open and looked over to see Nick. She ran up to him and gave him a huge hug. "You look beautiful," he whispered in her ear.
A few seconds later, an official from the competition walked in. "I need everyone that is in the dance 'Superstar' to follow me. It's almost time for you guys to go on stage."
As the girls walked out the door, they heard all of the moms yelling, "Good luck!" and "I love you!". Nick came with them too, because he wanted to watch from backstage. After they left, Abby, the moms, and Brandon went to find seats in the audience.
While waiting backstage, Maddie, Chloe, and Paige were frantically running through the number. Even though Brooke should have been practicing, she decided to talk to Nick instead. "I'm so nervous!" she exclaimed.
"Don't be; you're perfect," Nick assured her. When Brooke saw the dancers on stage hit their ending poses, she knew that they were next. She turned to Nick to give him a hug, but she was surprised with a kiss.
"That was for good luck," Nick smiled.
"Eww!" all of the girls giggled. Brooke rolled her eyes and gave Nick's hand one last squeeze before walking onto the stage. Before rolling up into her starting position (a chin stand), she took a deep breath. This dance had to go perfectly.
The music began to blare through the speakers, and the girls started to dance. One of the first moves that Brooke had to do was a front-ariel, and when she came down, pain shot from her knee up through her leg. Even though all she wanted to do was collapse to the floor and cry out in pain, she didn't. She kept going, and she was nailing it. Her facials were stunning and her technique was on point. When the dance ended, Brooke was relieved.
While the other girls were doing a cute jazz walk off the stage, Brooke was limping. The first thing that she did when she got backstage was fall into Nick's arms. "You were amazing," he praised.
Brooke could feel the tears forming in her eyes. "My knee," Brooke whimpered as she pointed to her swollen knee.
Nick lifted Brooke up so she wouldn't have to put any pressure on her knee. He carried her all the way back to the dressing room. When they walked through the doors, they heard the moms, the girls, and even Abby celebrating about the perfection of the group dance. Kelly turned her attention to Brooke, and could tell by the look on her face that she was in pain.
"Brookie, what happened?" Kelly questioned as she raced towards her daughter.
"I hurt my knee when I did the front ariel. I can barely walk," Brooke cried.
"Oh my god. Nick, can you go get her some ice and a few Advil?" Kelly asked Nick.
"Of course," Nick responded as he raced out the door.
"Brooke, I know that you got hurt," Abby started. "But I'm proud of you. You did the entire dance without any flaws even with your injury. That takes a true professional. I just hope that after you sit for awhile, you will be ready to do the duet."
Brooke nodded. Even if she had to go on stage with a broken knee, she would do it. She wasn't going to give up her duet with Nick for anything.
As Brooke iced her knee and waited for the Advil to kick in, Kendall and Paige got ready for their duet. They kept their hair in french twists and changed into their costumes. They wore plain brown leotards with short, fitted light and dark brown dresses.
As they headed backstage, Maddie and Chloe went with them, but everyone else went to find a place in the audience.
When Brooke saw Kendall and Paige come on stage, she got excited. This was Paige's first lyrical duet, and Brooke knew that her sister would be amazing. The music started and the girls looked pretty good. Kendall fell out of a set of turns at the beginning, and Paige missed a kick towards the end. Overall, the dance was alright, but Abby wasn't pleased.
Everyone went back to the dressing room and began to prepare for the next number: Brooke and Nick's duet. Brooke changed into an angel-like white dress. It was very similar to the one she had worn in the 'Twilight' group number. She took her hair down and curled it. Nick wore black dance pants with a white button up shirt, but he only buttoned about half of them. Together, they looked like the perfect couple.
As they were finishing up getting ready, Paige and Kendall walked through the door. Kelly and Jill greeted them with hugs, but Abby approached them a little differently. "I told everyone that all of the numbers this weekend had to be flawless, and that was nowhere close. Kendall had sloppy turns; Paige messed up the choreography. I gave you a winning routine, and I doubt it will even end up in the top ten."
Paige and Kendall looked at the ground in shame. They walked over to their dance bags and began to put on ALDC warm-ups. A few minutes later, it was time for Brooke and Nick to head backstage. As they were walking, Brandon muttered, "Good luck," under his breath.
While they were waiting to go on, Brooke was stretching out her knee. Nick walked over and put his arm around her. "If it hurts, we don't have to do this."
"I know," Brooke responded. "But I want to."
Nick smiled. They heard the announcer call their names, so Nick grabbed Brooke's hand and walked onto the stage.
When the dance had started, Brooke forgot all about her knee. She loved this number, and nothing would stop her from winning with it. The chemistry between Brooke and Nick couldn't have been stronger. She felt even more confident in this dance than she had in the group.
When the routine ended, Brooke and Nick walked off the stage hand in hand. Brooke started to realize how badly her knee hurt, so Nick piggy-backed her all they way to the dressing room. They entered and were greeted by tons of hugs; Kelly was even crying. "That's the most beautiful number I've ever seen you do."
Brooke smiled. "Thanks mom!"
For the rest of the competition, Brooke kept ice on her knee. She noticed that the swelling was going down, but the bruising was still awful. Maddie and Chloe competed their solos, and they were perfect. As always. Once the competition was over, all of the girls had changed into their warm-ups and were waiting to go to awards.
"I am very proud of all of you," Abby beamed. "Almost all of the numbers were flawless." Abby paused just long enough to shoot a look to Kendall and Paige. "Now, before we go to awards, I'm going to tell you about my big surprise!"