~✰✰✰~
Back in the green room we all began to get ready for the group dance. My heart was beating quickly. I was so nervous for this dance. This whole week Abby has been telling us how important this dance was and it was making me freak out.
"Alright come on let's go." Abby yelled. We all followed her parting once we hit backstage. Taking a deep breath I sighed.
"You Alright?" Brady asked me quietly. I nodded. "Oh come on I know you better then that." I sighed.
"Okay fine. What if we mess up. Abby's whole career is banking on this dance." Brady lightly grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into a hug.
"We are going to do great." He whispered softly into my hair. I nodded against him.
"Now coming to the stage is Thoughts and prayers from the Abby Lee dance company." I wished the girls good luck and waited for my cue.
I smiled widely when I came off the stage. We crushed it. All of us collapsed into a group hug.
Awards. I had a feeling drama would follow this.
"Our teen soloists we have in fourth place, we have Rich Girl." Gias face fell when she went up to collect her award. Some other dance got third and then the pressure was on. "I'm second place, The last Unicorn, Miss Hannah." I smiled as Hannah stood up. She looked over joyed. "And in first place we have PTSD from Brady!" I smiled even wider as Brady stood up.
"I won!" Brady exclaimed excitedly as he sat down next to me.
"I knew you would." I told him honestly. He smiled widely.
"Now moving on to our group awards." I gripped Brady's and Sarah's hands. "I'm third place, Revolting Children, interactive academy. In second place we have, Your feet from interactive academy." My grip grew tighter. We had to win. "And your highest scoring junior small group. Thoughts and Prayers." We all stood up huge smiles on our face as we took a bow.
In the dressing room I decided I didn't want to be any part of drama. I stayed quiet.
"Oh man the group was so clean and so good and we made a statement and Lilly you sold it. You did an outstanding job." We clapped for her. "Now the solos, what happened?"
"I'm sorry that I got 4th I know I can do better." Gia sighed. I was annoyed with her right now. The look on her face made me want to slap her. She had a little smug half smile. "And I just wanted to apologize because I didn't mean to tell you that I didn't like the solo, I didn't like the choreography. That's not what I said. My words were twisted and I'm so sorry that that happened. But I know now that next time I will come out on top." GiaNina cried.
"You are definitely in the doghouse." I Abby told her, her lips tight. "If your going to be nasty or feisty or bratty do it on stage, when it counts, when your playing a part. Not in real life. I will not have it GiaNina. I will not and it's going to come back to haunt you. I explained that not everyone was going to say on this team and I had my thoughts of who was going to go first, certainly wasn't you but now it's a different story." My face was stone. I didn't want anyone to leave but I was glad Gia took the pressure off of me.
All of us headed to the bus after we packed all of our stuff away. I sat down next to Brady. I was exhausted. It was nearly 10 when we began to pack up and now it was 11. The drive was four hours to get back to PA. I yawned pulling a blanket over my knees. Brady laughed at me. I glared.
"What?" He asked.
"I'm cold and tired." I pouted jokingly. I wasn't lying though. The AC on the bus was cranked on even though it was the middle of the winter. Brady smiled slightly before throwing another blanket over me. I snuggled into the chair trying my best to fall asleep.
✰✰✰
In the dancers den all of us were warming up. We then headed into the studio for pyramid.
"Okay so, thoughts and prayers was the overall high score winner!" We all cheered for ourselves. "We has two solos preform. Gianina and Hannah. We had second place and then we had forth. Looks bad, looks really bad." I swallowed. I really hated drama. I knew this was what I was going to get but I didn't expect it to be this bad. I just hoped that the producers wouldn't make me or my mom look bad.
"You know what looks bad. Parents in the fitting room attacking like a bunch of wolves at me and at my kid, two minutes before we go on stage." Joanne sassed.
"That's not what happened." Ashley said shortly.
"Ashley, my kid went in there she was ready to do her routine. You guys went and changed my words around-"
"Wrong." Chloe said.
"There is dressing room etiquette." Joanne insisted.
"So your saying that-" Ashely started.
"There is a time and a place Ashley! For all of it." Joanne spit.
"Yeah and you-"
"I do not appreciate that you came after me and my kid!" Joanne screamed. I did a quick releve to wake up my feet.
"Woah! Wait a minute." Abby shouted cutting the mothers off. "She was the problem." She pointed at Gia. "The kid was the problem. I want to hear from you." Abby told GiaNina. "Cause your the big cry baby."
"I'm very sorry I'll learn."
"I know but that's like." Abby waved her hand in front of her face. "I want to hear from you. Why did that whole thing happen?"
"I don't want you to take my tears as weakness I was just frustrated and I still am frustrated. I I don't want you to-" Gia started to cry again.
"Look in the mirror, is that a pretty girl. I don't wanna see a kid cry. I'm trying to make a team, winners and then you act like that. Your not tuff enough to let it roll. That's what worries me. Alright I'm moving on to the pyramid." Abby rolled over to the bottom right corner and lifted the paper. "On the bottom of the pyramid I don't thinks it's any guess, GiaNina, not gonna have the behavior. Next Sarah, your next to GiaNina because in the routine you were a little shaky, you can't do that." Sarah nodded. "Next Pressley, you did a good job, you did what you were supposed to do. Next we have Berkleigh same thing, you did what you were supposed to do." I sighed. I was still on the bottom. Not once had I been even to the second row. "Next we have Savannah. It was good. You set the tone of the level of the dance. Next we have Hannah, hannah you went from being last on the pyramid all the way up their. I thought you did an outstanding job." I smiled for Hannah if she could get up so could I. "However you do not apply corrections quick enough for me. Next we have Shelby. My eyes were drawn to you. You had wonderful facial expressions. Nice job." Shelby smiled widely. "Next we have Brady. I thought you did an outstanding job, but Brady there is so much more for you to give. For you it's about growth. It's about acting. I don't say this to often. Brady, this is just the beginning. Now on top of the pyramid with a featured role in a group for the first time,Lilly." I clapped loudly for the tiny blonde.
"Thoughts and prayers it opened the door for your future here at the aldc, but you need to strut through that door and slam it behind you, understood?" Lilly nodded.
"Alright, this week were traveling back to Ohio, we're gonna attend expressions dance competition. This week we are going to do a routine entitled "the healer", each of you are going to have ailments that need to be healed. So Brady, your gonna be my healer. Alright now there will be three duets preforming this weekend. So when I call your name step forward. Pressley, step forward" we all clapped for her. "Lilly, step forward." Again we all clapped. "And Shelby, step forward." I clapped. "So you three each have a duet and you will be picking your duet partner." A smile spread across the girls faces. "I've been saying for weeks that nobody on this team is safe and I don't think you believe me so I've decided the only way to light a fire under your lazy butts is to say goodbye to one member of this team." My mouth dropped open and I was suddenly nervous. "In the next few weeks one dancer will be going home." I bit my lip nervously I did not want to go home. "I want all of you to live up to your full potential because none of you have done that so far." I nodded stiffly. "Lilly, Pressley, Shelby. Will you pick the right partner. This decision could Either help you or ruin you. Moms go your outta here." I gave my mom a quick hug before she went upstairs.
"Pressley have you made your decision?"
"Yes. I'm going to pick Brady, because I think that he is an amazing dancer in every style."
"Okay." Abby nodded. "Come up here and stand with her." She told Brady. My stomach slightly sunk. I knew that Pressley didn't like Brady but it still made me uneasy. "Lilly you get to pick second. Brady's already taken."
"Based on her performance last week. I think I'm gonna choose Hannah." Lilly told us.
"Interesting." Abby mumbled surprised. "Alright Hannah congratulations, come on up here." Hannah walked up and stood besides Lilly. "Shelby anyone but Brady and Hannah."
"I'm going to pick Berkleigh because she is the first person I was supposed to dance with and I missed out on that opportunity." I smiled. I had actually been picked. Abby's eyebrows raised in shock again.
"Okay, berkleigh come on up." I made my way to stand besides Shelby. "Alright let's spread apart and get ready for this number."
Authors note
As you can tell this is a slow burn so if you don't like slow burns I'm sorry!