"Competitions brings out the best in products and the worst in people."
~David Sarnoff
-Friday, September 2nd. 10:15pm.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to stage, the New York Demon Girls!" Pete Lawrence bellow on the microphone.
The audience roar in cheer, giving a standing ovation. The curtains parts, revealing the pretty ladies in blue and white sequence gown, just above their knee. The walk to the state in a single file. Katherine as the captain was first as usual. They hold each other's hands and takes a bow. The audience is still applauding cheerily.
Pete passes a mic to Katherine, which she accept and await the cheer from the audience to subside.
"Hi, My name is Katherine Maxwell, and I'm 25. I am the season's Captain. I've always live to dance for as long as I can remember. I'll be performing an American Latin inspired dance."
The audience cheer once again. Katherine passes the mic to next girl beside her, Kourtney.
"Hi everyone, my name's Kourtney Morrison. I'm 22. This is my second year as a Demon Girl. And tonight, I'll be performing a hip-hop dance."
A round of applauds fill the air as Kourtney passes the mic to Allison.
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen. My name is Allison kringle. I'm 23, and I know I'm supposed to say my performance for tonight, but I'm gonna reserve it for later. I've worked so hard preparing a routine, and I would like to present it as a surprise to everyone. Thank you"
The audience applaud in amazement. The cheering is long enough to make Katherine red hot in anger, but of cause she has a beautiful smile on her face to cover it perfectly.
Allison passes the mic to Sasha. And in no time, all the girls takes turn to introduce themselves and their performance. They take a bow and leaves the stage.
"Ladies and gentlemen, The weekend is in the building!" Pete announce, and the audience goes loud in cheers as The Weekend comes on stage.
"New York City, make some noise?!" The weekend scream. The audience gives the louder scream.
"We love you!" A voice shriek from the audience.
"I love you too" The weekend say, facing the direction the voice came from. Turning to the band, he signal them, "let's go."
The band starts to play, and the audience cheer.
The girls are in the back stage vibing with the song. The performance goes on for half an hour before The weekend finish his performance. The audience scream and applaud as he leaves the stage.
"That was one hell of a performance" Pete bellow as he goes back on stage. "Now for the first dance routine of tonight's competition, please welcome the first performer, Katherine Maxwell!"
Katherine comes on stage and takes a bow, while the audience scream. She starts off her dance with a Latin swing dance. She is relentless and creative while maintaining the Latin swing moves.
Katherine ends her dance in a bow. She leaves the stage while the audience is still screaming. Allison is called up next. She takes a bow and performs a classic Salsa dance. The audience cheer as she ends her routine. All the girls finish their first performance while the audience cheer loudly.
Pete takes the stage while the girls back rush to the dressing room, to prepare to the main routine. They quickly retouch their makeover, and then change into their personal costumes.
They steal glances at each others costume as they had no clue what the next person had planned to wear.
"OMG! I love your dress. It's so clingy. I mean it's beautiful, I've never seen in a dress showing so much cleavage and areola" Chandelier gulp at Allison's costume.
"Thank you" Allison smiles at her.
"What is that jacket for?" Chandelier ask, pointing at a cropped sequence jacket Allison placed in her chair.
"I'll be wearing it over my string top" She reply.
"I don't understand, what's the point of wearing the jacket over your gorgeous outfit?" Chandelier furrow her brows.
"You'll see"
"Oh please" Chandelier rolls her eyes.
"Now's not the time" Becky scold them. "Get yourself ready. We're going out for second performance in a bit"
"Yes mum" Chandelier giggle, which make Allison laugh.
**********
Katherine walks slowly to the stage. Taking a bow, she lifts her head up in elegance. The audience are roaring in screams as their favourite girl is about to perform. She waits for the next 2 minutes but the scream refuse to end. Screams like this is enough to scare the other girls into their shells. Even from the back stage, they still feel the vibration from the arena.
Katherine is good, no doubts about that. She's definitely one of the best dancers that has ever been on the NY Demon Girls.
Drawing a deep steady breath, Katherine drown out the voices of the audience. Channeling to her inner self as the music comes up, she begin her routine. Her body twists and turns in a rhythmical manner. She goes on the tip of her toes as her waist swing accordingly. Katherine ends her routine with a bow and leaves the stage.
The audience are still applauding when Allison enters the stage with a swift somersault in the air, which made the audience gasp. They didn't see that move coming. She takes off her jacket and tosses it aside before taking a bow. She freezes the moment she tilt her head up.
Allison can literally feel her heart slowing down as she struggle to breathe. The world is fading out and Allison is on the verge on falling out.
Panick attack!
Starring confusingly at the table on the front row. She could swear that the table was not occupied the first time she came on stage. There was nobody sitting on that table.
How come?!
How is this possible?! was the only thing her brains could think of.
"My mother?" She mumble to herself, still uncertain how her mother is here, sitting on the VIP table!
Mrs kringle is equally as shocked to see her daughter almost naked in front of a whole crowd. She didn't expect this. This wasn't what she was told she'll see.
The music comes on a minute later since Allison didn't give a signal. She quickly try to recompose, determined to finish her routine but unsure how she can concentrate at this point. She starts off with a salsa move, adding matching split moves. She spin three times on one toe, then she flips backwards and stands on one hand while splitting her legs apart in the air. This position reveal a large part of her butt. The shocked expression on her mother's face makes her loose balance and she falls on her face. The audience roar in laughter.
"That must be the surprise she promised us?" A voice squeal from the audience.
Allison gets back on her feet. She feels so embarrassed that it was hard to even remember her routine. She is quite a determined girl, and she continues to dance. She flop at another attempt to spin on a toe and she falls on her face again. Getting up, She tries to finish her routine still.
Hurt and disappointed, Mrs kringle stands up and hastily leaves the arena. Watching her mother walk away broke Allison's heart. She manage to round up her routine before leaving the stage, almost bumping into Kourtney who is waiting for her turn at the back stage.
Allison ignore the call out from Chandelier and Becky at the back stage, she run into the hallways, heading to the exterior exit door
She's never gonna win the competition now!
Pete's voice ricochet from the arena as he calls Kourtney for her performance. Allison goes around the arena until she the reaches parking lot. She searched among the people outside over and over, but she couldn't find her mother. Then it was obvious that her mother has long left the premises. Slowly turning back, Allison returns to the dressing room. She sobs lowly, her head aching from the millions of questions erupting.
When the girls were done with the main routine, they all return to the dressing room. Allison quickly dry up her tears. Everyone stir at her, confused.
"Are you okay Ally?" Chandelier ask.
"What happened?" Becky question.
Allison takes both girls into the hallway, far enough from the dressing room so the other girls don't eavesdrop.
"I didn't expect to see my mother tonight. She was sitting there, right there on the VIP front row. I don't know how. The looks on her face was enough to make me loose focus. I could see the disappointment on her face. She's all I have left of a family, I'll hate myself if she looks at me differently now" She sob.
"That doesn't make any sense, how could she have known about this competition if you didn't invite her." Chandelier ricochet.
Becky is short of word, guilt whirling in her heart. She manage to hold herself from breaking into tears. She knows Allison's mother is here tonight because she told Katherine about Allison's mother and her christian faith.
It has to be Katherine, she has to be responsible for making Allison's mother coming here tonight, Becky thought.
Otherwise why else would Katherine blackmail her into telling her Allison's story.
"I don't know." Allison sob. "She wouldn't take my calls. She must hate me now, my mother hates me."
"Don't say that," Chandelier pulls Allison in a hug, parting her back. "She would never hate you. Just give her some time to process everything, I know she'll talk to you soon"
"I just wanna go home" Allison gulp.
"I'll come with you" Chandelier say.
"Me too" Becky quickly say.
Shaking her head, Allison refuses. "No, you too stay. The event has not even ended anyways. I'll be fine, I just need to be alone" Hugging both girls, she heads out the arena.