To Become A Star

Chapter 2: Wildly Inappropriate

"Phoenix was rough, you guys got your butts kicked," Abby says, using her hand to lean on the chalkboard. We were in pyramid after last week's competition, and I couldn't be more bored.

Sometimes, Abby talked for longer than she needed to, plus the producers have been making us do the same thing for almost 3 hours so that they can get enough shots for the show.

"Here in Pittsburg, you have won everything, but it's clearly a different story when you get on a plane and fly across the country. For years I took the kids by myself. I made sure their hair was right. I made sure their makeup was right. I put the headpiece on. All the Moms wanna go now because they're reliving their childhood through all of you. And now that's when the trouble happens."

I wasn't sure what Abby was talking about, for as long as I've been on a competition team either my mom or dad had come along. Abby had no idea how to style my hair and my mom would probably eat a roach before letting someone give me heat damage just to keep it straight all the time.

"I am the leader. I am the teacher. You do what I say. When your Mothers are telling you what to do, that's a conflict. You understand?" She paused her speech of reprimandments to allow her attention to focus on Nia. "Now, Nia, how do you think you did?"

"I think that we could have improved," she replied sheepishly. "And what did you need to improve on?" Abby asked, her head nodding to punctuate her words. Nia shyly smiled, avoiding looking at Abby's face as she answered, "Pointing my feet,"

"Yeah. Very sloppy; the feet, the leg, your shoulder, your arm. The same mistake over and over and over, and that pulls the group down," Abby complained, looking upset at the thought of last week's group dance. She turned her focus to Chloe.

"Chloe, the headband was bad. Next time, what are you going to do?" Chloe's voice was quiet when she spoke to Abby. "I'm going to make sure my headpiece stays on," Chloe replies.

"Could you have prevented that?" Abby asked her. I don't think Chloe could have prevented her headpiece malfunction, but she had done everything Abby had said to do when you have a malfunction on stage. Chloe nodded her head, her hair bouncing along. "Yes. Good."

Abby moved onto the pyramid, taking a long time to turn the chalkboard around. "The group number will be called '"Electricity,'" Can everybody say that?" I repeated the name, I hope it is a really cool contemporary or jazz dance.

"Kianna, you won with the highest scoring duet so you're going to be front and center for this routine, Ok. Last week I said I was putting you to the test, and now I'm going to start that."

My headshot was at the top of the pyramid, and that would have been fine for the other moms if Brooke's wasn't in the bottom row. "Wait," Kelly interjected, her face upset. "Why is Brooke at the bottom when she also did the duet with Kianna?" She questioned, her voice sounding hot with anger.

"Because she wasn't that good in the group dance," Abby replied, her tone dismissive as she turned back to face us.

"Alright, there will be three solo's competing. Maddie you will be doing one of your solos, Chloe you'll be doing one of yours, Kianna you'll do one, and you also have a duet. Everybody up, moms, you are dismissed." Some of the moms looked really upset, but I could tell my mom was happy. I got up from my seat on the floor while the moms filed out of the room.

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"It's always nice to dance with my team," I said, playing with the ends of my hair. "But I really love when I can dance with some of the other kids at the studio."