Leading Ladies

XLII. All's Fair in Love and War

"So, how is school?"

Elsa plays with her egg, frowning at the amused tone in her Dad's voice. He's doing this on purpose.

"Daaaaaad," Sabrina groans. "It's Christmas Break. Do we have to talk about school? We don't have it right now."

"Yeah, if we're going to talk about this, I'm going back to bed," Elias joins in.

"Why?" their Dad looks at all of them, faking cluelessness. "It's not like any of you did badly in your classes. You've all kept a 3.8 GPA or higher. Nothing to be upset about."

"Leave them alone, Marko," their Mom swats at his chest. "Stop trying to get under our children's nerves."

Elsa giggles when her Dad pouts before he winks at her. "How about you, Elsa? Still having trouble making friends?"

Acacia's head jerks towards her. "What's this? Elsa, are you getting bullied. Because if you're getting bullied, Elias and I can go up to that school for you. Right, Lias?"

"With pleasure," Elias nods.

Elsa smiles appreciatively at them before shaking her head. "Nothing like that. The opposite, actually. Bianca and Sabrina have classes with at least one of their friends, and when we went back to school, I didn't have classes with any of my friends. But I have two new ones, so it's all good."

She winces when her Mom narrows her eyes. "What do you mean by 'it's the exact opposite?' Elsa? Bianca? Sabrina?"

"It's nothing, Mom," Sabrina waves her away, avoiding eye contact.

"Nothing we can't handle," Bianca promises.

"...People keep coming up to us to be our friends, but all they care about is that we're on TV," Elsa caves, getting annoyed glares from Elsa and Sabrina. ""

"Ahh," their Dad nods in understanding. "People are being ostensibly friendly to you? It's a part of life. I get it a lot in the office."

"That's because you're the boss dad, everybody wants to be friends with the boss," Sabrina says, refilling her plate with two more quesadillas. "We're not bosses."

"Sabrina, that's your sixth one!" Acacia protests.

"I spend all day dancing, have to fuel up," Sabrina shrugs.

Elsa feels her own stomach grumbling and reaches for some more egg, and takes a few slices of bacon.

Elias chuckles at the aghast look on Acacia's face when Bianca joins in also. "They're eating more than me. Fix your face Cia. Just because you're starving yourself doesn't mean they have to."

"Mom!"

"Their doctor said they need to eat about 1,600 to 2,200 calories a day to keep them fueled. Leave them alone," their Mom says before glancing at the clock. "Ten minutes, girls, before we have to start going."

"I still can't believe you guys still have dance the week leading up to Christmas and so early," Elias says.

Elsa shrugs. "I don't mind." The earlier we get in, the longer we have to work on the routines.

"Well, congratulations. You won. But was it your best performance? Mm... no."

Shaking her head at Abby's words, Elsa grimaces. I still can't believe we won. It was so horrible.

"Didn't we win by seven points?" Kelly says righteously.

"We still stuck," Bianca mutters, and Elsa presses her lips together so she wouldn't laugh,