𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙛𝙪𝙡 - 𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙢𝙨 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙛𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙧 - discontinued

sidelined

|4.0|

"so why wasn't willow just kicked off automatically?" stacy says as soon as the moms sat down upstairs. pyramid has just occured, with the announcing of a solo for pressley, a solo for sarah, and a lyrical number entitled, "handprints".

susan sighs, rubbing her forehead. "you wouldn't be saying the same thing if it were your child, would you?" 

stacy ponders this for a moment, then says, "i don't mean kicked off, kicked off. she earned her right to try out for this team. i just mean why isn't she sitting at home with a bowl of ice cream and watching the girls and brady on tv, like she'd probably much rather be doing right now?"

"she wouldn't be learning anything from that, stacy, you know that. she's here, she's helping, she's learning from her peers. this is her dream, she's said it a billion times, and even if she's sidelined, she's still a part of this team."

"well, her spot isn't permanent." stacy protests. "so i just don't see why abby didn't take her out."

"neither is yours, stacy." susan says flatly, turning back towards the glass. 

"i don't think willow sprained her ankle because she was trying a leap and landed weird or whatever." ann says tentatively.

"what are you implying?" susan asks pointedly.

"well, nothing, but i just mean that... i don't know... i just doubt that she was practicing leaps in the dressing room and twisted her ankle. there weren't any leaps in the group routine last week..."

at this, susan became tense. her hands start to sweat as she thinks over the day willow's ankle had broken carefully. willow's hesitation to explaining how she'd injured herself. susan had thought it was merely that willow was in pain and struggling to think. but now, as she looked over it in her head, ann had a point.

what had happened to willow in that dressing room?

luckily, ashley unintentionally saved her from an awkward silence, beginning an argument with ann over hannah's performance in the group the week before, leaving susan to ponder.

"...so i just don't understand, ann. why are you justifying hannah's third spot on the pyramid when she was a beat behind the entire number?"

"that's not for you to decide, ashley, it's for abby to decide. why are you being so stuck up about this? pressley was on the bottom row and that's it. give up." tricia comes to ann's rescue.

"easy for you to say when your kid was on the top. he was second, trish, so if that doesn't scream favoritism i don't know what does."

"he was second! second in the competition losing to someone two years older than him, second on the pyramid."

"and now you're using age groups as an excuse, great. excuses, excuses, trish. you always do this, and frankly, it's annoying the hell out of me." ashley applies a fresh coat of lipstick. as much as susan hates ashley, she has to admit she admired her courage to speak up whenever she felt like it. although this could be an act to stay on she show. if it was, susan hopes that she and ashley could be friends after the show. she has a lot to learn from her.

"whatever, ashley, i'm disengaging."

"so you think you're the dr. holly of this team now? stop acting like you're above it all, trish, because you really aren't, and you're annoying the hell out of all of us-" joanne made a wide gesture to all the moms upstairs. "-just because you know that your son is one of abby's favorites. well you know what? being the favorite doesn't automatically mean someone has talent. it means their mother is talented at kissing abby's ass. look at melissa!"

susan sucks in a breath. that'll get to melissa if she sees it, she thinks to herself.

"i'm done with this conversation." tricia picks up her prada bag and exits the room, leaving the moms riled up and angry.

"i'm going to go tell abby. she better see through trish or i'll riot." joanne got up.

"i don't think that's a good idea. i mean, no offense, but your daughter isn't exactly the favorite." ann says anxiously.

"because i'm not willing to let abby walk all over me. you all should take a page out out of my book, ann. you and your daughter both."

and with that, joanne stomps downstairs.