Snapshots

9. Lily

Lily doesn't exactly know much about having friends. For years, she's just been Miss Angela's Daughter to every single one of her teammates, which hasn't helped her reputation. Everyone's all smiles to her face because if they're not, Lily can easily have them kicked off the team. But behind her back, it's a different story.

She's not an idiot. She knows her fellow dancers think she's an entitled bitch no matter where she goes. It's the same at every studio. They hate her mother's unique sazzle and dazzle methods, and they hate Lily when her mother inevitably gives her front row center and dance captain.

It's not like Lily doesn't try to make friends. She does- when she's young and, thus, hopeful and optimistic about people and the world. But it doesn't matter who she befriends. They all have ulterior motives- namely, to improve their standing on the team by getting close to her. Behind all those fake smiles lies a deep resentment for both Lily and her mother.

After one too many "friends" turns their back on her once getting what they want, she stops trying.

If her teammates hate her, then that's fine. She hates them right back. What does she care how many people don't like her when she's got front and center in every dance?

But the thing about living in a state of hatred for everyone around you is that eventually, it gets tiring. And it's lonely as hell.

She's 16 when her mother takes over The Next Step. This studio is unlike any other Lily's ever danced at because, for the first time in her life, the dancers don't sit idly by as her mother transforms the studio to her own liking. No, they stand up to her. They stand up for their studio. And when they drive Lily and her mother out, faces covered in icing and cake in their hair, Lily can't figure out why she wishes they would have fought for her too.

It's not like the dancers were any nicer to her than at any other studio, and she wasn't exactly kind to them in return. She did steal Noah's dance captaincy by promising to save Piper's spot on the team, only to turn around and immediately give it to some wide-eyed, overexcitable girl from the recreational team that she can't even remember the name of now.

And yet, something about The Next Step changes her, stays on her mind when her mother takes over Encore, where everyone is concerned about themselves first and foremost. It's a gradual change, one that Lily doesn't even realize has really happened until she stumbles upon her mother bribing the judge at Regionals and is filled with absolute horror. Because while her mother sometimes turns to questionable methods of coaching, she's not a cheater, and that's not how they're meant to win.

It shakes Lily's world, and it's as she's observing A-Troupe from afar the next day as they prepare to take on AcroNation that she realizes why this team and their studio has stayed on her mind as much as they have.

They're a family.

It's so disgustingly cliché, but it's true. They love each other. They support each other, and they clearly enjoy working together. It's obvious in the way that they scramble to throw together a phenomenal routine in just a couple of hours.

They make her realize that she doesn't have to hate her teammates and vice versa. It's possible to be a part of a team and actually like the people you're dancing with.

So when her mother is banned from coaching at any Absolute Dance competitions for the foreseeable future, Lily makes her decision. There's an open spot at The Next Step, and she's going to take it.

She should be upset, angry about what her mother did, but instead, she feels free. Because for the first time in her life, she's free to make her own decisions and be the person she wants to be without the voice of her mother influencing her every step.