The day after Chloe had gotten into that argument with Nick seemed to drag on forever. Chloe sat through all of her classes at school that day and just looked at her wrist. She couldn't believe that she had actually self-harmed, she felt guilty and felt like she was betraying everyone.
Overall she had the perfect life that every other little girl dreams of. Going to dance class and performing on stage to show everyone how talented she was. Winning titles like no tomorrow and it seemed that even though Miss Abby was tough on her Abby truly cared about Chloe.
The school day ended and now it was time for Chloe to go to dance. She was excited to rehearse the group dance and her solo, but the duet she was a little nervous for. What if Andrea came and interrupted them again and made it more awkward. It was already awkward enough and now Chloe had to deal with the possibility of everyone seeing her wrists.
These are things Chloe thought about while she was walking towards her mom's car which was parked in the school parking lot.
"Hey, Chlo." Christi greeted as Chloe climbed into the backseat, throwing her book bag down on the floor by her feet.
"Hey." Chloe answered. Pulling out her iPhone and turning it on.
When her iPhone finally turned on she saw she had a new message from Nick. She opened the message and read it over. "Stay away from me I don't like you and I'm only being nice to you so we can do well with the duet."
Chloe read the message about ten times before she finally realized she had read it correctly. What had happened to Nick. Something had changed between him and Chloe during the months after Chloe had been treated for her brain tumor and they went to the ALDC prom together. Chloe just didn't know why things had changed between them. It was hard for her to believe that a little over five months ago she felt safe in Nick's arms when they were slow dancing at prom and now....she felt like Nick was her biggest enemy.
Chloe clicked out of her messages and then locked her iPhone before slipping it into her dance bag. They arrived at the Abby Lee Dance Company a few minutes later and Chloe got out of the car throwing her dance bag over her shoulder. She walked into the Abby Lee Dance Company and went straight to the bathroom to change. She walked into the bathroom and locked the door so she could change and not be interrupted she pulled out a long sleeve purple crop top and black bootie shorts with a purple band on the top.
Once she was changed she unlocked the door and walked into the dancers den. When she walked in no one was in there except for one person.
Andrea.
"Hi." Chloe said, putting on a smile. Andrea didn't say anything she just smirked at Chloe probably sensing how nervoous she was. Chloe set her dance bag down and then went down into her left split. An awkward silence filled the room and it felt like hours had gone by before Maddie and Mackenzie had finally came.
"Hey!" They both sang entering the den and starting to stretch also. Maddie and Mackenzie picked up on the awkwardness in the room. No one knew why Andrea was here and Chloe was the only one who knew her name besides Chloe.
Everyone arrived and had began to stretch in the next half hour. Andrea still sat in the same spot glaring at Chloe. All the girls tried to ignore Andrea but it was really hard to when she was invading their space it felt like. Finally Abby called the girls into Studio A and all the girls let all of their questions come out. Most of them asking who she was and why she was here. Chloe didn’t answer not wanting to explain what happened last night.
"Girls! Spread apart and let’s rehearse the group dance we have a lot to do today!" Abby screamed.
All the girls spread apart and rehearse the group dance. Nick walked into the room a few minutes into the rehearsal and sat down by Abby watching the girls. Chloe saw him walk in and tried not to make eye contact if he didn't like her then she wouldn't like him. He had caused her a lot of pain and it hadn't even been twenty-four hours yet.
They worked on the group dance for the next half hour before Abby said it was good enough.
"Now since Nick is here, I want to rehearse the duet and then the trios and finally the solo's. Okay?" All the other girls except Chloe nodded.
"Besides Chloe the rest of you may go to acro." The girls nodded and exited Studio A.
Chloe and Nick got into their starting positions. Abby started the music and not even half way through the dance Abby shut off the music and started yelling.
"Chloe! Don't fall out of your turns and don't have this scared look on your face!" Abby said, waving her hands around for emphasis. Chloe's eyes started to water, but she went back to her starting position.
Abby started the music again and let them finish the dance this time. For a whole minute Abby didn't say anything.
"What is wrong with you Chloe!? What is it!? Because I'm not going to let you two perform if you're not going to win. You don't look comfortable with him and yet you were perfectly fine last night! So what changed, so we can fix it!" Abby screamed at Chloe.
Nick stood awkwardly to the side and watched Abby scream at Chloe. He felt bad for Chloe he really did but he knew better than to interrupt Abby when she was yelling.
Chloe didn’t answer any of Miss Abby's questions. She simply looked at the ground and let some tears fall down her cheeks.
"Do it again! And don't mess up this time!" Abby warned, going over and starting the music again. Everything was fine in the dance until a big turn sequence. Chloe started doing the turns but then suddenly fell and started having a break down. Something had finally broken inside of her and she couldn't control her emotions. She got up off the hard cold floor of the Studio before running out of Studio A and into the girls bathroom without saying anything to Miss Abby or Nick.
