baby take a bow ! ( dance moms )

004. stealing the show

"let's talk about the starbound competition. can we have a round of applause?" miss abby started when all of us were here. "ok, so, brooke blew them away. the people behind me were in awe when you did your handstand twist. yes?"

brooke nodded at her, and miss abby carried on.

"i wanna talk about this weeks competition." miss abby turned the board around, and i saw my picture to the left of vivi-anne. it felt a little bit better not to be on the very bottom. "do you see there's somebody new on top? yes, brooke, you are here because of your performance; you worked through an injury, you did what you had to do, and you were a team player. you are getting a solo this week. maddie and chloe, you are also getting solos this weekend. bottom row, what am i supposed to do with you five? you need to step it up. you need to get your butts back in class and start working on your technique. and you know what, since we're in pittsburgh this week, i'm gonna give every single one of you a solo."

we all cheered. solo week sounded really exciting! this would be my first solo i ever competed, but i learned one last year just for experience.

"alright, i'm gonna start with tilly, because i really need to make sure she knows her routine, cos this is only her second solo, right, hon?" abby told the other girls, and they all went to a different class, except for kenzie and vivi, who stayed behind to learn theirs after.

"ok then honey, your solo is 'baby take a bow', remember? you're going to be competing in the primary division, you're not against vivi-anne or mackenzie, so i really want you to try hard for the win. you've been going over it recently with miss jennine, so let me see how far you can go with it." she said to me, so i walked over to the middle, popped my hip out, and put my hands behind my head.

when the music started, i walked four times, kicked my legs out two times, and skipped four times. miss jennine told me to remember i was probably gonna do everything four times. i did four more side-steps, then put my hands under my chin and moved my hips side to side four times; then did my hips again, before pointing to the front and bowing.

"good girl! that was really good, doll. just keep your head up, don't look at the ground. right, from there, you..."

°•☆•°•☆•°•☆•°

"matilda, come down for dinner, please!" mommy shouts up the stairs. i dropped my book on my bed quickly, and I was quite happy to get away from it. mommy kept trying to make me read some of my picture books more because i'm going to school in september, but i think they're really boring she had to take my tablet away so i could concentrate on it better. i slid my feet into my bunny slippers and started to head downstairs.

i got into my seat at the table, and maddie helped me put my apron on so i wouldn't spill food on my pyjamas.

i sat down at the table with kenzie, as mommy and maddie brought over our bowls of spaghetti bolognese with a big plate of garlic bread in the middle.

mommy cut up my spaghetti noodles into smaller pieces, and i half-heartedly tried to twirl them on my fork, and mackenzie laughed at my failed attempt. i kicked her under the table, and then mommy made kenzie and maddie switch places so we couldn't reach each other anymore.

maddie was the one who broke the silence.

"mom, my friend erin invited me to her birthday party on the inset day next week-"

"when did she invite you?"

"...um, two weeks ago?"

"that sounded an awful lot like a question instead of an answer, maddie. two weeks ago?" mommy replied.