baby take a bow ! ( dance moms )

006. dying to dance

"mommy, where's rhode island?"  i questioned confusedly.

"it's in new york, duh!" kenzie replied with an eye roll.

"it's not in new york, honey, it's next to it." mommy said distractedly while reading her email from lifetime.

"it says that all family has to come, ok, so that doesn't affect us. it's going to be a sort of road trip then."

"mom, this is cool, but we won't get to go on the trip if we don't go to dance, so let's go!" maddie said snarkily. i think she was still a bit upset that she couldn't go to her friends party, and to make it worse, i had heard her say to mommy that chloe hadn't texted or spoken to her since the morning if the dance concert. i think she was a bit upset that she wasn't chosen by the agent.

when we got to dance, i sat at the back next to kenzie and vivi. i wish my friends were in this group, too.

"i want to talk about this upcoming weekend." miss abby started off. "its regionals. everybody knows how important that is. we are going to starpower. you know that's one of the toughest competitions out there."

"this is what's going to happen for this weekend. maddie, new solo. brooke, new solo. chloe, new solo. the age categories are a little different, so i wanna make sure that your dances reflect you as a dancer now, not the beginning of the season. we are doing a new group routine this weekend, and everybody's in it, the entire cast. it is called 'where have all the children gone?'. this is a routine about children going missing. we've all seen the children's faces on the milk cartons. it's contemporary, it's mature, and it is very dark. you have to be great little actresses to pull it off, and they're all dressed in white, like they're angels."

my eyes widened when she said about the missing children. i didn't really understand what she was talking about, but i just went with it.

"i don't want any discrepancies, i don't want any opinions. so, moms, i'm going to go ahead and dismiss you now, we have lots of work to do. girls, up, let's get moving, let's get moving!"

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later that day, we were in studio b for the rehearsal. me, vivi, and kenzie were all sitting next to miss abby while she taught the routine to the other girls. when she said we would all be dancing, i hoped she meant i could do it for the whole routine, but no. i just had to sit on the floor with my knees to my chest and my head on my knees rocking back and forth. i'd already learnt the bit where i died, too! i would do a roll facing the back, three chaine turns, then prep, and a leap to the floor again, where i was supposed to drag myself across into the wings. miss abby said it should be like i was jumping off something like a bridge or something like that, but i don't know why anyone would want to do that. 

"one, two, three, and four," miss abby counted out. "five, six, seven, an eight. come over here, closer to me. listen. alright, you're dancing, you're doing the steps, and you're trying to listen to the words. you're not interpreting the story correctly. and this is very serious because maybe there are people in the audience who have had a child gone missing. so you're gonna touch somebody's heart. so this has to be a very serious routine. and right now, you're just doing the steps, but we need to get past that, and you need to perform. do you three understand? its's very serious." miss abby said somberly, directing the last part at us. 

"you know what? matilda, i'm not sure this is the best place for you right now. mackenzie and vivi-anne are learning, they're soaking the information up. but it's going in through one ear and out through the other for you." she addressed me, but i didn't get why she hadn't expected this coming. kenzie's alright being away from her tablet, but all i kinda want to do right now is watch my nick junior shows. i just started to watch lazy town, and now i want a bubblegum pink bob haircut. but i guess that isn't important to miss abby right now. "your private with miss jennine doesn't start for another 15 minutes, but you're going to find her and tell her to teach you 'beautiful doll'." she finished.