~You talk of the pain like it's all alright, but I know that you feel like a piece of you's dead inside~
Eva Carter, a young girl with a passion for dance, auditions for the reality TV show 'Dance Moms' and makes it on. Will she win or will she lose?
"Let's go girls," Abby calls as we come into the audio, "Vivianne, where's your dance clothes?"
"It's in the car," Vivi says.
"You need to be dressed and ready to dance when you walk in these doors," Abby tells Vivi who just nods.
"Let's recap the competition," Abby says, "Some things went on that maybe you don't even know about. Nia, your mom was upset about the costume and so was your mom, Chloe. But that cannot happen again. Eva, your mom was MIA from Thursday on. Megan, I'm not blaming you at all now that I know what happened, but do you wanna tell everyone why?"
I bite my lip. This is gonna be hard for my mom to say. "Yeah, sure," Mom says, "My two year old son, Charlie, was diagnosed with brain cancer on Thursday." After hearing this, everyone goes silent and Christi and Holly immediately go to hug my mom and Kelly and Melissa follow suit. Brooke scoots over and hugs me, then Chloe, Paige, Maddie, Nia, and Kenzie do. Cathy and Vivi kinda just stand there awkwardly.
"Are you gonna be okay to continue pyramid?" One of the producers asks my mom and she nods.
"Alright," Abby says, "Let's talk about this weekend. We are going to New Jersey and we are going to do an acrobatic gymnastics routine. Brooke, I expect you to help the younger students and I expect you to know the choreography first and help everybody else. Vivianne because you are new here and you don't know all of our terminology, I'm gonna work privately with you this week and so you're gonna do a solo. Moms thank you, girls, start stretching."
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Group Rehearsal
We start to learn the group routine and it's really fun. I love acro, but Abby never lets me do acro solos; maybe now that we are on TV she'll give me one. Abby knows I'm pretty good at acro, so she puts me in the front row with Brooke, which means she thinks I'm actually good!
Kelly comes in and starts asking Abby why Brooke's not at the top of the pyramid the week of an acro dance which I was wondering too. Gia keeps working with us on the dance, trying to distract us from Kelly and Abby's fight. ____________ Group Rehearsal
"Girls," Abby says, before we start the number, "Does anyone know where Paige and Brooke are? Why are they late?" We all shrug and shake our heads.
Abby starts teaching us more of the number without Paige and Brooke. The two end up walking in only ten minutes late.
"You guys are late," Abby says to them, "You need to go up there and warm up. Watch what we've done so far."
The dance is coming together good in my opinion, but I don't think Abby thinks it is. I really love acro so much, I love this number! ____________ Group Rehearsal
"Whenever you're near a big city, New York City, New Jersey, the kids are gonna be amazing. Got it? So give me a high five," Abby says and we all high five her.
We are learning the end of the piece and Brooke keeps looking up at the dance jail.
"Brooke, stop looking at your mother," Abby says, "I am the coach, look at this, your knees bent, your supporting foot isn't turned out. Let's go girl, did you come here to dance or to play?" We keep working the number and it's so fun! I love acro!
"Brooke, what's wrong?" Abby asks when Brooke just randomly stops dancing.
"My hip hurts," Brooke says. Abby allows her to leave to go up to her mom. ____________ Competition Day
Mom and I finally get to the studio and I spring out of the car to go get a seat on the bus. I take my usual spot next to Chloe and we watch random stuff on her laptop until she falls asleep.
Brooke keeps complaining about her hip hurting. Abby calls me and Brooke over.
"Eva, Brooke," Abby calls, "I need you over here." The two of us stand up and maneuver our way over the stuff in the aisle to Abby's seat, "Eva, if Brooke isn't able to do this number, you are gonna be our featured performer, okay? During Brooke's solo parts, you would do some acro improv, okay?" I nod and look at Brooke.
____________ Eva's Interview "I really hope Brooke is able to do this number because I don't want to have to think of some improv for this last minute. I'm not used to having to improv at a competition, I do it for practice where it won't matter if I mess up," I say. ____________
We finally get to the competition. Normally, we get to a comp the night before, but today we are only here two hours early and I'm really stressed. We start getting our costumes, makeup, and hair done. Abby wants us all ready before Vivi's solo. Some people come into the dressing room and then we find out that Cathy changed Vivi's solo to something Abby didn't choreograph. Uh oh, bad decision Cathy. Abby's gonna be mad. Then Abby and Cathy go out into the hallway.
We all go to the audience to watch Vivi's solo. Vivi's solo isn't very technically difficult, but she's really cute, so that makes up for it. I can hear Cathy counting to her from the wings though which is kinda weird but whatever. Vivi ends up getting seventh.
"Congrats," The announcer says, "Who taught you this number?"
"Cathy Jean Nesbitt-Stein," Vivi says.
"What studio do you dance for?"
"Candy Apples Dance Center," Vivi says.
I'm shocked. Why didn't she say Abby's name and studio? We go back to the dressing room.
"Alright, we will see you guys later," Cathy says as she starts to pack up.
"Are you leaving?" Holly asks.
"You're leaving," Abby asks, shocked.
"Yeah, we are leaving," Cathy says, "We have a long drive home. Much longer than you guys."
"But we all came early to watch Vivi-Anne," Abby says.
"I know, I know,". Cathy says, "So we want to wish you guys good luck! I know you'll do a great job."
"Good job, Vivi," I say as they walk out the door because I didn't get to say it earlier.
"Glad we woke up at six o'clock to come watch her kid," Kelly says.
"Try five," Mom says.
"Yeah, we got up at five," Melissa says.
"I'm offended," Christi says.
Now it's time for our group, but right before Brooke starts complaining about her hip again. I really feel bad and I hope she's okay. We go backstage and wait to go on. They announce us and we all go on. Brooke starts off the number with a backflip and then I do a back handspring and fall in line with the rest of the girls as I'm not the lead. I think we do a really, really good job. This is definitely my favorite dance we've done so far. ____________ Awards
We get a special judges award for something I didn't hear.
"Third place, 225, Melody's Symphony! Second place, Pages of my Letters! And in first place, Ups and Downs, Abby Lee Dance Company!" The announcer says and we all jump up to get our award. It's our first win of the season and on the show!
"Who is teaching you so well?" He asks.
"Miss Abby," Chloe says.
"Miss Abby, you got great dancers up here," The announcer says, "Now, are all of you girls really best friends?"
"Of course," Chloe says, putting her arm around my shoulder which makes the audience laugh.
