East of Eden, Dance Moms

003. Cheerleader Blues

On a sunny weekend morning, Lauryn padded into the kitchen. Her hair was damp from a morning shower, she had on a bathrobe and her moist feet tracked prints that evaporated quickly on the hardwood floor. She walked over to her two daughters, that sat at the table silently, becoming familiar with the morning chill, coming slowly out of sleep. Lauryn placed her hand on Francesca's head and leaned over to place a chaste kiss on Celeste's cheek. "Morning."

They replied in hoarse, tired voices, though Celeste was more awake than Francesca, a brightness already in her eye. Francesca's hair was untidily in a bun, her bonnet probably having had fallen off sometime in the night, as her mother would claim she was a notoriously bad sleeper and unknowingly kicked her sheets while unconscious. Celeste looked similarly to her sister; brown eyes, small, pink lips, her head covered in her bonnet but small dark curls escaping out by the silky-red frilly hems.

Lauryn came up behind Dante, who stood by the stovetop frying eggs, and placed her hands on his shoulders; leaning up high on the tips of her toes, she put her lips close to the nape of his neck. "Good morning," she said.

He turned to face her, a smile on his lips. "Morning." He slid a palm down her back and kissed her full on the lips— long, slow, messy and voluptuous. When he came up for a breath, she moved back with a sweet, dizzy smile. Lauryn removed her arms and moved to search the cabinet for coffee and two mugs. Dante took his with creamer, and while Lauryn was pouring it in, he turned off the flame and began scooping food onto plates. A pitcher of orange juice was out on the table; plates of toast, eggs, bacon; the smell of black coffee mingling well with bergamot and the white roses in a curved porcelain vase by the table.

Dante was the last to take his seat. They joined hands, Lauryn being the one to say a prayer, everyone else listening intently with squeezed eyes and mumbling amen at the end.

"Chessa, did that girl ever apologize to you?" Lauryn took a bite of her toast.

Francesca, tired, hungry, and in no shape to express any signs of discomfort, bit down on her bacon, and said: "Yeah, she gave me a note too. I think everything's okay now, maybe we'll even be friends."

"Well, I wouldn't recommend that but I would love it if you two were cordial," Dante said.

"What's cordial?"

"She's nice to you, you're nice back. You're friendly but you don't have to be friends. Friends are people you trust."

Francesca shrugged. "Okay, I just want her to be nice to me."

"We want that too," Lauryn said. She rested her elbow on the table, leaning her cheek against her palm and shifted her eyes over to Celeste. "Elle, how's ballet? Do you like it? Are you having fun?"

Celeste stopped chewing, her cheeks full and resembling that of a squirrel harvesting nuts for a restful hibernation. "Yeah!" She sputtered out a small cough, to which Dante leaned over and tapped her back until it stopped, and she swallowed harshly. "It's fun and I made friends with this new girl, her names Rina."

"That's good," said Lauryn, sipping on her coffee. She looked at Dante, her eyes amused behind her mug. "You know Abby pulled me aside and started questioning me on where Celeste has been, so I told her that she's doing more ballet classes, and she got so— I don't know— offended that I don't bring her to the ALDC to train." She turned to Celeste. "Is that something you'd want— to dance with Abby or competitively."

"I like where I dance," Celeste said. "I don't know if I want to be away from home all the time."

"I don't want you to be away from home all the time either, then I'll be all alone," Dante said. "Chessa's performing all over now."