Dance, Dance, Drama?

N o t F a i r

No one was truly surprised when Abby decided to start her day with the trio, it was one of two dances that contained Amelia. Abby, however, had left the studio while the girls were stretching, she had to take a call. In the empty studio, the three girls were warming up in an akward silence. It wasn't that the didn't like each other, well, Pressley wasn't particularly attatched to Amelia, but it was more because they had really never worked together. Sure, they were in group dances together, but other than that they hadn't really connected. Even Sarah, who Amelia would say was one of her closer friends on the team, was really more Max's friend than anything. 

But Amelia had promised Max that she would at least try to make friends, even if it scared her, "I thought you guys did really well last week," Her voice was so quiet that Sarah and Pressley almost missed it, not used to the sound of her voice, "I thought you guys deserved first place, it was really good," Amelia kept her eyes on the ground, not wanting to see how the other two were reacting, fearful they would judge her.

Sarah just gently smiled at Amelia, it was always difficult to get Amelia without Max and even more to get her to talk when he wasn't around, so Sarah ecstatically responded, "Thanks! I really thought we were gonna win our category, but it doesn't matter!" Amelia was shocked by that, hearing an Abby dancer saying it didn't matter if they won was incredibly jarring, especially considering Abby's attitude.

"It does matter, Sarah! We should have won!" Pressley herself looked surprised that she injected with such vigour. She knew that Gia wouldn't like that she was talking to Amelia, she wasn't happy that she was even in a dance with her! But she knew that she couldn't completely ignore Amelia, that would be going too far. Pressley looked at Sarah before continuing, "We worked really hard, and we were clearly the best duet!" She paused before looking at Amelia, "Lyrical duet, I mean," Amelia finally met Pressley's eyes, and she was taken aback by the sincerity spilling out of them. Sure, Pressley seemed sweet, but she wasn't exactly head of the welcoming committee for Amelia. 

Just as Amelia opened her mouth to respond, Abby rolled into the room, determination rolling off her in waves. She quickly clapped her hands together, "Okay! Are we all stretched?" She barely waited for the girls to answer before swiftly moving on, "Good, because we have a lot of work to do, and not a lot of time to do it! So let's get started!" And with that, Abby started choreographing quickly, leaving no time to waste.

|| Trios are some of the hardest dances to do! They require a lot of time and attention, and we don't have much of either! Especially when these three have never really danced together before! || - Abby Lee Miller

"This dance is pretty, it's delicate and it should wow the judges!" The three girls quickly nodded, eager to fully get started, "The judges should love it! It's three pretty girls doing a pretty dance, judges always love that," The girls smiled, already feeling good with their chances to win, "But it only works if it's done well! If you're techniques off or you're out of sync, this whole dance is sunk!" All the girls had completely different reactions. Pressley's face soured, knowing that Abby wasn't the world's biggest fan of her technique. Sarah nodded thoughtfully, smiling at the challenge being presented to her. And Amelia gnawed on her lip, already feeling the pressure.

The trio was going quite smoothly, Sarah and Pressley had a natural rhythm and chemistry that had developed and Amelia gelled well with them, really enjoying the slow, almost balletic quality of the routine. Abby, however, wasn't as impressed. She had intentionally left a lot of room for individual choreography, mimicking how water rarely did the same thing, except there was one challenge. Whilst Sarah and Amelia excelled at acro, Pressley was a little bit of a different story. She was bad, but she certainly wasn't at Sarah and Amelia's level, which infuriated Abby, "Pressley! Can you do anything remotely flexible?" It wasn't the first time that Abby had asked Pressley this question, but with each time the level of passive aggression rose, "C'mon Pressley! Give me something to work with! Anything!" Clearly, Abby's words were getting to the young girl, who had tears welling up in her eyes, very affected by the belittlement she was receiving.