When Love Takes You In (Jennifer Lawrence)

Country Girl Remix

Genesis' POV

Today is my very first dance competition!  I'm in a trio with Tessa and Chloe.  Even though they have been in dance way longer than me, I moved up to their level in about a month.  Yep, a month has passed.  It sure doesn't feel that way though.  It's the beginning of October and I'm so excited.  We start touring for Catching Fire in at the end of the month.  I'm also excited for Halloween.  I'm not sure what I want to be, but I do know that I was invited to go to a Halloween party with Chloe and Tessa.  This boy in my class, Trevor, invited us and said it was gonna be awesome.  So we're super excited. 

I'm on my way to the competition and Tessa, Chloe and I can't stop talking about how excited we are.  The dance studio has an awesome competition bus.  A bus we only use for when we travel to competitions.  There are other girls in our class, but just like school, we all have our groups.  We were gawking at how awesome our costumes turned out.  Our dance was to a remix of 'Country Girl Shake It For Me' by Luke Bryan.  We had a pink flannel tank and black fringe shorts.  We even special ordered theses black dance boots and hat.  We obviously weren't wearing the boots now.  The coach would kill us!  I had my hair in two low and curled pig tails.

"Ladies, we are here!" the driver announced.  We all screamed and hollered in excitement.  When we got off the bus I ran to find Jen and Liz.  Josh had stayed behind with Stella at the house since this was going to be an all day thing.  Jen and Liz were pretty much like my personal assistants today.  They were going to touch up my hair when needed and Liz was going to do my makeup.  She knew how to do really good stage makeup.

"Alright, your dressing room with Tessa, Chloe, and Emily is on the left of this hallway.  I found the door because I saw Emily, a girl from my class, go in that room.  When I came in with Jen and Liz there were mixed emotions.  My dance friends were happy to see me, but their parents were gawking at Jen and Liz.  "Gen come on, we gotta get your stage makeup done." Liz said as I got into the chair.  "Hey Jen?  Do you have an eyeliner we can use?" Chloe's mom asked.  Jen dug through the bag and handed her the black eyeliner.

I sat still for about forty-five minutes while Liz did my makeup.  After that we had less than twenty minutes until the first performance went on.  Tessa, Chloe and I were the fifth performance.  "Hey, we're gonna go get our seats.  Good luck!  Love you." Jen said as she went for the door.  "Break a leg ladies!  Actually no, you're dancers you don't wanna break a leg.  Well, just do good!" Liz said as she left with Jen.

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Wow, five minutes until show time.  Tessa, Chloe, and I were in the left wing waiting for our turn.  We were watching the other troupe of girls doing a dance  to 'Applause' by Lady GaGa.  When they ended, they bowed and exited the stage.  They high fived us as they passed us.  It didn't matter they were from a different dance studio.  We all knew to respect each other.  When the curtains closed on the stage we rushed to our positions.  I was in the middle with Chloe and Tessa at my left and right.

"Next up, our intermediate jazz trio from California Horizon Gymnastics and Dance Academy.  Chloe  Abbring, Genesis Lawrence, and Tessa Smith!" the announcer said through the microphone.  The crowd hollered for us as the curtain opened.  I could distinctly hear Jen and Liz's hollers over everyone else.  I kept a straight face.  I remember the dance coach saying, 'Don't smile until your cue.  Keep those facials.'  When the music started, boy were we ready.

We danced our hearts out on that stage.  I didn't drop my leg on a turn a piroutte a single time.  I didn't stop a turn early.  I didn't miss any moves.  It was awesome.  As we ended the dance we did what we learned watching the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.  Leg over the next person's back, bow down, let down the leg, smile, split jump, arm tilted to the sky.

"Way to go Genny!" I heard Jen and Liz yell.  We stood back up and bowed.  When the curtain closed we exited the stage.  Our dance coach was right there.  "Girls!  That was fantastic!  You learned that split jump just a few days ago when we added it last minute.  You nailed it!  I'm so happy for you!" she gushed.  "Thanks Miss Ally." we said as we left the stage.  We had to stick around for the rest of the competition.  I hoped that the judges liked us.  It would be so cool if we won!

+++

"And now can we please have our intermediate jazz troupes on stage please?" the judge asked.  Tessa, Chloe and I had changed into our judging outfits.  We had on our neon pink studio jackets with our names on the back, our white leggings with the neon pink stripe down the side, and our white dance shoes.  Our hair had been pulled into high ponytails with white bows around them.  We held each other's hands as we waited for the results.  There were seven acts on the stage.   Only three were awarded.

"Our third place winner...Frankie Dixon, Kendall Terence, and Julie Taylor of Hollywood Dance School!" the judge said.  A group a few down from us smiled and hugged each other.  "Second place goes to...Chloe Abbring, Genesis Lawrence, and Tessa Smith of California Horizon Gymnastics and Dance Academy!" the judge announced.  We hugged each other and smiled.  We were so happy!  We didn't win the category, but we placed!  The judge called the first place winner and we knew thy deserved it.  They had an awesome routine to 'Heart Attack' by Demi Lovato.

We exited the stage and the judges handed us our medals and trophies.  We each got a second place trophy, and two medals.  One for 'Most Original' and one for 'Best Costume'.  When we got to meet back up with our families, I quickly found Jen and Liz.  "Okay I'll applaud you in a minute.  Paparazzi found us.  We gotta go." Jen said.  I nodded and picked my dance bag up off the floor.  We quickly left the building.  The paparazzi had followed us and I could already imagine the captions.  

"Jennifer Lawrence with daughter Genesis Lawrence and Elizabeth Banks were seen leaving 'Granger Events Center' after a dance competition."

"Genesis Lawrence leaving her dance competition with a second place win."

"JLaw with daughter out in Cali."

You know what?  I'm not gonna let it bother me.  I had fun today.  I went out with my friends and family.  I won second place in a competition.  I had a good day.  And no amount of celebrity crazed people with cameras are gonna take that away from me today.