School of Rivalries

Chapter 5

I run immediately to the car and jump in the front seat.
"What the heck is wrong now?" Mom says, rolling her eyes. This happens everyday after dance.
"Well...I....They....I," I stutter, as I cry and take big short breaths in between, "they were all laughing at me and they pushed me..." I mumbled once I caught my breath.
"Oh my gosh Grace, please. You're not two. This is the world championship that your training for. If you can't take a little tension of fooling around in the studio, then you might as well not go."

"Well I-" I started to say, but I am saved by the bell as my sister jumps in the back seat after ten minutes. I turn around to look at her, but she's typing something on her phone. It was weird though, because usually when she's texting someone she's pretty relaxed, laughing at bits of the conversation, but this time she was frantically typing a message with fierce eyes. I shrug and turn around.

I look at mom. She looks annoyed. Now, I know what you're thinking. My mom is such a jerk! She favors Carie way more than me, she yells at me, and doesn't listen to my opinion. Well, you maybe right about the favoring thing, but my mom is not a jerk. You probably just don't understand that I don't tell her everything. My mom was a dancer, but in her studio, everyone was all nice and friendly, so she doesn't understand how our studio could possibly be any different. I've never told her the complete story, though. I've told her bits and pieces, (leaving out the occasional "Carie" parts) but I never told her how it happened. She just thinks that I don't have enough thick skin. She also thinks it's a dancing problem. I get that, especially the thicker skin part, but I feel like sometimes I can do nothing. With Carie around all the time, I mean. You have no idea how scary she is. She watches my every move like crazy, and doesn't take her eyes off me. In a bad way. She pushes me around for no reason. I don't know why.

A minute later I get a text.
Carie: