She's not me - Mackenzie Ziegler

Competition Day

My alarm beeped and I slammed my hand down on it. I could hear Maddie in her room getting dressed and ready to go. She always gets up earlier than me.

My mom knocked on my door before opening it and coming in. "Come on Kenzie, we're running late today," she says quietly. I get out of bed. I had a shower last night so I wouldn't have to have one at 5am on a saturday morning. Competition day.

We arrived at the dance studio to see all the other girls and moms waiting outside the bus with their dream duffels and suitcases. This was an important competition. Nationals, I had a chance to win a title and I couldn't wait.

I was about to sit next to Maddie but she pushed me out of the way and sat with Kendall, Paige and Chlo obviously sat together, Nia and Brooke were together, so I sat at the back of the bus on my own, and plugged my headphones in. 6 hours later we arrived at the competition.

We all found our dressing room and we all started getting ready for our group number. Makeup was simple; dark eyes, dark lipstick, and we then all got into our costumes and ran our dance. Every now and then Abby yelled 'Nia feet!' or 'Brooke, what's going on with your face?!' but overall it was okay.

When we were given a 2 minute stage call, we had to run to the side of the stage. Our moms and Abby went into the audience and watched. Our music came on and we did our dance. When we came off stage, none of us were really happy with what we did and we talked about what we did wrong on our way back to the dressing room.

Abby was already in there. "I'm not going to even talk about how that was. You were a hot mess. Maddie, Mackenzie and Chloe, get ready for your solos."

I was ready before Maddie or Chloe, because Chloe had really complicated makeup and Maddie and Mom were arguing about the back of her costume. Holly had to help me with my makeup because my mom was too busy with Maddie, as usual. But Holly then helped me run through my number and Kelly reminded me of the corrections that Abby told me yesterday. "Remember you three, you're all going for national titles! Chloe and Maddie, remember that you're in the same age division so you're competing against one another!" Abby yelled.

Someone knocked on the door and it opened. A woman with a headset popped her head through the door. "Mackenzie Ziegler, on in ten." I nod, and the moms and girls all head to the audience as I go to the edge of the stage.

Here we go...