Full Out

Chapter 3: Game Day (part 2)

We strutted out the room and we heard people calling out to us "Okay Ladies", "Looking good dolls" and other things of that nature. "Calm down and get your heads in the game you act like yall don't see them every damn day" Trey called out "Now let's get it and let's go," he said.

We made our way out the building and saw the faces of people lined up along the sidewalks to cheer us on as we made our way to the stadium. As I walked I heard my name and slightly glanced to the side and saw a group of my friends "Okaaaay Zoey" they yelled and that just boosted me up. My smile got bigger and I went harder than I was before, Ava threw out the next count and I almost missed it but I got my head back to what I was doing.

This is what I loved everyone screaming and boosting us up, I tried to look around for my family but I couldn't risk missing a count so I kept my eyes forward. We finally made it to the stadium and the announcer called us out "Look what we have here the beautiful dolls of SU, show them what you working with ladies" he said. I watched Ava's for our next call even though I knew which one she was going to do and it was my favorite, a complex show stopper.

My hair was flipping and I made sure my body was moving as smooth as it could. They were still screaming for us and I was on an adrenaline high, I finally got the chance to semi catch my breath as we got ready for the tunnel. My hand was on my hip and made sure I was serving the perfect amounts of sweet and sassy to the crowd.

Forget the football team, I think all eyes were on us and I was loving it. Near us was the cheerleading team and I saw Jasmine "Go Best Freind" she was yelling and cheering for me. It was crazy how peppy she became on game days but her energy was great. The band was playing "Big Ballin" so we had to kill this one as we went through, to our seats. We finally made it to our bleachers and sat down after a few more eight counts.

As we sat down a few of the forever dolls, including my mother came over quickly to fix our hair and anything else that may have became displaced on the way here. As soon as I saw my mom I smiled big and waited for her to get to me, "Hey mom" I said "Be quiet Zoey, you were one count off on the way in and I saw you step with the wrong foot, keep your arm movements straight and fluid, shit Zo your embarrassing me out there" she roughly adjusted my outfit and flipped my hair back before moving to the next girl.

My smile dropped a little but then I remembered that I was still performing and a started to smile again. I loved to dance but I honestly went 10x harder than most girls just to make my family proud, there was no way I could be the one to ruin my families legacy.

Soon the music started again and it was time to get up and perform again I looked down and saw my mother staring at me disappointedly. I thought I was doing great but she kept shaking her head at me, it got to the point that she was doing the dances and trying to show me what to do. I was doing way more than going full out but for my mom it still wasn't enough.

We sat back down and I heard somebody behind me whisper "Calm down or you're going to tire yourself out before halftime Zoey". I nodded but I knew that wasn't an option "Can you stand that rain" started to play and I knew this was my chance to impress my mom because I worked so hard on this one stand. It was a sort of slow song so I made my body movements match the beat, I put my seductive face on and lost myself in the song. At the end, I did one of the best heel stretches that I had ever done and took my seat. I looked down at my mom with a beaming smile but I saw her roll her eyes, shake her head and walk away.

Tears built up in my eyes but I had to keep a smile on my face, I couldn't let anyone see me hurting but I couldn't contain the tears for long but I didn't dare drop my smile. "Zoey bitch you killed it, you proved Ava wrong about you not being to able to do that one" somebody told me. I wanted to look over and thank her but I couldn't let her see me crying so I nodded and kept my head forward. This was how it had been since my mother first started teaching me to dance when I was in elementary school, she would call the dance and I would do the best I could until she got pissed enough to walk away.

By the end of the game, I had pushed the incident out of my mind and we made our way back to the dance room and began to undress. My mother and some of the other alumni walked into the practice room "Hey Mrs. Ross" we all said to my mother. She walked past me and kind of bumped my shoulder "excuse me babydoll" she rudely stated before going to the front of the room "I have some great news dolls" she said.

Everyone knew that my mother and father donated a lot of money to our dance program so whenever my mom came in we knew something good was going to happen. "Mr. Ross and I won some very big cases over the past few weeks so we have decided to donate $5,000 to get you those new uniforms you were looking at" she said. All the girls got up and jumped around excitedly but I stayed quiet because I knew mom was not happy with me.

Taylor looked at me and rolled her eyes "must be used to your mom and dad showering you money that this isn't even exciting to you" she said but I didn't say anything back I just began to pack my bags and get ready for a lecture. "Zoey lets get dinner" my mom told me and we both went to her new shiny black Mercedes Convertible. "Don't scratch my fucking paint with that bag Zoey" she said sternly before getting in. I sat down in my seat and she pulled off, not even two minutes later she started her rant. "Why the hell did I bother all those extra dance classes for you if you're not even going to use the information they gave you, not to mention that you're a fourth generation and we've been preparing you for this your whole life. You look like a below mediocre dancer from a broke high school. You had no facial expressions, your hair was stiff as hell, and you moved like you have no rhythm. The other forever dolls were out there and you had the nerve to perform like that. When you do shit like this Zoey you make me wish I had another daughter and maybe she would do things right"

I started to feel the tears again "Mom I was giving it everything I had", I told her "ZOEY ELYSE ROSS don't you start with those crocodile tears "and if that's everything you have then you need to quit because that was terrible" she said, but her rant was nowhere near over I just blocked her out for the rest of the ride.