UPSIDE DOWN. (aldc)

two

It was finally 12:35 which meant that my mom was on her way to pick Kaylee and I up early so we could head to the studio run the routines one more time, grab a bite to eat, and then head home to grab our bags.

"Can I have Kaylee Reid and Katie Cohen to the office for early dismissal please." I hear from the loud speakers as my 2nd period class started to pack up their things for lunch.

I walk out the class to see the hallways totally empty expect Kaylee walking down the hall to her locker. I join her and press my back against the cold metal of the lockers while Kaylee twist the lock to reveal the contents of her locker.

"I'm so happy we got to leave early!" Kaylee says to me as she grabs her backpack and fills it with homework from her classes she will miss.

"I know right how often is it that we get to skip school because of dance." I reply back to her and she throws on the strap of her backpack over her shoulder.

"Actually now that I think I about it pretty often." She says lifting her eyes up as if she thinking about it

"True." I said as we head over towards my locker to get all my homework and books. As I was finally all packed we heard another announcement over the loud speakers indicating it was 5 minutes until lunch break. We begin walking towards the front office which is past the guiding office and right before the cafeteria. I see my mom signing us out as we open the door causing the bell to ring right above it. My mom turns her head and smile as we say goodbye to the office ladies and head out the main entrance.

Kaylee, My mom, And I all walk towards our red town and country minivan in silence while hearing the kids trample down the hallways for lunch. Kaylee and I exchange relived glances towards each other as we can tell that we barely missed all the kids filing out into the halls and to their lockers. We finally make it to the car and we slide the door open as we hop into the middle row and my mom gets into the drivers seat. We place our bags in the back and get our seatbelts on before asking my mom the plan for the rest of the day.

"Well I was thinking we could stop at Jimmy Johns and get lunch and then head to the studio and I'll drop Kaylee off at home and we can go and pack." She says to us both looking through the review mirror.

We simply nod our heads to the plan and slip our headphones in our ears to drown out to music. Of course me being the perfectionist I was I was listening to my solo music to make sure I had all the timing figured out. After a while of listening to my solo music I switched to my regular playlist and listened as "Fools by Troye Sivan" flowed into my ears.

15 minutes later we arrive at jimmy johns and we take our seatbelts off and walk to the front door. Walking inside we are immediately greeted by the smell of warm bread and cookies. We walk over to the line and glance at the menu trying to decide what we were going to eat. I decide on a totally tuna sandwich with no tomatoes and a medium Pepsi, Kaylee gets a turkey Tom sandwich with a medium lemonade, And my mom gets a big John sandwich with a medium sprite. After ordering our food we walk over to the booths and find a place to sit Kaylee and I on one side and my mom on the other.

"I can't believe you girls are going up against the ALDC." My mom says making us look up from our phones.

"I cant believe that Katie is going up against Maddie and Kendall." Kaylee replies nudging my arm and giving me a smile.

I give them both a small nod and look back down at my phone. Suddenly I hear "Order 274 please come up!" And my mom and I get up to get the trays of food. We walk back to the table and we all chow down making little comments on how good our sandwiches are. After eating we all head to the studio to get practicing for the competition. Kaylee and I pull out our dance clothes and put them into our dance bags, we had to change as soon as we got into the studio.

We drive for a little while longer until we pull into the familiar parking lot of Central City Dance. We grab our bags and head through the door stoping to say hi to Ms.Neils at the front door. I rush into the changing room to peel off my leggings shirt and bralette and change into black booty shorts and a white and black bra top (shown in above image.)

When I'm done changing I go into the first studio to practice my solo which was entitled "summer rain." It was really different from the other routines and it showcased all my tricks perfectly. Even though I was going all the way to LA and there are tons of amazing dancers there including the ALDC, I knew that I was a good dancer and that I could make it in the top five.

"Okay Katie let's get stared with your solo." My main dance teacher Mrs.fowler said from the corner of the room.

I walk to the middle of the floor and wait for the music to start so I could dance. As soon as the music played the motions instantly flowed through me fan kick, grand jeté, triple pirouette, slide down to the floor, pull in knees, show sad face to the crowd, forward roll, stand up, arabesque,barrida, lá second turn, etc.
As the music begins to die down I slide into my ending position sitting on the floor looking over my shoulder. I hear clapping coming from Mrs.Fowler and I get up to hug her. She tells me that my routine looked flawless and that I was definitely going to rock it at the competition.

"Girls it's time for the group routine." Mrs.Fowler calls into the hallway towards the dance lounge.

I hear shuffling as my 6 other teammates file into the studio to practice the group routine entitled "Snow White" the costume was a beautiful white color and we used a apple as a prop. The whole dance was basically someone dressed in a black evil costume trying to give the lead who plays Snow White an apple but the other team members know that the apple is poison so they try to fight off the person in the black and tell Snow White not to eat it but in the end Snow White eats the apple. It was a really fun dance and it required a lot of acting but I was happy that I got to play Snow White.