Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition-season of love?

Chapter 28

7:57 am main rehearsal hall

I started stretching out on the floor with Jordyn and Brianna next to me. We were trying to figure out this week's theme as Kevin and Abby walked in.

"Perfect timing." Jordyn whispered. I looked at Abby and noticed she had a witch hat on. Kevin stepped forward.

"Good morning everyone. You've done the princesses and fairies, but you've ignored the most important characters." He introduced. We all cocked our heads.

"The villains." Abby snarled.

"Your theme is "Happy Never After" , and your skill this week is individuality. Anthony will teach you your group challenge and we'll be back in forty five minutes. Good luck." Kevin finished and we began working. The more we rehearsed the challenge, the more I got into it. The past six rounds the judges have thought that I was forgettable but still kept me here, so now I have to prove they kept me for a reason.

"Alright, I hate to interrupt, but it's my job!" Kevin laughed. "Abby, take your pick."

"First I want to see everyone together." We did the challenge as a whole and she stood there for a minute. "Asia, the technique isn't there. Back to the barre." Asia scurried back. "Jordyn, same for you," Jordyn started to walk back to the barre, "but you're improving. I watched you turn out your feet, but I also watched you keep your ankles above the ground when you were on the floor. But very nice job." Abby complimented. Jordyn smiled and joined Asia.

"Hadley and Amanda." The two danced and Hadley was clearly out of it. Abby noticed as well and sent her away.

"Madison, Brianna, and Amanda." The three of us danced and I put everything into it.

"Brianna, you looked at the ground the whole time. Head on back." She sent Brianna away.

"One more time ladies." I was up against one of my strongest competitors and she really put up a fight. "Alright I've seen enough. Madison, you are the winner of this challenge." Abby awarded me, and I was beaming.

"Congratulations Madison. Amanda, please join the other girls and mom come up and join her!" Kevin instructed and Amanda touched my arm on the way back and mouth "congratulations" to me. My mom stood behind me and I could feel her smile. "So this week, you have two rewards. You will be the lead in a group dance that will start the show, portraying a sweet innocent child getting sucked into the dark fairytales." Kevin announced. I smiled, excited that I get a lead in the group dance!

"That's not all- you'll also have a duet, with Amanda. You'll be Snow White and Amanda will be the Evil Witch." Abby finished. They both left and everyone hugged me.

"So are you the only one that's not a villain?" Hadley asked me.

"Um, I guess? You know as much as I do!" I shrugged and walked over to my mom. "My face wasn't dead! They noticed me!" I said excitedly.

"I know! I'm very proud of you. Keep it up for the competition." She handed me my water bottle.

"Assignments are up!"

Mirror, Mirror(Kitty): Madison and Amanda
I'm Melting(Ricky): Asia
Scary Fairy(Anthony): Hadley
To Grandmothers House(Gina): Brianna
If the Shoe Fits(Molly): Jordyn

In our duet, Amanda is the Evil Witch and is supposed to try to attack me, but it's so funny to us because Amanda is literally the last person who would do that and she keeps smiling, which makes me laugh.

"Girls! Come on!" Kitty groaned. We took a deep breath and ran it from the top. We started laughing at the exact same spot. "Let's take a five." Kitty sighed, and hopped off the stage and ran to our moms, who had water waiting for us.

"Mads, you've got to stop laughing." My mom said sternly.

"Mom, it's so funny. Amanda tries to look serious and she looks constipated!" I laughed and Amanda laughed along.

"It's true, I do."

"Well, Snow White would be scared of the constipated witch." My mom reminded me. I smiled and nodded as I headed back to the stage. We spent about two more hours cranking out this routine and working on our facials. Kitty brought out a mirror and we sat in front of it and instead of dancing to the music, we just used our faces. After doing that twice, we ran the number again and Kitty told us it was noticeably better.

I walked into the bathroom before lunch and found Hadley having what looked like a panic attack. I ran up to her and grabbed her hands.

"Hey, hey, hey. Take a deep breath. Talk to me. What's happening?" I tried to calm her down.

"I-I've been in t-the bottom t-twice in a r-row and I-I-I..." she trailed off. I grabbed a paper towel and put some cold water on it. I gently pressed it to her forehead to cool her down.

"Shh, it's okay. Everyone has bad weeks. Really, they do." I pulled her hair back into a ponytail.

"B-b-but not t-t-his bad." She said in between sobs.

"My mom saw your solo rehearsal earlier. She said you looked great." I tried to assure her.

"I j-just can't go h-home." She started to steady her breathing.

"So don't give them a reason to send you. You haven't yet, right?" I gave her a hug, she calmed down, and we left to eat our feelings away.

In group rehearsal, Asia was falling way behind, and causing everyone to become annoyed- especially the moms. About an hour in, some of the moms started making side comments, which caused Kristie to start yelling, and rehearsal to end early. I rolled my eyes and grabbed my bag.

"This is ridiculous. If she doesn't get it, and the moms are mad about it, it shouldn't be our problem." I whispered to my mom.

"I know, but it makes for good TV. At least you finished it this time. " She sighed as we exited the building. I stood in the warm summer air and looked up at the night sky. Our car rolled up and Mark opened the door. I smiled at him and climbed in. The ride to the hotel was silent.

"How was the rest of the day?" My mom asked me once we were inside the room.

"Story time." I curled up onto the couch, in my pajamas.

"Oh I love story time." My mom sighed sitting down next to me.

"Well, I went to the bathroom and Hadley was in there having a full blown meltdown, like she couldn't get words out. She's so stressed out because she's been called roadkill and told she's not as good as Amanda, after dancing with her! Which is ridiculous, because she might not be there technically but there's no way Asia's as good as Amanda, but none of them have told her that!" I huffed.

"Mhm. Asia's facials are amazing, but her technique isn't there. They've said it, they haven't done anything about it." My mom agreed. I nodded and rolled my eyes. "Also, Asia's dancing with like a garbage bag- as a skirt- that's the size of the stage." My mom informed me.

"What? That's crazy! Why would they do that?" I asked her.

"No clue, but the dance is technical and the prop is bigger than her." My mom shrugged. I shook my head.

"It's my first lead in the group dance and it got cut short." I complained.

"That's not really her fault though. That's the mothers who got bored and wanted to fight." My mom defended.

"I guess. Well, I've throughly enjoyed story time tonight, but I'm going to go to bed early and take advantage of the arguing mothers." I hugged her good night and crawled into my bed.