Lack of Support

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At the Corinthian Sports School, some students were making props, and the cast was making costumes. Karen was trying on her Evil Mouse Queen costume. Normally, in the original ballet, there's a mouse king, but Miss Pamela decided to have a mouse queen instead.

"Great costume, Karen," Hugo smiled.

"Thanks," Karen smiled back. She couldn't resist acting like the Mouse Queen. "Now you are at my mercy, dearie!"

Sofia couldn't resist playing along. "Oh, Nutcracker, save me!" she cried out. "I'm at the mercy of the Mouse Queen!"

Everyone thought this was cute and funny.

"I'm so glad I chose to come to this school," Sofia smiled. "We may have done recitals and competitions and even the world championships when we were at Royal Prep, but we never got to perform an actual ballet on ice."

"This is going to be so much fun," Hugo beamed. His Nutcracker costume was all ready.

"Wow, your costume is beautiful, Hugo," Sofia gaped.

"Thanks," Hugo smiled.

"Great, now put it on, so you can be our model," Miss Pamela said. "We still have to make that nutcracker to look like you."

"Okay," Hugo nodded. He went to put on his costume.

It was late in the afternoon when the props and costumes were finished. Hildegard and Clio were just leaving when Sofia arrived back at the castle.

"Sofia, how was everything?" Clio asked.

"Just fine, and I think making that Nutcracker for the ballet was the hardest," Sofia said. "Hugo was standing so still for so long while they made a Nutcracker to look like him that he thought he'd turned into a statue."

"Poor Prince Hugo," Clio giggled. "Well, I'm looking forward to seeing that ballet."

"Thanks, I'll see you then," Sofia smiled.

Hildegard and Clio each got into their coaches, and they left for their home kingdoms. Amber was standing at the main castle entrance.

"Well, it took you long enough—you came just in time to say goodbye to Hildegard and Clio," Amber sniffed.

"Sorry, Amber, it took longer than I hoped it would," Sofia told her.

Amber wasn't too happy that Sofia was working this hard for the ballet. "Sofia, do you really have to work so much?" she fretted.

"Don't worry, Amber—Miss Pamela isn't pushing us to do our best, but we are doing our best anyway," Sofia told her.

"No, not that—you're spending too much time working on that ballet," Amber told her. "You haven't done anything with me at all."

Sofia looked at her sister, dumbfounded. "We had a tea party together yesterday, Amber," she frowned. "Listen to yourself—before we even graduated from Royal Prep, you said you had no time for me because you were too busy worrying about your future. Now you're complaining that I have to focus on my role for the ice-dancing ballet until then."

Amber remembered that, and she didn't like how Sofia pointed that out. "Oh, you wouldn't be working this much if you had gone to Ever Realm with me," she pouted. "But you had to pick the Corinthian Sports School because of Enchanted Ice-Dancing. Perhaps, if you were to pick a different school than me, you could've chosen either the Performing Arts Academy or the School of Royal Fashions—then you could've joined me, Hildegard, and Clio today!" She stormed back into the castle.

Sofia couldn't believe the way Amber was behaving. She didn't understand why her sister was like this.

For the whole weekend, Amber and Sofia didn't talk to each other.

On Monday, at the Corinthian Sports School, Sofia was pretty scarred by what Amber had said on Saturday. Garrick was helping Hugo put on his ice skates when the former saw that Sofia was a little unhappy.

"I wonder what's eating your girlfriend, champ," Garrick said.

Hugo turned and saw that his girlfriend was, indeed, sad. "Maybe I should see if she's okay," he suggested. He went over to his crestfallen girlfriend. "Sofie, what's wrong?"

"Oh, Amber and I had a bit of a fight on Saturday," Sofia replied.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Hugo asked.

"She's mad at me because I've been focusing on this ballet, and she's complained that I haven't done anything with her—and we even had a tea party on Friday," Sofia explained. "I reminded her of the time she said she had no time for me because she was busy studying to become queen, and that was before we even graduated from Royal Prep. That's when Amber snapped at me, saying that I should've picked Ever Realm Academy or at least either Clio's or Hildegard's schools."

"Oh, Amber," Hugo sighed. "Well, the ballet is next month, so we'll be done by then—and then there's the Wassalia party my family is hosting You and Amber should spend time then."

"I hope so," Sofia shrugged.

"Okay, let's get rehearsing," Miss Pamela said.

Sofia got on the ice and started her opening routine. She was making progress, but Amber's words echoed in her head, making her lose focus and fall down.

"Sofia, are you okay?" Miss Pamela asked.

"Yes, I was distracted," Sofia replied.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Miss Pamela asked.

Sofia explained what happened over the weekend. "I thought for sure Amber would be less selfish than she used to be now that we know she's going to be queen, but she really proved me wrong," she frowned.

"I'm sure she'll get over it, Sofia, especially since she herself is busy at Ever Real Academy," Garrick told her.

"Ready to try again?" Miss Pamela asked.

"Ready," Sofia smiled. She tried her routine again, but with Amber's words echoing in her head, it was hard for her to concentrate on her routine.

Everyone was making progress with their routines, but Sofia was scarred by what Amber had said on Saturday. Nobody was happy that this was happening because of Amber.

"Oh, dear," Miss Pamela sighed. "Sofia can't concentrate on her routine because of a fight with her sister, and we don't have anyone else to play Clara. If Sofia can't concentrate on her role, we might as well cancel the ballet."

All the students groaned in annoyance. Sofia was embarrassed that she couldn't concentrate on her role because of Amber.

"No offense, Sofia, but I totally blame that stepsister of yours," Karen frowned.

"Me, too," Linda joined in. "I can't believe Cinderella was able to tolerate her own stepsisters."

Sofia knew that her friends were right—Amber was to blame for her lack of concentration because she (Amber) made her feel bad for focusing on something for her school.

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