Relevé to the Top

Chapter 1. The Competition Begins

Lexie Ziegler is the first to enter, her eyes widen at the sight of those around her. She took a seat right in front of Abby while her twin, Maddie sat to her left. It's the first meeting of the new season, and she's thrilled. She could barely sleep yesterday night, and she definitely didn't pay attention in class earlier in the day.

Once the girls were sitting in front of her, Abby began speaking. "Alright, girls, it's the first day of the new season. Ladies, you all know why you are here. You are the cream of the crop in your age group, and I have a lot of ideas in store. I am going to do something that no other studio in the country does. Every single competition, we are doing a new routine."

Surprised, Lexie's turns to her mom for assurance, she notices distractedly that she wasn't the only one.

Abby furiously snaps her fingers at them. "Uh-uh-uh-uh, girls, don't look at your mothers. I am the coach; I am the teacher. I can make you, or I can break you."

With a bit of struggle, Abby turns the blackboard beside her around to reveal some kind of pyramid. The bottom row was filled by headshots of Paige, Nia, and Mackenzie. The second row held Chloe and Brooke. At the top of the pyramid are Maddie and Lexie.

"Everybody wants to be on top, of course, but you have to work for it. Everybody wants to be front and center; I hear it all the time. You know what? Whoever is in the front, they can't make a mistake. They are holding that group together," Abby lectures. "So on the top right here I have Maddie and Lexie, because of their stellar record last here. Maddie, Lexie, are you ready to be front and center? Are you ready for that pressure?"

Both of them nod. Lexie more confident than Maddie.

"Good."

When Abby turned away from them, Maddie turned to her sister nervously. In return, Lexie squeezes her hand. 

Maddie and she are fraternal twins that could be mistaken for identical, except for one major thing. While Maddie's hair is a chocolate brown, Lexie's a vanilla blonde. And while both had blue eyes, Maddie's was more of a baby blue and Lexie's was more of an ice blue. Other than that, facial they look exactly alike. If you don't remember which twin has what you, may confuse them with each other.

Lexie didn't get why Maddie was nervous. The two of them were in the front more often than not. It wasn't anything new to them. Maybe it's cause we're going to be in front of all these cameras.

"Our first competition is going to be in Phoenix, Arizona. Ladies, I chose Phoenix, Arizona, because I want you to experience some of the best competition teams in the country. We're gonna do three new numbers. A high energy, really cute, adorable routine with Maddie, Lexie, Brooke, Chloe, Paige, and Nia. A trio with Maddie, Chloe, and Paige. Lexie, you will be doing a solo. Unfortunately, Mackenzie, you're too young to compete at West Coast, but you're still going to go with us anyway."

"Girls we are going to win in Phoenix and the next competition we're going to win and the next competition we're going to win, and that's all gearing up for nationals. So let's get to it. Moms, you can be dismissed. Girls, let's go to Nationals and bring home the winning trophy? All right."

As the moms head up, the girls spread out around the room with Lexie and Maddie in the front. Abby gave directions as Lexie and Maddie demonstrated for the other girls. After the girls were warmed up, Abby started them on the group routine.

In 's opinion, the group dance wasn't anything complicated. She could tell some of the other girls were having a hard time keeping up, but for her, she could do this routine in her sleep when she was four.

That night Lexie drags her little body up the stairs. "Nigh-" a yawn cuts her off, "Mads."

"Night, Lex," Maddie mumbles back to her, entering the room across. "Love you."