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Chapter 5. Dying to Dance

Monday afternoon, Lexie could be found in school impatiently waiting for her class to end.

Feeling someone tap her on the back, Lexie turns around slightly. Not wanting to attract her teacher's attention, she speaks quietly. "Yeah, Nancy?"

"Can you come over Friday?" Nancy asks. "We can have a sleepover."

Lexie shakes her head. "I can't. We have regionals this week."

Nacy frowns in disappointment. "Oh."

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

"We have a huge break after this competition, so I can come next week," she offers.

Nancy shrugs. "Maybe."

Lexie sighs. She's eight, of course, she wants to hang out with her friends. It was hard sometimes, choosing dance over hanging out with her friends but things like Cesar recruiting her and Maddie to go on Broadway made it all worth it in her mind.

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"I wanna talk about this upcoming weekend," Abby starts. "It's regional. Everybody knows how important that is. You know that's one of the toughest competitions out there. This is what's gonna happen this weekend. Lexie, new solo. Maddie, new solo. Brooke, new solo. Chloe, new solo. Now the age categories are a little different, so we want to make sure that your dances reflect you as a dancer now and not at the beginning of the season.

We are doing a new group routine, and everybody's in it, the enter cast. It is called, 'Where Have All the Children Gone.' This is a routine about children who have gone missing. You've all seen the children's faces on the milk carton. It's contemporary, it's mature, and it is very dark. You have to be great actresses to pull it off," she looks towards the moms. "They're all in white like they're angels. I don't want any discrepancies; I don't want any opinions. Moms, I'm gonna go ahead and dismiss you know, we have a lot of work to do. Girls, let's get moving; let's get moving. Come on."

Getting up, the girls follow Abby into studio 'A.'

Lexie was really excited about this week's routine. It's contemporary, which means it's her specialty. The routine is dark and emotional; she loves it.

When their time is up, Abby beckons them over. "Come in close, listen to me. Alright, you're dancing, you're doing the steps, you're trying to listen to the words. You're not interrupting the story correctly. And this is very serious because maybe people in the audience have had a child that's been missing, so you're gonna touch somebody's heart. So this has to be a very serious routine. And right now, you're just doing the steps, and we need to get past that, and we need to perform," she glances at Mackenzie and Vivi-Anne. "Do you two understand? It's very serious."

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The following afternoon Lexie stood in the studio with Beck.

"I'm not going to be here this week, but I got you something to remember me by," Beck tells her.

Lexie blinks up at him. "Mmm? What is it?" Beck takes a book from behind his back, and she gasps. "Ahhh!" she practically snatches the book from his hand. "Seasons: Rebirth! How did you get this!? It doesn't come out for another week."

The Season series is her favorite book series in the world. It's about a 10 who moves to Bearmount with her older brother. She makes friends with a boy her age, raised by his sister, and finds out that both their parents knew each other. Events happen, and they go on a magical adventure to find the secrets of their missing parents.