mikki

i was nervous. the whole week abby had been harping on all us girls that we were never as good as brady and how we would never be to his level. so that put on a whole lot of pressure.

"so how are the soloists feeling?" stacey asked.

"i don't even know what's happening with gia's solo," joanne piped up, "gia's not going to go out there and play that character. i'm not having it."

"i just hope she doesn't give you an ultimatum," ann sighed, pinning hannah's hairnet.

"hello!" abby said, rolling in with the coffin behind her. "sarah, you need your wig on and i have it." she handed sarah what looked like a dead mouse. i grimaced. "you need to work on the smile. look at each judge." abby made a weird grin as she nodded three times. "they'll get it when they see the wig and the costume. there. gold medal winner!"

we gave out compliments as sarah unfurled her blue and red leotard.

"snooki, here, chew gum," abby directed, holding out a stick. gia took it.

"my kid's not going to chew gum in front of you," joanne huffed.

abby blew a huge bubble in response. she pulled it out of her hair. i put my foot on the coffin and lowered myself into the oversplits with lilly.

"snooki was known for her slippers," abby continued, pulling out a pair of pink unicorn shoes.

"no. i'm not letting her to dance on that stage with the slippers. i don't want them."

"that's why i want them!" abby cackled.

"my kid is not dancing with slippers on."

"ok. she doesn't dance."

i gasped.

"duet, let me see you," abby shrugged. pressley and i stood in front of abby. "i'm expecting a win. you two have to dance together. it has to be tight and on the mark. suffragettes, ok? women independence."

we nodded.

"ok, sarah, let's go."

the moms and abby made their way into the audience while sarah went to perform.

"mikki, go stretch backstage," abby said, grinning. i nodded.

"wanna help me 'stretch' press?"

"sure!"

we ran our duet backstage in front of all of the other dancers, making sure we added in a few extra tricks at the end to intimidate. it was pretty fun actually.

"our number's up," pressley whispered. we hurried to our opposite wings.

"up next we have act number 54, suffragette!"

the music began to play. we were dancing to 'sit still, look pretty' by daya. it was honestly one of my favorite songs. and i'm sure press and i did it justice. even the judges clapped at the end of the routine.

"woohoo!" i cried, high fiving pressley. she grinned, chugging down water and giving me a double thumbs up.

"we were independent, strong women," she panted, giving me a hug. we made our way back to the dressing room, talking to sarah about her dance.

"i did everything well, but i didn't land the back tuck," she said regretfully.

"hey sarah, who's that?"

she spun around, stopped, then sprinted into the man's arms.

"that's her dad," i hissed, "let's give them some time."

we pretended not to notice them as we sped back to the dressing room.

"well done girls," abby applauded, "that was very good. pressley, you still need to be working on pointing that left foot. mikki, that was good, i only need you to turn out your left hip more in the split."

"come here mikki," mom directed, holding out a fascinator.

she pinned my hair into a tight bun and clipped on the black veiled hat. i slid on the black net gloves and struck a pose.

mom laughed and gave me a hug. "i'm so proud, mikki."

i smiled and pulled away.

🩰

"let's go girls!" hannah whispered, as we all put our hands in the middle. the stage hands had slid the coffin onto the stage.

we performed. it wasn't really anything else. the transition was messy and patchy and there were a bunch of mistakes. and i don't think the audience got the message when our pretty lyrical and acro turned into a sassy jazz number. but other than the transition, i thought it was good.

we went offstage and high-fived as we celebrated.

"we did it!" lilly whisper-screamed, hugging pressley. i laughed as the group in pink stared at us.

"yes we did!"

⤎⎼༌·⋱🩰⋰⋆༌⎼⤏

"moving onto our top thirty advanced soloists." it took forever. twenty seven soloists went by without sarah called.

"and in third place, sarah with america's sweetheart!" i clapped as sarah went to receive her award.

"moving into the top duo trios! in third place," the announcer drawled as i gripped pressley's hand, "greatest of them all, serena and grace from artisan dance studio! in second place...harriet, lucy and marianne from factory street dance! and our top overall duo trio..."

what if we didn't place?

"pressley and mikki from abby lee dance company!"

i cheered as we went to grab our plaque and trophy.

"and our top five junior dances. in fifth place, 'time' from dance 13. fourth place overall..."

we gripped each other so tightly i felt like my hands would fall off.

"widows, from abby lee dance company."

to say i was worried would be an understatement. abby would never accept fourth.

"well done to pressley and mikki, first place duet!" abby cheered. i smiled, but braced for the impact, "sarah, your solo was fine, but it got third.

"there were some issues with the group. i saw mistake after mistake. counting problems, timing issues, that is not an overall high score group. this is the first loss for the team...and the first week without brady.

"girls, i'm bringing back a team member," abby announced, pulling out a headshot. it was elliana walmsley from the mini team the last few seasons.

"i don't understand!" erin yelled. i thought it would have been stacey screaming. "why would you bring someone in that's toxic to the team. do you think that's beneficial to the rest of us? she choked out stacey!"

"we'll have to make sure that doesn't happen then," abby shrugged.

i glanced quickly at mom, who was frowning.

"it's happened before. she's psychotic, not just that she choked me, it's that she makes you insane. like, she makes you crazy." stacey was looking crazy herself.

"i have history with yolanda. i know that she can be obsessive and too critical of other kids. savannah and elliana have competed against each other three or four times now and savannah has never come on top."

"right here, right now in this room, we're a team," ashley stated, "right?"

"yep," mom agreed, stacking her palettes into a pile.

"well, you didn't look like a team out there," abby sniped.

"now we're bringing in poison, so-" erin began.

"so what's our defence mechanism?" ann asked.

"i'm gonna keep her close, because you keep crazy close, closer than your friends," joanne muttered.

"i kept crazy close and ended up with my neck in her hands."

"next week will be interesting," abby shrugged.

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