Chapter 11

The next week passed in much the same way; there was another national competition but I passed it up to focus on the upcoming YAGP competition. The only member of the Junior Elite competition team to attend was Chloé anyway. That didn't mean that I could relax; on the contrary, I was pouring all of my dance energy into the YAGP dances, also taking an extra two hours at home to practice. Melody wasn't happy about it, for some reason.

"Jo," she groaned at me on Wednesday afternoon, at the edge of the basement dance studio. "You've got to take a break." I rolled my eyes at her. "Like you wouldn't bite my head off if I interrupted one of your painting sessions that last six hours. I'll finish up in an hour, to get ready for dinner. Aren't you going out with your friends? Summer break and all?"

"I was going to invite you to the pool," Melody said.

I sighed. "Even if I weren't dancing, I'd still be covered in scars, and it's even weirder to not swim or wear a full body suit. Sorry, Mel, but I can't. I'd be happy to go out to lunch or something next time, I want to meet your friends."

Melody nodded, resigned. "Fair points. Okay, please fuel yourself, I'll be back later."

I really wasn't overworking, just doing more difficult steps. I did stop to drink water, and was properly stretched before every rehearsal. Misty would come down with me so often that I had a bed and scratching post set up in the corner. It wasn't a large studio, but Maddie or I and Mackenzie could dance in there together. I was lucky to have it, and it made all three of us better.

Aunt Melissa had made a pasta dish and salad. Melody wasn't there, but Maddie, Kenzie, Greg and I had a nice time. We talked about dance some, sure, but Kenzie also chatted about friend drama, and Maddie talked about a funny moment at dance practice.

I was able to go out with Melody and her friends the next day, to a restaurant for lunch. Melody's oldest friend was seventeen and had a car so I went with her, my sister and two others. I introduced myself to Anna, Opal and Hailey confidently enough and they got to asking me about my life.

"So Melody didn't give many details, but you've lived with your aunt for the past few years while she's been with your parents? What was that like?" Opal asked.

"I really like it! Obviously I missed Melody, but Aunt Melissa and our cousins are great. I'm able to dance and compete, and can do homeschool so I have a flexible schedule. How long have you guys lived here?" Melody must have told them a few details, because they didn't press like they clearly wanted to. Opal was fifteen and from New York originally, having moved to Pittsburgh five years before. She had two mothers and an older brother who was in college. Anna was an outspoken fourteen-year-old from Pittsburgh who was a runner and had a single father and three younger sisters, all adopted. Hailey, the seventeen-year-old driver, was a quiet, academic girl who was already a high school senior. She was an only child with married straight parents who weren't abusive (presumably), the only one of the group.

"There's a new documentary that you're in coming out soon, right? About your studio?" Anna asked.

"Yeah, I don't have a great feeling about it. I actually had to get a lawyer to make a fair contract," I snorted. "Otherwise I wouldn't be competing at YAGP next week, and the show's all about the mother drama. I mean, I'm sure people will eat it up, and the dancing itself is great, but I'm worried it'll be mostly the moms fighting with each other."

"My youngest sister Katie will love it," Anna snorted. "She's at a different dance studio and is mainly a Lyrical and Contemporary dancer. She's not a big fan of ballet, which seems odd."

I shrugged. "Ballet is technique. You don't need to go pro to be dedicated to learning ballet, it helps most other styles."

"Yeah, I've tried to tell her that." Anna rolled her eyes. "She's just six, she'll learn eventually. Oh, we're here."

"So Hailey, what are you going to do once you graduate?" I asked the oldest of the group once we'd sat down at the pasta/pizza place.

"I got into NYU!" She said happily. "I want to study Chemistry and become a vet one day."

"That's so cool!" I told her. "I also want to go to NYU- there's a program where you can be an intern at NYC Ballet and get a degree."

"Good for you," Opal told me. "From what Melody's said, you're an amazing dancer, but it's always good to be multifaceted. I hope that it works out for you."

I blushed a bit. "Thanks, Opal. Do you have a favorite school subject?"

The next day, I was called into the studio early for interviews. I wore my hair in a ponytail and the same gray shirt every single time, literally saving it on top of my dresser and allowing Misty to lie on it so it had cat hair on it (gray tabby as it was), which I did just to get on the producers' nerves. They were quick with my interviews.

"Okay, Joanne. You know the drill by now, act like you've just experienced whatever we're asking about. How do you feel about being on top of the board again?"

"I feel really good about it! I was very happy with how my competition went and I'm glad that Miss Abby recognized that. The whole team did super well, especially in the group dance. It was nice to see Brooke move up the board."

"How do you feel about getting a Jazz solo?"

"A little nervous, because they're not always competitive, but it's a great challenge for me to do my less preferred styles in big competitions. I have to step it up performance-wise and that will only help me in the future."

"Tell us about your solo."

"It's a great one this week! It's about a girl who's going on a shopping spree, and I have to be sharp and expressive while doing technically challenging moves. It'll push me and that's always a good thing."

"You got a YAGP assignment! How do you feel about that?"

I grinned, the first legitimate one I'd given for an interview. "It's a dream come true to be chosen to go to a YAGP competition. It's a bummer to miss a competition with the team, of course, but this is such an opportunity to show what I can do in front of professionals and judges. I'll be doing a Classical piece and a Contemporary piece. My goals are to be top 12 in the Classical category and top 3 in the Contemporary category. I'll be aiming to win eventually, of course, but that's not a reasonable expectation for my first time out. It'll be a lot of work but rewarding, I'm sure."

"How do you feel about not being in the group dance?"

"I'm okay with it, though it looks like a fun one. Miss Abby had me help out Nia with the choreography so I got to do some part of it. I know that as an older dancer, to keep the age down so eight-year-olds aren't competing in Juniors, either Brooke or I can't be in all of the groups. I need more time to practice for YAGP anyway. It's in three weeks-"

One of the producers cut me off. "We're pretending that there isn't a gap between filming."

"Oh, okay. It's in two weeks and I'm sure my competitors will have been doing their dances for months so I really need to get to work on my pieces."

"How do you feel about winning your solo?"

"It's amazing! I enjoyed the dance and felt as if my technique and facials were strong, which I guess the judges picked up on. Brooke getting third is great too, as judges don't always appreciate Acro in the Teen division. She's so amazing at it, I couldn't imagine being that flexible."

"That's all, thank you, Joanne."

Pyramid came again, too quickly. Chloé was at the bottom, somehow, and didn't have a solo. I felt bad for her. The board went Vivi-Anne (cruelly, with a slash over her face- the kid was six, give her a break!), Kenzie, Chloé and Paige at the bottom, myself, Brooke and Nia in the middle, and Maddie and a second headshot on the top. "Nia, you're second on the period because you didn't feel well enough to do two dances, chose the group dance over the solo. You didn't cry, you made the mature choice and listened to your body, that's a team player. I thought that you looked good in the group. You were on time, the technique was better, and your facials were entertaining. You've been working hard and you helped us win that title, less than a point or not. As a reward, you're getting a solo in the Folklore category this week. I think that you can win it with this number."

Holly looked thrilled, and I hugged a beaming Nia. She was finally getting some well-earned praise from Abby, and she'd been great on that leap she'd been missing in rehearsals.

"Joanne, you had the highest score of the day, but I can't put you on top if you're not going to be here for the competition, YAGP week or not. You won't have a solo or be in the group, so I'll dismiss you from rehearsals and expect that you'll be back competing with us next week."

I nodded, totally fine with my placement. It turned out that Brandon, Brooke's ex and my friend, was the mystery headshot and that he and Brooke would be leading the group dance. They'd had a nasty breakup not that long ago, so this wouldn't end well.

Brooke told me all about it, too. She played someone who wanted to be with the photographer Brandon, but hated every moment, so was super sloppy as a result. Abby had me come in and show Brooke the dance, but all that did was create drama. "I know the dance fine, I just don't like it," Brooke complained. Abby glared at her, irritated.

"You want to work professionally, right?"

"Yeah, with the Cirque du Soleil."

"Well, if you do end up working with the circus, you will be told to do things, and maybe you don't like them, but you have to do them short of jumping off a cliff without a harness. I need more from you, Brooke, you need to let me know that I can trust you to be a group leader when Joanne and Maddie aren't front and center. They're younger than you, you need to step it up, kid."

I agreed with Abby on this one, and nodded at Brooke to let her know that. She huffed but put more energy into the practices after that, and at least her technique was there. She had nice legs and feet, as a general rule, she needed them to place with Acro in the Teen category.

I did a lot of my practicing on my own, as Nyssa just couldn't be around that much. Luckily I was my own harshest critic and could see my own mistakes. The goal wasn't perfection, but to minimize any errors and be as stable as those who had been en pointe for years. I was also on Paige and Nia duty, as both had solos, the former's unaired. They weren't having much trouble with the group dance this week as it was easy choreography and they were background dancers to Brooke and Brandon anyway.

Nia's solo was typecasting, a dance called "Bollywood", but at least it showed her flexibility and wasn't just walking around and making faces. She was remarkably flexible but needed to work on extending her legs and feet when she did acro moves, so I had her do a full ballet warm-up while I worked with Paige, as she had an acro/gymnastics solo with a balloon as a prop. She kept letting it go as she did harder moves, so I had her tie it to her wrist. She would get sloppy in her legs, bending her knees and flexing her feet, especially on aerials. Abby would drag her for it, so that's mostly what I worked on with her. Half the time we were all dancing separately and they would occasionally ask for advice.

"Nia, I feel like you're not doing the right facials," I told her. "You're doing sassy jazz faces and this is Folklore. Maybe you should watch a Bollywood movie tonight and try the facials that they do in their dances. Paige, your performance is good, but you're really sloppy on the back walkover. You'll definitely get docked points for that. You have Acro class now anyway, so maybe you could ask for help there. Nia, it'd probably help you too."

Hailey offered to drive me back early as Maddie would be rehearsing late and I was quite tired from running my YAGP solos; it was vital that I take care of myself to maximize performance. Besides, that way I could spend time doing summer schoolwork and cuddling with Misty. Kenzie, who wasn't in the group dance, came back with us and was able to sit without a carseat for the first time, something that she was very excited about.

YAGP was quickly approaching, and I was getting quite nervous. Hopefully that meant I was ready.

AN: YAGP up next! Fair warning, I am in no way a dancer and I don't know how YAGP works, so I will be using Google and guessing at how the competitions and classes go. I'm sorry if there are any major inaccuracies and I will be using real people based off results from the actuall competition, and they'll all be nice so as not to offend anyone. Also, Chloé Lukaisik finished 6TH in the Pre-Competitive category at the Philadelphia Semi-Final in 2011, and the show never mentioned it? What could have been if she'd gotten proper ballet training...