Chapter 74

The ALDC dance recital came around soon enough, and it was back to Pyramid. Yay. Abby was in a rush, luckily, as there was lots to do.

"So. Powerhouse Dance Competition. We won! It was beautiful," Abby complimented us and we cheered. "I saw a lot of good things, and you were generally all here during the break, or competing at YAGP. Joanne and Nia went on AUDC episodes. Now, onto the pyramid. On the bottom, Maddie and Nicaya, that trio was terrible. You know that. Asia and Mackenzie, it was good, but I want more from both of you. Yes? Chloé, you did some great things over the break, and you looked beautiful in the trio and the group. But you have to go down with the ship."

Chloé nodded and Christi just shrugged; it was fair enough. "Ursula, you won with your solo, you made the top 12 at the YAGP final. Good work. Nia, strong in the trio with Joanne and Paige, and you stood out in the group. Brooke, you did get second place with your solo, but I was blown away by your performance in the group. Paige, I thought that the trio was a breakout moment for you. You looked good next to two better dancers."

"Abby, that's cruel to say," Kelly protested.

"No, no, it's a compliment. She raised her level when she needed to," Abby returned. Kelly sighed, seeing that Paige didn't look upset.

"Okay. Fine. I'm good."

"Speaking of which, Joanne. You won with the trio, you looked wonderful in the group, and you had the highest score at the YAGP Final. Great work. And, you are an aunt, so congratulations."

Jill took a break from being excited for Kendall to pay attention to something else. "Melody had her baby?"

"Yes, a boy named Dustin."

"Very good. On top of the pyramid for the first time, is Kendall!" Abby moved on quickly, and we all celebrated with the thrilled girl. "Kendall, you were the star of your trio to me. You've improved quite a bit, but you have to keep pushing."

There were other weeks where Kendall should have been on or near the top of the pyramid, but this wasn't one of them. Still, the producers had probably realized that she'd never been on top before after almost two full seasons and orchestrated it, which I couldn't be upset at. Kendall deserved it because she was a very hard worker.

"This week is the annual Abby Lee Dance Company recital," Abby said. "For some of you, it's your last. There are going to be a lot of people in the audience that will be watching you closely, so everyone has to be on their best behavior. We have a new group routine, it's Lyrical. Maddie, you have a new solo, it's choreographed by Joanne."

"She's the only one with a new solo?" My aunt frowned, but it wasn't very good acting. Maddie had been talking nonstop about how happy she was to get a new solo.

"Melissa, no one's going to fall for that," Brian scolded. "Do that again, please, everyone."

My aunt pulled off being upset after a few tries, and then it was time to start the group routine. "When Joanne went on my competition show, the dances had big props, and she did a trio," Abby said. "So, this group dance will have another large prop. You all did well with the ribbon, so you can pull this off too."​​

This prop wasn't nearly as workable as the ribbon, though. It was a giant pyramid, a lot like what Travis and Tyler had danced with, except eleven dancers was just too much. Abby spent most of her time yelling at the prop and not us, which meant that she'd been put up to using it by the producers. The others seemed more welcoming to the prop after they realized the same.

I had a turn sequence near the prop, and it was giving me a world of trouble because my mark was too close to the pyramid and I kept having to stop the turn in order to not hit it. "What's wrong?" Abby asked, irritated.

"I don't want to extend fully to complete the turn, because even though I'm keeping my spot still I'm about to hit the prop," I explained. Abby frowned.

"Show me again." So I did as much as I was comfortable with. "Well, that's silly, just move. Nia, go two steps downstage. Paige, with her. There, is that better?"

I nodded, but the producers weren't happy. "She has to be that close, it adds drama," Brian protested.

"I'm not having her get hurt, or anyone else," Abby snapped. "It's an easy fix. You wanted this ridiculous prop, so let me work with it. It's bad enough that Brooke is flipping off of it."

Rehearsal went smoother after that, because for once it seemed like Abby cared a little bit about our health. Everyone had tons of dances, me most of all, so there was little time for chatter. I was able to start teaching Maddie her solo later that night.

"This dance is called 'The Return,' and it's Lyrical. If you want to get that Junior solo spot, you need to make a return to the way you were dancing a few years ago. I think that you're getting really good, but just haven't shown it onstage," I told Maddie, who nodded eagerly. "Okay, let's get started. Begin on the floor, in a middle split..."

Maddie picked it up quickly, and was already pouring real emotion into her movements. Focusing more on ballet had done her a world of good, I thought, even if her ambition wasn't to be a prima ballerina. I loved getting the opportunity to do more group dances with the Senior company, who were mostly going their separate ways after this summer, some in just a few weeks.​​ None of them were particularly close friends but we had a good camaraderie.

The producers pulled me in for an interview the next morning, which I wasn't super pleased about but agreed to anyway. They showed me some videos and asked me to respond to them. The first clip was Abby saying that Ursula should have beaten me. At this point, I'd be gone before the episode aired, so I just decided to be honest.

"I think that Miss Abby is upset that I'm leaving and trying to take it out on me. At the end of the day, the judges decided that I had won and Ursula was second. I wouldn't have been upset had I been second, but I did win, and I don't appreciate her trying to undermine that. It's the same with Chloé- Maddie's my cousin and she did wonderfully, but I do think that Chloé deserved to win."

Then they showed me a clip of Kenzie dancing and winning. I grinned. "I'm so happy for Kenzie. She's been working really hard and was excited to be in the Juniors, so to see her win is great."

"What do you think about Asia?"

"She's a good kid, spirited and kind."

"No, I mean, her dancing."

"She's a little firecracker. She definitely would need to work on her technique if she wanted to be a top competitive dancer, but honestly, that's not really her goal. She wants to perform and sing, and her style is perfect for that. It's nice to have her on the team."

Bryan made a face. "What about something negative?"

"I mean, her technique needs work, but she's seven. Again, she doesn't need to be a ballerina to be a singer and dancer. I'm not bad-mouthing her, if that's what you want."

Another producer scowled. "It's bad enough that you don't read off the script."

"You can't just script real life. Is there another clip?"

"Fine," Bryan grumbled, showing the non-placing Junior trio.

"I'm not really sure what went wrong there. Maddie and Nicaya have worked together well in the past, but they just never seemed to get the hang of doing a trio together. It's unfortunate that it went so badly onstage. Chloé looked great, though. Trios can be very difficult."

"How did you feel about your trio?"

"I loved dancing with Paige and Nia. We work well together and it was a fun dance. I'm glad that we won because we worked hard on it."

"How do you feel about Kendall being on top of the Pyramid?"

"I'm happy for Kendall, she's a hard worker and often gets overlooked. She looked great in the trio and I think this will give her good confidence before Nationals. She had a lot of technical issues to fix when she first started and she's progressed excellently. Her performance quality is a lot higher, too."

The producers let me go and I spent most of the day rehearsing or doing schoolwork, as well as the next few days. When dress rehearsals for the show came around, Abby asked to see Maddie's solo for the first time. My cousin immediately tensed up, so I pulled her aside briefly.

"You need to forget that Abby's there," I told her firmly. "Dance for yourself and no one else, yes? I believe in you."

Maddie nodded. "I can do this."

And she did have it down, impressing Abby in both the dress rehearsal and the real thing. The recital consisted of me dancing, rushing to change, dancing again, sneaking in dinner, and more dancing until I was almost wiped out at the end, sitting onstage with the Elite team and a few of the Senior dancers.

Kenzie won the Mini dancer of the year award, Paige was the Junior dancer of the year, Nia was the Teen dancer of the year, and I won the Senior dancer of the year award. I supposed that I should have been emotional about it, but I was honestly just too tired. Luckily no one started drama and I could just go home and sleep.