Bitch, You Better Traumatize The Judges
> Chapter Four: Bitch you better traumatize the judges.
On a typical Friday, the typical person would be sitting at school, eager for the bell to ring and to go home and enjoy the weekend, sip a cup of tea, and sleep. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, that is not the case for the Ms. Lexis Elite All-Star Competition team. Fridays are a day where you wake up at four in the morning, make sure your bags of makeup and hair shit are packed, along with your costumes and your amenities such as clothes, shoes, etc.
Kori was a lucky duck on this day, first competition of the new season and she is only competing in one dance, so she only needs to pack one costume, technically one pair of shoes, and just her normal luggage shit. She could get the group dance out of the way and just chillax. Maybe she could lie down in her hotel, maybe eat a peanut butter sandwich, maybe draw Jewels and Suzie fanart- the world is her oyster. What she’d probably do, though is sit back and watch how Jewels and Suzies duet rolls out.
“Kori!” she could hear her mom call, “Crystal is here!”
“FUCK!” Kori shrieked. She grabbed her bags and walked out of her room. “Sorry! Sorry, I forgot Crystal was picking me up!”
EXT - Parking lot - Dawn
Crystal sped into the parking lot and parked on the side. Kori looked at Crystal like she had run someone over, “Okay now get out of my car” was all Crystal said, she steps out of her car and closes the door, Kori slowly walks out of the car as well. As she walks over to the trunk of Crystal's car, she almost bumps into Lydia, but she was looking down enough where she could see Lydia, still a bit startling though.
“Good morning, Kori!” Lydia pretty much cheered. She handed Kori a Mango Pineapple Refresher, of course from Dunkin',
“Is this for me?” She asks, Lydia nods her head, Kori sips the drink slowly, her face lifting in joy, “Oh my god Lydia you just made my morning, how did you know my order?”, Lydia just scoffs, “pfft- Dont think about it, I just texted Crystal and asked her,” as Lydia says this, Crystal winks at Kori,
“Thank you, Lydia, you’re an angel”.
Kori walks away from Lydia to Crystal's open car trunk. Kori grabs her luggage from the car and closes it, as she closes the trunk Suzie walks up to Kori, Kori rolls her eyes playfully, “The fuck do you want Suzan?”
“Have you seen Jewels?” Suzie asked Kori. Kori just shook her head. Suddenly, they hear squealing, and they turn to see Arrietty and Jewels playing tag. They were both in their pajamas like everyone else, and Jewels still had her hair rollers in.
“Does that answer your question?”
Suzie just nods.
As Crystal, Lydia, and Kori helped Ms Lexi get the luggage into the luggage compartment, Jewels, Arrietty, Acacia, and Suzie were heard loudly and clearly. Crystal rolled her eyes
“What are they doing?” Ms Lexi groaned, “It's 4 in the morning… Too early for this.”
“Well, you chose to go to a competition in New Jersey,” Kori reminded her teacher, Ms Lexi shushes her, “Shh- I know you wanna see the New Jersey Dance Mom Fights too!”
“New Jersey Dance moms are pretty extreme,” Lydia added. “One time a New Jersey Dance Mom slept with a judge to try and get him to give her daughter a better score than me.”
“Okay, well, now you gotta tell me how that went!” Kori let out a laugh, and Lydia nodded her head. “I still beat the girl; she got tenth place, and the woman got divorced.”
Kori let out another hearty laugh, and Lydia started to crack up laughing as well. Between Kori and Lydia laughing and Arrietty, Acacia, and Jewels chasing each other with Suzie “trying” to get them to stop, it was all overwhelming to Crystal. So she put down the bag she was trying to get onto the bus and stormed over to the younger girls
“Good god y'all are so unhelpful,” Ms Lexi muttered. “Samantha!”
Crystal storms over to the menaces in the parking lot. She grabs Jewels and Arrietty by the arms
“Stop DOING THAT” she scolds, “the suns still down, do you not know how many chronically online DISCORD AND OR REDDIT MODS could be lurking for fucking fools like you?!”
“DID YOU JUST SAY DISCORD MODS?!” Jewels shrieked, she jumped onto Suzie (kinda shes taller than Suzie) and clings tightly onto her “SAVE ME SUZIE”
“The fuck is Suzie gonna do?” Arrietty questioned, “The 1920s windup?” Acacia starts modeling the 1920s windup, which makes Suzie laugh.
“Why I oughta!”. While the girls are laughing and having a good time,
“HEY YOU WHORES GET YOUR ASSES ON THE BUS!” Kori can be heard screaming at them, “WE’RE GONNA BE LATE!”
Jewels groans and storms off to the bus, Subconsciously, she is holding Suzie's arm, practically dragging her along with her.
“Great. I could practically use a nap after looking at Jewels in her hair rollers,” Arrietty said coldly.
INT - Bus - Morning
The long and dark bus ride was spent by most people sleeping, but Kori couldn't sleep; she could never sleep. The last time she had a full night's sleep this week was Wednesday night after class, and last night, her sleep was on and off and on and off. That’s what happens when competition season is back. Kori closes her eyes, trying to sleep, but nothing works, like, at all. That was until she felt a weight on her shoulder. She turned to her side to see Lydia passed out, asleep; her breathing was soft and delicate.
Now let's be completely and utterly truthful here, if that were ANYBODY else, Kori wouldve shoved their ass into the isle of the bus. Lydia just happens to be different, not because she’s new.
It’s because when Lydia was asleep on her shoulder, it made Kori feel like caterpillars were breaking out of their cocoons into butterflies, which is a strange feeling to even think about. Yet, Kori strangely liked it, she liked the way her heart knocked on her chest as Lydia laid quietly, likely unaware that she had fallen onto Kori's shoulder. It’s like Kori finally has something to tease Lydia about, so she could finally get Lydias devious ass back about flirting/teasing her. That’s the question: Is she flirting or teasing?
Not the right thing to ask; the right thing to ask is how to communicate to people after this competition. How do you bump into someone and casually tell them, “Oh, my dance is My Sister Says The Saddest Things”. Or, how do you respond to a judge when they ask you, “What was it like doing this dance?” Do you say, “Oh, it was very unique and experimental”? Or do you just say that the entire process was fucking weird and Ms Lexi may be having a midlife crisis?
All of it is a lot of thought process, thought processing that overwhelmed the fuck out of Kori.
INT - Dressing Room - Day
The girls immediately walked into the dressing room and started getting ready. For all they know, they could've gone first or right after a short number.
Ms Lexi claps her hands,
“Alright, class,” she announced, “Today we are competing with the group dance. We will be in the middle of the category, number 1554. Tomorrow will be Duets and Solos, Jewels and Suzie in the morning, 1236, and Crystal 2346.”
The girls all nod their heads, they return to doing their hair and makeup. Kori slicks her hair up and ties it up into the bun, she then sprays the fuck out of it with hairspray.
“God, I missed that smell!” Jewels raved. She then took her hairspray and sprayed her entire made-up face with it.
“Jewels?! What the fuck are you doing?!” Arrietty shrieked, “Have you ever heard of a thing called SETTING SPRAY?!”
“Why waste money on setting spray when hairspray works better,” Jewels boasted,
“Maybe because it wont fuck up your skin” Arrietty deadpans,
“Well Arri, our skins already fucked up from all this makeup” Suzie interjected, causing literally everyone to roll their eyes
“PFFT- Suzie, you know that if Arrietty didn't tell her not to hairspray her face, you would've been telling her not to do it!” Kori jested, “But now that someones saying it before you, you just GOTTA defend your boo!” Lydia laughed at Koris words, Suzie notices this,
“Lydia, you're the only person who laughs at Kori’s jokes,” Suzie pointed out.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Lydia questioned.
“She's not the Hawk Tuah girl,” Arrietty adds, giggling at her own “Joke”.
“The Hawk Tuah Girl isn't funny!” Crystal whined, “That metaphor was ASSCHEEKS”
“Crystal, you're such a diva. When you speak, you crack the mirror.” Arrietty tried roasting the captain, but everyone just stood there with Arrietty giggling at herself.
“Good lord,” Kori muttered. Crystal just slams her arms on her vanity desk,
“YOU'RE NOT FUNNY!” She screams… she pants heavily for a couple of seconds before going silent and speaking, “Anyways, lets get our asses backstage!”
“You girls better traumatize the judges” was the last thing they heard from Ms Lexi before they left for the wings.
INT - Group Dance Award Ceremony - Day
The girls all sat in the middle of a shit ton of people on the stage, some stupid song was playing which caused Arrietty to block her ears, Lydia and Kori were pointing at people on the stage that they knew, Jewels and Suzie were looking at the MC, for some reason, idk, Crystal was waving to Ms Lexi, and Sam like she was on the news saying “Hi Mom!”, and Acacia was staring into space. Typical Acacia.
“Remember, guys, it’s not about winning; it’s about traumatizing the judges,” Crystal reminded her teammates. Suddenly, the MC started speaking,
“Good afternoon, people. That was such a… hard to remember category!” The MC spoke into the microphone, “My name is Isabelle, but you can call me Mistress… Anyways, let's award some people.”
“I like this girl. She's funny,” Kori muttered. Lydia nods.
After a few minutes of calling names and routines, the girls started to lose hope, They started to feel forgotten,
“And in first place overall, causing the judges to have panic attacks in the break room for the future of dance.” Mistress started, and the team all started holding each other's hands.
“I think she means us.” Lydia whispered,
“Please give it up for Ms Lexi’s Studio Of Dance with My Sister Says The Saddest Things!” Mistress announced, the girls all froze, the applause was louder than a fire alarm, nobody knew who should come up, but Crystal pushed Kori to stand up, so she did. She stood up, walked up to Mistress, and took the trophy. Ms Lexi stood up and gave Kori a thumbs up, and Kori smiled back and gave a thumbs up back.
“So, what's your name?” Mistress asks
“My name is Kori King. I’m from Ms Lexi’s,” Kori replies.
“So tell me, Kori, this is such a unique routine. What was it like?” Mistress asked,
“Well, Mistress, it was interesting, but the little villain in me just had a ball because I knew that this would shake the judges up a bit,” Kori replied. She looked back at Crystal, who smiled at her in approval,
“Well, one more question, Kori. What the hell was Lexi going through?” Mistress asked with a hint of sarcasm. This time, Ms Lexi answered, “Boredom!” She shouted, and the entire crowd started to laugh along.
Saturday: Competition 1 Day 2
INT - Dressing Room - Day
It felt weird being in the dressing room yet not getting ready. All Kori did was sit on one of the couches with Arrietty on one side, Lydia on the other side, and Acacia next to Arrietty. Crystal was stretching her oversplit, Jewels was finishing up her makeup and spraying her face with hairspray again, and Suzie was listening to the song on an MP3 player while mentally running the dance in her head.
Crystal wasn't on until the afternoon, so Crystal was wearing her, what Kori would like to call, “Diva Princess Dress Robe”. A satin robe with flowers all over it, which Crystal bought two sizes too big so that she would look like a princess and so that the robe would flow with her as she moved. When Jewels finished her makeup, she stood up, her off white costume hidden under her sweatshirt… Wait, that's not Jewels’ sweatshirt; that's Suzie's!
“Uhhh, Jewels, why are you wearing Suzies sweatshirt?” Kori asked, like the messy girl she is.
“I am?” Jewels wondered. She looked at her sweatshirt and held her hand to her mouth,
“Theres no way she didn’t know,” Lydia whispered to Kori, which caused Kori to laugh her ass off.
“Jeulianne what the fuck is going on?” Arrietty asks,
“Nothing! I’m just cold! Damn yall have no hobbies” Jewels complained, Crystal overhears all of this
“Out of all of the sweatshirts you could've ‘subconsciously' grabbed though, you grabbed Suzies, which is very, very distinguished, and very Suzie-core,” Arrietty pointed out
“What the fuck is a Suzie-core?!” Jewels panicked,
“Something that is very obviously mine…” Suzie clarified, “or, looks like it'd be something that's mine.”
“Oh my GAWD, Jewels, you are so Suzie-core!” Kori half-jokingly said, “Yay, Jewlzie!”
Crystal gets out of her oversplit and walks up to the commotion, clapping her soft butter hands,
“Oh. My. God, you guys piss me off!” Crystal shouts, “Instead of pressuring these two baby angels about their relationship, this is what you should be doing!” Crystal snatched Acacia's phone out of her hand and pretended to dial a number, “Hello Taco Bell? Are you Hiring? Great! I’ll be over to fill in a JOB application!”. Crystal then pretended to dial another number, “Hello? Advanced Auto Parts! Are you hiring? Great, I’ll be over in a second to fill in the application”. Kori tried to butt her head into the conversation, but Crystal beat her to it, “Hello, Hello, yes Arbys are you hiring? Splendid! I’ll be over shortly to fill in the application!”. Crystal finally put the phone down and handed it to Acacia, silently thanking her for letting her use it.
“You got that! So instead of butting your heads in their business when theyre fucking COMPETING soon, and GETTING IN THEIR HEADS!!! Go get A FUCKING JOB!!!” Crystal squealed, hitting Irene from Red Velvet’s iconic D7 at the “Job”.
“Damn okay D7!” Acacia cheered, “That's so funny cause your song is literally by Irene from Red Velvet.”
“I got that dawg in me,” Crystal said.
Eventually, it was time for the duet to compete. Jewels was eager to get out of the dressing room, but Suzie took a bit to stand up. When she stood up, she walked up to where Kori and Lydia were sitting.
“What's wrong, Susan?” Kori asked,
“I’m nervous, this is such a weird dance for me… you know,” Suzie muttered. Lydia smiled at Suzie as if she was her daughter,
“Well, when your glance is in Jewels’ direction, close your eyes so that you don't get distracted,” Lydia suggested. Thinking about it, it actually sounded like great advice.
“Yeah, and then after, you go and you rizz Jewels up.” Kori told Suzie, “Go get the huzz, cmon girl you got this.”
Suzie smiles and walks off,
“I’m rooting for Jewlzie,” Lydia says before they stand up and walk to the auditorium
INT -Audience area - Day
Kori and Lydia made it to the audience right before the dance. Arrietty and Acacia took their things off of the chairs so that the two of them could sit down
“Now, please welcome Contestant number 1236, this is Jewels and Suzie with ‘Take Me Away’”, the emcee announces. Kori found her hand clinging onto Lydia's as she looked at Suzie intensely, just hoping and praying to the dance spirits that Suzie doesn’t crack as she dances to a song about relationship angst and unselfishness.
“Please don't crack Suzie,” Kori could hear Ms Lexi say. So Ms Lexi had the same worry as her, but Ms Lexi didn't have the talk Kori had with Suzie, the talk Kori ever so tried to take seriously.
And then the dance started. It started strong, with Suzie closing her eyes every time she had to look in Jewels’ direction. Then came the part where they were supposed to look at each other for a split second. Suzie did the part with her eyes closed. She closed her eyes and looked in Jewels’ direction, which worked because they got the timing exactly right! Now that the timing was right, they were able to finish the dance right as the song ended. When the song ended, Suzie and Jewels faced each other in their ending pose. This was the only time in the dance where Suzie looked at Jewels without closing her eyes, and on Kori’s life, she could tell that Suzie had a few tears out of her eyes. Kori looked to her side to see that Lydia, Ms Lexi, Arrietty, Sam, and Acacia were all tearing up as well. Kori looks back at the stage where she saw Suzie mouthing, “You're so beautiful” to Jewels. Suddenly, the two of them pecked each other on the lips before they stood up and did their exit.
“Oh. My. Fucking. God! Did you see that?!” Lydia whisper-yelled,
“Yes, I did!” Kori whispered back. Arrietty leaned over,
“I knew that would happen!” Arrietty also whispered, “Ms Lexi you fucking genius” Ms Lexi sat back in her chair and looked at the stage,
“So I was onto something,” Ms Lexi muttered to herself. “Let's see how this goes…”