They'll Get Over It, Right?
Chapter 7: They’ll get over it, right?
Walking into the dance studio on this day felt a little scary, Lydia feared that she’d walk into a fist fight and be a bare witness while Kori would probably be cheering and recording. Crystal would probably start having a mental breakdown, something Lydia didn’t want to deal with during duet rehearsal.
The other problem is that the competition is tomorrow, tomorrow yet nobody knows whether or not Arrietty and Jewels even breathed in the same direction since yesterday. The beef could be squashed, maybe not, who knows.
As Lydia opened the studio door she sighed in relief to see that only Crystal and Suzie were there stretching, listening to none other than Soulja Boy. Kori scoffed loudly and rolled her eyes which caused Crystals head to snap to Kori
“Excuse me Korinne, don't you dare non-verbally disrespect SOULJA BOY” Crystal shouted,
“Hello to you too I guess” Kori said, Suzie just looked to the imaginary camera,
“I don’t get it, what's the deal with Soulja boy?” Suzie asked the audience. Crystal stormed up to the imaginary camera, eyeing the audience
“DO YOU HEAR THIS BITCH” Crystal literally screamed, “SOULJA BOY IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF MESOPOTAMIAN HISTORY!”
“Okay okay okay Crystal” Kori grabs Crystal by the shoulders and pulls her away from the imaginary camera, “At this point you're spitting nonsense”
“No bars, just nonsense” Lydia added, the door opened again revealing Acacia, Acacia's face with no blush. The girls all screamed,
“WHO ARE YOU?!” Suzie shrieked, Acacia held her hands up defensively,
“It’s me! Acacia!” She tried to explain, “I accidentally used up all of my blush and I need to buy new blush”. The girls all sighed in relief,
“Oh yeah/that makes sense/who else would it be” they all muttered to each other
“Crystal, can you take me to Target to buy a new blush?” Acacia continued, Crystal just nodded her head.
Jewels was next to walk into the room, she was timid at first but when she saw that Arrietty wasn’t there, she sighed in relief and walked over to Suzie.
“Hi Jewlzie!” Suzie chirped, Jewels waved at her,
“God I am so rooting for Jewelzie!” Lydia exclaimed, Suzie and Jewels glared at her, Kori wrapped her arms around Lydia protectively and glared right back at Jewels and Suzie,
“That's a spooky friend,” Jewels teased, causing Suzie to laugh. Acacia blinked twice in confusion,
“Wait why was that funny I don’t get it” she questioned, Crystal just shook her head,
“I don’t either, Suzies just a-” Crystal got cut off by the door opening, Jewels immediately went silent, she sat there frozen as Arrietty walked through the door, “Arrietty, why are you so late?”
“Didn’t wanna see Jewels, but not all of us can get what we wa-” Arrietty started, but Suzie cut her off,
“Dont you fucking start this shit now,” Suzie scolded sternly, Arrietty just rolled her eyes,
“Don’t tell me what to do smartass” Arrietty retaliated, “This has nothing to do with you Suzie, stop acting like it does. We get it, you like Jewels so much you wanna lick the ground she walks on”
“Woah! If I have nothing to do with you and Jewels, then don’t bring up Jewels and I!” Suzie barked back, Crystals eyes widened as she looked between the two of them,
“Guys please stop!” Jewels yelped, Arrietty's venomous glare immediately snapped to Jewels,
“Shut up Jewels!” Arrietty shouted, “You don’t get a say in anything! You started everything!”
“I didn’t start everything, you're the one that misinterpreted me giving my aunt a note from the nursing home about my GRANDMOTHER!” Jewels fought back, Suzie sat back with a proud smile, Crystal just glared at her.
Ms Lexi came in, and they immediately started walking through the dance. Everything was quiet and timid, too awkward in Kori's opinion. The silence caused Kori to dose off looking at the clock
“Kori!” Ms Lexi shouted softly, Kori looked at Ms Lexi and apologized,
“Sorry, the silence is really distracting. You know me… Silence is more distracting than sound… Hah… Hah”. Kori looked around, everyone just stared at her, so Kori just shuddered and went back to her spot.
When it reached the middle of the dance when Arrietty and Jewels had a partner segment, Arrietty just stood there.
“Arrietty what are you doing? You need to do the turn part!” Ms Lexi somewhat shouted, The other girls continued doing their choreography until Kori bumped into Arrietty,
“Arrianna what are you doing here?!” She yelped, Arrietty just huffed,
“Ms Lexi, can I change my part, I don’t want to be next to Jewels” She requested, Ms Lexi raised an eyebrow, was she really asking that?
“Are you really asking that?” Acacia whispered,
“Yes I am, I don’t want to do the cartwheel part with Jewels,” Arrietty declared, “Not after the shady shit she pulled yesterday.
“Oh, Em Gee!” Kori groaned, “Girly Pop it’s just a Cartwheel! It’s not like youre holding hands and skipping around in a field!”
“Still, I don’t feel like doing it” Arrietty said, Suzie rolled her eyes, so did Jewels,
“Girl just do the damn cartwheel,” Jewels groaned as well, “It’s not that deep.”
“Right! It’s not that deep” Suzie chuckled awkwardly,
“What’s so funny?!” Arrietty snapped,
“How fucking stupid youre being!” Jewels shouted back, “That’s what’s funny! Just because you think everyones out to get you because youre so unnecessarily confident in yourself doesn’t mean that you get to act like a fucking celebrity and just change your parts TWO DAYS before the competition!”
“You're just saying that because you caused this!” Arrietty quipped back,
“Well, I didn’t mean to get into your head!” Jewels scolded, “If I did, I would have said that you're an untalented bitch who can only perform well to a Bjork jig with 4 turn sequences because you have no soul, and no heart… But I didn’t”.
“And If I wanted to get into your head,” Arrietty started, “I would have said that you're a non versatile nobody who’s only good quality on stage is an occasional smile and wink, other than that your technique is sloppy, you forget everything you do, you're an airheaded bitch with no brain and you let Suzie do all the thinking for you!”. The two girls were face to face now, so Crystal walked over and shoved them apart,
“That's it! That’s it!” Crystal yelled, “It’s only been less than a day and I’m already tired of this shit! You're just insulting each other just to be dicks!”. Kori nodded,
“No bars, just nonsense” she added, Ms Lexi glared at Kori as if to say, “Not the time”, Crystal only sighed before continuing, “So, for my sanity, and for the sake of the team, you two will step out of this rehearsal, and you two will go and get lunch! At the Wendys across the street! And you will not step foot into this goddamn studio again until you resolve this!”.
Ms Lexi added on, “And if you don’t resolve this, and apologize to each other, than you will not be competing”,
“So if I-” Jewels started, before she was cut off, “Both of you!”
There was a strong silence for a second, before Captain Diva Crystal decided to break it, she took the two girls and pushed them gently to the door
“Go on! Wendy’s is waiting!” Crystal said in a sing song voice, she pulled out two twenty dollar bills and handed one to each of them, “There's your cash, look left right and left before you cross the street, and for the love of Soulja Boy and Dua Lipa do NOT make eye contact with any dudes”. Jewels and Arrietty took their 20’s, and they left. Arrietty closed the door gently for the first time. Ms Lexi sighed,
“Crystal, remind me to pay you back for that” Ms Lexi spoke,
“I’m just doing my job” Crystal said before tossing her hair and walking back over to her spot, which Lydia was standing in, “Lydipoo you're in my spot!”.
—
The Wendy’s across the street was not crowded whatsoever, there was only one car in the drive through, an almost empty parking lot, and Jewels and Arrietty were the only ones in the actual restaurant.
It could be easy to just take this as an opportunity to chill, kiki, have fun, but it’s not, there was a reason they were sent here. There was actual work that needed to be done and by sitting together and eating some Wendy’s slop. Right, resolve the beef, squash it, move on.
Instead of doing that, the two sophomores looked at each other, Arrietty took a bite from her burger and then raised her eyebrows at Jewels,
“So” Jewels started,
“Was that letter about your grandma really important?” Arrietty asked, a hint of venom in her voice. Jewels sighed,
“My grandma has been falling ill a lot recently, she doesn't cope well during allergy season.” Jewels explained, “Auntie Sam just worries about her a lot at this time, and I just thought that she’d want to know how my grandma is doing asap… You know, get her mind off of it for a bit so that she can really have her head in the game.”.
Arrietty raised an eyebrow, “Well, how is your grandma?”
“Well, allergies, and she hates literally everything and everyone in this nursing home” Jewels sighed, “So you can only imagine. She’s like an older version of you, running around and calling everyone busted”.
The two girls chuckled, Arrietty took a sip from her drink, and then inhaled,
“I’m sorry I handled this the way that I did,” Arrietty apologized, “It’s just, I haven’t done a solo in a while, I was just stressed out because I was scared that I had regressed, and I really didn’t want to distract myself. But I see that I only distracted myself way too much.”
The apology caused Jewels to almost spit out her Sprite, Arrietty? The Arrianna Dubois APOLOGIZING?! What is going on? And it sounded so genuine too, not like she was being held at gunpoint! Yet less than an hour ago the two of them were going at it, and calling each other names.
“I-” Jewels gasped, “I didn’t know you had it in you”.
“What, being nice?” Arrietty scoffed, “My sister taught me a thing or two.”
“What do you mean?” Jewels questioned, to which Arrietty clarified,
“Well, Crystal told Jasmine about the fight, and then Jasmine told Bosco, and Bosco yelled at me because she hates me and never takes my side… But Bosco was right in this case. I’m also a very fast thinker”. Jewels nodded in response to this, she took a deep breath,
“I didn't mean it when I called you untalented” Jewels told her, “I was just very frustrated, I assume you understand why”.
“And I didn’t mean to call you non versatile” Arrietty responded, “I was also very frustrated.”
The two girls smiled at each other,
“Forgive me?” Arrietty requested, her voice small and sincere,
“Of course Arri!” Jewels chirped, Arrietty smiled and nodded.
The door opened, Arrietty heard it and looked to see who walked in, it was none other than Lucky, the daughter of the costume store people… What was she doing here? Didn’t she have school or something? Arrietty froze when she saw Lucky, of course she looked amazing,
“Uhh, Arrietty? Are you alri-”
“SHUT UP!” Arrietty yelped, Lucky looked to Arrietty, she smiled and waved,
“Arrietty! So good to see you again!” Lucky chimed in, Jewels looked at Lucky as if she was a stranger, which she was, well… To Jewels Lucky was a stranger. “What are you doing at Wendy’s? Don’t you have rehearsal”
Arrietty sunk in her seat, embarrassment flooded her body, something Jewels never thought she’d see from her ever.
“Well, we got into a fight yesterday, so we’re squashing the beef!” Jewels explained, Lucky raised an eyebrow as her face lifted in excitement,
“I love fights!” She exclaimed, “Who won?”. Arrietty sat back up with a laugh,
“Oh girl Jewels won” Arrietty humored, Jewels looks at Arrietty and nods,
“Although if we were punching and shit, Arri would have knocked my shit” Jewels laughed,
“Damn right I would've” Arrietty murmured. Lucky chuckled at this, making a mental note,
“Right right, I’ll remember that, Arrietty knows damn well how to finish things”
That part is true though, Arrietty doesn’t just randomly start things, she starts things with a purpose. That purpose is mainly for the greater good of herself, and when she starts something she always does so with the knowledge that she will be able to finish it in her favor.
Except this time, Crystal and Ms Lexi had her beat, even Jewels had her beat. That very moment Arrietty realized that she could start beef with anybody she wanted to, just not with anybody on her team. That was dangerous territory. The girls weren’t just her teammates, but Ms Lexi really was right, they're also her sisters. So no matter what, Ms Lexi and Crystal would always have been the ones to finish it, and it would never end in her favor.
“I promise you, Arrietty's nice” Jewels assured Lucky, “She’s just choosy”
“Well, there's nothing wrong with being choosy” Lucky stated with a smirk,
“I’d choose you any day” Arrietty let out in a murmur, when she realized she’d said that out loud, she immediately covered her mouth, “I said nothing!”
Again, a beat of silence, this time there was no bad energy, just funny energy. Lucky let out a hum,
“I’ll see you later,” and with that, Lucky was gone.
Jewels looked Arrietty in the eyes, a knowing glance on her face.
“Shhh-! We don’t talk about that!” Arrietty barked in defense. Jewels just shrugged. Suddenly, an Idea popped in Jewels’ head
“Oh my god, Arri, what if we become SoundCloud rappers and drop a diss track on EVERYBODY in the team!”
“Oh my god that is the best idea ever!”
—
While Jewels and Arrietty were squashing the beef at Wendy’s, Crystal and Lydia were running their duet, this time with Ms Lexi. Since they were able to squeeze in a rehearsal earlier, the girls would be able to go home at the normal time. That’s pretty cool.
As Ms Lexi watched the dance, she noticed how well Lydia and Crystal worked together, but she also noticed the way that Kori watched Lydia, and the way Kori would nudge Suzie,
“Bro, Lydia is so amazing, look at her she looks so good in this dance” She’d whisper, except Kori is a very loud whisperer, so everyone could hear what she was saying. Even Lydia.
When Lydia heard Kori complimenting her, she froze while Crystal did her leap and crashed into her. The girls went stumbling, and Kori immediately stood up, running to Lydia.
“Lydia! Are you okay?!” Kori shrieked, she grabbed Lydia's arms and pulled her up, Crystal just stood up on her own. Kori cupped Lydia's cheeks aggressively causing Crystal to roll her eyes
“Girl, cut the lovebird shit” Crystal murmured, Ms Lexi clapped her hands,
“Alright! Alright!” Ms Lexi shouted, but before she could say anything, the door opened up again.
Arrietty and Jewels came skipping into the studio in cheap “gold” jewelry and ugly ass shades, Jewels was blasting Fetty Wap on a JBL speaker, and Arrietty was breakdancing.
“Well looks like they squashed the beef” Acacia whispered to Suzie,
“Yeah, good for them, good for them” Suzie whispered back. Jewels and Arrietty did a handshake and Jewels turned off Fetty Wap.
“What the fuck is this?” Kori sighed, her hands sliding off of Lydia's face, instead one of her arms snaked around Lydia's waist. Lydia didn’t do anything about it, she just stood there, a faint blush forming on her face.
“Everyone, we have an announcement!” Arrietty started, Jewels cleared her throat,
“Arrietty and I are now becoming SoundCloud Rappers, and we WILL outsell Soulja Boy” Jewels announced, Crystal, Acacia, Suzie, Lydia, Kori, and Ms Lexi looked at them, Crystal outraged,
“EXCUSE ME?! WHAT’D YOU SAY” Crystal screamed, Acacia just facepalmed, rubbing her forehead aggressively,
“Good god, please un-squash this beef” Acacia whined, “Please go back to fighting!”
“You say you're gonna outsell Soulja Boy” Suzie repeated, “Like that's a hard thing to do?”
“Oh no it’s really not a hard thing to do” Lydia pointed out.
___
8:00 pm, everyone was absolutely WINDED the house down boots. Kori was rolling around the floor, Arrietty was downing a bottle of water, Jewels was standing there in the corner, Suzie was sitting on the floor, Acacia was watching Arrietty down her water,
“Arri you're gonna throw up water during your solo rehearsal” Acacia reminded her friend, Arrietty put her water bottle down and sighed,
“Right, I forgot I still had rehearsal” Arrietty reminded herself, Ms Lexi suddenly clapped her hands, meaning that everyone had to sit in a circle, Ms Lexi walked around the circle.
“So tomorrow is the second competition of the season” Ms Lexi started, “I am very proud of all of you, this week was…. Rocky to say the least, but we pulled through, you all handled it to the best of your abilities. We got straight to work, and I believe we are very very solid for tomorrow. You all owe yourselves a round of applause”
With that, everyone started clapping. Kori then laid back on the floor and stared at the ceiling.
“I know I say that all the time”, Ms Lexi started again, “But seriously, you guys are more impressive than the amount of times Kori has failed a drivers test”.
“WHAT?!” Kori shrieked as she sat up, “I know you're not clocking me! Crystal is a horrible driver!”
“Talk about me when you can actually PASS a driving test” Crystal spat back, “Oh wait, you can't! You got banned from the RMV!”
“That’s not fair! I’m a bad test taker!” Kori declared, Crystal only rolled her eyes,
“It is fair, you did that to yourself” Crystal shrugged, “I mean, I thought two tries was a lot, ELEVEN is far too much”.
Eleven times?! That had to be a stretch. Right?
“Kori, did you actually fail your driving test eleven times?” Lydia asked in a hushed whisper,
“No, I failed ten times, and then another time” Kori responded defensively,
“So basically Eleven” Suzie said, Jewels nodded, “And each time she did so bad that by the eleventh time, the RMV banned her from taking the test”. Arrietty and Acacia started giggling,
“She facetimed me in tears each time” Arrietty stated, “God the facetime photos I got from that”
Kori gasped dramatically, she clutched her chest and panted for a second,
“ARRIANNA I THOUGHT YOU WERE A REAL ONE!” She cried. Crystal held her finger out,
“Kori, Kori, Korinne, do you hear yourself?” Crystal asked rhetorically,
“You would've made fun of me if I facetimed you!” Kori snapped back, Crystal paused, and then nodded,
“Right, I would have,” Crystal said, “You're not wrong.”
___
The drive home in Lydia's car was slightly quiet. The music in the background was the only provider of sound. It felt strange how silent Kori was, but when Lydia heard snoring, she looked to her right to see Kori fast asleep, head tilted to the left. Lydia chuckled softly and averted her eyes back to the road, suddenly Kiss Me Deadly by Lita Ford started playing. Lydia's eyes widened, her hand jolted to the volume knob and she turned it up almost all the way, Kori bolted awake, she shook her head, then started to freak out,
“IS THAT?!” Kori shrieked, Lydia started horribly singing along to the song, Kori looked at the other girl in absolute horror as she sang the song.
It was the scariest 4 minutes of Kori's life, when the song ended and Lydia turned the volume back down. Kori let out a whole ass huff in relief.
“What's wrong Kori?” Lydia asked,
“What the frickity FUCK was that?!” Kori yelped, Lydia just chuckled, like Kori's suffering was funny.
Lydia pulled into Kori’s driveway and put the car in park, Kori opened the door, about to leave, until,
“Wait-!” Lydia shouted, Kori jumped a bit, bumping her head on the roof of the car,
“Goddamn I haven't even left yet!” Kori panicked, “Yeowch my head”
“Sorry, I was just…” Lydia stammered, “Do you want me to drive you to the studio tomorrow? Like to the bus, y’know?”
Kori smiled, she nodded her head,
“Well yes!”.
With that, Kori grabbed her hot pink dance bag, her phone, and fully stepped out of the car, she closed the door and waved to Lydia and walked back into her house.
Lydia smiled fondly at Kori, she put her car in drive and pulled out of the parking spot, she drove away, speeding into the night. It’s fine, nobody was there anyway.