Competition 2
Chapter 8: Competition 2
The parking lot of Ms Lexi Loves Studio For Dance was bustling at 4 in the morning with girls shoving their luggage into the luggage container or whatever it is on the bus, Arrietty, Acacia, and Jewels playing tag in their pajamas, Ms Lexi doing a headcount every five seconds, Ms Sam high key flirting with the bus driver, and Crystal aggressively looking out for Discord and Reddit mods. Kori, seeing this, walked up to Crystal. Crystal who was wearing a whole mask, and a life vest with a baseball bat in hand.
“Crystal, what the hell are you doing?” Kori asked, trying not to stifle a laugh, Crystals head snapped in Koris direction, her face looking like one of a Lemur,
“Kori!” Crystal barked, “Do you have no understanding of how many Discord mods and Reddit mods go hunting at four in the morning searching for young girls playing tag in the parking lot of a dance studio?”
“Uhhh, no?” Kori then pointed out, “That's because nobody does that,”,
“I’m supposed to be the normal one! Not you!” Crystal snapped, “Get out of my face”. Kori held her hands up in mock surrender, she walked back and then turned around, walking over to the bus where Suzie and Ms Onya were loading up Suzies luggage,
“Ms Onya! You're here!” Kori exclaimed, “Are you going to the competition?”
“Of course I am!” Onya revealed, “I got time off, of course I gotta support yall”
“Mom! A little help here!” Suzie groaned while trying to lift a suitcase, Kori laughed and picked the suitcase up effortlessly, she tossed the suitcase into the bus and closed the luggage door.
“Damn what do you do with those arms?” Onya teased, “Do you lift Lydia up or something?”,
Lydia peaked her head out of the bus when she heard her name, Kori made a hand motion for Lydia to come over, which Lydia gladly went over to Kori. Kori crouched down and then lifted Lydia bridal style. Lydia squealed at this, holding onto Kori’s neck for safety,
“A little warning next time!” She shouted, Kori only laughed.
Everyone watched as Ms Lexi walked onto the bus, everyone (By default) followed after her, Kori pushing past everyone for the back seat, earning a “FUCK YOU!” from Jewels.
____
The bus ride to the venue was chaotic, but the walking to their assigned dressing room was more chaotic. There were other dancers from other studios everywhere, parents fighting, staff trying to get around, so basically a typical 6 in the morning at a dance competition. Nothing special really.
Lydia grabbed a hold of Kori’s hand while Kori mindlessly followed Ms Lexi and Ms Onya, Ms Sam was in the back of the clump holding her niece's hand. Kori looked down at Lydia and smiled,
“You good?” She murmured, Lydia,
“Yeah, just a lot of people here” Lydia murmured back, “Plus, I’ve never competed a duet before.”
“It’s all about being in tune with the other person” Kori told her, “I did duets with Suzie all the time, Tap duets”
“Well you're a good tap dancer!” Lydia mentioned, Kori just shook her head,
“But Suzie can tap dance circles around me” Kori said, “But I always paid attention to what she was doing, and I mirrored it to the best of my ability, unless I was told not to”.
“Oh my god finally!” Ms Lexi cheered, “Guys, this is our dressing room!”.
Ms Onya opened the door to the dressing room, the girls all started piling into the classroom that was rearranged to be a dressing room. Each teammate taking a seat in front of the mirrors. Ms Lexi cleared her throat and stood atop a chair.
“Alright class” She announced, “So we are starting with the solos, Arrietty you need to get into Bachelorette, you're up at 8:08. Your number is 504”. Arrietty nodded at Ms Lexi, she turned back to her mirror and started doing her hair for that dance, “Lydia, Crystal, your duet will be at 10:00, it is dance number 528. Be stretched and ready please”, Crystal did a salute before turning back to her mirror, “And the group dance will be at 4, number 649, so just hang in there.”. With that, Jewels put her makeup brush down and sat back in her chair, meanwhile Arrietty was hustling to get ready.
“Damn you don't have to be ready for the next TWO hours!” Acacia reminded her, “You know that, right?”. Acacia turned away from the mirror, and then looked at Acacia,
“OH MY GOD ACACIA YOUR BLUSH MY EYES!!” Arrietty wailed, almost as if she looked into a solar eclipse.
“We get it, I’m blush blind” Acacia rolled her eyes, Arrietty returned to getting herself ready for Bachelorette.
Meanwhile, Jewels and Suzie were both chilling on the couch in the room. Jewels was leaning against Suzie while eating some pretzels, Suzie was just watching the chaos of Arrietty hustling to get ready, and Crystal trying to stretch herself out as much as possible. Suzie turns to Jewels and opens her mouth, to which the other girl rolled her eyes and shoved a handful of pretzels in her mouth,
“MHHPPFG!” Suzie muffled, Jewels only laughed. Onya walked over to where the girls were sitting and sat on the floor across from them,
“Pretzels huh? Well, that's a nutritious breakfast” Onya stated,
“Momm-!” Suzie whined, “You probably did the same thing!”
“Yeah I did, no shame” Onya said, she smiled at her daughter and at Jewels.
At the other side of the changing room, Kori and Lydia could be seen sitting together at the vanity desks. Lydia was finishing her makeup, and Kori was just watching. Lydia's energy seemed off, not in a crazy psychic lady kind of way, she just seemed nervous.
“You alright?” Kori asked, Lydia turned to Kori and nodded,
“I’ve just never competed in a duet before” Lydia mumbled, “Plus, I’m performing this dance with one of the choreographers of it. That has to count for something”.
“Pfft-” Kori could only scoff, “Crystal doesn't give a damn if you mess it up… Hey DIVA!
Hearing the name “Diva” got Crystals attention faster than saying her name would,
“Yes?” She called back,
“Lydia thinks you're gonna be mad if she messes up the dance because you were one of the choreographers” Kori told her,
“Pfft-” Crystal scoffed as well, “Girl I was the CO-choreographer, big big difference…” Crystal paused for a second, “I don’t even remember what parts I came up with…”.
Crystal's nonchalant-ness definitely helped Lydia ease her anxiety, she seemingly didn’t give a shit. Nobody here seemed to give a shit at the moment, not even Arrietty. The only thing she cared about was her hair. There she was putting her hair in her slick back while stretching her oversplit. Lydia turned to Acacia who was right next to her since Kori went to play Dress To Impress with Jewels and Suzie,
“Does everyone here have their oversplit or something?” Lydia asked the youngest teammate, Acacia nodded her head,
“It’s a staple in our stretching routine” Acacia told her, “You’ve got yours right?”. Almost as if on queue, as if the spirits told her to, Ms Lexi shouted, “Lydia can you stretch your oversplit?!”
Acacia smirked at Lydia, Lydia just sighed and went into her split, she grabbed the nearest chair and rested her front leg on it. Acacia smiled and gave Lydia a thumbs up.
Comfortable silence passed by, of course until,
“FUCK YOU KORI MY OUTFIT WAS BETTER!” a scream was heard from Jewels, everyone turned their heads to the three girls absolutely busting their asses off on Dress To Impress,
“Not according to everyone else” Kori laughed,
“Well” Jewels huffed, “First is the worst, second is the best! My outfit was the best”
“Wait, does that mean I’m the one with the hairy chest?” Suzie panicked,
Ms Lexi checked her watch, she looked at the time and looked at Arrietty, Lydia, and Crystal,
“Let's get going” She told everyone, “Arrietty, Lydia, Crystal backstage, the rest of us, Auditorium.”
___
The wings were crowded with nervous soloists, trios, duets, small groups, anybody going up soon was huddled together in different groups backstage, including the three Ms Lexi dancers who were going up soon. While Lydia was stretching backstage, Crystal was standing in front of Crystal looking at her with an intense face, her hands holding Arrietty's arms,
“Remember, entrances and exits are important” Crystal reminded her, “You cant just storm off after finishing your dance, and for fucks sake do NOT storm off of stage if you forget the dance.” Arrietty only nodded her head, and Crystal continued, “You go on that stage and you do that dance like you're the one who choreographed it, even if you forget, keep. Fucking. Going. You don’t mess up a dance unless you show it”.
“Please welcome our next number to the stage, this is contestant number 504, Arrietty with Bachelorette”
Crystal pushed Arrietty onto the stage, Lydia walked away from the wall she was stretching on and watched Arrietty next to Crystal,
“She’s gonna kill it”.
___
“Please welcome our next number to the stage, this is contestant number 504, Arrietty with Bachelorette”. The girls in the auditorium froze when they heard this,
“Guys! It’s Arri!” Jewels whisper-shouted, “Shut up! She’s about to start”,
“ARRIANNA!! SLAYYYY” Kori screamed,
“I’M YOUR BIGGEST FAN” Acacia also screamed.
“Shut up!” Jewels shouted.
Ms Sam and Ms Lexi watched Arrietty like a hawk, eyeing her every move. There was nothing to clock though, Arrietty did everything with precision and detail. A type of detail that Sam had never thought of, everything she did was well thought out to the biggest extent possible. Arrietty clearly had a strong understanding of this dance and how it was supposed to be executed, and she made it hers.
____
Crystal and Lydia jumped up and down excitedly as they watched Arrietty slay her solo. They turned to each other and started jumping in excitement.
“She did it! She did it!” Crystal squealed, “That dance is so winning!”,
“We’ve gotta get a clean sweep today!” Lydia whispered,
“Please welcome to the stage contestant number 528,”, Crystal grabbed Lydia's arm and they walked into the wings, “This is Crystal and Lydia with Don't Wanna Go Back”
____
“This is Crystal and Lydia with Don't Wanna Go Back”.
Suzie almost dropped her popcorn, Jewels almost spit out her drink, Kori immediately leaned onto the empty seat in front of her.
“C'mon girls you got it!” Ms Lexi Shouted.
“Go Lydia!” Kori also shouted.
_____
The first award ceremony had the three dancers on stage, holding hands, closing their eyes, the announcer hasn't even spoken yet.
“Good afternoon everybody! God you all look miserable!” The announcer teased, “My name is Dawn, and I’m the emcee,”
“Who the fuck names their child Dawn?” Crystal whispered,
“You're who's talking” Arrietty taunted, quietly.
The girls sat on the stage, looking at Ms Lexi, Ms Sam, and Ms Onya with hope in their eyes, hoping for some sort of recognition, whether it be first or not. Crystal didn’t care, so neither did Arrietty and Lydia,
“Remember guys, we’re just here to have fun” Crystal whispered
“I’m gonna get straight to the point” Dawn started, “Now, the solos were exhilarating, but one specific solo beat all of the others in the category by a landslide.”. Crystal and Lydia both turned their heads to face Arrietty, Arrietty shrugged, like she was self aware of her performance,
“And our first place intermediate 14-16 solo, scoring a 299 out of 300, please give it up for contestant number 504 Arrietty with Bachelorette!” Dawn announced, Arrietty immediately stood up and ran up to Dawn who had a look of pride on her face.
“YEAH ARRI!” Crystal and Lydia screamed from their spot on the stage.
“So, first place, ONE point away from a perfect score (well deserved by the way), what was it like, I can tell a lot of work went into this” Dawn asked like a typical interviewer, Arrietty took the mic and cleared her throat,
“Well, this week was definitely a dramatic one for us, partly my fault,” Arrietty stated, “I want to thank my wonderful team, Ms Lexi and Crystal for whipping my ass into shape, and Jewels for forgiving me, and believing in me… I’m just really happy things worked out the way they did” Arrietty smiled at her speech and handed Dawn the microphone back,
“Wow, so inspiring… Everyone please take a bow!”, everyone took a bow, and then returned to their seats, “Now onto the Duet/Trio category”.
The Duet/Trio awards went painfully slow, 10th, 9th, 8th, 7th, 6th 5th, agonizing clapping, Lydia trying to scratch her head without ruining her slickback, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, at this point Lydia was sure that they had not placed… Wait, but there's no way, they did amazing! Or did they?
“First place was another landslide of a victory” Dawn announced, “And well deserved too, very well deserved”,
“Does she say well deserved for every first place?” Lydia murmured,
“I mean the judging has been good so far” Arrietty said,
“Youre saying that because you won-”
“Please give it up for contestant number 528! Crystal and Lydia with "Don't Wanna Go Back” winning with a 297 out of 300!” Dawn announced, Crystal and Lydia looked at each other before springing up and running to Dawn, “Wow you guys look thrilled, tell me about this dance”,
“Well, this was our first time doing a duet together,” Crystal explained,
“Crystal choreographed this dance actually!” Lydia enthused, Crystal facepalmed in embarrassment,
“CO- Choreographed!” Crystal corrected, “I wanna thank Ms Sam for teaching us, and Lydia for working so hard”,
“Crystal is a damn good choreographer!” Lydia shouted, Crystal grabbed Lydia's arm, and the trophy, and they headed back.
_____
The vibe in the dressing room was a good chaotic, everyone was dancing and celebrating, Kori ran up and hugged Lydia, lifting her up slightly,
“I’m so proud of you!” Kori squealed, Lydia squeaked a bit until Kori put her down.
“Okay clean sweep!” Ms Onya exclaimed, “C'mon girls, bring this home, you got it!”.
Arrietty, Crystal, and Lydia run to their vanity mirrors and start taking their hair down. They had about 4 hours to go from bun, to hair down with curls, and to the “I Just” costume. Not bad at all, that's like the duration of a whole ass dance recital.
“Suzanne! Get your ass on Dress to Impress!” Jewels shouted from the couch, Acacia, and Suzie ran over to the couch, Kori, Jewels, Acacia, and Suzie each logged onto their Ipads and opened Dress To Impress immediately. Crystal scoffed and rolled her eyes before returning to brushing her hair out.
“You guys are miserable” She murmured, Koris face perked up,
“What was that?” Kori pressured, “You're the one competing in two dances today”
“I’m the one who won with your girl” Crystal spat back, Lydia covered her mouth and started to laugh.
“Guys can you please not fight” Suzie stressed, “My moms here, you're embarrassing me!”
“Suzie, have you practiced your Rizz Face today?” Onya jested,
“MOMMY STOP IM FILMING!!!” Suzie whined.
Ms Lexi slowly walked up to Onya and tapped her shoulder, Onya turned around and smiled,
“Lexi what's up?” Onya asked,
“Can I talk to you?” Ms Lexi asked, “Outside?”
___
The hallway wasn’t that busy besides the occasional dance mom storming out of a room,
“It’s about next week” Ms Lexi told Onya, “I have a plan for next week, and I need your opinion”
“No Lexi you should not have the kids do a group dance to again by Fetty Wap with an inflatable JBL speaker dancing in the background” Onya protested,
“It’s not that!” Lexi defended herself, “I was thinking of having all of the girls compete in solos next week, having no group dance, just solos. But I never send two solos at once, and I feel like if I follow through with this plan it’ll become less fun and too competitive.”.
“Who doesn't like a little bit of competition?” Onya asked rhetorically, “Cmon Lexi, if you think of it like that of course you shouldn't do it, but just think about it. If you do this, it'll give the girls a glance at the real world” Onya assured her, “We’re always competing, even against the ones we care about the most… I mean, we were always competing against each other at jobs, auditions, everything…”
“I don’t want them to hate each other though” Ms Lexi sighs,
“Lex, they’ll only hate each other if they have the mindset that they’re competing to see who’s the best. Your girls are smart, they’ll know that this is more for performance rather than winning. Cmon, I think it’s a great idea!” Onya again assured her,
“Really?” Ms Lexi tilted her head,
“Yeah Lex, it really gives all of the girls a chance to show the world their individuality as performances, and what their strengths are” Onya told her. Lexi smiled down at the shorter woman, who looked at her with an earnest glance, “Go with your heart Lexi”
____
Backstage for the group dances is always the most chaotic mess you’d ever see, you had dancers fighting, people shaking in their boots, Arrietty whispering shady things about other people's costumes in Acacias ears,
“Arrietty! Don’t say that!” Acacia whispered back, Kori and Crystal watched intensely as the number right before them walked onto the stage,
“Huddle guys huddle” Crystal whispered, everyone huddled together in a circle, “We’re gonna kill it, remember that the musicality is in the words, and Lydia you look amazing in green”
“I know right” Kori whispered back,
“Anyways, watch each other, stay with the words, and we’ll be solid. Clean sweep is the goal, but if we don’t win, I don’t care. Also, Suzie close your eyes when Jewels does that solo part in the beginning I can NOT fathom another timing error”
“Please welcome to the stage contestants number 649, this is Ms Lexis Elite Competition Team with “I Just”
The girls each stood in their respective wing, Jewels walked onto the stage and assumed her position, and then it started.
___
Final awards, 5:30 pm, on the dot. Once this shitshow is over the girls can finally go home.
The entire team sat on the stage all holding hands, Kori and Lydia communicating telepathically, Crystal looking at the ceiling, Arrietty and Acacia playing patty cake, and Jewels asleep on Suzie's shoulder. Suzie looked at Onya in the audience and pointed to Jewels, to which Onya just shrugged.
“Alrighty, group numbers, this bracket was very tight so even if you don’t get first, you should be very very proud of yourselves” Dawn spoke into the microphone,
“Good god it’s gonna be like 20 people who place” Lydia sighed, “That happened once, but only one score was drastically different from the others.”
“Was it yours?” Kori asked, even though she knew the answer, Lydia just nodded her head,
“Perfect score on that one” Lydia said,
Arrietty and Acacia observed the contestants who had already been announced, at this point they were about to announce 3rd place,
“God they all look miserable” Acacia whispered, Crystal nodded,
“If I got fourth in this category I’d be partying!” Arrietty whispered back,
“Well people are used to being spoon fed wins for no reason” Crystal told them, “When they have to hold the spoon themselves, they often don't do good getting that win.”
“That's a very wise saying” Arrietty stated,
“Now please give it up for our first place winners, this dance scored a perfect score of 300 out of 300, and that goes to contestants number 649 Ms Lexis School For Dance with I Just!”
Suzie shrieked, she shook Jewels aggressively, causing her to wake up from her peaceful slumber,
“Jewels get up there!” Kori pushed Jewels up, Jewels shuffled over to Dawn and yawned.
“Congratulations!” Dawn enthused,
“Wait, I’m so sorry, what's going on?” Jewels murmured, her speech slurred with sleep,
“What do you mean?! Your team just won! Perfect score and all!” Dawn exclaimed, Jewels’ demeanor immediately changed, her face lit up and she looked at Dawn,
“On Soulja Boy?!” She marveled,
“Yeah uhh, on Soulja Boy” Dawn chuckled, “So, what was this like, you look so shocked!”
“Well, I was fast asleep” Jewels said matter- of - Fact-ly, “I forgot where I was for a second.”
“Really now?” Dawn raised her eyebrow, “Sleeping?”
“On Soulja Boy I was”, Jewels confirmed, Crystal started cheering,
“YEAH BITCH PUT THAT SHIT ON SOULJA BOY- oopsies, sorry”.
Dawn only turned to Ms Lexi in the audience,
“What’s with your team and their obsession with Soulja Boy?” Dawn asked, Ms Lexi just facepalmed and shook her head.
And with that, another successful competition in Ms Lexi’s Elite Competition Teams binder. They seriously might need to buy a new trophy case…