Love and Loss

14. No Comment

5:46 pm
Atlanta, GA
Deija

"Where is your hat?!" I looked down at one of my dancers, Brian, who had on his entire outfit except for his red flat-bibbed hat that was missing from his brown curly hair.

"I don't know." He shrugged.

I sighed, "Okay go find your mommy and ask her for your hat." He nodded at me before turning around, slowly walking to the back of the fitting room. "Quick feet please!"

All of a sudden he began running to the back of the room making me shake my head.

"Deija!" I turned around to see my assistant choreographer, Megan, running up to me. "We have a problem."

I pouted, "No, not another one."

"I know." She sighed. "But Riley's bra ripped."

I jerked my neck, "What?" Megan only nodded, letting the information sink in. "We go on stage in ten minutes! How does she rip it?!"

"I have no idea." Megan shook her head. "But apparently none of the mom's brought anything to fix it. They only packed the makeup."

I slapped my forehead with my hand, taking a deep breath to try and calm my nerves. "Okay, okay. I have some stuff in my car, I'll go get it. Please make sure everyone has everything on when I get back." I said before thinking of something again. "And please don't let anymore bra's rip."

"You got it." She smiled reassuringly.

"Okay." I quickly grabbed my car key's from my purse and ran out of the fitting room, towards the main part of the building. "How does she rip a bra? Ain't nothing there but chest and a little nipple."

As I ran, dozens of parents were walking through the doors with their families, everyone waiting for the show to begin.

Today was the day.

It was the Thanksgiving Concert.

It was also the first time my kids would be performing dances that I fully choreographed and put together. But of course, as the time winded down it seemed as if everything was going wrong.

There was an electrical issue, and the light's guy couldn't figure out how to fix it. The music was glitching because someone stepped on the USB cord, children where running around hatless and shoeless, and now a seven year old has managed to rip her sports bra. Ten minutes before we go on stage.

"I swear god is testing me today." I mumbled to myself as I opened the trunk of my car, and pulled out the small sewing kit I had packed.

Quickly I made my way back inside of the building, muttering excuse me's everytime I passed in front of a family. Finally, I made it to the girl's fitting room, where everyone was dressed except for Riley who was sitting in a chair, tears streaming down her face with a robe covering her.

"Riley, what's wrong girl?" I furrowed my brows, kneeling in front of her. "Why are you crying?"

Riley only cried some more, her pale face becoming red as a tomato, as she looked down at her tiny hands.

"She's sad because she broke her costume and she thinks she won't be able to perform." Her mom explained, trying to console her daughter by rubbing up and down her back.