Jeté to Stardom

23. Night of the Living Dancers

"Why is Nova sad?" Emilio asks at dinner Sunday afternoon.

Playing with her broccoli Nova frowns at him. "I'm not sad."

Alaric frowns at her. "Dad made Beef Stroganoff, and you only ate a quarter of it."

"Well, I'm not hungry," she pushes her plate away.

"Comer," her Mamá orders. "Lux ate all her food; she didn't win. You're not leaving this table until your plate is clear."

Nova glances over to her sister, who was moving on to her second plate of food. "What?" Lux asks her. "I'm hungry."

She's only hungry because she didn't get sixth place.

"Okay, what happened?" Tata says. "I thought we fixed this... pouty issue with a shopping trip."

"We did, but then we didn't do well with our solos," Lux admits, while Nova frowns at her. She doesn't want to think about it. "I got fourth, Chloe got fifth, and Nova got..."

"I got sixth. I got sixth!" Pouting Nova crosses her arm.

Rafael snorts. "Nova it's not the end of the world. We don't win every martial art competition we go to."

Nova narrows her eyes at him. Rafael's room is filled with gold, silver, and bronze medals and trophies. "I hope you get sixth at your next jiu-jitsu competition. I hope you get your butt kicked."

"Nova!" she turns her head away from Mamá's stern glare. "Don't wish ill on your brother."

"Oh, come on, Mamá, Rafael deserves that," Lysander pats Nova's head. "He was antagonizing her, and he knows it."

"I know right. You should patronize her because you would be just as upset if worse if it was you," Dominic chides, sounding so similar to Tata Lux had to do a double-take.

"Both of you apologize," Papa orders in a no-nonsense voice.

"Sorry," Nova mutters before turning to the side.

"I'm sure you'll do well this week," Ciarian smiles at her.

Nova gives a faint smile. She wasn't so sure about that. Competing against Maddie, Chloe and Lux is never easy. And that's if Abby ever gives her a solo again.

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"Girls, let's go!" Abby claps, urging them to walk in faster. "Girls, you walked into this room just as sluggish and boring as you walked out on that stage. Zero energy. You have to come out there with energy. You can't get halfway through the number and then peter off. You're boring."

I don't think we were boring, Nova thought. Unfortunately, the group routine didn't win first place like Abby wanted, but they tried.

"So... at the bottom of the pyramid. Maddie. Maddie, you had an opportunity to dance. That didn't happen. They announce you and your bawling in the audience. That is unacceptable behavior. You're nine years old. When opportunity knocks, open the door."

"Next, Mackenzie. Mackenzie, your routine was a winning number. You were tenth. I don't do tenth. Next-- I hate to do it," Abby rips the paper off to reveal Nova's photo. Once Nova loved looking at her headshot, now she wanted to rip it apart. "I never want to see you in sixth place again. It's top three or bust."

Nodding, Nova presses down on her lips. There was no way Abby was more disappointed in her than she was in herself. A slight smile escapes when Lux's hand grips hers, giving what little comfort she could.

"Next, Paige, you went out there, you were great, you forgot a step. You can't forget a step. Brooke. Brooke, you're here because you give me this much," Abby pinches our fingers together. "I don't see this effervescent personality. I just see this fake little smile. You concentrate so much to not screw up the dance you can't have fun out there.