𝒫𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝒮𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓃 𝒮𝒽𝑜𝑒𝓈

𝟣𝟢𝟧. 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓇𝓈 𝒸𝑜𝓁𝓁𝒾𝒹𝑒

"𝒲𝑒 𝑔𝑜 𝓉𝑜𝑔𝑒𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓇𝒶𝓂𝒶 𝓁𝒶𝓂𝒶 𝓁𝒶𝓂𝒶 𝓁𝒶 𝒹𝒾𝓃𝑔𝑜 𝒹𝒶 𝒹𝒾𝓃𝑔𝑜 𝒹𝑜𝓃𝑔," the radio plays as I intently sing along.

I love Grease so much! I want to dress up like Sandy for Halloween so badly. But it's only the first of May. I have until September to decide so Mommy can order the costume in time. Sandy wears a lot of yellow, my favorite color, too. Last year I was Marilyn Monroe and the wig hurt so much.

"You know Rue, Miss Abby's been wanting to get you into vocal lessons," Mommy hints, turning the car onto Saltsburg.

"No, that's Mackenzie's thing," I reply, keeping my eyes on the sky.

In the studio, Mackenzie is often compared to Maddie. Miss Abby wants Mackenzie to be Maddie, but Mackenzie is her own person. But Maddie doesn't do singing lessons, Mackenzie does. I don't want Mackenzie to have competition in the one thing that she doesn't need to compete in.

I'm excited about pyramid today. I can't stop thinking about my win. I'm so proud of myself. I did so well, I won against some really good solos. And I got a triple threat award. But I also won against Mackenzie, which means Melissa may hold a grudge against me.

Mommy parks the car. I quickly make sure Bubbles is okay before grabbing my bag and hopping out of the car. I feel nervous. Will I be able to do as well at the recital this week? Miss Abby wants me to do Kitri in the recital.

The worst part is, Logan's coming to watch me perform. As much as I hate him, I do appreciate him coming out to see his girlfriend of four months' daughter perform. It does show positive character. 

As I walk into the dancer's den, I notice everybody but Brooke and Paige in the corner stretching out and chatting. I quickly take off my shoes and my cover-up clothes and go over there to stretch with them.

"Oh my gosh!" Maddie exclaims.

"Rue, look, we're matching!" Chloé points out, running over to me.

Indeed, we're both wearing a yellow sports bra, yellow shorts, and a yellow flower pulling our hair back in a ponytail. I giggle at the coincidence. Brooke and Paige come running in, or more, Paige comes running in while Brooke dawdles.

"Girls, let's go! Come on, ladies," Miss Abby shouts and Brooke and Paige throw off their clothes, running to get in with us.

"Come on girls, let's go! Get in here!" Miss Abby yells again as we sit down.

As I sit down next to Brooke, I see the dread chalkboard. I hate this chalkboard so much. Smudge after smudge appears. It's the one thing I won't miss in two weeks when this is done. I can dance without a smudged-up chalkboard staring me down.

"I am very disappointed. Every single one of you could have done better in your solo. Moving on, I want to forget about last weekend," Miss Abby remarks.

If I forgot about Saturday, then I wouldn't have a win. No way. I liked Saturday. Miss Abby flips over the chalkboard. I smile. I'm second on the pyramid. Maddie is still on top, of course. Brooke is next to me. The bottom is Nia, Chloé, Paige, Vivi-Anne, and poor Mackenzie on the bottom. I thought Paige would be on the bottom.

"What's gonna happen this weekend?" Miss Abby asks.

"It's the ALDC showcase," Paige answers while Miss Abby writes her response on the chalkboard.

"Thank you. Yes. We are going to do the new number Sugar Daddies at the showcase," Miss Abby announces, scribbling it onto the chalkboard next to her previous writings.