𝒫𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝒮𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓃 𝒮𝒽𝑜𝑒𝓈

𝟤𝟢𝟧. 𝒷𝓇𝑜𝑜𝓀𝑒'𝓈 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀

So before we begin, I think Lifetime messed up the pacing of the real episode. It skips from four days until the competition to two days before the competition. I'm going to assume that the two is actually three because it makes a lot more sense to the pacing of the content.

𝒜𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓂𝓎 𝒻𝓇𝓊𝒾𝓉𝓁𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓅𝑒𝓉𝒾𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝒶 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓅𝓁𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓌𝑒𝑒𝓀𝓈 𝒶𝑔𝑜, 𝐼 𝒷𝑒𝑔𝑔𝑒𝒹 𝑀𝑜𝓂𝓂𝓎 𝓉𝑜 𝑔𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝓂𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝒸𝑜𝓇𝑒𝓈𝒽𝑒𝑒𝓉. Normally, she sends them straight to Miss Abby, Miss Gianna, and Madame Keira once she gets them so they can see my critiques. I'd never had an interest in seeing the scoresheets before, but now that I got second, and it wasn't to Maddie, I needed to see what the judges said.

When I sat down at my desk, I quickly found the overall score number: two-hundred and seventy. I knew the other girl got a two-hundred and eighty-seven, meaning there was a whole seventeen points in between us, which disheartened me. Scanning the rest of the scoresheet, I quickly filtered through the positives and the negatives. I had a wonderful emotional connection throughout my body, great control and technique, and exceptional feet.

However, there were quite a few negatives. My posture and my face were questionable, I didn't have enough power in my leaps, and my fluidity seemed to be the key point dragging the piece down. It was a lot to take in, but after I let it sit with me for a moment, I decided the best thing to do was to take charge and work on all of my shortcomings.

Except I couldn't, because it was fall break. Even though I was certain that I was going to Grandma and Papa's up in Springfield, we were going to Logan's mother's house. Despite the fight between Mommy and Logan, we still had to travel to Texas to see her, and Iris and I were less than pleased. Not only would we not be able to see Grandma and Papa, but we would also be forced to live with relatives of someone in our household who we despised.

Texas was a big shock to us. It was up in the seventies in late November, and since it was still above fifty degrees, the crisp red and orange leaves still hung from the trees, painting the sky with its warmth. We went to the city of Uvalde, which is near San Antonio. It's a small town that's big on protecting its environment. It's also filled with big families and wonderful spicy food, which I adore.

We stayed at Logan's mother's house for the week, and while it was not a great time for Iris and me, it could've been worse. Logan's mother, Kay, was one of the nicest people I've ever met. She was the complete opposite of Logan, who was oddly distant from us this week. She took a genuine attraction to Iris and I's interests and tried her best to be grandmotherly. She even saw the episode of Dance Moms where I win with Kitri. It had maybe ten seconds in the show, but thankfully, my favorite part, the firebird section, was used.

Uvalde has a big Hispanic population, and even though Kay is white, our Thanksgiving was packed with flavor. Everything was so robust, spicy, and flavorful, which are my favorite flavors. Mashed potatoes were combined with tangy queso fresco, roasted sweet potatoes with chili flakes, Brussel sprouts coated in a marinade of chili, honey, and lime, jalapeño cornbread, zesty cilantro green beans, and of course, the turkey. It was one of the best meals I had in a while.

I still managed to train a little bit in ballet, contemporary, and lyrical. Kay had a basement she let me use to practice. It had a high ceiling and more than enough room to work on my flaws. When I wasn't forced into a family bonding activity or watching Iron Man with Iris, I was downstairs, trying to make the sluggish hours pass. I made sure to work on an immaculate posture in the five positions, directing my power into my plié before my leaps instead of my lead-up, and using old combos from last season's dances to work on fluidity. Overall, while it was one of the worst Thanksgiving's I'd ever had, it had its upsides.