𝒫𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝒮𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓃 𝒮𝒽𝑜𝑒𝓈

𝟤𝟣𝟣. 𝓂𝑒𝓁𝒾𝓈𝓈𝒶 𝓅𝓁𝑒𝒶𝒹𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝒾𝒻𝓉𝒽

"𝒜𝓇𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹𝓎?" Mackenzie asks as I stare at my knees, the adjustable black knee braces covering them.

"God, am I ever?" I chortle, more than ready to throw these knee braces so far into my closet a mouse makes a home out of it.

I've only been able to take these knee braces off during strength training sessions and when I've been sleeping. My legs feel like they have permanent grooves from the knee braces digging into my skin for twelve-plus hours a day every day for weeks.

I sigh, preparing myself. "On the count of three."

Mackenzie nods, taking a deep breath. "Three."

"Two."

"One."

With an enthusiastic unbuckle, the sound of velcro rips through the dancer's den, the rest of my team glancing over for a second before ignoring us. My knees feel the lightest they've been the entire day and I can bend them with ease. I know I should be grateful for the knee braces since they've allowed me to keep dancing while I strengthened the muscles around my knees, but honestly, they've been an annoyance.

"Good riddance," I mutter, throwing the knee braces into my dance bag without a second thought.

"Come on, ladies. Let's go," Miss Abby shouts and we all sigh heavily.

Pyramid is grueling and I wish the producers never made us do it. Nonetheless, I can't help but pinch my hand as we walk into the studio, praying that I'm high on the pyramid because of my back layout step-out.

"Get in here with those fabulous tans. Come on, come on," Miss Abby shouts as we form a line with me deciding to choose a spot in between Brooke and Mackenzie. "Wow. This mother's association is dwindling to a trio, huh?"

Unfortunately, Mommy picked up a fever from Miami. She should be ready to go tomorrow, but Logan refused to be here for pyramid, citing an exciting Call of Duty game with his buddies that was being played at the same time. He's turned into a dirty slob that just festers in our basement and it really stinks up the place. I'm surprised he drove me to dance today.

"Holly's at work and Heather wasn't feeling well today," Melissa explains and Miss Abby shares a pitiful smile with Melissa.

"Of course," Miss Abby says in a passive-aggressive tone. "Well, no beating around the bush. Let's get to the pyramid. First, Nia. Honey, my heart stopped. You guys always think I'm the bad guy but I don't want any kid, even if it's not my student, to stop. I just don't want it to happen again and I don't think it should have happened in the first place. You're better than that."

Nia looks very disappointed in herself and I feel really bad for her. She was getting very generous placements throughout the competition season so far, and then she goes and makes one mistake, and she's below Mackenzie and me. It's not fair.

"Moving on, Mackenzie. Mackenzie, I'm gonna keep it cut and dry here: there's some things to improve on," Miss Abby states and Mackenzie nods, Melissa shaking her head in shame.

"Next, I have Brooke. Brooke, I thought you did a great job. That back layout step-out was spectacular and it made the crowd go wild." 

"And then we have Rue. Rue, I thought you also did a great job. You perfected and cleaned up a trick in a matter of days and people were coming up to me after the competition commenting about your back layout step-out," Miss Abby comments and I give a curt nod and a smile, pleased with my performance.

"And next, we have Chloé. Chloé, the solo was excellent, however the trio was a little shaky. Next, Paige. Paige, you worked through the pain in your feet. Even in the dressing room, when you should have had those feet up and icing them, you were doing the dance over and over," Miss Abby compliments and Kelly gives a wide grin to Paige.