𝒫𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝒮𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓃 𝒮𝒽𝑜𝑒𝓈

𝟤𝟣𝟦. 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝒶𝓉𝓉𝓁𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝑔𝒾𝓃𝓈

𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉, 𝓌𝑒'𝓇𝑒 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒶 𝓃𝑒𝓌 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓅𝑒𝓉𝒾𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝓈𝑒𝒶𝓈𝑜𝓃. The past two months have been a welcome respite from the competition season. For once, I wasn't coming home from the dance studio when the moon was out, except for once, when Logan "forgot" to pick me up from dance, and got yelled at by Miss Abby for it. God, I had never seen such fear in his eyes.

Speaking of Miss Abby, after she ditched us in New Jersey during a meltdown, we haven't seen much of her in the studio. We'd be lucky to see her once a week at most and it was often to criticize Paige and Brooke for not attending their classes. I don't blame her for her meltdown, though. 

The word got out in the weeks after the last competition that her mother got sick during the competition and instead of Miss Abby crying about Maddie, she was crying about her mother. I can't imagine how hard it would be to force yourself to watch your students dance while you knew your mother was dying. I couldn't do it.

As we sit around the dancer's den, I try to read everybody's body language as we wait for somebody to let us into the studio. Brooke and Mackenzie look exhausted, Nia and Paige both look excited, and Chloé and Maddie look exceedingly nervous, the events of February coming back to haunt them.

"Has anybody seen Miss Abby today?" Chloé asks and we all shake our heads.

"She hasn't been here since Thursday," Maddie reports, biting her fingernails.

"Should we go in? I saw a bunch of cameramen setting up in there, so they must be ready," I ask, remembering all of them getting set up during my contemporary class.

After a moment of consideration, everybody hesitantly nods, slowly arising from their seats as if they were trying not to disturb a bear.

"Somebody should bring the moms down, though," Nia suggests, and Paige quickly volunteers, sprinting up the stairs to grab the mothers.

"I hope that pyramid goes well. I don't want drama on the first week back," Brooke pleads, crossing her fingers.

I think we all hope that, Brooke. After a moment of waiting by the stairs, Paige and the moms come bounding down the stairs, Mommy the last one in the pack. Lately, she's been down with a nasty bout of the stomach flu, but nobody in my house has caught it despite Mommy being sick for the past month. She can barely get out of bed to go to work and for some reason, the smell of coffee makes her sick. It's only gotten worse and I can tell she's holding in vomit just from the way her face is.

"Are you guys ready?" Christi asks and we all shake our heads, Mackenzie slowly opening up the studio door to reveal... nobody.

"Where's Abby?" Mackenzie asks, stepping into the studio. "Where is she?"

As we scan the studio, there's no evidence that Miss Abby's been in this studio today other than the pyramid proudly standing against the mirror. Out of habit, we all make our line. I find myself next to Chloé. Ever since both of us got ballet scholarships, we've been getting closer.

"I wonder where Abby is," Paige giggles, most likely overjoyed that Miss Abby isn't in the vicinity.

"She ditched us in Jersey. Maybe she didn't come home," Christi suggests and the room goes silent.

The last competition was truly a mess, even if there were underlying factors. The moms certainly aren't going to let this slide and I have a feeling Miss Abby knows that. Maybe that's why she's late to pyramid.

"Who thinks Miss Abby is going to apologize for leaving us stranded?" Kelly asks, causing Christi to scoff, "Oh, God, no."

"She never apologizes," Paige says.