max ziegler | dance moms

It All Ends Here

It's finally here. It's Nationals time! And, even better, Mommy's back! I was so excited to go to Lake Tahoe and compete.

"Max, I'm so so so proud of you! Kelly sent me the video, you were amazing!" Mommy exclaimed when she found out about my win. I was very happy. "But no more swearing, you're too young for that. You're still my innocent baby."

We arrived at the studio we were dancing in this week, and we entered the building.

"Hello, ladies. Come on in," Miss Abby spoke as we made our way to the studio. "Here we are in another studio, another week. We need to learn a new group routine. This is tough. We have to do it today, and there's props. Now, I want to reflect a little bit on the past two weeks. I keep telling you guys, you have been given an amazing opportunity. You've been hand-selected to go across the country and learn a new number each week and do these competitions. And you are not stepping up to the plate. I want to see energy, enthusiasm, fun. If you don't want to do it, there's probably a hundred other kids that would love to be in your shoes right now. So, I need to see motivation. I want you to want to win. This is my reputation on the line, it's my name. But by now, it's also your names. So, I'm gonna start now with Paige."

She turned her direction to the pyramid, revealing Paige's headshot.

𝙈𝙖𝙙𝙙𝙞𝙚

𝘽𝙧𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙚  𝘾𝙝𝙡𝙤𝙚

𝙈𝙖𝙭  𝙉𝙞𝙖  𝙈𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙣𝙯𝙞𝙚  𝙋𝙖𝙞𝙜𝙚

"Moving on, Mackenzie. Nia. Next we have Max. Chloe. Brooke. And back on top, we have Maddie. You're doing your solo and a duet with Chloe. Chloe, you will also be doing your solo. Paige and Brooke, I'm giving you a duet. I want you to work together as friends. I do not want you fighting as sisters. If you waste time and energy bickering back and forth, you're never gonna get it finished.  Everybody is in the group number this week, even Mackenzie and Max. Every single one of you are an important part of this puzzle. And in a group routine, everybody needs to pull their weight. And I'm telling you what: we need to win. Alright, let's get to rehearsing, let's get moving," Miss Abby finished, and we moved our bags out of the way to start warming up.

I was a little upset I didn't have a solo, or even a duet. Since I won last week. Shouldn't I get something? But Nia and Kenzie don't have anything special, so it's not just me.

"Okay, ladies, the piece is called 'This is My Beauty.' And what it's about is not how pretty you're gonna be in your costumes, not how pretty your hair is, but what's on the inside. And it's about taking a good look in the mirror, not at what you see, but like the internal mirror," Miss Abby explained. What? "Are either of you getting this? Max? Mackenzie? Yeah. It's a little deep."

I was confused. I didn't really get the meaning of the number. But as long as I was dancing, I didn't mind.

"Hold the mirror and cover your face. You're gonna roll stage left, go. Roll, left. Take your right mirror out," Miss Abby spoke.

"One, two, three, four," Gia counted.

-

We finished our group rehearsal, and Chloe had her solo rehearsal. The rest of us were just chilling around the studio.

"I miss my friends," I stated. "I haven't seen them in weeks."

"Yeah. I miss my friends too," Kenzie said.

"I'm excited for my birthday," I added. My birthday was in the summer. July 27th, 2006! I'm so smart, I know my own birthday!

"My birthday already happened. Haha!" Kenzie teased, and I stuck my tongue out at her. Meanie.