DANCING THROUGH LIFE, dance moms

Chapter 22: Decisions, Decisions

The next day, my mom and Holly went to talk to Abby about who would be the swing for the trio. They had both gone to advocate for Nia (which I appreciated), and Abby had apparently said something to them about me possibly doing the trio even if Paige came back and said she was fine to dance. This really worried me — I remembered how mad Paige had been when Kendall replaced her in the trio. What if she got mad at me for this?

I guess I also didn't really feel like I deserved to be in that trio, if that made sense. Nia and Paige had been at the ALDC their entire lives, and I didn't want to take away opportunities that I felt they deserved more than I did.

After my mom's fight with Abby, I talked to Chloe, who told me not to worry about it, and that Abby might just be saying that to create drama for the show. It made me feel a little better. She, Maddie and I all got ready for rehearsal together, which I was weirdly excited for — this dance was super fun, and relatively easy, meaning that I wasn't as stressed out about messing up as usual.

Sadly, I had overhyped how fun rehearsals would be, and it didn't take my mind off of the trio drama at all.

I wasn't entirely surprised — rehearsals with Abby were never exactly pleasant, particularly when we got close to the day of competition. Hearing Nia get screamed at all night for not knowing the dance didn't help matters. I thought it was a little funny that Abby was mad that Nia didn't know the dance when she had kicked her and Holly out of the studio in the first place.

Maybe they weren't meant to take it seriously and were just supposed to come back as if no harm had been done? I don't know. When Abby said, "You're expelled", to them, the fear that she was for real did cross my mind.

Anyways, rehearsal was pretty hard on everyone, especially Nia, since we were traveling to Florida tomorrow. The girls and I all left Studio A and went straight to the den, all exhausted after the tiring rehearsal.

That night, I got home at about midnight, because Miss Abby kept Maddie, Chloe, Nia and I at the studio for longer than everybody else to run over the trio. We had to be back at the studio at six that morning, so I knew that I wouldn't be getting much sleep that night.

I wondered what the point of us going home even was — we might as well just sleep at the studio, considering how much time we spent there already.

As I ran through the dance with Chloe and Maddie (with Nia sitting in the corner playing the music, because that's a productive use of her time. Not.), I thought about Paige and her injury. My mind drifted to how she started to exclude Kendall from things after she replaced her in the trio. I wondered if that would happen to me if I replaced her.

Because I was worrying about Paige and everything and not focusing on the dance, I fell out of a set of turns that under normal circumstances, I would have nailed no problem. Shoot.

"Hailey! This should be easy by now, you've done the dance a million times!" Abby barked out at me. I tried not to react as I ran over to my next spot.

We ran through the rest of the dance with no problems, and I switched out with Nia, who also did the dance really well, especially for not being in rehearsal yesterday.

When we were all done, Miss Abby clapped her hands together. "Alright, girls. I don't know who's gonna be in the trio tomorrow — whether it's Hailey, or Nia, or Paige — but you all need to be on your A-game."

No pressure.

She zeroed in on me and Nia. "So if either of you two are in it, you can't make a mistake. You have to make it look like you've known the dance for months. Understood?"

I didn't quite think that it was as serious as Miss Abby was making it seem, but I still nodded along. "Yes, Miss Abby."

"Good. Okay. Get as much sleep as you can before you have to be here tomorrow — you can always sleep on the plane if you don't sleep tonight." Abby said before dismissing all of us from the room. We all told her goodnight before leaving the studio with our mothers.

That night, I was so worried about Paige and the trio that I slept even less than I usually did before competition. It didn't help that I only had about five hours to sleep before I would have to be up and on the way to the studio so we could get to the airport on time.

I sighed. At least tomorrow, I'll know if Paige is able to dance, I thought, shutting my eyes. Abby wouldn't take something away from her if she was fully healthy and able to dance.

Right?

~*~

A/N: Hi! Hope you guys liked this chapter <3 if I'm being totally honest, I don't really like this conflict and am kinda ready to be done with it because I hate it when Hailey's stressed out and sad (which makes me question why I'm writing this in the first place LMAO). BUT I think it makes sense for her to actually not want to do the trio even though she's definitely been waiting for that chance to dance alongside Maddie and Chloe, just because she wants the best for Paige and Nia. Anywaysss hope you guys enjoyed and I'll see you in the next chapter (comp day hehe)!
— Ainsley :)