Breaking Point

Crushed and Moved

The next day, everyone got up and had to get ready for rehearsals, with the exception of Austin and Alex, who got ready to watch everyone rehearse.

As they all headed out, they met up with Selena and Anna, who were talking amongst themselves and giggling. Maribelle and Anna made eye contact, and Anna rolled her eyes at her. Maribelle gasped and had to use all her strength not to go charging after the backstabber.

In the middle of rehearsals, all the dancers cleared out so that Justin and Selena could do their duet, but they had to keep starting over on account of Justin kept looking in the audience where Jennifer and the girls were, and kept laughing, only raising Selena's annoyance.

"Can you guys shut up??" she snapped at them through the microphone, and Scooter stood up.

"Hey, you don't have to talk to them like that! Jen, Belle, quiet down so they can rehearse and we can all go to dinner. We've all had a long day, chill." Scooter addressed everyone, and Jennifer and Maribelle silenced each other, only to be distracted by Austin and Alex and start silently giggling some more.

Finally, after another hour and a half, everyone was back at the hotel, getting ready to go to dinner.

"So... when we were heading out, Anna rolled her eyes at me," Maribelle said to Jennifer from across the room. "It took all my strength not to knock her flat on her face that very second." Jennifer laughed and shook her head.

"Why'd she do that?" Jennifer asked, fixing her mascara on her bed. She was dressed in a baby pink strapless summer dress with a white-knit cardigan, with white ballet flats.

"'Cause she wants to be knocked out. I'm telling you, that girl is gonna cause grief for us all." Maribelle replied, fixing her wavy auburn hair into its usual ponytail. "Oh, and I think Alex likes you." She added, and Jennifer glared at her. "I'm serious!"

"Well, I'm not interested in finding anybody at the moment. I can barely go a day without wanting to cry my eyes out." Jennifer replied, standing up. "You ready?"

"Yeah. And I understand. So does that mean I get your permission to get at him, 'cause he is hot." Maribelle said, and both girls started laughing.

"Belle, how long has it been since you've had a boyfriend?? Two years? Three? I should be down on my knees begging for you to get at him." Jennifer replied, grabbing her small purse that only held her phone, wallet, and earbuds.

"Ha ha you're so funny. Shut up." Maribelle said sarcastically, and both girls laughed. "What about Justin? I'm pretty sure he has his eyes on you. Ever since we first auditioned."

Jennifer looked at her best friend incredulously. "One: did you not hear what I just said? I'm not interested in finding anybody at the moment! And oh please, he's too busy trying to get at Selena, which isn't very hard since she practically throws herself at him anyway." Maribelle laughed and they dropped the subject as they started walking to Celeste's room.

Once they got there, everyone was already there, including Selena and Anna. They all headed out to the lobby, where they met Pattie,Scooter, and the adults, and everyone made their way to the restaurant.

They'd been at the restaurant for well over an hour, talking and eating, when Jennifer suddenly had a wave of déjà vu. Justin was sitting on the left of her, Maribelle on the right, except this time, Selena was sitting across from her, next to Anna, on the left of Justin, and Celeste, Austin, and Alex were seated on Maribelle's right. Scooter and the adults were sitting on the far end of the table, and Jennifer prepared herself for more jokes and insults about the food from Justin, but got nothing other than whatever topic they were discussing.