Dance With Me

Pyramid

A/N: Sorry if Abby is a bit OOC in this chapter, I didn't want her to be overly mean to the girls.
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"Girls!!" Abby shouted, marching through the door of studio one. On the mirror facing the dancers, there were little rectangular pieces of card stuck on.
Nia tapped Emilia lightly on the shoulder. "This is called pyramid. Abby ranks us from worst to best, but it's okay if you're on bottom row." Nia paused before looking down at her feet. "I usually am." She whispered.
Emilia saw the sadness painted across her face, she patted her on the shoulder and comfortingly said "But we can improve together though? And one day we'll be the best we can. That's what my  Mommy always says!" Emilia exclaimed, holding Nia's hand. Nia looked up and smiled at her, and then nodded. "Yes! We'll be the best dancers in the world!!" Nia and Emilia began to giggle, and soon Maddie and Chloe had joined in.

"Girls! Come on stop messing around. We need to get on with pyramid! You can stretch in front of the mirror." Abby instructed as she strutted towards the "pyramid" and gestured for the girls to sit down.
"Girls, welcome to a new season!" Many of the little dancers started to cheer, Emilia just sat with a huge smile of excitement on her face. "We have a lot to get through today, but I would like to start by letting our newest dancer introduce herself. A couple of you have already met her."
Emilia stood up, and in her clearest, most confident voice (which Cosima had taught her) she spoke "Hi. My name is Emilia. I love to dance and I can speak a little bit of French!"
Little to Emilia's knowledge, Delphine was listening in and felt an essence of pride wash over her. She was so proud of the little girl Emilia had grown up to be.
"Thank you Emilia. You may take a seat now." Emilia beamed up at Abby, before dropping back down next to Nia.   "Girls. As I said before, this will be a busy season. I have decided to try something I've never done before. We will be competing at a new competition every week." Abby waited for all the girls to stop gawping at each other. "I believe in you girls and I k ow that you will be able to persevere. We won nationals last year, and you were on the lower side of the age category."
Brooke but her lip before smiling. As did Mackenzie.
"On to the pyramid." Abby exclaimed. "Chloe looks excited" Emilia thought.
"On the bottom row, firstly, we have Emilia. You're new, and one day I want you here." Abby pointed to the top. "Okay?"
"Okay." Emilia beamed at Miss Abby.
"Secondly, we have Mackenzie. You came along to nationals, you didn't dance, but you enjoyed yourself, yes?" Mackenzie nodded. She loved seeing Brooke do all her acro tricks for her solos. She didn't really look up to her sister, Maddie, often. Maddie was a contemporary/lyrical dancer, and Mackenzie was only interested in doing the gymnastic side of things. She hoped she would get a duet with Brooke this season.
"Thirdly, on the bottom row, we have Nia. I thought you looked nice in the groups, but you must learn to correct your mistakes." Nia nodded back.
"Now, moving up, we have Paige. Similar to Nia, you must pick up on your mistakes. Your solo, in my eyes, was good. Shame the judges didn't think that." Paige half smiled back, though she was pleased she wasn't bottom row anymore. "Next, we have Maddie. I was so proud of you for hitting that arabesque in your solo. We will definitely be working on your technique this season. In the group you fell out of your turns, I'm not impressed." Maddie simply accepted it, looked straight ahead and took criticism like a pro. "Next, Brooke. You starred in the group, your technique was amazing, we won because of you," Brooke smiled, and the girls gave her a round of applause. "Your solo placed second, and we need to you place first. Yes?" Abby replied. Brooke nodded, obviously determined. "And, on the top of the pyramid, we have Chloe!" Delphine turned round to see Christi clapping and smiling, and she saw Chloe hugging Paige, smiling her little heart out.
"You won a national title, Junior Miss ballet of Pennsylvania. Everyone in that audience was rooting for you to win, and I'm so glad you did. Well done." Abby started to clap for her, and gave her a hug.
"Now, I have three solos to give out, a duet and group." Abby glanced to Emilia. Delphine looked nervous. "What does Abby have in store for her?" Delphine thought.
"My first solo, is going to Chloe. It is called Night Owl, and the style is ballet/lyrical." Abby recited, Christi clapping even more, and Delphine smiled.
"My second solo is going to Maddie. The style will be contemporary. It is called Maybe Today." Maddie smiled, wanting to make Abby proud of her. "My final solo is going to Emilia." Delphine gasped, and clapped her hands and all the other mothers smiled around her. "Your solo will be musical theatre, and it is called Bunny Hop." Emilia beamed up at Abby, and to Nia. Emilia was still a few years younger that Nia and the others, but was around the same age as Mackenzie. "Now, my duet, after much consideration, is going to Brooke and Mackenzie." Mackenzie leaped up and down with joy, and hugged Brooke. Abby laughed at them, knowing how much Mackenzie wanted to dance with her eldest dancer. "Your duet is called Miss Sass. It is an acro jazz routine." Brooke smiled, even though she was doing a duet with someone a lot younger than herself, but atleast she could fit her acro tricks in the routine.
"Finally, our group routine. Mackenzie and Emilia, you will not be dancing in the group, you must focus on your solo/duets. Nia and Paige, you will be doing some partner work in the number, and it is called Golden sands. It is about a desert, people trekking through it, they're struggling but they can see the beauty in the environment. The style will be contemporary." The girls all looked at one another in excitement. "Maddie, could you run upstairs and call all the mothers down to discuss costumes please?" Abby directed. Maddie nodded and swiftly exited.

Once all the mothers had arrived downstairs and Delphine had introduced herself, Abby started to discuss what costumes they were to wear for competition.
"Brooke and Mackenzie's duet. I want something sassy, streams, that kind of thing. Reds, oranges, purples. I want their hair up in high ponytails, ribbons and noodle curled. Got that?" Abby instructed, before moving on to talking about the other girls' solos.
"Emilia, your costume is on its way, it should arrive tomorrow. As for her hair, I need it in tight French plaits, okay?" Delphine nodded, making a mental note to get Cosima to teach her to braid. Despite actually being French, she just couldn't get the hang of it. She could untangle them, as she often helped Cosima undo her braids. You could really see the similarity between Cosima and her sisters without her chunky braids in. Not that Delphine cared. Her wife looked beautiful either way.
"For the group piece, I want yellow/orange/brown rags and khaki coloured baseball army hats. They need to look like they've been on a real journey."

The mothers looked at each other and discussed possible costumes for a minute, asking Abby various questions. After what felt like ages for the girls (as they were standing) the mothers finally disappeared upstairs.
"Gianna!" Abby shouted. "Okay girls, Gianna's going to run through the group music with you, and I will take Brooke, Mackenzie and Emilia to run through their music, and I will start choreographing the duet. Emilia, after I run the music past you, I want you to go back into studio A and watch the girls rehearse. You need to know how we do it. Okay?" Abby said, whilst all the girls nodded.