Brilliance of A Dancer

The Competition Begins

"Marissa! Marissa! Marissa!"

Aquamarine eyes open, and dainty hands reached up, taking earbuds out of small round ears. Marissa's head turns to her left.

"Yeah, Mom?"

Melissa Sulo soon to be Gisoni, and formerly, Ziegler steps inside her oldest daughter's room. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she smiles. "Did you finish your homework?"

Marissa presses her hands to her cheeks. "Almost. I have one more problem to go, but I'm having a bit of trouble with it, so I decided to take a break."

Standing, Melissa walks over to her desk, standing behind her. "What's it about? Maybe I can help."

Marissa cocks an eyebrow at her. "It's Algebra."

"What's that look for? I'll have you know I did pretty good in math. Come on. Give me the question."

"Okay..." she flips through her algebra book until she reached where the homework page. "Found it," she spins her desk chair around so that she was facing her mom. "A boat can travel 204 kilometers on 68 liters of gasoline. How much gasoline will it need to go 342 kilometers?"

Silence filled the room before Melissa ran her hand through her hair. "You know what I should go prepare dinner so we can eat as soon as we get back," she hurries over to the door. "We're heading out in an hour, so finish up and come down for lunch."

Marissa chuckles as her door slammed shut before twisting back to her desk. She stared at her textbook for a while before picking up her pencil. It was better to get it over now than stay up late to finish it.

"Okay, so if I place two hundred and four kilometers over sixty-eight liters and have that equal 342 over x then..." she nibbles on her pencil. "Than 'x' will be equal to one hundred and fourteen! Finally!" she quickly wrote the answer before stretching her arms upward.

Stomach rumbling, she wanders out of her room, walking down the steps to the kitchen.

"You finished your homework?" Melissa asks her.

Marissa grabs a plate, placing two chicken sandwiches and a side of salad on the plate. "Yep!" she takes a seat by her youngest sister.

"That's good," Melissa responds. "Are you three ready for the new season? I mean Marissa, you and Maddie were undefeated last year. And Mackenzie, you get to compete more this year and compete for titles like your sister!"

Marissa turns to her younger sister. "Are you excited, Kenzie?" Mackenzie nods vigorously. "What are you most excited for?"

She tilts her head back and forth. "I wanna have a duet with you!"

"No, I wanna have a duet with Marissa!" Maddie pipes up.

"Maybe the three of you will have a trio?" Melissa pacifies, trying to keep the peace between her two younger daughters.

"I don't wanna dance with Mackenzie/Maddie!"

"Well, neither of you will be dancing with anybody if you continue to yell at each other," Melissa warns them.

Marissa chuckles at the pouts on her younger sisters' faces.

"Girls, go get ready!" Melissa orders after lunch, taking the dishes to the sink.

Nodding Marissa follows her sisters up the stairs. Entering her room, she searches through her drawer. She takes out a strappy shoulder dark teal bralette and black biker shorts and puts them in her studio bag.

Roaming her room, she searches for her ballet shoes, jazz shoes, half-sole, extra scrunches, and puts them all in the bag.

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