Before Dance Moms

Chapter 2 || Lunch

-Maddie-

The first thing I noticed when I entered the cafeteria on that dreary Monday after Christmas break was a new girl.

Sitting at my lunch table.

"Poor thing," I muttered to myself. "She has no idea how things work around here."

I made my way over to the table I sat at-in the heart of the cafeteria, smack in the middle. Familiar faces shot me greetings, and I half-heartedly returned them with a smile, focused mostly on getting the details on this 'new girl'.

I scoffed. Who did she think she was? She can't sit with us.

Upon reaching the table, which was empty so far, I recognized the stranger. She wasn't a stranger at all, in fact, she sat next to me in science and we worked together on a project. I guess that explained why she thought she could sit with me.

"Hi, Kendall, right?" I smiled innocently. She looked up from her sandwich-a basic sandwich, might I add. "Yeah, hi Maddie! I didn't know this was your table." I gritted my teeth, causing my sweet smile to waver slightly. "Yep."

I contemplated telling her that there weren't enough seats for her to sit with us, but there was only a total of five girls, and there were six seats. I also considered telling her that she was assigned a place to sit, but then she would just wander up to a random table and make a fool of herself.

I slid down into my regular seat as a familiar voice rang out. "Hey Maddie!" Chloe slid down into the seat beside me, revealing her new Vera Bradley lunchbox. Kendall took a swig of water and went into a fit of coughing, and that was when Chloe finally noticed her.

"Are you okay?" I cried, fake pity seeping through my voice. "Yeah," she gasped in between breaths.

Paige and Brooke soon walked over to our table and upon their arrival, scanned Kendall from head to toe, clearly judging her hair, makeup (if any), clothes, shoes, and lunch. "Hello," Paige greeted first. "Hi," Brooke smiled with a small wave. They took their usual seats, and opened their fairly new Vera Bradley lunch boxes to reveal a salad for each of them.

"Guys, I'm super nervous about the group routine this week." Chloe groaned. "I mean, the only one that's good at acro is Brooke!" Brooke shot her a sympathetic glance.

Kendall's ears perked up at the sound of a conversation, and her facial expression clouded into something unreadable.

I pursed my lips, in attempt to hide my poisonous smile. Good. Maybe if she felt left out of our group, she would leave.

"Me too," I cried, entering the group. "I don't know if we'll be able to pull it off."

Kendall broke in. "Are you guys talking about....dance?" A small smile crept across her face. "Yeah, are you a dancer?" Paige responded, sounding very concerned. At least she was doing a good job of pretending to care.

"I am....I'm starting at a new dance place tonight, where do you guys go?" She anxiously waited Paige's answer, but I broke in. "We probably don't go to the same place. We're all extremely talented dancers, you'd have to try out or something."

Kendall's face fell, and her eyes brimmed with tears. Was she seriously going to cry? "Maddie be quiet," Paige scoffed. "It's called the Abby Lee Dance Company."

Just like that, Kendall's grim expression was replaced with a bright grin. "That's where I'm going!"

The bell rang, and Kendall jumped out of her seat before anyone could continue the conversation with her.

Well....okay then.

I noticed my sister looking terribly upset, still sitting at the table with an untouched lunch in front of her. "You okay, Kenz?" She looked up at me. "Yeah, I just feel really sick." A concerned expression overtook my face. "You should go to the nurse, I can come with you!"

Kenzie shook her head. "No that's okay." I scoffed. "Whatever, just don't get me sick." I sauntered out of the cafeteria, heading to my next class, performing arts.

How dare Kendall think she could just come into my group like that? All the other girls had to prove to me that they were worthy. There was no way she was getting off that easily.

-

author's note: hey guys! I'm sorry this is really boring, it gets better. this is just the part where they're at school, so it gets more interesting later.

I'm sorry for not updating, I've been so busy and I'm kinda having a hard time with a few things. I will update again ASAP. thank you for reading!

-cai the bae ♡
(ps I just updated bc wattpad deleted the whole chapter so yeah good thing I type these in notes okay bye)