I Won't Let You Close Enough to Hurt Me

Chapter 24

     At 7:00 A.M., Brooke heard the obnoxious ring of the telephone in their room. It was the wake up call. Paige scrambled out of bed as fast as she could, grabbed her clothes, and ran to the bathroom to shower. Brooke, on the other hand, buried her face into her pillow and pulled the covers over her head.

     About ten minutes later, the blankets were yanked off of Brooke's head and thrown to the end of the bed. Droplets of water started to land on her face, so Brooke looked up to see what it was. She saw Paige leaning over her with her sopping wet hair.

     "Ew, your hair is dripping on me. Get away!" Brooke exclaimed as she rolled to the other side of the bed.

     "I'm not going away until you get up," Paige insisted. "Abby needs us all in the lobby at exactly 8:00, and if you make us late I'll get in trouble."

     "Fine," Brooke mumbled. After getting out of the bed as slowly as possible, she stood up and felt a shooting pain in her knee. Brooke looked down and winced. Her knee had become even more swollen and bruised. Abby was not going to be happy.

     Brooke trudged over to her suitcase, and grabbed her ALDC yoga pants and T-shirt. She went to the bathroom and hopped in the shower. The cold water immediately woke her up, and she was out of the shower in five minutes. Brooke and Paige both blow dried their hair and pulled it back into a neat ponytail.

     When they came out of the bathroom, Kelly was just finishing up getting ready. Brooke and Paige threw everything that they needed into their pink light-up mirrored suitcases and grabbed their dance bags. By 7:50, they were waiting in the lobby with the rest of the dancers and moms.

     Abby arrived at 7:55, and everyone started heading towards the hotel ballroom. The competition took place at the hotel they were staying at, so their commute was very quick.

     All the kids and moms walked into the ballroom to scope out the stage while Abby checked the team in and found the dressing room. The stage was perfect. There were large red curtains tied to the sides of the stage, and stunning blue and green crossing spotlights. After looking around for a few minutes, everyone went to meet Abby in the dressing room.

     When all the kids and moms had arrived, Brooke found Nick. She hadn't spoken to him all morning. After she approached him, Nick opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Abby.

     "Okay everyone, listen up. Today's the big day. You have all been working extremely hard this week, and I want to see perfection out on that stage. First up is the group number, then Kendall and Paige's duet, then Brooke and Nick's duet, then Maddie's solo, and Chloe's solo will be last. Brooke, how's the knee feeling?" Abby asked.

     Brooke hesitated. "Um, it's alright," she lied.

     Abby gave her a skeptical look, but then proceeded on with her speech. "Well if you say that you're fine, I have no reason to not believe you. Alright girls, its time to get your hair and make-up done, and then you can change into your costumes. It's 8:20 now, and the group dance goes on at 9:50. As for Nick and Brandon, we don't need you two right now; you'll just get in the way. Go get something to eat or hang out in your rooms, and you can come back around 9:30."

     Nick and Brandon nodded, and then left to get some breakfast with their moms. Brooke was disappointed because she still hadn't gotten to talk to Nick, but that couldn't be her focus right now. She had to concentrate on getting ready.

     Brooke started to put on her stage make-up while Kelly fixed Paige's hair into a french twist. When they were both done, they switched. It took about 30 minutes to get everyone's hair and make-up done perfectly, and then all the girls put on their costumes. Each girl wore a silver spaghetti-strapped leotard that had a skirt attached at the waist. The skirt was very flowy and was barely long enough to cover the girls butts. Sequins covered the entire costume. All costumes were the same, with the exception of Maddie's. Since she had the lead role in the dance, her outfit was gold.