Jeté to Stardom

2. Widely Inappropriate

The door to the den opens, and Lux peeks her head in. "We're the first one here!" Opening the door wider, she walked in with Nova and her mother following her.

"We're always the first ones here," Nova comments, dropping her bag on the ground.

"Nuh-uh. Maddie, Mackenzie, and Melissa get here before us... sometimes."

Paloma places her bag down taking a seat on the bench. "Bien. Quiero hablar con tú dos antes de que lleguen las demás."

Nova pulls her hoodie over her head to reveal a red mesh bra top with black leggings. "Sobre qué?"

"You two won last week, which is amazing, and I'm so proud of you."

"But..." Lux prods.

"Don't make a big deal of it; Abby is going to do that enough."

"Is it because the Moms are bipolar?" Nova asks her.

Palom blinks before chuckling. "Where did you hear that?"

"Rafael," she answers promptly.

She sighs. "Por supuesto. Why am I not surprised?"

"What does it mean?" Lux asks.

"They're not bipolar. That's a medical term and used as an insult, and I will be having conversations with your brothers. But as I was saying. Let's not make a big deal about your win."

"We never make a big deal out of it," Lux whines. "We don't wanna rub it in anyone's face. The moms are the ones that make a big deal out of it. And if Chloe's headband didn't fall, we may have lost. And even then, we won by like a-a-a point."

"I know, Luxie. You two are extremely humble. You two don't need to talk about how good you are; I don't need to either. We see it on stage. So what are we going to do when the other moms come around?"

"We're not gonna say anything about Saturday," Nova replies.

Lux nods in agreement. "But if they congratulate us, we'll reply with a 'thank you,' and that's it."

Paloma smiles down at them. "Good girls."

The door swings in, and Maddie and Mackenzie walk in, followed by Melissa.

"How did I know you guys would be here first," Melissa jokes as the girls say 'hi' to each other.

Paloma shrugs. "I don't know, magic? How are you, Melissa?"

"Great."

From there, the rest of the team start to trickle in. When they had all arrived, Abby calls them into studio 'A.'

"Phoenix was rough. You guys got your butts kicked." Abby criticizes the girls. "Here in Pittsburg, you have one everything, but it's clearly a different story when you get on a plane and fly across the country. For years I took the kids by myself. I made sure their hair was right. I made sure their makeup was right. I put the headpiece on. All the Moms wanna go now because they're reliving their childhood through all of you. And now that's when the trouble happens. I am the leader. I am the teacher. You do what I say. When your Mothers are telling you what to do, that's a conflict. You understand?" Her attention focuses on Nia. "Now, Nia, how do you think you did?"

"Well, I think we could have been improved," Nia responds.

Abby nods. "What do you need to improve?"

"Pointing my feet," Nia answers shyly.

"Yeah. Very sloppy; the feet, the leg, your shoulder, your arm. The same mistake over and over and over, and that pulls the group down." Abby turns her focus to Chloe. "Chloe, the headband was bad. Next time, what are you going to do?"