DANCING THROUGH LIFE, dance moms

Chapter 10: Dreading the Pyramid

A/N: Okay so for the sake of the plot lines I have planned for later in the book, Josh Hyland is only like a year older than Hailey, Chloe and the rest of the Dance Moms gang. Just wanted to clear that up :D hope you enjoy the chapter!

I woke up on Monday morning absolutely dreading dance class today. Pyramid was bound to be a disaster.

Abby's words from Saturday repeated in my head.

I expect more.

You didn't perform at your best.

I knew I should've saved that dance for Maddie.

The last one really stung. I had wanted to prove to Miss Abby that I could perform a Maddie solo well - perhaps even better than Maddie - and I blew it.

Don't get me wrong, I was happy for Paige. Ecstatic, actually. She deserved that win - she performed well and rightfully got first place. I just had no idea what Miss Abby was going to say to me during pyramid.

I was also a little anxious for Maddie's critique. She had fallen on her butt during her performance, and even though she kept dancing, I knew that Miss Abby wouldn't be happy about what happened.

Paige's pool party this weekend had been a bit of a distraction from my impending doom. We had swam and then walked to go get frozen yogurt. It was a lot of fun, because Josh and his friends were there too. I spent most of the time trying to get Chloe to talk to Josh - all of my requests to which she adamantly refused. We hadn't talked about the competition at all, and I was glad about that.

I put on a pink dance top and some black shorts before brushing my hair up into a ponytail, slicking back the little flyaway hairs at the front of my head with hairspray. I jogged downstairs with my dance bag and poured myself a bowl of Lucky Charms with milk.

I had been eating for a while before my mom walked down the hall and into the kitchen. "Hey, sweetie." She said tiredly.

"Hi, Mom." I spooned some Lucky Charms into my mouth.

My mom gave me a weak smile. "I bet you slept about as well as I did, right?"

"If you slept terrible, then yeah," I laughed. "I'm really nervous. Abby's gonna have to yell at me even more, since it's Pyramid and she does everything over the top when it comes to that."

"It sucks, I know. But you told me you wanted to be there with your friends, so that's what we're gonna do. We'll just have to suck it up," My mom said, sighing. "Now, are you ready? We should get going soon."

I held up my dance bag. "Ready!"

"Great. Then let's hit the road." Mom said, making her way towards the door.

~

I shuffled into the studio lobby, giving Miss Abby a halfhearted wave before slowly walking into the den. Chloe, Nia and Paige were already in there, warming up and chatting away. I had seen Brooke outside, talking to some members of the senior company. I had no clue where Maddie and Mackenzie were. They were usually the first to arrive at the studio, and always the last to leave.

The trio's heads all turned to look at me when they heard the door creak as it swung open. "Hey, Hails!" Nia grinned at me, motioning for me to sit by her by patting the spot next to her.

I gladly obliged and sat down, putting myself into a butterfly stretch. "Hey!"

We stretched and talked about the events of the pool party at Paige's house the day before. Paige was in a great mood today, I noticed. Probably because she was definitely going to be on top of the pyramid. As she should be. She was amazing.