The Road Trip

Chapter 12 - The Dance Competition

Chapter 12

The Dance Competition

I groaned, leaning my head against the warm bus window. The girls on my dance team were buzzing with excitement around me. We were driving the two hours to Fort Worth, Texas, where the Dance World Competition would take place. I should've been in a good mood, but I wasn’t. So much had been going on that I could barely deal with all the stress.

It turned out that Paisley and Greg had decided to take Alex to a specialist across the country. They wouldn't tell me anything, not even what kind of doctor it was. Apparently, it had something to do with his outbursts and fits of anger, and yes, I was worried about the littlest Daniels, but I had more reasons to be upset.

My sour attitude was because of the recent tweaks to my road trip. Trent and Luke

had been 'left in my parents care' while Mr. and Mrs. Daniels were both out of town.

Guess who had to join in on the road trip fun?

The only thing that kept me from turning into a complete b***h was that Holden was meeting me at Dance World. I hadn't seen him since he gave me my necklace, which was still hanging around my neck. For us, that was a long time apart. Especially in the summer. It had almost been an entire week, and I missed him like crazy.

Lilly was sitting next to me, and my bad mood didn't go unnoticed. "Hey, what's wrong?" Lilly asked, bumping her shoulder against mine. I frowned, barely sparing her a glance. Couldn't I be upset in peace?

"Nothing," I mumbled darkly, bending down and grabbing my iPhone from my dance bag. Before I could shove my headphones in my ears, Lilly grabbed both of my hands and gave me a stern look.

"Seriously, Addie we've been dancing at the same studio since we were two, I know you better than that. Now tell me, what's wrong?" I huffed, crossing my arms in anger. It was true, and she knew me like a book, but it was still frustrating.

After a moment, I sighed and gave in. "Fine, Luke and Trent have to come on my road trip and it's pissing me off. Luke, I don't mind, but Trent and I don’t exactly get along."

And things have been sorta weird since I hit him in the head with a frying pan, I added in my head.

Lilly was one of the few people who knew I had caused Trent's injury. Everyone else thought he hit his head on the wall at swim practice. It was a good lie, no one doubted it.

"I'm sorry, Hun." She sighed, wrapping her arms around me. She didn't sound sincere though, so I rose my eyebrow at her. "What?! You get to spend the summer with three hot guys! What's there to complain about?!"

"Okay, first off, ew!" I laughed, pulling out of her hug. "Two of those boys are like my brothers!" She laughed, shrugging her shoulders. "Second of all, that's not my point. I wanted it to be special, but now it's just going to be chaotic. Trent will make sure I don’t have any alone time with Holden just to torture me.”

"Addie, look, you're going to have a great time. Don't complain! Put on a smile, we have a dance competition to dominate!" She cheered, pointing a finger in my face. She was right, and I knew it. I laughed, forcing a smile. Lilly always knew how to cheer me up; I only hoped she was right.

"Girls, please!" I begged, giving them all harsh looks. We had ten minutes before we

had to perform on stage, and we hadn’t even run it yet. We had taken forever on our hair and makeup, making everything perfect, but the second Mrs. Caraway stepped out of the room all seriousness was gone. Apparently, they didn't care about winning, because they were in a huge circle playing Go Fish. “Guys, we really need to practice!”

"What is going on here?!" Mrs. Caraway cried, clearly outraged. I spun around, which put me face to face with a livid dance teacher. Smoke practically poured from her ears. "I leave you guys alone for ten minutes and things fall apart!"

"Aw, come on!" Lilly whined, "We were just having fun! We know the dance like the back of our hands, don’t worry." Our teacher opened her mouth to respond, but there was a knock on our dressing room door.

"I need 'Express' to follow me backstage." A lady with black hair said. Mrs. Caraway pursed her lips as we all scrambled to check our hair and makeup one last time.

"You better,” Mrs. Caraway hissed at Lilly as she walked past. Personally, I wasn't really worried. We knew it pretty well, but there was always this paranoid voice in my head that told me I would mess up. Ever since I ran off the stage when I was eight, I had made extra sure I knew all the steps. It had only happened once, but it was still a haunting experience.

Backstage, I could still hear the previous music playing. The group before us wasn't quite done, so I started running through the steps in my brain. This was most definitely not our hardest dance ever, but I refused to slack off. All the other girls were chatting aimlessly, not paying any particular attention to anything.

When the group before us came off stage, I quickly took off my arm brace. Even though my arm still hurt, I couldn't wear it on stage. Mrs. Caraway had said so, and the judges would see it as a weakness. I didn't have any weaknesses.

"Category, Group Dance, Jazz. Age Division, sixteen through eighteen. Number 387, 'Express.'" The announcer said, and immediately my heart started racing. That was just an automatic reaction I had whenever I was about to dance. Quickly, two other girls and I made our way onto the stage. We started off the dance as a trio, and then the rest of our group came in.

It was dark, and I could hear everyone in the audience whispering. Well, they were trying to whisper, but it was more like a constant buzz of incomprehensible words. I smiled widely as the music started playing, my heart pounding. Being able to let go of everything and the way it felt as my body shifted through the dance moves felt amazing.

The song ended way too soon, and all of a sudden, we were all backstage. Most of us were breathing heavily and smiling like idiots. Mrs. Caraway would be back here soon to tell us the flaws of our dance, but the unhidden smile on her face would tell us that she was proud. It always happened. Wordlessly, I put my brace back on. We didn’t have to say anything to each other to know we had done well.

“That was great,” Lilly cheered as we walked back to our dressing room. Lilly looped her arm through mine. “Do you think they noticed I forgot a step halfway through?”

I smiled. “I’m sure you pulled it off.”

We got back to the dressing room seconds before our teacher did. "Good girls," Mrs. Caraway said, rushing in like her hair was on fire. "Lilly, watch those feet. They weren't pointed once! Lisa, I need you to relax your arms, you look like a robot! And Taylor...The whole thing was sloppy. If you want to have a solo at all this summer, I need you to work on that!"

"Yes, ma'am," They all muttered, glaring at me. I blushed, grabbing my solo costume and ripping it off the hanger. I was the only one who had gotten a solo this competition, which made all the other girls hate me just a little bit more. Yeah, it seemed like I was Mrs. Caraway's favorite, but I worked my butt off to earn her favor. Maybe if they put in half as much work into dancing as I did, our teacher would like them better.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn’t a spoiled brat. I worked for my spot on the dance team, the others didn't. They just didn't love dancing as much as I did, and I respected that. Never once did I claim to be better than they were.

"Addison," Mrs. Caraway said, snapping me from my thoughts. "Be ready ASAP, your group dance was the last group number and you’re the eighth solo." I nodded, quickly letting my hair down from the messy ponytail it had been in seconds before. My blonde hair fell around my shoulders in soft curls, framing my face.

Quickly, I pinned back my bangs and put on some red lipstick. I slipped on my nude jazz shoes after some hesitation; the shoes were an option. I could either wear them or go barefoot, but the stage hadn’t been slippery, so the shoes were my best bet.

With a sigh, I stood up and started running through my solo, using the minimal space I had. Because it was the dressing room, I couldn't do the full routine, and it didn’t help that Lisa and Taylor were laying in the middle of the room, glaring at me spitefully.

Slowly, the dressing room door creaked open. "I need Addison Knight to come with me, please." A timid, young girl with red hair swept into a messy bun beckoned to me. I gave her a big smile and headed towards the door. "Don't look so cheerful, the stage is going to be slippery."

"Why?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Before, it had been fine.

“The kid before you puked her guts out on the stage. We just finished cleaning it." She made a face, shuddering slightly. I shuddered too, imagining a little girl in the middle of a pirouette and then all of a sudden blowing chunks. Even more paranoia crept into my veins; now, not only did I have to worry about forgetting my dance, I had to be careful not to slip.

“Be ready. When they call your dance number, go on stage.” She warned me, and then scurried off to fetch the next dancer. I almost laughed at her because it had been years since someone told me what to do backstage. But I didn't correct her, I just smiled and nodded.

I turned around, sliding off my dance shoes. If it was slippery, I didn’t need them. Then I tugged at my arm brace and slid it off, setting it on top of the shoes. My heart was pounding as I took a deep breath in through my nose and out through my mouth. This was it, go time.

People were rushing off of the stage, carrying cleaning supplies and dirty towels that smelled suspiciously of partially digested food. As they walked by, I held my breath and turned away, feeling slightly nauseous.

Suddenly, the announcer's voice boomed through the auditorium. "Category, Jazz. Age Division, sixteen through eighteen. Number 398, 'Bleeding Love.'" Now I was scared. Usually, I was fine with solos, but I was injured, and someone had oh so kindly puked right before me. I was practically shaking.

Well, here goes nothing, I thought, stepping out on the stage.

As I stepped out from behind the curtains, a roar of applause rose from the audience. Slowly, I let myself lay down on the stage, my starting position and buried my head in my hands. For a moment, it was silent. Just for an instant, the crowd didn’t make a sound, and all of a sudden, my focus clicked into place.

And then my music started playing. Almost mechanically, my body started moving, flowing flawlessly through the routine. Every time I put pressure on my wrist it prickled slightly with pain, but I didn’t care. I was having too much fun to even feel it.

All too soon, I was walking off the stage, smiling widely. I had done it; I hadn’t forgotten a single step or fallen out of a single turn. It was quite possibly the best I had ever done at a competition. I was on top of the world.

My heart was pounding out of my chest. This was the most stressing part of competitions; the award ceremony. Lilly gripped my hand, squeaking. Lisa was gripping my other hand like her life depended on it. Everyone who had competed was piling onto the stage, making us all squish together.

I squinted out in the crowd, almost laughing when I saw Luke waving at me like an i***t. 'You're crazy,'I signed at him, rolling my eyes. He stuck his tongue out at me childishly, which made me laugh. Leave it to Luke to make me forget all about my nerves.

Trent sat next to his brother, giving me a small smile. He was so far away I could barely see it, but it was definitely there. A grumpy Holden sat next to him, frowning and scowling at the floor. If I had to guess, I would’ve said someone told him about the new additions to our road trip. My heart sank.

I basically tuned out the whole awards ceremony until they got to my category; the rest didn’t matter. But when they started calling my age group, I was all ears and gripping Lilly's hand as hard as I could.

"For the group category," A man with brown hair and blue eyes said. "Sixteen through eighteen age division, the third-place winner is..."

I sucked in a breath, pressing my eyes closed. We couldn’t be third.

“Number 297, 'Colors of the Wind.'"

I whimpered as Lilly squeezed my hand tighter. Second wasn’t an option.

"In second-place, we have event number 345, 'Set Fire to the Rain,'"

This was it, the moment we had all been waiting for. Either we got first, or we hadn’t placed at all. I felt like I was going to throw up.

"And our first-place winner is.... Number 387, 'Express!'" We all jumped up, screaming in excitement. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Smiling widely, I grabbed our small trophy. Lilly immediately took it from me, lifting it over her head and shouting like a mad woman. Even over the cheer of the audience, I could hear Holden and my parents yelling in support.

“We did it!” I screeched, throwing my arms around Lilly. She hugged me back and passed the trophy on to someone else.

“I told you we would be fine,” Lilly laughed, nudging my shoulder. “But no, someone likes to worry.”

“Alright, settle down,” The announcer laughed at us, rolling his eyes. I sat down, blushing slightly. We had made quite a scene. “Our last award to call is for the solo division, ages sixteen through eighteen. Are you ready?”

“Yes!” Everyone on the stage called at the top of our lungs. Once again, the overwhelming fear was back. It felt like a sumo wrestler was sitting on my chest, making it hard to breathe. Mrs. Caraway was watching me from the audience; I locked gaze with her for one second, and by the look in her eyes, I knew I had to win. If I didn’t, she would give me hell.

An eternity later, he had called all the names except for first place. I still hadn’t been called. Suddenly, I was doubting my ability. I wasn’t confident anymore, and as I ran over my performance in my head, I picked out all the nonexistent mistakes I had made. I had convinced myself that I wasn’t going to win.

“And our first place goes to...Number 398, Bleeding Love.” At first, I didn’t even process what he had said. I just sat there, staring at my clenched hands. It wasn’t until Lilly punched me in the shoulder that I realized he had called my dance number.

“Get up there!” Lilly roared, giving me a push. I stumbled, but quickly caught my balance as I made my way towards the woman holding my award. She was blonde, with obvious fake boobs and a fake smile.

“Congrats,” She smiled at me, handing my plaque over. In gold letters, it read, First Place, Dance World 2014. Even though I had won plenty of awards before, it felt just as surreal.

On our way back to the dressing room, Mrs. Caraway caught up with us. “Good job, girls,” She praised, gripping Rebecca on the shoulder. We all cheered in triumph, making our teacher laugh.

I knew I needed to hurry and get out of there. My road trip started the second we drove away from Dance World, and through I loved every minute of it, I couldn’t wait to leave. All the girls were chatting amongst themselves as I started dumping all of my makeup into my dance bag.

“Why are you in such a hurry?” Lilly asked, leaning against the makeup table. I glanced at her before turning back to my bag.

“No offence, but I’ve got to get out of here,” I said, tugging my costume up and over my head. Lilly laughed, rolling her eyes at me.

“In a hurry to get to those three sexy boys waiting for you?” She teased, sticking her tongue out. I made a face as I pulled on my tank top and shorts. She knew that would annoy me.

“We’ll miss you, Addie,” Lisa said, coming up behind me.

“Yeah, it won’t be the same without you,” Taylor added. That was a lie, and we all knew it. None of them, especially Lisa and Taylor, would miss me. But despite the sour feeling, I felt in my stomach, I stood up with a smile.

“Come on girls,” Mrs. Caraway said, waving us all together. “Group hug.” We all squeezed together, our dance teacher right in the middle. She groaned at us, but we all knew she loved it. When we pulled away, Mrs. Caraway grabbed my wrist. “Are you sure you have to leave us?”

I smiled wearily. This wouldn’t be the first time she had tried to convince me to stay. “I’m sorry, but yes.” All the other girls had gone back to their own business, proof that they could care less about my departure. I told myself that I didn’t care either.

My teacher nodded, expecting my answer. “Well, come back soon, okay?” She wrapped me in a hug, and I smiled. “Be safe.”

“I will don’t worry. Thank you for everything.” When she pulled away, she gave my shoulder one last squeeze before turning away. Mrs. Caraway tried to act tough all the time, but deep down, I knew she had a soft spot. Not just for me, but for all the girls at her dance studio. She truly was passionate about her job.

As I shoved my award into my dance bag, my phone started to ring. Mom flashed across the screen. She was probably waiting for me outside and getting impatient. Against my better judgment, I ignored the call and pulled my bag onto my shoulder. I was ready to go, about to head out. She could wait one more minute.

“Lilly,” I called, heading over to the girl sprawled out on the floor. Lilly’s version of stretching was to spread out like a starfish and take a nap; obviously, it wasn’t very effective. When she heard her name, her head popped up. “I’m leaving.”

“I’ll miss you, girl,” She said, holding out her hand. I gripped it and pulled her up. “Have a great time!”

“Thanks,” I whispered, embracing her. After Alexandria left, I hadn’t made very many friends. Lilly was one of the only friends I had, and I was just then realizing how much I was going to miss her. “I’ll bring you a souvenir from Hawaii.”

“You better,” She scoffed, finally letting me go. “Otherwise I’d have to kick your ass.” We both giggled, knowing it was an empty threat. But nevertheless, my stomach dropped slightly. I had no doubt she would try.

“Bye everyone,” I called one last time, finally making it to the door. Only Lilly and Mrs. Caraway turned to wave, so I smiled back and let the door close behind me. I couldn’t help but feel I was leaving something behind. Even though my spot on the team would be waiting for me when I got home, I knew Lisa or Taylor would try to morph into my place. Mrs. Caraway’s favorite, as they called it.

As I made my way through the building, people tried to stop me here and there. ‘Congrats,’ they would say, and I would smile and say thanks, but I only had one thing on my mind; getting out of there. Finally, I made it to the front doors and the sun shone down on me. My family was waiting right outside.

"Congratulations!" Holden exclaimed, wrapping me up in a hug. I squealed, struggling not to drop my dance bag.

"Thank you!" I hugged him back, giving him a quick peck on the lips. It had been way too long since we had spent time together alone. The only thing that had kept me going was the thought of spending the whole summer with him. Holden set me down, and I turned around. Luke smiled and embraced me, making me laugh.

'You were great,' He signed. I smiled and dropped my dance bag to the gravel parking lot so I could respond.

'Thanks! I-’ Chris appeared out of nowhere, grabbing me around the waist and spinning me around. He told me how great I did, which made me blush. I had always been a very modest person.

Next, I turned to Trent. He stared at me for a moment, scratching the back of his neck. “You did good,” He finally grunted. I smiled my thanks but couldn’t bring myself to voice a response. We had decided not to tell anyone about Josh and Alexandria; it would just cause unnecessary drama. Neither of us had any intention of speaking to either of them ever again, anyway.

I looked around for my brother, but he was nowhere to be found. "Where's Liam?" I asked as my mother embraced me.

"Didn't he tell you? He went back to Nia. She was having some complications with the baby." She gave me an apologetic smile as I hugged my dad robotically. After the way Liam had been acting, I shouldn’t have been surprised. It still hurt, though.

“So, are we driving you and dad home before we head off?” I asked, running a hand through my air. Everyone circled around me to hear the conversation.

"Nope," My dad said, tossing the car keys into my open hands. "We got a cab, which we need to get in right now before it decides to leave us." I laughed, hugging them once again. “Here’s my credit card, only, and I do mean only, buy things that are necessary, okay?”

“Got it,” I promised, grabbing the sleek card from my father’s hand. My heart was pounding with excitement that I could barely contain.

"Be safe!" My mom said, sliding into the cab. "We'll see you at the end of the summer!"

"Bye!" I called, waving as the car pulled away. The second they were out of sight, I turned around to face the guys, almost laughing when I saw their mischievous expressions.

"We're on our own boys, let's get this road trip started!”