"Breakfast's here!" I hear Kenzie yell and I slowly wake up, "Wake up, sleepyhead!"

I'm still slowly adjusting to the time zone again, but today we have dance, finally on LA.

I sit on the bed and notice that there's no breakfast there.

"And where is it?" I ask and she laughs, "What?"

"I just needed you to finally wake up, you wouldn't get up otherwise." Kenzie says as I stand up.

"Kenz! Oh, whatever." I say and go the bathroom.

I change my clothes and put on the dancewear for today. I put on my sneakers and then style my hair into a perfect bun. I get out and prepare my dance bag. Soon Kenz and I leave the room, meet up with Mads and Mom and go eat breakfast.

"Does anyone have any idea of what the studio looks like?" Maddie asks as we sit down.

"Nope." Kenzie answers.

"Everything will just be so weird, like we won't be on the typical Pittsburgh studio." I say.

Kenzie then stands up.

"So who's joining me to get our food?" She asks.

"I'll go." I say standing up and walking away with her.

It was a buffet, so we could just take whatever we wanted, I mean we already had to pay enough to stay on the hotel so. Kenzie gives me a plate and takes another one for her. We take some French Toast, some strawberries and I got some green grapes. We also got some eggs and then we walk back to the table, I noticed Maddie wasn't there anymore and Mom was talking on her phone, we silently sit down and she still has not noticed us.

"So you'll be coming later today? It will be a surprise for all of the girls." Mom says and Kenzie and I look at each other, "Especially Melanie, I don't think she will expect it."

I notice a syrup bottle on the table and try to reach for it, only making it fall and make a lot of noise, Mom turns around and notices us.

"Oh you're back?" She asks and then whispers to the phone, "Talk to you later, bye."

"Who were you talking with?" Kenzie asks.

"With no one." Mom says and stands up.

Then she walks away.

"What am I supposed not to expect?" I ask.

"I have no idea, but now I want it to be later today." Kenzie says and eats her French Toast.

Soon Maddie and Mom come back with their food and we all eat, then we leave and meet up with the rest of the Moms and the girls. We arrive to the studio and get off the car.

"We entered the studio and there was a whole class going on and a teacher rehearsing." Abby says talking on the phone getting into her car.

"I think she's scared." I whisper to the girls.

"She won't admit it, but I think that's true." Kalani says.

We all decided go inside and I notice another dance studio there, well, the dancers and teacher. They seem pretty good, and I'm excited! Then Kalani, being the fearless leader she is, decides to go introduce all of us.

"Hi, welcome to The Rage." The dance teacher, Tiffany, tells us.

After a while we all finally get a studio and we start stretching.

Kira decided to call Abby and put her on speaker, so we stop everything and listen to her.

"Ok, you know what? I just walked in there, and... I just don't feel comfortable working in there. That's just not good to work, so... I think it's best that... I find another space for us to work in."

Now she's completely scared and doesn't want to hide it. She knows she isn't the only dance teacher on the world and that there are other studios, what did she expect when coming to the West Coast?  ​​​​​​

"Besides that, I have really exciting news! We have an audition for all of the girls. For tomorrow morning, It's going to be fun! Okay, I'll see you kids soon. Bye-bye."

Kira then hangs up. 

At least there's something, but for what is the audition for? We soon leave and go back to the hotel room until tomorrow, we did absolutely nothing.

•Next Day•

I change into my dance clothes and start doing my hair when Kenzie suddenly comes into the bathroom.

"I found something out!" She says and I look at her on the mirror.

"About what?" I ask.

"No one new came yesterday, but Mom was saying something like that." Kenzie says.

"Oh that." I say as I finish my braid and turn around, "True."

We get ready and go to the studio. We enter and quickly form a line.

"Where is Abby? Does she even believe in this team anymore? Like, where's she at?" Jess asks.

"Just running around, doing things." Gianna answers and I notice that she's holding some papers, "Uh, I know that she met with a casting agent. The gentleman's name is John Barba. He has cast many, many, many, many things. Huge, huge, huge productions. She gave me the sides to pass out to the girls. "

She first gives me one of the papers.

"Thanks you." I say and look at the paper as Gianna continues passing the papers.

"You guys are reading for the part of Ellie." Gianna tells us and walks back to the front, "Abby gave me one solo and it's gonna go to Maddie. There's also one duet."

We all look at each other excited, not knowing which two of us were going to dance together.

"The dancers in the duet will be Melanie."  Gianna says and everyone cheers, "And Liam. Come on in!"

The girls start screaming as Liam and his Mom, Katherine, enter the studio. I haven't seen him for a while, and why does he look different now? It's the same old Liam, but cuter.

"You guys will be doing a duet called 'Romeo And Juliet'." Gianna tells us and I look over to Liam.

"Wait so she has literally been out for two whole weeks and she comes back and already has something more?" Jess asks with an angry tone.

"That's what Abby chose, and if she did she knows what she's doing." Gianna tells her.

"It's unfair, there are kids that have been here every single week and don't get the chances she gets." Jess snaps.

"With that I think you only mean JoJo because you were the same one who suggested that Nia should've been pulled from the group number last week and had JoJo replace her." Holly says, "Nothing against you, JoJo."

"She only gets the special treatment because she's an Abby favorite." Jess says, "Think about, the kid and his Mom had to get here somehow, it was all planned, not caring about the other dancers."

"Don't start with that, if she was really an Abby favorite Abby would've been here." Mom tries to defend me.

"That doesn't even matter!" Jess yells.

"JoJo isn't even on the team, Abby said so last week!" Jill yells back.

"And? We were here, she wasn't!" Jess argues back and I start tearing up.

"She has been a part of the team ever since day one." Holly says.

"She didn't dance since day one, Holly, so don't come with that. She started later." Jess says.

"From season two, but she was on the team since the first day of everything, Jess!" Kira argues and I feel Kalani hugging me from behind.

"Stop! Don't argue like that on front of your children." Gianna says and Kenzie pulls me closer to her, "We're all gonna learn the group routine, but the way Abby left it, JoJo was not a part of the team. So you'll be learning it as a swing right now."

"That's what I mean with favoritism." Jess says.

"Shut up!" Jill says.

"Did Abby say she couldn't dance?" Jess asks.

"My instructions for today from my boss, are to do this. I'm not gonna go against her." Gianna says.

"Once again, there's the door." Kira says. 

"The group this week, we are doing a lyrical routine. It's one of our stronger styles  and we wanna, hopefully, start LA off with a bang."

I started LA off with a bang, on the face, with a pan. Does Jess hate me? What did I even do to her? I've literally been nothing but nice to her and JoJo.

The moms leave and we start the group dance rehearsal.

We learn the group dance and Maddie learns her solo, Gianna told me that Liam and I would practice our duet first thing tomorrow. We were now sitting with the moms reading the audition stuff. JoJo was the only girl that didn't have a paper because she isn't an official member. 

"No, you need to say it louder, like WOW, not wow." Jill tells us.

"WOW!" Kenzie and I yell and they all laugh.

"You two are back at it again." Kalani says laughing.

"Guys." Maddie says and we all look at her, "Jess and JoJo are in the studio and they're like rehearsing the script in there."

"But how are they--" Jill says but Mom interrupts her.

"Where did they get it?" Mom asks.

"No! Let them be." Maddie tells them.

"Let them do it." Jill says as Mom stands up and goes check.

She then comes back.

"She's a rude person." Mom says and looks at Kira, "She took that out of your daughter's purse."

"She took it out of Kalani's purse?" Kira asks.

"Yeah, and now she's practi-- I mean it's just rude." Mom says as she sits down between Kenzie and I, "If she asked to borrow it it would've been fine, we would have given it to her but she took it out of your daughter's purse."

Kira then stands up and walks away, probably to the Siwas.

"Go get 'em, Kira." Kenzie says.

"She told me it was on the floor, and Kalani said it was on her purse." Mom says.

•Day After•

I was sitting on my bed as Kenzie did my hair. I literally begged for Kenzie to do it.

"I had no idea you were into science, my absolute--" I read but I'm interrupted by the door opening.

"We're leaving." Maddie says and Kenzie finishes my hair.

"I was practicing." I say standing up.

"I think you've practiced enough, you were literally reading that thing up until 2 am, we could hear you on the other room." Maddie tells me as we leave the room.

We meet up with the rest and go to Envision Studios.

"And that's why I absolutely adore your style." Kalani says as soon as she sees me.

"And me?" I ask and pretend to be upset.

"You too!" She exclaims and hugs me, picking me up at the same time.

"DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE THAT! DO YOU TALK TO YOUR WIFE LIKE THAT?!"

We all turn around and notice Abby arguing with a couple other people. So we literally have had no contact and the first time we see her she's arguing? Ugh.

"YOU STICK YOUR FINGER IN MY FACE!"

And that's on her fight with Kelly last year.

"Oh, my God." Jill says.

"What did he just say?" Mom asks.

Abby and the man almost start fighting and some other people separate them.

"Pretend you don't know her." Kalani says turning around, still holding me.

"She's coming." Nia says and Kalani puts me down.

"Hi, Ms. Abby." We all say as soon as she arrives.

"Do you have any words of wisdom for the girls. It's our first time together since we've been in LA." Holly says and everything goes silent.

"No." 

"We haven't seen you as a group for several days and it's absolutely disgraceful."

"You do realize your mother's calling me disgraceful and I'm your teacher? She needs to learn to keep her mouth shut!" 

"You know what? The moment someone says anything to you, you go back and you strike at a child."

"I didn't strike at a child."

"Yes, you did."

"Choose your words."

"Didn't give us-- jeez."

Abby then storms into the building and that's how another tantrum ends. 

"Why don't you guys go work on your scripts with each other?" Jill suggests. 

We all enter and d I sit down. I start taking deep breaths trying to calm myself, try to stop being so nervous and try to forget the fight.

"Hey, girls. How are you doing? I'm John Barba, I'm the casting director." John says, "I'm gonna bring you into the room for a minute, okay?"

We all enter the other room and form a line.

"Hello, I'm Lisa, and I'm a casting director." Lisa tells us, "Just so you know a little bit about us, we do commercials, we do music videos-- we did the Taylor Swift 'Shake It Off'."

They tell us a couple other things and send us to another room to wait.

"Who will go first?" John asks and JoJo raises her hand, "Let's go."

JoJo leaves with him and we start reading the script for the last time. Soon they both come back.

"Okay, who will be next?" John asks.

"I'll go." I say and leave with him.

We enter the next room.

"Hi, I'm Lisa." Lisa says and shakes my hand.

"This is Melanie." John says.

"She's actually an actress." Abby adds.

"Oh, great." Lisa says and smiles at me, "Go stand on the pink mark over there."

I stand where she said and I act confused.

"Hey there." John reads.

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I on your way?" I ask.

"No, I mean, uh. I just want to say that I'm really impressed with your presentation in biology today."

Then I act surprised.

"Really? Wow, thanks." I say, "I had no idea you were into science. My absolute hero is Albert Einstein. I don't think people realize just how exciting the anatomy of a cell is."

"Okay, let's go with the next one. It's that, I like you."

I continue acting surprised.

"I've liked you since forever, but I had never imagined you liked me back. I think this is possibly the best day of my entire life!"

"Last one. Like Ben would ever have a crush on you."

I act mad, and a little bit upset, and hurt.

"Why would you? How could you? I never did anything to you!" I yell.

"You're overreacting, chill! You're such a loser, a joke--"

"I'm the joke?!" I ask and raise my voice, John, Lisa and Abby look at me scared, "How could I be this stupid? Just-- just get away from me!"

I then walk away and the casting agents start clapping.

"That was amazing!" Lisa says and John leaves, possibly to get another girl, "Thank you so much, Melanie."

"Thank you." I say as I leave the room.

The rest of the girls have their auditions and we all leave.

"What you just said was foul, Abby. Foul!" Holly says as I take out my phone and enter Google.

"What?"

"You taking away her opportunity. So if that makes you feel good, so be it!"

I tap on the search bar and enter 'Best ice cream in LA', what? I'm hungry!

"I'm trying to protect your child and make her not look like a complete fool. "That's what I'm trying to do, Holly."

"Abby, I don't think she looks like a complete fool. I really don't. Was-- am I the only person who-"

"I get it." Mom says.

"Oh, okay."

A screen pops up on my phone and it says 'No Internet Connection', how can we not have signal here?

"And we're acting like this is normal. Everyone else wants to act like that's normal behavior, so be it." Holly says and Abby gets closer to Holly, Kalani grabs my arm and pulls me out of the way.

"Go back and look at your pictures of your personality when you were a baby. Before she made the mini-me." Abby says and steps back.

"A mini-me? That's a compliment."

"Oh--- and you think that?"

"It's a compliment. Absolutely. There's nothing that she needs to be ashamed of her mother for."

"That's not--"

"I am very congenial."

"Thanks, Abby. This was a really great opportunity for the kids." Mom says.

"Abby, are you gonna be at the competition tomorrow?" JoJo asks and I look at her shocked.

"I don't--"

"The competition's tomorrow?!" I ask, interrupting Abby.

"Um, yeah." Maddie answers.

"What's wrong?" Kira asks.

"The duet! We haven't even started with it!" I say and try to calm down.

"We lost a whole day of rehearsal and now those are the consequences of your actions, Abby." Holly says.

I had no idea the competition was TOMORROW.

"We will still be competing at the competition, right?" JoJo asks.

"Is JoJo in the dance?" Mom asks.

"No, you're not in the group." Abby tells JoJo.

"She's been learning it, unlike some other dancers with their dances." Jess says and I realize, she's referring to me again, what's up with her?

"It's not like I have not learned the duet on purpose, we just have not had any time for it." I say and everyone looks at me.

"I didn't mention any names." Jess says.

"It's just obvious, you're just jealous that my daughter is doing everything, and even more at a younger age than your daughter." Mom says.

"Not everything is a competition." Jess snaps.

"You make it seem like one." Mom tells her.

"Read my lips-- JoJo, you are not in the group routine. I told you, she was not on my team, period." Abby tells Jess, "So I'll let you know, girls, tonight what's happening with the competition, see ya."

Abby walks away and we watch her as she leaves.

"It's a very small dance world, and for Abby to be acting like a big, huge baby is stupid. Everyone came to LA and now she's not even going to the first competition." Jess says.

"I think she'll show up." Kira says.

"I do, too." Mom adds.

"We're going for a walk, coming?" Kenzie asks me.

I nod and walk away with her, we catch up with the rest of the girls and we continue walking all together. We suddenly hear yelling and I turn around, just to see Jill and Holly arguing, I remember hen arguments were rare, now they're just common. I shake my head and continue walking with the rest. 

•Competition Day•

"And I'm really sorry, but you know literally nothing of the duet and I don't think improv will work, so we'll have to leave it for next week." Gianna tells Liam and I.

"It's okay, mistakes happen." I say smiling, "After all, we're just human."

"Thanks Mel, I would love that everyone was that understanding." Gianna says and hugs us, "I know that next week you'll know the dance and you're going to be flawless."

She then goes to talk with Abby, that looked like she got here straight from bed.

"I was excited for the duet." Liam says.

"Me too, but this week has been the craziest, and you were here to witness some of it, like that." I say pointing at Abby.

"True, now I get why you're sometimes so stressed." Liam tells me, "I mean, who wouldn't?"

"Hi."

Liam and I look over to where the 'Hi' came from, Erin Babbs and the MDP Moms, another dance studio, a really good studio. 

"We just wanted to say hi and welcome to the West Coast. Hi, Abby." Erin says.

"Send a fruit basket." Abby snaps, not even looking at her 

Wow, rude. We leave backstage and wait for the two solos, Maddie has a solo and Kalani also did, but hers wasn't going to be aired.

"Please welcome to the stage, this is Talia performing, 'Letting Go'." The announcer says and an MDP dancer, Talia goes onstage.

Talia starts dancing and Maddie's definitely nervous now. She finishes and leaves the stage.

"Please welcome to the stage, this is Maddie performing, 'All God's Creatures'." The announcer says and Maddie goes onstage.

Who is eager just to watch and offer infinite advice as he slips into the liquid of his own self-sacrifice.

Maddie finishes and Kalani does her 'Fragile Forest' solo and we all go back to the dressing room.

I sit down and Katherine, Liam's Mom, starts doing my hair for the group dance as I do my makeup.  When she finishes my hair I go take one of the costumes. Kenzie, Maddie and JoJo were the when I arrive. JoJo is about to take one when Abby talks to her.

"Don't. Don't. You are not in this dance." Abby says.

I quickly take one.

"I'm just going to put it on." JoJo tells her and tries to take one, but Abby quickly takes it.

"Put it down! No! That's enough! I'm sorry, sweetheart." Abby yells and continues talking but I leave and change into the costume.

Kendall, my sisters and I meet up inside the changing room.

"Why is Jessalynn so pushy?" Kendall whispers.

"I don't know, but we all know that Abby's on a bad mood and she's just making it worse." Maddie whispers.

"Also did you see how she just threw the fruit basket onto the floor?" Kenzie whispers.

"I'm gonna try eat some, 'cause I'm hungry." I whisper and we all laugh.

We all leave the changing room and notice that JoJo's crying and Abby isn't there anymore, why do I even want know what happened anymore?

"Okay, we're not getting distracted by whatever else is going on. We're doing this dance. Block out whatever's going on around you and focus on this, okay?" Gianna tells us and we go backstage.

"Please welcome to the stage entry number 70, "I'd Rather Be'." The announcer says and we go on stage.

~~~

"Second and first place tied with perfect scores and the judges had a really though time breaking that tie, but they did it. In second place, entry number 24 with 'Fragile Forest'."

Kalani goes receive her award.

"And in first place we've got entry number 26, Maddie with 'All God's Creatures'."

Maddie goes receive her award and they go with group awards.

"On second place we have entry number 70, "I'd Rather Be'."

I go receive the award and MDP's group dance was first, also receiving a perfect score, once again, it's all on Abby.

That night, I found out that Liam was staying at the same hotel as us, so we decided to hang out for a while. Soon we were both standing on front of my hotel room.

"Well, so we wait until Monday and see if we can finally learn the duet, 'cause I'm really excited for that." I tell him.

"Um... Melanie?" He asks.

"Mhm?" I say.

"At Monday, before leaving to the studio... would you like to go eat something?"Liam asks and I smile.

"Yes!"- I say, "I mean, sure. But... breakfast or lunch?"

"Gianna said that we needed to go at afternoon, so I guess lunch."- Liam says, "I need to go now, so see you tomorrow, goodnight."

"Goodnight!"- I say as he walks down the hallway and I sigh.

He's cute.... No! Melanie you are 8! What do you know know about boys... and love? I can't lie, he's nice, funny, and cute, but we're just kids.

I enter the room and Kenzie is sitting on her bed looking at me.

"You like him!"- She exclaims.

"No I don't."- I say jumping into my bed.

"Okay okay..."- Kenzie says and I hug my pillow.

There's a moment on silence.

"But you look cute together."- Kenzie adds.

"Ugh!"- I scream into my pillow.

Once again, there's silence.

"Liam and Melanie are sitting on a tree... K-I-S-S--"

"Shut up!"