I look at myself on the mirror for the hundredth time today, I was going to eat lunch with Liam, and it wasn't a big deal, right? It wasn't a big deal at all! But somehow I still felt the need to look nice, I don't know why. I didn't like the fact that after lunch we needed to go straight to the studio, if something amazing happens the mood will drastically change because of Abby, like always. Another reason why I didn't like that it was because of my clothes. I obviously had to wear ALDC stuff.

"Melanie, prince charming is here." Kenzie says and I look at her annoyed.

"Please stop with that." I say as I take my dance bag.

"Fine, but I just wanna say that you better end up with him because if not I owe Maddie twenty dollars." Kenzie says and I look at her shocked.

"Did you seriously make a bet on the two of us?" I ask and cross my arms.

"Maybe." Kenzie answers taking her dance bag, "Also, Katherine is taking you to dance, Mom is going to eat lunch with Jill, so Mads and I are going with her."

I leave and go to the hotel's restaurant, where Liam is waiting for me.

"Pizza? Am I really that obvious?" I say sitting down and taking a slice of the pizza, "Also sorry for the clothes, I always have to be a walking ALDC billboard."

"ALDC billboard?" Liam asks and we laugh.

We start talking about random stuff and continue eating pizza, I'll tell you how I met him, so it starts back at 2009.

~•Flashback~•

It was November 7, 2009. I was 3 back then, yeah a lot of stuff happened when I was 3. All of the preschoolers were on Studio A. We were sitting on the floor, waiting for Mrs. Vicky to tell us what to do.

"Okay you're all going to have partners. First we have Klara And Gabriel. Next, Julie and Peter--" Mrs. Vicky continued reading some stuff and I started playing with my hair, "And finally, Melanie and Liam."

I look over to a group of boys, the Liam boy was sitting next to Peter boy. I stand up and go over to him.

"Hi!" I say.

"Hi." He says.

We soon start dancing, or jumping in rhythm. It was really fun, and Liam boy was funny. 

~•Present•~

Yeah pretty simple, but that's how I met him. I then stared at his green eyes, and got lost in them.

"Melanie, Melanie!" Liam says and I snap back into reality.

"Sorry, got . . . Distracted." I say.

Why does this keep on happening? I've known for so long, but only now I feel this way.

"I was saying that if you have not thought of leaving the show?" Liam asks

"I can't, I'm under a 6-year contract." I say.

"Oh."

"Also I don't think Mom will leave any time soon." I add.

I check my phone.

12:45 pm

"I think we should leave now." Liam says standing up.

"Yeah, to have Abby yell at us for her not doing her job." I say and we laugh.

We go outside and get into his mom's car.

"Ladies first." He says holding the door.

"Thank you!" I say getting inside.

Why do I like that cheesy stuff? But it was so cute! We get to the studio and enter for pyramid. I take off my street clothes, revealing my dance clothes. We all form a line.

I was still on cloud nine, everything was so perfect with Liam around, also with my friends and family, nothing could possibly ruin this.

"All right, last week. Competition: FAILURE."

Once again, I snap back into reality, and reality was Abby yelling, like always.

"Why are you blaming the kids when you were absent all week?" Holly asks.

"We didn't even know if you were going to show up to the competition." Jill adds, "You showed up looking like a homeless woman. You were not you last week, and it concerned us, and it concerned the children."

"They were there, but you were not there, and there was never an explanation as to why you were not there." Holly says.

"And we want to make sure it doesn't happen again." Jill adds.

Abby doesn't answer at all, she isn't being good at all. Holly and Abby start arguing.

"Girls, you can go into the other roomm and you can dance."

We all leave, including Liam even though he isn't a girl. We go to the other room and sit down on the floor.

"And we're here again." Kalani says, "Another day, another fight."

"I want to know what's up with Abby, Holly has every right to be upset." I say, Nia wasn't at the room at the moment.

"What do you mean with every right?" Maddie asks, "Just asking."

"I mean, why did Abby have to 'ruin' Nia's audition and hers only?" I ask and they all look at me interested, "Also, why is Nia always the sacrificial lamb when Abby needs to pull someone from a dance?"

"Yeah, and that has been for a while already." Kenzie adds.

"Holly may seem like she's overreacting, but she has every right to be upset and really hurt." I say, "Especially with her fight with Jill."

"And what was her fight with my mom about?" Kendall asks.

"Holly was mad that none of the mothers had her back against Abby." I tell her, "And sadly it will probably happen again."

"When you put all of those things on perspective, I feel really bad for Holly." Maddie says.

"They deserve better." JoJo adds.

"Did the same thing happen with the Hylands and Lukasiaks?" Liam asks.

"I clearly remember with the Lukasiaks, but I'm kinda confused about the Hylands." I say.

"GIRLS LET'S GO!"

"With that calming and comforting voice, of course I want to go." Kalani comments with a joking tone as she stands up, making all of us laugh.

Before any of them leave, I stand in the doorway.

"Don't tell anyone we talked about this." I say, "We could get in trouble for talking bad about Abby."

"It wasn't exactly talking bad about Abby, it was more like showing the world who Abby Lee really is." Kenzie says and we laugh.

"Yeah, let's go." I say and we all enter the studio and form a line.

"JoJo, you are on the bottom 'cause you're not even on the team. We'll just move you over here. You're not part of it." Abby says taking JoJo's headshot and moving it away from the pyramid, guess who has an attitude today, again, "Better headshot. Cute. Nia, that's you next. I'm sure she would have fought with me about that."

She reveals Kendall's headshot next.

"We have you next. You're good? Next we have Mackenzie. Same thing. Next we have Melanie, same as the other two."

Maddie

Kalani   Melanie  Mackenzie

Kendall   Nia                           JoJo

"We're going to Sheer Talent. I'm sure we'll be embarrassed and humiliated there. Kendall, you are doing a solo, and the other solo is going to JoJo, because you're not in the group dance. Melanie and Liam are doing their duet this week."

Then she starts crying . . . She needs help.

"I just pretend it doesn't matter. I can't pretend anymore. Nobody is going to talk to me that way! NO ONE! I'm not going to stand here and do something I don't want to do. I don't want to do it. I want to teach dance, and I want to be creative. I don't want to do this anymore."

And she storms out. I can't help but roll my eyes, I don't want to do this anymore either. Having to deal with a 40-something-year-old baby that plays hide-and-seek, throws tantrums every 5 minutes and blames everyone else for her mistakes. It's just . . . Ugh.

"That's all for today." Craig says.

"Wow, what a great day." Maddie says with a sarcastic tone.

•Two Days To Competition•

"Duet. 'Romeo And Juliet'. Typical love story, tragedy." Abby says as Liam and I enter the studio, "You two are the most advanced of your groups back home, you could try and see if you're the most advanced here too."

You wouldn't let us in a million years.

"That's why this dance is much more advanced than the rest that you've both probably have ever performed. Well maybe except the 'Princesses Don't Cry' and 'Replay' solos. Let's start." Gianna tells us.

We go into our starting position and dance. We do the final pose.

"Okay but look at her like more passionate, like you want to be with her but it's just impossible." Abby says and Liam continues looking at me.

Don't blush, don't blush, don't blush.

"Besides that everything else was great, you're dismissed." Gianna says and we both leave.

I enter the new 'Viewing Room' where the moms are exactly when my Mom was talking on the phone, but it was on speaker, probably the producers told her to do it.

"Melissa Gisoni?"

"You're talking with her." Mom says.

"The reason for this call is for a job opportunity for Melanie Ziegler.  It would be to appear in the Dancing With The Stars finals in a few weeks."

The moms gasp and I smile.

"We're working on a number to promote the new movie 'Annie', and we were interested on Melanie being in it, what do you say?"

Mom looks at me and I nod excitedly.

"Of course." Mom tells the person on the phone.

"Great! So we'll send you the directions and the first rehearsal will be at Friday. Goodbye."

Mom hangs up.

"That's a great opportunity." Jill says.

"So, who wants to go out to celebrate?" Mom asks.

"I'll pass, I'm taking JoJo to some auditions tonight." Jess quickly says.

"I'm in." Kira says.

"Me too." Katherine adds.

"I'm also in." Jill says, "Are you going to tell Abby?"

"She isn't on her best mood right now, I'll probably wait until later." Mom says.

~~~

We were going once again to the hotel's restaurant, the people going were the Kira and Kalani, the Vertes, the Bryants, and obviously us, the Zieglers. Mom had called Holly but she said she was really busy, so she couldn't go.

"So the Bryants are going." Maddie says as she styles my hair.

"Don't." I warn her.

"I wasn't going to say anything." Maddie lies.

"Remember that I have my secret weapon." I tell her.

"What secret weapon?" Maddie asks.

"Gino." I tell her and Kenzie laughs.

"I have two weapons." Kenzie says standing up.

I stand up and look at myself on the mirror. I leave with Kenzie and we go to restaurant and sit on our table. Soon everyone starts arriving.

"So I guess there's no Abby." Jill says.

"Thank God." Kira says and we all laugh, "She would flip out and make a huge scene."

"Like always." Katherine says.

"Do you think Jessalynn is jealous of Melanie?" Jill asks and we all look at her, "She looked pretty mad when Melissa got the call, and was quickly to turn down the invitation."

"She makes it pretty obvious, I mean we all want our kids to succeed on everything." Mom says.

"Just ignore Jessalynn." Kalani whispers into my ear.

I was sitting between Kalani and Liam. Yeah, Kenzie set that up, she's really crazy about those 20 dollars. We start eating and just having fun, everything was great, but there's rehearsal tomorrow.

•One Day To Competition•

We were all on the Viewing/Waiting room stretching.

"Well, I'm glad we have a teeny room, because we have a teeny team." Jill comments, "Where is everybody?"

"Where's JoJo?" Maddie asks and I look around, no signs of the Siwas, if I hated them as much as Jess hates me, I would be happy that they weren't here, but I'm not like her, and I'm actually concerned, where are they?

"Where's JoJo? Where's Holly, where's Nia?" Jill adds.

"If Nia comes today, you guys have to all stick together and really help her learn the group dance." Mom tells us.

"It's a really hard dance to learn, the timing is, different choreography that we've ever done before." Kendall says.

"It is really different."

"I just don't want Abby to yell at her when she gets here." I say.

"No. None of us want Abby to yell at anybody." Jill says, "Target's on your back, again."

The door suddenly opens and we look up, Nia!

I jump to hug her and soon we're all hugging. They're finally here, now we just need the Siwas. I start using my phone as the Moms talk and then we enter the studio so start rehearsing, it was pretty boring.

"Gia? I need to take Melanie to her job right now, so can she leave?" Mom asks entering the studio.

"Of course." Gianna says, "Tell me how it went later!"

The first rehearsal was more like introducing everyone.

•Competition Day•

Abby was kind of on a better mood today, miracle.

"I'm ready to be blooded."

I turn around and see Abby as she pours fake blood on poor JoJo, that looks fun. Isn't Romeo and Juliet a tragedy? Can't we have some blood too?

"I have an idea, let's go." Liam whispers into my ear.

We stand up and run out of the room, he holds my hand as we continue running, we go backstage.

We stop and he holds my hand, I really can't help but smile.

"I . . . Like you."

"Whoa whoa whoa." I say and let go of his hand, "I like you too, but--"

"But what?" He asks.

"What I want to say is, we're young, like really young, we could wait." I say and take his hand again.

"How long?" Liam asks.

"I don't know, maybe until we're older, and we still feel the same." I tell him.

"I'll be waiting then." Liam says smiling.

You know, whether we had to wait 2 months or 6 years, he was going down in history as my first crush, at 8, kind of surprises me. 

We hold hands and start walking back to the dressing room, we hear some yelling from inside the camera crew was moving a lot. Did they fight? The door slams open and there's the moms. Mom looks at me and hugs me.

"What happened?" I ask.

"Why didn't you tell us that you were leaving?" Mom asks.

"I just needed to tell her something fast." Liam says, "It was my fault."

"It wasn't your fau--" I try to say.

"Just please be more careful next time." Katherine says and hugs Liam.

"We were really worried." Mom says.

We go backstage after our 'disappearance'.

"That was weird." Liam says and I nod.

"Hey, Mom told me to keep an eye on you now." Kenzie says walking towards us.

"Are you sure it was Mom?" I ask her.

"I'm not lying, Mom did tell me." Kenzie says and walks away.

Huh.

"Next up in the junior duo/trio division is entry number 77, 'Romeo And Juliet'." The announcer says and we both go on stage.

We were both young when I first saw you
I close my eyes and the flashback starts
I'm standin' there
On a balcony in summer air
See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns
See you make your way through the crowd
And say, "Hello"
Little did I know

That you were Romeo, you were throwin' pebbles
And my daddy said, "Stay away from Juliet"
And I was cryin' on the staircase
Beggin' you, "Please don't go, " and I said

Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story, baby, just say, "Yes"

So I sneak out to the garden to see you
We keep quiet, 'cause we're dead if they knew
So close your eyes
Escape this town for a little while, oh oh

'Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter
And my daddy said, "Stay away from Juliet"
But you were everything to me
I was beggin' you, "Please don't go, " and I said

Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story, baby, just say, "Yes"
Romeo, save me, they're tryna tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but it's real
Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess
It's a love story, baby, just say, "Yes"
Oh, oh

I got tired of waiting
Wonderin' if you were ever comin' around
My faith in you was fading
When I met you on the outskirts of town, and I said

Romeo, save me, I've been feeling so alone
I keep waiting for you, but you never come
Is this in my head? I don't know what to think
He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring
And said, "Marry me, Juliet
You'll never have to be alone
I love you and that's all I really know
I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress
It's a love story, baby, just say, "Yes"
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh
'Cause we were both young when I first saw you

Everyone cheers as we go off stage and Kendall hugs me.

"My twenty dollars?"  Kenzie asks Maddie.

"Let's just go." Maddie says and we go back to the dressing room.

We get ready and go perform the group dance. We leave and Nia was waiting for us.

"You guys, that was really good." Kendall tells us, "What's wrong?"

"Are you upset that you weren't on it?" JoJo asks Nia.

"Yeah, I was a little sad that I wasn't in it." Nia answers.

"Now you know how I felt for the past three weeks." JoJo says.

"So that's why you asked, not because you cared, just because you wanted her to feel bad?" I ask and cross my arms.

"I was just saying." JoJo tells me.

"And I am just asking" I say.

"Hey, but I'm on the team." Nia tells JoJo.

"Yeah, but she's really on the team and she's been in every single group." Kalani adds.

"I've been here since I was three." Nia says as I take a water bottle and drink some.

We go on stage for awards.

"So let's start the adjucated awards. We have the preteen solo category."-
The Announcer says, "In fifth place, entry number 65, 'Prom Queen'."

JoJo goes receive her award.

"In third place, entry number 26, 'Breathe'. In second place, entry number 66, 'Welcome To A New World'."

Kendall goes receive her award and soon they all sit back down.

"Now we'll go into our junior duet/trio category. In third place is entry number 60, 'End Of The World'. In second place is entry number 72, 'All For Money'. And in first place is entry number 77, 'Romeo And Juliet'."

I go receive the award, Liam had already left at that point. I go sit back down.

"Next, we have the preteen group category. In third place: entry number 64, 'Bang Bang'. In second place: entry number 59, 'Say Something'. In first place in the preteen group category: entry number 68, 'Collateral Damage'."

That's it, we end the week with two big wins, Abby will probably be happier next week and we'll hopefully have a normal week in LA.