"You have a spanish test today?" Mommy asks as she packs all of our lunches.

"Yeah." Maddie answers, "Do you think I could be absent today?"

"Why are you always skipping stuff?" Kenzie asks.

"I don't." Maddie defends herself.

"You do." Mommy tells her, "And you're not missing school today."

"Fine." Maddie pouts.

Kenzie looks over to me.

"Is it pajama day at school?" She asks.

"What do you mean?" Mommy asks Kenzie and she points at me, "Mel, I already told you to change."

"She doesn't want to go either." Maddie says.

I go upstairs to my room and change into my outfit. I go back downstairs and Mommy starts brushing my hair.

"Apple?" Kenzie asks, "Like Candy Apples?"

"Good one Kenz." Maddie high-fives Kenzie.

"Let's go, girls." Mommy says and we all leave for school.

~~~

I think I kind of understand Maddie now when she said that I shouldn't want to go to school, but I'm too late. After a long day at school, we finally go to the studio. I was wearing my dance clothes and I still had my hair in two braids.

"I want to start off talking a little bit about dance troupe, in Greensboro, North Carolina. That was not the group in Lake Tahoe that just won a national championship." Miss Abby starts pyramid, "Obviously, cute still works in the Carolinas. Kendall, you did your solo scared to death. That face was not an Abby Lee Miller face, that's for certain--"

"Abby, that was her first time--" Jill interrupts.

"Shh, you don't get to talk, it's my turn." Miss Abby tells Jill, "This weekend, we are headed to Columbus, Ohio. You know who lives in Ohio."

"Candy Apples!" Chloe cheers.

"We are going there, and she will be at the competition." Miss Abby continues, "I don't want any squawking between the mothers. You are all on the same team, and we're all gonna take a bite out of that big apple." We all laugh, "All right, we're gonna start with the pyramid. On the bottom: Kendall. You are on probation. That means that I'm watching you like a hawk. Do you understand me?" Kendall noda and Miss Abby reveals the next headshot, "Melanie, you have little parts, I know you're capable of doing a lot more, your disadvantage right now is your age, but I'm sure that when you're Maddie's or Mackenzie's age, you're gonna win a lot of first place trophies."

Maddie

Chloe   Nia

Paige Brooke Mackenzie Melanie
 Kendall 

"Every single person is gonna be in the group dance. It is called 'Bad Apples'. It's a little 40's, has a little novelty, but it's a little Katy Perry." Miss Abby tells us, "It's a little kicked up. So, I want the pin-up girl look. We have the rat, we have the snood. If you don't know what a rat and a snood is, go google it and figure it out. When you go onstage for that competition, you'd better be on fire." On fire? "Brooke, you're doing a solo. Cathy has a girl entered your age, I want you to make applesauce out of that kid. Backstage, freak that kid out. I want that kid on tears before she ever steps on that stage."

Miss Abby is overreacting a little bit, that's for sure.

The moms are dismissed and after warming up, we start with the number. After a while, I was dismissed because I had a class with the rest of the minis.

"Hello hello." Mia says as we all meet up in the Dancer's Den.

"What do you think we're going to do today?" Julie asks.

"We had tap yesterday." Klara says, "So I don't think it's tap."

"Ballet?" Emma asks.

"No idea." I tell her.

We all ended up having an acro class in studio B, with some background music by Abby Lee Miller and Jill Vertes.

The next day we had group dance rehearsal, also known as Kenzie and I standing on the side while everyone else dances.

•Two Days To Competition•

I was going over my part in the group dance, that is doing a handstand walk from the right wing almost at the end of the dance, getting down and posing in front of the apple basket where Kenzie sits on. Miss Abby was telling Jill and Holly what Kendall and Nia were still doing wrong a day before we left for competition. The only thing I knew was that we weren't doing so well.

Just one day before competition, I was really nervous to be honest, it's not like I do too much, but I wanted to do my best. I was in the bus sitting beside Maddie and we were both watching YouTube.

"Bus driver Jim, why didn't we jump on the turnpike and hit 79 the other way so we would miss all this traffic?" Miss Abby asks.

Maddie and I look at each other and chuckle. I look outside and see the 'Welcome to Ohio' sign. We continue watching more videos as it gets dark outside. That's my favorite part of our trips. The bus stops and we all get off. The moms check us in and they all get an invitation to go over to Cathy's room. The moms, being the responsible people they are, all decide to go.

"Can we watch a movie?" Kenzie asks.

"I'm going to sleep." I tell her.

"And you Mads?"

"Sure." Maddie agrees.

So my sisters stay up watching a movie while I go to sleep.

•Competition Day•

"You're pulling my hair." I tell Mommy as she tries to put the rat on.

"So stop moving, Melanie." Mommy tells me, a little bit stressed, but I keep moving, "Melanie Victoria!"

"What's going on over there?" Miss Abby asks.

Mommy pulls my hair a couple more times until the rat's on.

"Please don't start crying." Mommy says, "Finish getting ready."

I change into the costume and put my team jacket over it.

"So, what did you think of Cathy's last night?"

"What do you mean last night?"

"We had a soiree."

"And she was the only person there."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. When I left last night, you didn't all go up to your rooms?"

"Nope."

"We changed."

"We went to Cathy's."

I start doing some cartwheels with Kenzie while the argument finished. We all go backstage and wait to be called on stage.

"Next up, Abby Lee Dance Company with 'Bad Apples'." The Announcer says and the music starts.

Bad apple
Bad apple
Bad apple

Honey, won't you meet me at the apple tree?
Just you and me with no one else around

Honey, won't you meet me at the apple tree?
Just you and me with no one else around

So that's a double slice of that big apple pie
Juicy red and shiny all around

You're the cutest apple that I've found

"Next up, Candy Apples Dance Company with 'Vale Hispaniola'."

We all watch the Candy Apple dancers do their dance.

"Let's go to the dressing room." Chloe says and everyone agrees.

"I'm going to the bathroom." I announce and run off.

I go use the bathroom and after that I start my way back to the dressing room.

"Melanie, over here." I hear Cathy's voice and I ignore her.

But it almost felt like if she was hunting me. I run back to the dressing room and close the door. I notice that no one's there, ugh, it was time for awards, but I'm too late. I sit on front of the mirror and start taking the snood off. Next is the rat. and that hurts. I take a wipe and start taking off my makeup.

"Melanie." I turn around and see everyone entering.

"Where were you?" Mommy asks as I smile.

"I went to the bathroom and then came here." I tell her, "But you left for awards and I thought I was late."

"Don't ever do that again." She chuckles.

Maddie, Paige, and Brooke all start getting ready for their solos. They all have an apple involved. 

I sit beside Kenzie and we start eating our snack, that was some Mott's applesauce. We go see all of the solos, and I think Erica's older than what Cathy says she is. We all go back to the dressing room and that's all what the conversation's about.

"She doesn't seem like she was from Cathy's studio at all." Kelly says.

"She's at least 15." Christi says, "There's no way that girl is 11 or 12."

"I don't think so either." Mommy agrees.

"They're questioning Erica's age!" Chloe tells us.

"Who is?" Mommy asks.

"The competition." Chloe answers.

"Yeah, 'cause I-I was back there, and the girl walked over and goes, 'We need birth certificates for Cathy's students'." Brooke adds.

"Hi, Abby." 

We all look over to the competition director, Leigh.

"Hi." Miss Abby says, "How are you?"

"Good." Leigh answers, "We got somebody questioning Brooke's age."

"Okay, she's 13--"

"When's her birthday?"

"January 30th of 1998." Kelly answers.

"I'm hungry." Kenzie whispers.

"But we just ate." I tell her.

"I know, but I'm hungry again." She tells me.

I roll my eyes and chuckle. We all go to awards and Brooke was first in her division, Erica was sadly disqualified.

I think we made applesauce.