Chloe sat on the bench in the dressing room surrounded by all of her childhood dance friends; it was the same as any other Friday evening before a competition weekend. They had practiced day in and day out, and finally, Abby released them at 10:00 p.m. It was considerably a rather early night for them, but since the competition wasn't until Sunday and they'd rehearse the following day, she let them leave because they were all too tired and unfocused to make any real progress after it hit 10 p.m.
Chloe scrolled through her phone, sifting through missed emails, texts, and social media notifications while sipping from her water bottle. The other girls were throwing dance shoes and Foot Undeez into bags, swapping warm-ups and dance clothes that had all gotten mixed up from when they changed, and chatting and giggling loudly, as teenage girls so often did. They were all in high school now. Well, Nia and Chloe were just finishing senior year, but the dance season extended until August, when they'd be moving on to the next chapter of their lives. The show had ended, but the nightmare that was ALDC had not. Chloe was staring at the open text message conversation, the cursor blinking at her waiting for a response. Chloe rarely met an occasion where she didn't have the answer (typically the right one), so when he stumped her, she froze.
"Chloe, are you coming?" She heard Kendall's voice call her, pulling her out of her phone. Chloe looked up, alerted. "What?" She asked, but saw them all waiting for her by the door. "Oh, yeah, I'm coming." She slung her bag over her shoulder and pulled her keys from her leather jacket's pocket.
"When we get to my house, we have to be quiet, my sister will probably be asleep." Kendall reiterated.
"Wait, what?" Chloe squinted.
"Ugh, Chloe. We are all going to my house for a night swim and some beers; we JUST planned this inside, Chlo, after Abby told us we don't have to be in until 11:30 a.m. I knew you weren't listening!" Kendall rolled her eyes. "You spend too much time on your phone. But you're coming, right?" Kendall perked up. She loved being the host, it made her feel popular.
Chloe bit her lip and remembered the text message she still hadn't responded to and that damn blinking cursor. "I actually have to get home. I promised my mom I'd be home at a decent hour to help Clara with a project." She lied through her teeth, but with a smile hoped it would read as the truth.
"Please, you're totally going to see Brooke and Paige, I saw Brooke got home yesterday on Facebook." Maddie rolled her eyes and hopped into the passenger's seat of Nia's car. Maddie and Mackenzie were the only two who hadn't gotten their licenses yet, which was unexplained to all of them, but they all had speculated it was probably some sort of an Abby rule.
"You know it's against the rules for me to see them during the season," Chloe frowned. Of course she broke the rules often, but she hid that from all of the girls, even Nia, her best friend on the team.
"Leave her alone, guys. We'll see you in the morning, Chlo. But please promise you're still coming to the party Sunday night." Nia said in a tone so upbeat she was practically bouncing, while standing at her car's driver's side waiting to get in for the conversation to end.
"Yeah, uh, I'll be there. Just text me the details to remind me…or we can just all carpool after the show." Chloe sat with her hand still on the handle of her old little Hyundai, the door cracked open, being so eager to speed away from the studio and all of her dance friends. She loved them, and they grew up like family, but they were from different worlds. Besides Chloe being the clear least favorite of ALDC, you could barely call her an underdog, the girls all had a special bond from traveling with Abby for ALDC events outside of competitions that Chloe was very blatantly not invited, or even allowed, to attend. She often felt out of place and awkward with the whole group for the past few years, and she just wanted to go back to the comfort of her regular car and regular life outside of their homeschooled, well-traveled, luxury car and vacation home planet. Her car was a beat up cherry-red Hyundai from 2009, and she liked it that way. She found comfort in the understated, just as she found beauty in the things others often didn't. The same way she wished for someone to find the beauty lodged somewhere inside of her, because though she had been groomed into seeing the girl in the mirror surrounded by a cloud of flaws, she knew she had something to offer. Like a magic secret, she held that little hope of a tiny spark close to her heart, waiting for the right person to fish it out. She wasn't anything extraordinary, and didn't like to pretend like the story was anything different. Her modest life just mirrored those same beliefs.
She waited until the other girls got into their respective cars before hopping in hers and pulling out her phone again.
"I'll be there soon," she texted, adding a winking emoji. She backspaced over it, but decided in the moment to retype it and hit send before re-thinking it again. She raced off to the other side of town, with her radio up.
I think he really likes me, she thought to herself, nearly giggling and squealing at the thought, even though she was alone in the moment's excitement. Tonight, she thought, everything will change.