The Competition: The Bully
Kelsey has a few tricks up her sleeve, and the girls' trip to Las Vegas turns out to be a lot less fun than they thought it would be.
At midnight, Kelsey wakes up and sneaks out of bed. She grabs a cup from the bathroom and fills it up with hot water, wraps a towel around it, then puts it down by the girl's fort. Kelsey picks up the steaming cup with hot water and places next to Gabbi's hand. She carefully uses her right hand to grab Gabbi's arm, without waking her up. She holds her phone in her left hand. She puts Gabbi's hand into the hot water. She rapidly snaps a few pictures, before tiptoeing away. Gabbi wakes up and yelps in pain. She yanks her hand out of the burning water.
The screaming wakes up the other girls and their parents.
Gabbi rushes to Jade, whimpering. The other girls follow her, and Jade flicks on the lights. "What's going on!?" she exclaims. Gabbi holds up her hand. Jade looks at her daughter's hand. It looks red and scalded. She gently brings Gabbi's hand closer to her face, so she can see it better. She and some of the other kids gasp. Tori gets out of bed and goes to the bathroom. "Gabz, what happened?" Jade asks. Kelsey stares Gabbi down with a smirk. "Yeah, Gabz! What happened?" she says half mockingly and half threateningly. Gabz quickly glances at Kelsey, then back at her mother. "I...umm...must have...umm...accidentally sleepwalked and…umm… filled a cup with…umm… hot water...then...I...umm...stuck my hand in it," she lies. She hates lying to her mother, but Kelsey scares her way more than Jade. Jade raises an eyebrow and gives her daughter a suspicious look. "Uh huh," she says, not believing Gabbi's story.
Jade can tell right away that Gabbi is lying, because she didn't making eye contact and she kept saying "umm." She also knew that Gabbi didn't sleepwalk. Tori comes back with a cool, wet wash cloth and she gently wraps in around Gabbi's hand.
Kelsey fakes laughs. "Oh, Gabbi! You're so silly!" she says in an overly sweet voice.
Cat, Tori, and Trina put their kids back to sleep, while Jade tends to Gabbi's hand, before putting her back to sleep as well. "Sleep tight, kiddo," Jade says. She kisses Gabbi on the forehead and ruffles her hair. "Goodnight, mommy! Thank you for taking care me. I love you," Gabbi says. She rests her head on her pillow and closes her eyes.
Gabbi waits for everyone to fall asleep again. She listens carefully to everyone's breathing, making sure that they are indeed asleep. She silently crawls out of the fort and tiptoes to Jade. Luckily for her, Jade isn't sleeping in between anyone. Instead Jade is on the end of the bed.
"Mommy?" Gabbi whispers quietly. She gently taps Jade. Jade opens her eyes and sees her daughter standing by her head. "Is everything okay?" she asks quietly. Gabbi doesn't know how to answer Jade's question, and she stays quiet. Her hand stopped hurting, but she is still extremely scared of Kelsey, so she isn't sure if that qualifies as being "okay."
"May I please talk to you in the hall?" Gabbi whispers. Jade knows Gabbi is serious about something because normally her daughter rarely complains or wakes people up when they're asleep. "Sure," she mumbles. Jade quietly slips out of bed, grabs her room key, and goes into the hallway with Gabbi.
Gabbi looks at her hotel room's door. She holds Jade's hand and walks into the hallway. She stops by the elevators. "Why do we have to be all the way over here?" Jade asks. Gabbi looks around her, making sure that nobody is around. "So no one can hear me talking," she says quietly. Jade kneels down in front of her daughter, so her face is level with Gabbi's face. "What's going on, sweetheart?" she asks. Gabbi is about to tell Jade about Kelsey's threats, but she starts to imagine herself being beat up and gets scared.
"Umm! Never mind! It's...umm...not important anymore! Umm...let's go back to sleep!" Gabbi says quickly, looking away from her mother. She tries to run back to the room, but Jade holds onto her. Jade sits down on the floor, picks her daughter up, and places her on her lap. "Whoa! Slow down there, kiddo! I did not just get out of bed at 1 am and come with you to the elevators to have you change your mind and go back to sleep," she says. Gabbi looks at her feet. She struggles to free herself from her mother's arms. "Please! It's not important anymore! Umm...I'm sorry for...umm...waking you up! Can we please just go back to...umm...the room?" she pleads. Jade puts her hand on her hip, still holding onto her daughter with the other hand. "Gabbi..." she says sternly.
"I'm…umm…really...umm...tired now!" Gabbi announces. She rests her head on Jade's shoulder and pretends to snore. Jade sighs. "Gabbi, I know you're lying to me," she says. Gabbi picks her head up and looks at Jade, astonished. "What!? How!? Wait! Umm...I mean...I'm not lying..." she says. Jade raises an eyebrow. "Oh really?" she questions. Gabbi nods quickly. "Umm...really!" she blurts out. She sighs. "Am I in trouble?" she whispers. "Not unless you tell me what's going on," Jade responds.
Gabbi sighs again. "But I can't tell you what's going on!" she whispers. "You could tell me a few minutes ago. What made you suddenly change your mind?" Jade says, trying to make eye contact. Gabbi avoids Jade's eyes. "I already said that I can't tell you!" she exclaims quietly.
Jade gives her daughter a stern look. "Gabrielle Elizabeth Oliver-West, if you don't tell me right now, I'm taking you out of this dance competition!" she says. Gabbi looks at her mother, her eyes wide with fear. She doesn't want to let her friends down. She wonders if Jade would really pull her out of the competition. She knows that Jade only uses her and her siblings' full names if she's being extremely serious. Tears start to form in Gabbi's eyes. She buries her face in Jade's shoulder.
"I really really want to tell you, but I can't!" Gabbi cries. Jade hugs her daughter and gingerly strokes her hair. "Baby, you know you can tell me anything, right? I promise, I won't get mad," she tells her crying daughter. Gabbi sniffles and looks Jade in the eyes. "Do you promise?" she whispers. Jade nods. "I promise," she says sincerely. "Pinky swear?" Gabbi asks, holding up her tiny pinkie. Jade smiles. "Pinky swear," she says, hooking her pinkie with Gabbi's. Gabbi wipes her eyes and begins talking.
"I think Kelsey is the one who burned my hand. She hit Addie in the face with her prop during rehearsal too. And Eden told us that Kelsey tripped her onstage during their duet, but she isn't allowed to tell anyone, because Kelsey threatened her. She said that Kelsey would tell lies about her if she told anyone. Then Abby said that Kelsey will beat us up if we ever tell on her. I don't want Kelsey to beat me up! I don't want her to beat anyone else up either!" Gabbi nervously tells Jade. Jade nods slowly and hugs her daughter. "Have you ever heard or seen Kelsey do those things?" she asks. Gabbi nods. "I saw her hit Addie, and it looked like she did it on purpose. And I've heard her threaten people before," she answers. She glances around to make sure that she and Jade are still alone. She leans closer to Jade. "When Ms. Jules told me about my solo for this competition, Kelsey came up to me after class when I was changing. She told me that she'd get back at me for stealing her solo," she whispers into her mother's ear. Jade's mouth drops open.
"I'm telling that girl's mother right now!" she exclaims. She takes Gabbi off of her lap and starts power walking back to their hotel rooms. Gabbi grabs onto her mother's hand. She tries to stop Jade, pulling her mother's arm towards her. "No! Mommy! Please don't tell anyone! Kelsey is gonna hurt me, and everyone will think I'm a tattletale!" she desperately pleads.
Jade stops. She knows what it's like to be called names. When she was pregnant with Nolan and Dylan, she endured endless months of slut shaming and name calling. She stops walking and looks her daughter in the eyes.
Jade signs. "Fine. I won't say anything yet, but if that girl does or says anything bad to you or any other child, I'm going to speak up. Deal?" she says. Gabbi nods. "Deal!"
The two return back to their hotel room.
Jade quietly opens the door. She and Gabbi are surprised to see everyone awake again. Addie is crying, and the front of her pajamas are soaking wet. Kelsey is laughing and pointing at her.
"Ha ha! You peed your pants!" Kelsey chants loudly. "No, I didn't!" Addie exclaims. Kelsey smirks. "Then how come your pants are wet!?" she questions. Her laughter ceases, and she gives Addie a threatening look. She points to the girls and punches her palm as a warning. Addie and the other girls tense up with fear. Cat takes Addie into the bathroom to get changed.
The other girls are really frightened by Kelsey's warning, and they quickly retreat back to their fort. Gabbi runs to her friends and hugs them. "What happened?" she asks. Mackenzie explains the situation and fills Gabbi in. Addie returns to the fort, wearing a new set of pajamas. "I didn't pee in my pants! I promise!" she says. Gabbi hugs her. "We know. If you really did pee, it would be smelly," Abby says.
The girls huddle together, staying as close together as possible. They all hold onto each other, trying to forget about Kelsey.
The rest of the night goes by without any major disruptions, but none of the girls except Kelsey were well rested. Many hours pass before the girls fall asleep.
Tori, Cat, Jade, and Trina walked over to the fort to wake their kids up. They saw that each of the girls was holding at least one other person's hand and they were curled up and huddled together. "Good morning, girls," Cat says cheerfully. The girls all jolt awake, and they look around for Kelsey, but they relax when they realize that it's just their mothers.
Each girl comes out of the fort. When everyone is out of the fort, the girls quickly pair up. Abby and Brooke are a pair, Gabbi and Addie are a pair, and Eden and Mackenzie are a pair. The girls stick by each other's sides.
While they were awake the night before, the girls came up with plans on how to deal with Kelsey. They decided to go with Abby's plan of using the Buddy System.
Trina orders room service for breakfast. The room service waiter puts the table between the two beds in the room. Kelsey sits on the bed she slept in, all by herself. The other girls stay together on the bed that their mothers slept in.
The girls pick at their food and barely eat anything. They're too busy watching Kelsey and making sure she isn't going to do anything to have much of an appetite.
After breakfast, Kelsey's mother picks her up and takes her back to their room.
"Good riddance!" Gabbi whispers as she shuts the door behind Kelsey. Her friends look at her with puzzled expressions. "Good riddance?" Brooke questions. "What's that supposed to mean!?" Addie asks. Gabbi shrugs. "Well, good means something that's not bad. And riddance is probably like getting rid of something. I don't know. I was watching a movie, and these two people had a fight. Then, when one of the people left the room, the other yelled 'Good riddance' at them. I thought it sounded cool," she explains.
Since Kelsey is gone, the girl's appetites return. They sit together and munch on the remainder of their breakfasts.
Once the girls finish eating, Mackenzie and Eden get worried. "Oh no! Eden and me have to go back to our hotel room. Kelsey's in there!" Mackenzie panics. Brooke hugs her friend. "Don't worry! You guys can borrow some of my dance wear!" Abby offers. "And mine!" Addie says. "Me too!" Brooke says. "Me three!" Gabbi says. Since all the girls are roughly the same size, they share dance wear all the time.
Abby, Addie, Brooke, and Gabbi take their dance wear out of their bags and pile it onto one of the beds.
"I have an idea!" Gabbi announces. "What?" Brooke asks. "Let's pick out dance wear for each other!" Gabbi says. The girls nod and agree to the idea. "Okay...Kenzie and Eden will choose for each other, Brooke and Abby will choose for each other, And me and Addie will choose for each other. How's that sound?" Gabbi says. The girls begin picking out dance wear for each other. When everyone finishes picking out dance wear, they present their outfits.
For Mackenzie, Eden chooses a leopard print bra top and matching shorts.
For Eden, Mackenzie chooses a bra top with a flowery pattern and a pair of white dance shorts.
For Brooke, Abby chooses a white bra top with butterflies on it and hot pink trim around it. She chooses a pair of pink dance shorts too.
For Abby, Brooke chooses the same butterfly top, but instead of pink trim, her top has green trim. She also chooses a green pair of shorts to go along with the top.
For Gabbi, Addie chooses a purple bra top with pink braided straps and a pair of and black shorts with a pink and purple waistband.
For Addie, Gabbi chooses a blue and white tie dyed sports bra and white shorts.
The girls get dressed, then they go to the bathroom to do their hair and brush their teeth.
"Come on, Eden and Mackenzie! We have to go back to our room and get dressed," Trina says, once she finishes talking with Cat, Tori, and Jade. The girls come out of the bathroom, dressed and ready for dance. "You're already dressed!" Tori exclaims. The girls smile and explain how they're sharing their dance wear. "Well, we still need to get your shoes from our room," Trina says. The girls frown. "Darn! I forgot about our dance shoes!" Eden mutters under her breath.
The moms get ready, while the girls go get Eden and Mackenzie's shoes. Tori had given them her room key, so they can stop by the room and pick them up. Eden slides the key into the door, then pulls it out. A green light flashes, and the girls hear the door unlock. The girls help Eden open the heavy door. Eden sprints into the room and grabs the dance shoes, without being noticed by Kelsey or her mother. She hands Mackenzie her shoes, and the girls go back to their parents.
As the girls and their mothers head down to the ballroom to practice their routines, they run into someone they know.
"Callie!" the girls exclaim, running towards a girl and her mother.
The girl looks up and smiles. She runs towards the girls. "Guys!" she exclaims happily. The girls hug each other.
Callie, who is 5 ½ -years-old, used to dance and compete at with the girls, but she switched studios several months ago. The girls had lost contact and haven't seen Callie in months. "I've missed you guys so much!" Callie exclaims. She and the girls excitedly chatter for a bit, while their mothers exchange contact information. After they finish exchanging info, the girls say goodbye and continue on their ways.
The girls meet Ms. Jules in the ballroom to practice their dances. "Ms. Jules! You'll never guess who we saw!" Abby exclaims. Ms. Jules chuckles. "Who did you see?" she asks. "Callie!" the girls answer at the same time. Ms. Jules thinks about her former student and smiles fondly. She always liked Callie, and she was very sad to see her leave the studio. "How's she doing?" she asks.
"Good!" Eden replies.
"She and her studio are gonna compete against us in the competition tomorrow!" Mackenzie says excitedly.
"I hope she does well!" Gabbi says.
"Yeah! She's a really good dancer!" Abby chimes in.
Ms. Jules smiles again. "Well, you girls are good dancers too!" she says.
Kelsey scoffs and flips her straw-colored blonde hair. "You guys are so stupid!" she exclaims.
The girls and Ms. Jules turn around and face Kelsey. "You dumb-dumbs aren't supposed to root for the enemies! You're supposed to crush your enemies! And besides, Callie is a terrible dancer!" Kelsey says snidely. She flips her hair back again.
Ms. Jules looks at Kelsey sternly. "Kelsey, you're breaking two of my most important rules. One, your hair isn't up. It needs to be up in a ponytail or bun. And two, you're putting other dancers down. Whether a dancer comes from our studio or not, you are to never say anything mean about them. Not even behind their back," she says strictly.
Kelsey rolls her eyes. "Whatever," she mutters. She walks to the middle of the room and starts stretching. "Ahem!" Ms. Jules clears her throat loudly. Kelsey turns her head towards her dance teacher. "What!?" she snaps. "Your hair is still down. Please put it up, before you start dancing," Ms. Jules says. Frustrated, Kelsey throws her hands in the air. "I'm not even dancing! I'm warming up!" she snaps.
Ms. Jules puts her hands on her hips. "Kelsey…" she says sternly. Kelsey gets up and stomps over to Ms. Jules and the girls. Before Ms. Jules can say anything, someone peeks their head through the door and asks to speak with her. "I'll be right back, girls. Stay here and begin warming up. Kelsey, your hair needs to be up by the time I come back," she says, leaving the room.
"Which one of you numb-nuts has a hair tie?" Kelsey asks. Usually, the girls have a few hair ties on their wrists or in their dance bags, but today they left their bags in their hotel rooms. Kelsey points to Gabbi, who has her hair up in two French braided pigtails. "Hey, you! Barbecue Hand! Give me one of your hair ties!" she barks. Gabbi looks at her hand. It's still a little bit red from last night, but nothing else about it looks deformed. Kelsey picks on Gabbi the most, because she thinks that Gabbi "stole" her solo. Ms. Jules had them compete for the Castle on a Cloud solo. Since Gabbi got the solo instead of her, Kelsey makes sure to be extra cruel to her. "I don't have an extra rubber band," Gabbi says. Kelsey rolls her eyes. "Yes, you do, Stupid!" she says, gesturing to Gabbi's pigtails. Gabbi feels her pigtails. "I'm using these," she tells her teammate. Kelsey makes her way towards Gabbi. "You aren't anymore!" she says. She grab's Gabbi's pigtails and slides the hair ties off. The other girls gasp and try to help, but Kelsey shoves them out of her way. Kelsey puts one around her wrist and uses the other one to pull her hair into a low ponytail.
"You crybabies better not tell Ms. Jules or your mommies! If you do, I'll beat you up and push you off the stage during the competition!" Kelsey menacingly threatens. Ms. Jules comes back into the room, before any of the girls can say anything.
"Excellent! Your hair is up now, Kelsey!" Ms. Jules says, before noticing that Gabbi's braids are coming undone. She raises an eyebrow and looks at Gabbi. "Gabrielle, why is your hair down now?" she questions. Kelsey, who is standing behind Ms. Jules, grins and mimes that she's pushing someone off a stage. Gabbi quickly looks away from Kelsey and looks down at her feet.
Ms. Jules taps her foot impatiently. "I…umm…let Kelsey…umm…borrow my…umm… hair ties," Gabbi says quietly. "Why did you give her both?" Ms. Jules asks. Gabbi timidly shrugs. "Umm…I don't know," she says in an even quieter voice. Kelsey jumps in front of Gabbi, pushing her aside. "She's so silly! I just needed one hair tie, but she gave me both of her hair ties! She's so nice! I guess she'll do anything for her best friend!" she says in an extremely sweet, but extremely fake voice. She turns towards Gabbi and hands her a hair tie. "Here, bestie!" she says. She wraps her arms around Gabbi's tiny body and squeezes her tightly. "We're best friends now, and best friends don't tell on each other!" she whispers threateningly into Gabbi's ear. Gabbi quickly nods, as she struggles to breathe. Kelsey lets go of her, and she gasps for air, coughing.
Gabbi quickly ties her hair up into a messy bun. She and the other girls begin to stretch. She keeps an eye on Kelsey and tries to get as far away from the girl as possible. Kelsey makes it impossible, because she follows Gabbi everywhere.
After warming up, the girls practice the group dance. They practice the group dance twice, then work on their solos. Once the girls run their routines a few times, Ms. Jules dismisses them.
Tori, Cat, Jade, and Trina pick their daughters up and take them to lunch. They dine at one of the hotel's restaurants. After lunch, the girls go back to Cat and Jade's room to rest. There is no way Eden and Mackenzie are staying in a room with Kelsey for an extended period of time. The girls nap on the beds. Gabbi, Abby, and Brooke sleep on one bed, while Eden, Mackenzie, and Addie sleep on the other.
Once the girls are asleep, the mothers quietly discuss their thoughts about Kelsey.
"There's something wonky about that kid," Trina says. They discuss the hot water incident and the alleged bed wetting incident. "Why would she put Gabbi's hand in hot water?" Cat asks. The mothers think. Then Jade figures out what Kelsey's motive was. "The warm water prank!" she announces. The other moms look at her. "What?" Tori asks. "There's this really mean prank where you put someone's hand in warm water while they're asleep, and it's supposed to make them pee," Jade explains. Tori furrows her eyebrows. "Wait...how do you know about the prank," she asks suspiciously. Cat gasps. "Did you ever play the warm water prank on someone!?" she questions. Jade smirks and shrugs. "Maybe," she says nonchalantly.
At around 3:30 pm, the girls wake up from their naps. They still have a few hours to relax until they're supposed to rehearse their dances again.
The girls check their Slap pages. Gabbi and Addie have been tagged in videos on Kelsey's Slap page. "Guys! Look! Kelsey tagged me in a video," Gabbi exclaims worriedly. "Me too!" Addie say. Brooke looks at her notifications. "She tagged me in a photo," she says. She holds up her phone and shows her friends. "You look really scared in that picture," Eden comments. Brooke tells her friends about how Kelsey forced her to be in the picture.
Gabbi plays the video Kelsey tagged her in. She and her friend watch it intently.
In the video that Gabbi is tagged in, Kelsey holds a steaming cup of water in front of the camera, fogging up the lens. She quickly wipes the lens of and starts speaking. "I'm gonna make Gabbi Oliver-West pee her pants. I read online that if you put someone's hand in warm water when they're sleeping, it makes them pee," she tells the camera. Even though it was dark when Kelsey was filming, the girls could see everything clearly, because she used a night vision filter. She submerges Gabbi's hand into the hit water and hides.
"I knew it was her!" Gabbi exclaims. "Addie, play your video now," Eden says. Addie presses play and sets her phone down so everyone can see.
In the video, Kelsey is holding a cup of water. "I'm gonna make everybody think that Addison Valentine-Shapiro peed in her pants," she says, snickering. She dumps the water on Addie, then hides. Once again, she uses a night vision filter so everything is visible.
"Maybe we should show these videos to our moms…" Eden suggests.
The other girls look at her. "NO!" they all shout.
"If she knows that we showed these to our moms, she'll delete them. Then she'll beat us up and push us off the stage at the competition," Abby says worriedly.
"Maybe we can show them after the competition…that way she'll only be able to beat us up. Ya know? Since we won't be on a stage if she finds out…" Gabbi suggests.
The girls discuss what to do, while their moms discuss Kelsey until it's time to go back to the ballroom and practice.
Gabbi grabs an entire pack of hair ties before heading out the door. Jade notices this and stops her. "Whoa, kiddo! You don't need that many hair ties. Just take one or two," she says to Gabbi. Gabbi shakes her head. "Yes, I do! I need all off them! Every single one of them!" she says. Not wanting to argue, Jade sighs and lets Gabbi take the pack of hair ties with her.