The remaining days of November passed, in which Troy Jr. and Brie turned twelve, and a few days in December had gone by. The first two Nutcracker performances were over with, but the biggest one still remained. The one that would determine whether or not Brie would get a chance to have ballet training in New York.
"I'm so nervous," Brie told Abbie in the gym, where all the ballet performers was waiting to go on stage, as she pulled her white tulle tutu over her leotard. To avoid having to completely change outfits between dances, the ballet students all had to come wearing a solid colored leotard so they could just slip their tutus, skirts, or pants on and off.
"Me, too," Abbie agreed. "I just keep telling myself, 'Do not mess up, do not mess up.'"
"Same with me." Brie grabbed her lipstick, blush, mascara and eye shadow then announced, "I gotta go in the bathroom and put on my make-up before Dolls and Soldiers starts. I'll be back here in a minute."
"Okay."
"Alright," Miss Emmy called out. "All girls in Dolls and Soldiers, please go backstage now. The routine before yours just started."
"See you, Abbie." As she spoke, Brie began walking out of the gym. As much as she would like for it to be so, Abbie wasn't in that particular dance with her. However, she was in Tea.
"Bye, Brie. Good luck!" Abbie acknowledged.
Brie hurried through the hallways until she reached the door labeled 'backstage.' Rushing into it, she took a few deep breaths. Just dance, she told herself. Treat this like any other performance. It's not any different. Just dance. Just do-oh, I hear my cue to go on! Brie tiptoed out onto stage and struggled with the temptation to look at the audience to see how closely the New York City ballet members were watching her.
"Brie's doing really good," Gabriella whispered to Troy. They were both sitting in the audience with Troy Jr., Julliette, and Samantha.
"She must be following our advice," Troy returned, also in a whisper.
Gabriella smiled as she thought of what she and her husband had shared with their daughter the previous day.
Flashback
"Mom, Dad, I'm so scared. I really want to make it in the ballet training program," Brie spoke. "I don't know why I'm scared, though. I was never nervous about a performance before. Ever.
"You know," Gabriella began. "Your father felt the same way about dancing with me at our senior prom. He thought he would mess up, he thought he would have no idea how to dance....right Wildcat?"
Troy nodded. "Yeah, but then your mother sang a song while she was working on teaching me how to waltz so I could do it with her at prom. And in that song, she sang, 'Let the music be your guide.'"
Brie looked confused.
"That means, don't be scared. Relax. Just listen to the music and dance," Gabriella explained.
"And I found out from playing basketball over the years that you shouldn't concentrate too hard," Troy added. "Just do it. I know it seems weird, but it works. I was always under pressure because your grandfather was my coach in high school and he basically forced me to be the best player on the team. For my freshman and sophomore years, I was always trying to think too hard. Then, I would mess up. But I decided in junior year to just try to relax, play, have fun. And that year my team ended up winning the high school championship game."
"Really?" Brie questioned, surprised.
"Believe him, Brie," Gabriella said. "Because I was on the Decathlon team in high school. And I found that it I just did what I had to without overly paying attention to what I was doing, I did better than when I got myself all worked up by pressuring my mind with thoughts that I needed to win."
"I believe you," Brie decided after a moment.
"Some things come naturally to certain people," Gabriella continued. "I've seen you dance. Ballet is obviously your talent. Just go on stage and have fun."
Flashback over
Troy put one of his arms around Gabriella and allowed her to rest his head against his shoulder.
"I think she has a good chance of getting to go to New York," Gabriella observed.
Troy nodded in agreement.
"I don't think I did bad," Brie told Abbie when she arrived back in the gym after her dance was over. "Hopefully I did good enough to get into the New York program, though."
"I'm sure you did," Abbie said, smiling.
"I don't know about that. I mean, there are girls en pointe who are in this show, too. And they're obviously more advanced than me. So I don't think I have that good of a chance of getting in."
"But they can't just pick girls who are en pointe. That would be unfair," Abbie pointed out. "They need to give everyone a fair chance."
"Well that's what they should do, but what people should do isn't always what they do."
"Yeah, well hopefully they do what they should do, then."
"Brie, you're doing great so far!" Gabriella exclaimed, hugging her oldest daughter. It was intermission, and parents, siblings, and friends were allowed to enter the gym to talk with the dancers they knew.
"Thanks, Mom," Brie smiled, giving her mother a hug in return. "I just hope I'm doing good enough to get into the New York program. Because right now, that's my biggest dream."
Gabriella couldn't help but let out a sad sigh. Yes, she would be thrilled for her daughter of she got to dance under the instruction of professional ballerinas, but she wasn't looking forward to being apart from her all summer. She would be missing from the annual Independence Day celebration Sharpay always threw for her friends and family and she wouldn't be going on the Bolton's family vacation. Gabriella knew she was just being selfish about wanting Brie to stay in Albuquerque, and she was trying to push the feeling put of her head. A couple of nights ago, Troy had actually discussed the topic with her and made her feel slightly better about what was going on. After all, the world doesn't consult Gabriella Bolton every time it wants to do something.
Flashback
"Gabby," Troy began. "I know that deep down inside, part of you doesn't want Brie to get to train for ballet in New York. Now I feel that I need to talk about that with you. Now I want you to be brave about it, and not get all upset. You're a strong person; I believe that you can handle anything."
"Wildcat, I don't know why I feel like this," Gabriella sighed.
"You're sweet. You get attached to people you love and then you don't wanna let them go. But things change as time goes on. You can't stop the years from passing. Our kids are gonna get older and more independent. They are gonna need to follow their dreams, just like we followed ours. I know you don't like things to change like this, and to tell you the truth, I don't care for it, either. But it's life." As he spoke, Troy wrapped his arms around Gabriella.
"I know. But I just can't seem to get used to the fact that we have twelve-year-old kids already. I mean in six years they're gonna be adults, and very soon Brie's probably going to start getting interested in boys. Unfortunately, Troy already wants a girlfriend and he has girls all over him at school. I don't really care for that."
"Yeah. But they're both too young for dating now. They're not even teenagers yet."
"Though what happened on Halloween.....that proved that they can sneak around and trick us. I'm getting scared."
"Of what?"
"Everyone I love leaving me."
"Baby girl, I'll still be here for you. No matter what. I will."
"But time's passing. We're in our thirties. In a few decades, you might die. And when that happens, I won't have anything. Brie will be in a professional ballet company, Troy will be in the NBA, Julliette will probably be busy with her own family, Sam will be distracted with her scientist work, my mom will most likely not be alive, I don't have any siblings, my friends might be dead, too. Because with any luck I have, I'll be the last one out of you, me, Zeke, Sharpay, Ryan, Kelsi, Chad and Taylor to die."
"Precious Gabby, why does everything remind you of me dying?"
"I don't know. I guess I'm just afraid of being all alone."
"This is what I'm talking about. You need to be brave about the future. I hate to tell you this, but getting attached to people is your weakness. You get so attached, then you don't wanna let go. You don't wanna even try to move on. But you have to. I'm sorry to say this, honey, but you just do. Remember-it doesn't mean you have to forget the past forever, you just need to learn to concentrate on the future."
"Thanks for being honest with me. And I promise that I will try to change. I'll try to be okay with our kids getting older. I'll try to learn to live without being surrounded by my family and friends. And I think I'll be alright. But just, I won't be alright without you. There's no way."
"Don't worry about losing me for now. That's still a long way off."
Flashback over
"I hope you get in," Troy told his daughter.
"Thanks, Dad," Brie said.
Brie put a pair of silky pants and a matching wrap top with a ribbon belt over her leotard. This was her costume for Tea. Again, like with Dolls and Soldiers, she felt nervous about going on stage.
"I'm ready to go on stage....I guess," Abbie announced, walking up to Brie.
"Yeah, me, too," Brie told her friend.
"Wait!" Abbie exclaimed suddenly. "Do I look like I have enough make-up on?"
Brie nodded. "Yeah. The amount looks perfect!"
"Okay, everyone who's in Tea, please go backstage right now," Miss Emmy called.
"Let's go," Brie spoke.
The snow ended and the New York Ballet Company members walked onto stage. "Okay," one of them started. "While this show has been going on, we've been observing each dancer carefully. And we think we have our four chosen to train with us over the summer."
The other ballerina then took over with the talking. "The first girl is Jessica Lansing."
Jessica, who was backstage along with all the other students in the dance school, appeared on stage. On her face, she had an 'I knew it' look.
"And next is Lacey Summers."
A girl who had on white pointe shoes came to stand next to Jessica.
"The third girl is Gina Smithson."
Another ballerina with pointe shoes came onto the stage.
"And the fourth one is," the dancer began.
Please say my name. Please, Brie begged silently from backstage.