The Competition: Terror and Tutus
All hell breaks loose after Nancy tells Gabbi a secret about her parents.
After all the other group dances are performed, all of the competitors go back onto the stage for the awards ceremony. The announcer starts with the solo awards. There are several older dancers holding prizes.
"First up, we have the solo division. In the 5-7 lyrical age group, fifth place goes to Miss Kelsey with her solo, Thunder!"
Shocked that she isn't in first place, Kelsey gasps loudly. She angrily stomps to the front of the stage to collect her trophy and pouts. The announcer announces who got fourth place. Next, he announces that Abby's solo, Dreamer came in third place. He then announces that Callie's routine, I Dreamed a Dream came in second place. Finally, he announces the first place winner.
"And in first place, we have…Miss Gabbi with her solo, Castle on a Cloud!"
Gabbi's teammates cheer for her as she walks to the front of the stage to accept her trophy and crown. The announcer than finishes announcing the awards for the other categories in the 5-7 age group.
Eden receives first place for her contemporary solo.
Mackenzie receives second place for her hip hop solo.
Addie receives fourth place for her jazz routine.
Brooke receives first place for her tap number.
The announcer finishes announcing the awards for the other age divisions, before announcing the overall winner of each age group. In the overall 5-7 age division, Callie gets first place, Gabbi gets second place, and Eden places third.
After announcing all of the solo awards, the announcer lists all of the duet and trio awards. Finally, he lists the group awards.
The kids' group dance, Lollipop, receives first place. The girls excitedly accept their big trophy.
When the award ceremony is over, the girls return to the dressing room. They burst through the door cheering. Kelsey is the only one that's unhappy. Ms. Jules hugs her students and congratulates them on their awards. Kelsey smashes her fifth place trophy on the ground, breaking it into several pieces. She grumbles about how she should have won the whole competition. Ms. Jules gives her a lecture on being happy with whatever placement she gets.
As the parents and kids pack up, Jade notices something strange about her daughters' dance shoes. She raises an eyebrow. She smells butter. She looks at the bottom of one of Brooke's shoes and sees the greasy residue of the cooking oil and butter. She looks at the rest of her kids' shoes and sees greasy residue. She shows it to Beck. They both think that it's strange, so they ask Cat if her kids' shoes have the same residue on the bottoms. Cat sees the residue and alerts Tori and Trina, who also find the residue on their children's shoes.
Jade shows the shoes to Ms. Jules. Ms. Jules gets the attention of everyone and looks at every one's dance shoes. She notices that Kelsey's shoes have a significantly smaller amount of residue on them. She takes Kelsey into the hallway to have a little "chat."
As Beck and Jade clean the residue off of the bottom of their daughters' shoes, Nancy approaches them.
"You know, Beck, when you tired of your slutbag of a wife, you should call me sometime," Nancy tells Beck. Beck looks at the huge woman. "Excuse me? I love Jade! She is not a slut, and I'd appreciate it if you would not use that kind of language when my children are in the room," he says defensively. Nancy rolls her eyes. "Oh please! Two teenage pregnancies and one 'surprise' twin!? Your little skank is the walking definition of slut!" she retorts. Beck stands up. "You have no right to talk about my wife this way! You know nothing about me, my wife, or our family. Now, please! Leave us alone!" he says in a hushed but angry voice. He glances at his daughters, who are running around on the other side of the dressing room with their friends.
"Fine!" Nancy says. She walks away and goes toward Gabbi. Beck and Jade follow her, worried that she'll hurt one of the kids. Nancy approaches Gabbi. She corners and halts the small child, who is running away from Brooke, who happens to be "It" in the kids' game of "Tag." Gabbi tries to step around Nancy, but Nancy blocks her way. "Excuse me, Mrs. Kelsey's mom. Can you please let me run? I don't want to be 'It,'" Gabbi says politely. Nancy smirks. "Actually I have something to tell you," she says. Gabbi glances at the other kids running around and tries to move around Nancy again. Unfortunately Nancy blocks her path again. "Come with me," Nancy says. Before Gabbi can object, Nancy grabs her arm and drags her to the other side of the room, away from her friends.
Beck and Jade see Nancy holding onto their child, and run over to her. "Hey! Let go of my daughter!" Jade orders. Gabbi struggles to release her arm from Nancy's strong grip. "Did you know that your mommy—" Nancy begins before getting cut off by Jade yelling the word "stop."
Nancy ignores Jade and looks at the helpless child in her grip. "Your mommy and daddy didn't even know about you until you were born. They only wanted to have your sister, but then you came along and screwed that up. You're a mistake. They only kept you because they didn't want their reputations to be ruined. They don't love you. They only kept you because they had to!" she tells Gabbi. Gabbi looks at the huge skyscraper of a woman in horror. She looks at Jade, who is nearly crying. Then, she looks at Beck, who has an angry facial expression. Nancy releases her and says, "That's all I have to say. Now run along, mistake baby!"
Gabbi does exactly what Nancy says to do, but instead of running back to her friends, she runs right out the door. Jade follows her daughter out the door.
"You had no right to tell my child that! What kind of sick person says that to a kid!?" Beck exclaims furiously. Nancy scoffs and rolls her eyes. "Oh boohoo! She was gonna find out eventually! At least I knew about my daughter prior to her arrival, like a good parent." She says. Beck tries to let his anger simmer down before replying. He clenches his teeth, trying to hold back the rage that he's feeling towards the woman. "The circumstances surrounding her birth do not change my feelings towards my daughter at all. Even though she came as a surprise, I couldn't imagine life without her!" Beck says. Nancy just smirks. "Don't you have to go screw you wife and make more mistake babies or whatever?" she taunts. Beck takes a deep breath and simply walks away. He is not going to argue with Nancy anymore because he knows he won't be able to keep his temper in check if he spends another second near her. He focuses his attention on Brooke and helping her pack up her belongings.
Gabbi hears Jade's footsteps behind her. She runs into the nearest women's bathroom and locks herself in a stall. The last thing Jade sees before losing sight of her daughter is the bathroom door opening and closing. She takes a moment to catch her breath, before walking into the bathroom. The bathroom is silent, except for the quiet sound of Gabbi crying. No one else is in the bathroom, and all of the stall doors are open, except for the handicap stall.
Jade sighs. "Gabbi…" she says softly. "Don't talk to me! I'm not here!" Gabbi replies. Jade walks to the handicap stall's door. She tries to push the door open, realizes that Gabbi had locked it.
"Gabbi, I know it's you."
"No, it's not!"
"Honey, I know that you're in there."
"No, you don't!"
"Don't make me crawl under the stall!"
"You wouldn't do that."
"Yes, I would."
"Why are you even here? I'm a mistake, and I ruined you and daddy's lifes!"
"Gabrielle Elizabeth Oliver-West, don't you dare say that about yourself ever again!"
"But it's true! Kelsey's mom said so!"
"She was lying!"
"You said grown-ups never lie!"
"Well, I was wrong. Please open the door."
"Fine."
Gabbi unlocks the bathroom stall and looks at her mother with tears streaming down her face. Jade's heart shatters when she sees her daughter's crestfallen face. The sparkle in her daughter's eyes and her exuberant energy seem to have faded. "Gabbi, Kelsey's mother is wrong. Your father and I love you so much. I don't know what I'd do without you. Yes, it is true that you came as a surprise, but that doesn't change how much I love you. I'm so sorry," Jade says, on the verge of tears. Gabbi steps closer to Jade, then she runs up to her mother, wrapping her tiny, twig-like arms around her mother's neck in a firm hug.
Jade embraces her sobbing daughter. She gently lifts Gabbi into her arms and leaves the bathroom stall. Gabbi buries her face into her mother's shoulder. The soft black fabric of Jade's top against her face and the pleasant smell of laundry detergent are soothing to Gabbi. Jade soothingly rocks the tiny girl on her hip, not caring that Gabbi's makeup is getting all over her favorite shirt. She rests her head against Gabbi's.
"Mommy, why would Kelsey's mother say that to me?" Gabbi asks Jade. She lifts her head and looks her mother in the eyes. Jade looks into her daughter's clear blue eyes, which are identical to her own. She sighs sadly. "Because she is not a very nice woman, and she wanted to put you down," she tells her daughter. Gabbi looks at Jade thoughtfully. "We have to go back to the dressing room. We can't let this horrible lady get the best of us!" she announces. Jade smiles, glad that her daughter is back to her normal, happy self again. She is extremely proud that Gabbi isn't letting someone as cruel as Nancy get her down for long.
When Jade and Gabbi re-enter the dressing room, they are greeted with chaos. Robbie, Trina, and André are struggling to contain Nancy. She has Beck backed into a corner. Her massive hands grip the front of Beck's shirt as she screams numerous expletives in his face. Crimson blood is dripping from Beck's nose. A petrified Brooke is struggling underneath Kelsey, who just tackled her. Kelsey is yanking on Brooke's hair with one hand and beating the poor girl up with the other. Cat is trying to distract and mollify the terrorized children, while Tori attempts to pull Kelsey off of Brooke, dodging the girl's swinging fist. Ms. Jules is trying to shoo the camera crew out of the room as she calls the police.
Gabbi jumps out of her mother's arms and runs over to her sister. As Gabbi comes over, Tori is finally able to detach Kelsey from Brooke. Kelsey kicks and flails in Tori's arms. Jade rushes over to her daughter. She scoops Brooke into her arms and takes her away from everyone.
Jade looks at her bruised and bloodied child. Brooke is trembling because she is so terrified. "Mommy, I didn't do it!" she exclaims fearfully. She keeps repeating the same statement to Jade. Jade just holds her frightened daughter tightly.
"MOMMY!" Kelsey screams. Nancy takes her focus off of Beck and looks over at her daughter. She finally leaves Beck alone, and she stomps over to Tori. "Unhand my daughter, bitch!" she barks at Tori. She brings her palm across Tori's face. Tori lets go of Kelsey and put her hand to her cheek, which now had a large red handprint on it. Before she can say anything, three police officers burst through the door. Two officers escort Kelsey and Nancy to the police station. One officer stays behind to take everyone's statements. Jade tends to her husband and daughter's wounds, while the officer interviews the group.
The kids are too stunned to talk to the police officer, so the adults fill her in on the situation. Cat holds onto a shaking Addie, and Robbie has an equally terror-stricken Abby in his arms. Eden clings onto André as she stares straight ahead, frozen in fear. Mackenzie's face is buried in her mother's shoulder as Trina holds her.
"I was helping my daughter, Brooke, pack up her belongings after I had just walked away from Nancy. She was saying rude things about my family, and she had just told my other daughter, Gabbi, that she was a mistake. I was too angry to deal with her in a calm, polite manner, so I turned my attention to my child. As I was zipping up my daughter's dance bag, that woman came up to me and informed me that my daughters were bullying her kid. When I denied it, she yanked me up by the front of my shirt. She backed me into a corner and punched me in the face. Several people were trying to restrain her, while I tried to get to my child, who was being attacked by Nancy's daughter, Kelsey. When Tori finally pulled Kelsey off of Brooke, Nancy slapped her," Beck tells the officer as Jade dabs the blood on his face with a tissue. He holds a still-trembling Brooke on his lap. The officer scribbles some notes down on her small notepad. She finishes interviewing everyone, then takes everyone back to the Venetian Hotel.
The next morning Brooke wakes up with a swollen lip and black eye. She is the last one to wake up. She hears the adults and kids talking, so she joins them. The adults are discussing yesterday's incident with their children. Everyone's nerves have calmed a significant amount since the day before, but all of them were still on edge.
Once they wrap up their discussion, the adults take the kids out to breakfast to celebrate their wins at the competition yesterday. After breakfast, everyone explores Las Vegas for a few hours, grateful that Nancy is currently being held in jail with a high bail.
Hey, everyone! I am super sorry for not updating sooner! I got so busy with school that I completely forgot about this. I lost my writing mojo, but it's back, baby! I've been doing a lot of writing, and I hope to post some new fanfics and updates for my current ones. I've also been proofreading my other fanfic, This Little Girl. I wrote most of it at like 1 am, while I was extremely tired and sleep deprived, so there were a ton of errors that I didn't catch before posting it. Hopefully, I've got them all fixed. Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review! :)