It was early Thursday morning and Shelby was interrupted which the sound of screaming for the 3rd night in a row. Quickly she got out of bed and walked to her to daughter's room and opened the door. As expected her daughter was thrashing about.
"Oh baby" Shelby said pulling the girl into her arm and trying to wake the girl up. It took her a while before the girl woke up.
"Momma" Rachel cried.
"Oh sweetie" Shelby said holding the girl as close to her chest as was humanly possible.
"Let's go to my room" Shelby said as she picked the petite girl up and carried her to her room.
Once in Shelby's room, Shelby was able to lay down and pulled the girl into her chest.
She mumbled reassuring words to her daughter and looked down at the girl whose bright brown eyes were now wide open.
"Momma's got you" Shelby mumbled. Rachel nodded and placed her hand on her mother's chest. Shelby pulled the girl on top of her. She knew that the girl liked this. She lay on her back with their stomach's touching and she played with her daughter's hair softly until she noticed Rachel drifting off to a calmer sleep.
Shelby moved the girl onto the duvet and turned around to hold the girl close to her.
Shelby felt like she had only just closed her eyes and then she opened them again only to notice that her alarm was going off. Shelby sighed before getting up. She quickly got up and sorted out breakfast for the little girl before heading back up the stairs to wake her.
She walked into her bedroom and felt horrible waking her daughter up. She walked over to the bed and sat down next to the girl.
"Come on baby, it's time to wake up" Shelby said as she softly shook her daughter awake.
"Momma" Rachel complained.
"Come on sweetie" Shelby said taking the cover off the girl. Rachel slowly got up. She then started getting ready for school.
Luckily, the school day went quickly for Rachel and she was quick in getting out of school. Today, she had her first rehearsal with the cast of Matilda. She was nervous but excited at the same time. She climbed into her mom's car.
"Are you ready for this?" Shelby asked and Rachel nodded. They spoke about Rachel's day and her mood had improved a lot since the morning.
They soon arrived at the theatre and got out. Rachel ran into the changing room and all of the mothers were allowed in the audience. The workshop was going to take place on the stage and consisted of about 40 children. The 4 Matilda's were all placed at the front.
They quickly got warmed up and then moved onto warming up their voices.
The director and assistants all walked around. Shelby noticed one of the assistants and hoped it wasn't how she thought it was. She had heard about him and accordingly he was horrible. One of her friends had said that he had made 3 grown men cry. Surely it wasn't him, it wouldn't be fair on the children.
They quickly learnt the words to one of the songs and started singing.
"You in the second row, second from stage left. Learn the words, it not difficult" He shouted and Shelby jumped.
"Same as third row, fourth from stage right" He shouted again. He continued to shout at the children singling them out. Shelby was nervous as to how Rachel would react if he singled her out. Some of the younger children started to get upset and some of them were starting to cry.
"Right, we are now moving onto dancing" The director shouted. Shelby was relieved. The girl had managed to get through the singing workshop without an issue and Shelby felt that the girl's dance technique was stronger than her singing.
"Actually, take a 20 minute break and then come back on stage" The director said changing her mind.
Rachel quickly jumped down and ran over to her mom to get a drink.
"I'm starving" Rachel whispered slightly embarrassed. She wasn't sure why but her mom was speaking to other mom's and it felt weird.
"No problem sweetie, it is nearly 6 o'clock of course you will be hungry" Shelby said as she went into her bag and handed the girl a sandwich.
"Look everyone else is eating too" Shelby said kissing the girl on the head.
"Are you enjoying it?" Shelby asked and Rachel shrugged.
"Is the assistant a bit scary?" Shelby whispered and Rachel nodded.
"Don't worry about it, you will get people like that in show business but you just need to keep your head held high" Shelby explained and Rachel nodded as she continued to eat her food in silence. They spoke to all of the other mothers before the girls had to go back onto the stage.
"What do you think about the assistant?" One of the mom's asked Shelby. "I heard your daughter say she was a bit scared of him"
Shelby nodded.
"I have heard of him before and I know that he has made grown men cry. I'm hoping he goes soft on the children" Shelby explained and the other mothers nodded.
They started the dance workshop and they quickly learnt the dance. They zoomed through it and it was clear that the children couldn't remember it.
"Right, I want you doing the dance in group of 4" He said.
"My four Matildas first" He shouted. Rachel nervously stepped forward. She was shaking but managed the dance. She managed the whole dance while others did not.
"That was horrific. You are meant to be the best. The best in America and look at that. It was horrific, only one of you managed to complete the whole dance and don't think you'll get off lightly, young lady because the technique was dreadful, flexed feet and all" He shouted at them all before walking over to Rachel and pointing at her.
"Right, I don't actually want to see anyone else dance. This is it over for today" He shouted and all the children looked at each other.
"Right, good job today guys. I will email you the next rehearsal dates" The director explained.
Rachel was quick to run down the stairs and flopped straight into her mother's arms.
"Hey" Shelby said before hearing her daughter cry into her.
"Rach, you did amazing. You don't need to cry sweetie, you did amazing. That guy was just looking for something to moan at" Shelby said.
"Come on, let's get home and we will take tonight" Shelby explained and Rachel nodded. They gathered everything together and were just heading out when they banged into the assistant.
"Ah, Shelby Corcoran?" The assistant asked and Shelby nodded.
"Mark Johnston" The assistant said and shook Shelby's hand.
"I didn't realize this was your daughter, one of our Matildas" Mark said and Shelby nodded.
"Well done, Rachel you did very well today" Mark said and Rachel smiled nervously.
"Thank you" She mumbled.
They spoke for a bit longer before heading home. They arrived home and Rachel quickly had a shower before getting ready for bed.
She climbed into bed because she was tired and Shelby came in to tuck her in.
"Are you feeling a bit better now?" Shelby asked and Rachel nodded.
"Mark just has a hard shell. He said you were very good though" Shelby explained and Rachel nodded.
"I feel better now because I know that he thinks I am good" Rachel explained and Shelby nodded. They spoke for a bit longer before Rachel drifted off to sleep in Shelby's arms. Shelby moved from underneath her daughter and walked down the stairs.
Hope this is okay :) please review and tell me what you think :) I'd really appreciate any ideas people have :)