"Okay girls, let's do this!"
Princess nervously tried to hurry up her amp adjustments after the major announcements had been dropped and pizza devoured. Work was work, afterall, and they'd been called in for a reason.
And eating pizza while cleaning was just an incentive now that they had Branson set in stone.
However, Princess was feeling sick to her stomach, even as a life-long performer.
She started to panic as her brain stopped registering the numbers and words on the pawn shop mini Honey Tone amp.
"Princess, we need to get started, we can't have this." Henry repeated, Charlie giggling in his arms. Regina was in the back with String Bean and Thorne, preparing balloons and adjusting to her new costume, a pair of criminally small jean shorts and a striped shirt.
"It's okay sir, she just needs some time t'get readjusted. Y'all kinda dropped a bombshell on us." Dollface assured him. Princess was relieved at Dollface speaking up for her. She continued to fumble with the amp. She knew how to play and sounded well enough, but the set-up was always a nightmare.
"Princess, we only have a few more weeks of rehearsals, we need you to start hurrying." Henry said. Princess wanted to melt into her purple wedges and hide in her neon orange heart-breaker sweater, still fumbling with the resonance dial. The numbers didn't even look like squiggles now.
Ugh!
Why couldn't her brain just…
WORK?!
"Princess, if you don't start now, I'm sorry, there will be repercussions."
"Shut up!" Princess snapped loudly, pushing her pink glasses up her nose. "I am tryin' m'best here!"
Henry gave her the 'Dad LookTM' and she glared back at him as he said, "You've been doing this all summer Princess, how can you not know this?"
She grovelled and looked at the other girls on stage, Dollface in her new white boots and Izzy in her orange pumps and said, "I was pullin' out my hair the day I got the deal."
Henry watched her jump from the stage and onto the tile floor of the rehearsal room, wedges clacking loudly in front of him.
"Chemically calm." Placing her pawn shop y-shaped guitar onto the stage behind her, "Was I meant to feel happy that my life was just about to change?"
Henry tried to grab the ballerina princess turned bunny girl in her crown, but she managed to sli[p away from him, "One life pretending to be the cat who got the cream…"
Princess smacked the side of her head, wanting so badly for her anxieties to be heard, so tired of being told to act like an adult, or the dance competition podium placer, "Oh, everybody said "Princess is a dream", people like to tell you what you're gonna be…"
"Princess, get back on stage. If you want to quit or have a vacation, that's fine, but don't let everyone down" Henry said as she let go of his collar. Charlie giggled, seeing the weird girl with pink glasses who sometimes watched her at a family daycare turning choke on the words she wanted to say.
Charlotte yelped excitedly, reaching for Princess.
Princess ignored Charlotte's yells, signing on while managing graceful ballet sequence, "It's not my problem if you don't see what I see, and I do not give a damn if you don't believe"
She just wanted to scream everything at Henry. No one could understand how hard the winter was, the constant performance, the recordings, the competitions in school auditoriums…
Maybe Wolfie and Dollface might, through the school's small music program, but they only had two piddly little judged contests every year, not the dozens and dozens of reviewed performances on stage every winter.
Princess wanted to win, and always had a top five position, but sometimes, especially now, it was just too much!
"My problem, yes my problem is I feel the need t'hide!" She complained, pacing in loose, boot cut jeans with a huff, adding, "It's my problem, it's my problem that I never am happy!"
Henry was gaping now, not even angry. Henry wasn't really an angry man anyway, more just oblivious and stubborn. Princess leaped and pilé'd into another bemoaning, "It's my problem, it's my problem with how fast I must succeed!"
She loved dance and performance, it's how she interacted with the world and how she met people. She was good at it too, even for a chunky, uncoordinated runt like her, but she loved it.
It was what Princess wanted to do.
But the pressure….
Now with Branson and paid performances instead of competitions or silly little local promotions…
"Are you satisfied? With an average life?" She got en pointe and tried to see eye-to-eye with Henry, noses close enough to touch, "Do I need to-"
"Yo Princess, ya good?" Dollface nudged her.
"What?" Princess asked meekly, staring at the toes of her ankle booties. She'd spaced out again.
"You've been standin' here for a few minutes, need any help?"
"No, no, I am fine. It is fine." Princess assured herself. Just get through the next few rehearsals and don't get too worried. You got this, right?