She played with her dress anxiously, as she waited for the camera man to start speaking to her and her sister.
"Relax," Beth told her, reaching out to grab her hand.
Eden smiled at her little sister but stopped fidgeting.
The camera man sat down and smiled at them, "You don't need to be nervous. Let's start easy…Names and ages."
Eden smiled big at the camera, "My name is Eden and I just turned eight."
"My name is Bethel, or Beth, and I'm six!"
"And we love to dance!" Eden said.
"It's okay," Beth added laughing.
Eden shot her sister a questioning look. "You love to dance."
Bethel laughed, her light flowy laugh, "Dancing is my life!"
"Don't let Daddy hear you say that." Eden cautioned. "It's not our lives, we just like to do it a lot."
Bethel shrugged. "It feels like it's our lives."
The girls exited the room, and instantly their father put away his phone and stood up. "How'd it go girls?"
Bethel laughed, "Great! Why wouldn't it silly billy?"
David smiled down at his youngest, and most carefree child, "I don't know, maybe you sneezed and looked funny." Both girls laughed at that. David bumped his oldest with his hip, "Did you have fun?"
She smiled her slow smile up at her dad, "I was worried that they were going to ask me hard stuff, but they didn't."
"Ah, so you feel more confident about being on camera now?" He asked, holding the door open for both girls to pass through.
"Yes Sir." She said, holding his hand so they could cross to the car.
"Good. If at any point you want to stop this though, you just have to let Momma and I know, you know that right?"
"Yes Sir." She said, climbing into the backseat of his truck.
"You too Beth."
"I know Daddy, but I'm excited to dance in new cities all the time." Beth told him.
"Me too!" Eden said excitedly. "Daddy, it's going to be okay for you and Momma to take so much time off of work?"
"Well Momma isn't going to have to take too much time off of work, but when you own your own business, especially when you've owned it as long as I have, then you get to work when you want." He told them.
"I want to own my own business!" Bethel exclaimed.
"I want to dance on Broadway!" Eden said.
"I want to own BROADWAY!"
"Wow Beth, big dreams there baby." David said looking back to make sure Eden wasn't going to try and dash her baby sisters dream. He watched her roll her eyes but then just look out her own window.
"Do we start filming for real tomorrow Daddy?" Eden asked.
"Yes, tomorrow is your first full day. Which means that we are going to go to bed early tonight without complaint." He told them turning into their driveway.
"Yes Sir." Both girls chimed.
"When we go inside, I would like you both to go to the couch so we can go through the plan tomorrow." He told them.
"Yes Sir." Both girls said before jumping out of the truck and running into the house.
David slowly followed up the walk. They really had 2 very well-behaved little girls, but even they had their breaking point and they were still just that, little girls. He wasn't sure how this conversation was going to go.
When he came in both girls and his wife were already sitting in the living room. He walked over to the loveseat and kissed his wife before sitting down next to her. "Ready my love?"
She laughed, the same light laugh that Bethel had, she was totally more her mother's daughter. Eden was pure him in personality. "Born ready."
"I grabbed the dance schedule!" Eden said, waving it around.
"Thank you, Lovely." David told her warmly.
"Okay, so our routine is going to be a little different starting tomorrow…"
"WE'RE GONNA DANCE ON TV!" Bethel shouted, jumping off the couch.
"Bethel, baby, I know you're very excited, but don't interrupt Daddy, that's very rude." Their mother scolded gently.
"I'm sorry Daddy," Beth said, walking over to their father and climbing into his lap.
"I understand that you were excited Beth. Thank you for apologizing." He told her, squeezing his sensitive child tight. "So, we are going to be waking up for school at 8 from now on. Momma will have breakfast ready and you guys will eat and get ready and do a devotion with Momma and then go to school." David told them. He paused for a moment to allow for questions.
"Eight, is pretty late Daddy, will we be able to be to school on time?" Eden asked.
"It's going to have to mean that the two of you act like big girls and listen to Momma and don't play around." He told them honestly.
"I don't feel much like playing in the morning anyway, I feel cranky in the morning." Bethel said. She looked up at her dad, "Where will you be Daddy?"
"I'm going to be at work, so that I can pick you guys up from school." He told them. "Are we good there ladies?"
"Yes Sir." Eden said.
"Yes Daddy," Bethel said snuggling closer to her dad.
"Then I will be picking you up from school, and we will go straight to dance. We will be at the studio until nine, every weekday except Wednesday." He watched as his oldest daughter's body stiffened.
"Why not Wednesdays?" Eden asked.
David sighed, "because we have church Wednesdays."
"But the other girls are going to stay and dance?" Eden asked.
"Yes, the other girls will probably stay and dance." He confirmed. He watched his daughters mouth turn into a very thin line. "You know God comes first Eden, and if its going to be a fight, then we won't do this." The eight-year old's body didn't become any less rigid and David was feeling very frustrated. He opened his mouth to further scold the girl when his wife cut in.
"Come here Lovely," She said gently. Eden hesitated and Sam was ready to give his girl a dressing down, but she slowly stood up, her arms still crossed, and walked over to lean into her mother. Megan scooped her little girl into her arms and kissed the side of her head, "It's hard to be different, huh?"
"Yes Momma!" The little girl said her eyes instantly filling with tears.
"Are you worried that you won't be as good as the other girls?" She asked their perfectionist.
"Yes Ma'am." Eden said, clearly trying to keep the tears from spilling out.
"None of the other girls schools get out early on Wednesdays. They will still get there at 3:30 and you and Bethel will have been there for 2 hours already." Megan told her daughter.
"Really?" Eden asked.
"Yes, and you know we will get home from AWANA half an hour earlier than from dance, so maybe we can play a game Wednesday night too," Megan told her oldest. She could feel the little girl getting less tense in her arms.
David was always amazed how his wife could cool both his and Eden's temper. "All good?"
"Yes Daddy, I'm sorry I got so upset." Eden told him.
"I'm not angry that you got upset, but I didn't love that you didn't imedietly do what your momma asked. I don't care what you feel, you obey, and then we can talk about it, am I understood?"
"Yes Sir." Eden said, wiping away the few stray tears that had fallen.
"Thank you. So at that puts us getting home at 9:30. We will have our normal night time routines. Bethel we will start your bedtime reading at 10 and then we will start yours at 1030 Eden. Any questions?"
"Yeah…" Bethel started.
"Yes." Her mother corrected gently.
"Sorry, Yes, when do we eat dinner?" Beth asked.
"Momma will make it and bring it to the studio when she is off."
"When do we do our homework, or study for AWANA?" Eden asked.
"You will have time in between classes and rehearsals to get it done. We've asked. If it becomes a problem, we will leave earlier to get home and do it."
"It won't be a problem." Eden said quickly.
The next morning went smoothly but David was still anxious picking his girls up from school, was it even ethical for them to put the kids on TV? Both girls jumped in his truck and nervously chattered all the way to the studio, and they pulled up with 15 minutes for them to dress out.
David waited barefoot in the studio, as he was the only one who couldn't go back with the girls.
"Eden…" Beth said in a small voice next to her.
Eden turned from Chloe, who she had been excitedly talking to to look at her baby sister. "What's wrong?"
"Everyone else's Momma is here, I'm scared and I want Momma." Beth told her, tears welling in her eyes.
Eden looked around quickly for Abby before brushing the tears from her face, "You better not let anyone see you cry. It's okay, you have me. You're dressed right, and your hair is up, everything is okay."
"I want Momma!" Bethel said again, trying hard to stop her tears.
"Daddy is in the next room, when we go in there you will see him, but you have to stop crying." She hugged her sister close to her and said a prayer over both of them that she would stop crying.
Gianna appeared in the doorway just as Beth's tears stopped. "Is everything okay?"
"Yes ma'am, she's fine." Eden said, pushing her sister out of the dressing room and into the studio where they could start stretching.
During pyramid Beth shrugged off coming in on the bottom of the pyramid. Eden, however, did not enjoy her spot of third. She knew that she was going to have to be diligent to fight her way to the top.
"Miss Abby?" Eden asked after they had finished rehearsals for the group dance.
"Yes Eden?" She asked.
"Is there anything I can do to put myself above the others?" She asked.
Abby smiled at the little girl. "Honey, you just need to dance to the best of your ability."
"Yes Ma'am." Eden said softly.
"I'll tell you what, do you want to do a duet this week with your sister?" Abby asked her.
Eden's face lit up, "Yes Ma'am!"
"Okay, go get your sister and tell her to come in here." Abby instructed.
Eden ran out of the studio, and pulled her sister behind her back into the studio.
"Beth, would you like to do a duet with you sister this week?" Abby asked.
"Yes Ma'am!" Bethel said excitedly.
"Okay, I won't have time to work on it today, so we will have to start it Wednesday, when you two come in early. Do you think you can learn it by Saturday?"
"I love a challenge!" Bethel said excitedly.
"Yes Ma'am we can do it!"
"Okay, you both have classes to be in right?" Abby asked.
"Yes Ma'am," they both said excitedly as they ran for the door.
After class, the girls had a break at 6:30 and were excited to receive their momma who had an amazing taco salad for them all to eat. "Daddy, are we going to do a devotion or our homework while we eat?" Eden asked.
"You have a 20-minute break at 7:55, is that enough time to do your homework?" David asked.
"Yes Sir." Eden said, she was starving and eager for them to say a prayer so that she could eat her dinner.
"Yes Sir. May I say grace?" Beth asked.
"You may." Megan told her daughter, she looked around the room and took note of the PB and J, cookies and pizza the other girls were eating.
"Dear Lord thank you for this food, thank you for Momma for making it, thank you that we get to be at dance tonight and please bless this meal to our bodies so we can dance forever. Amen." Bethel prayed.
"Amen." The other three chimed before digging in.
"So devotional?" Eden asked.
"I was thinking we could just talk. What did you two stay and talk to Miss Abby about?" David asked.
"I asked how I could set myself apart and make it to the top of the pyramid." Eden said.
"Then Miss Abby said that we could do a duet!" Bethel said excitedly.
"She did?" David asked.
"I thought the paperwork said that dances were handed out at pyramid." Megan said.
"It did and they were." David said. He wondered about the tight way to approach his oldest about this. Deciding now wasn't the time, he let the girls continue to chatter about their days before rushing off to class.
"We both think that she should have just accepted the dances that were handed out right?" Megan asked as they cleaned up.
"Yes, but she didn't exactly ask for it, and we also tell the girls to advocate for themselves. Did she technically do anything wrong?" David asked.
Megan stopped what she was doing and looked at her husband, "No, I don't think that we should scold her. I just think that maybe as we put her to bed tonight, we talk about humility and how she needs to allow everyone a chance to shine."
"You're putting her to bed solo tonight?" David said laughing.
"Nice try buster," She said pulling him close for a kiss.
Later that night as they were tucking into bed, both parents laid next to Eden. David reached over to grab her bible, "Do you have something you want to read, Lovely, or can I pick tonight?"
"You can pick Daddy, but can we only read one chapter, I'm tired." Eden told him.
"Yes Lovely, let's read Daniel 4 tonight." David said, flipping through.
"Is that they one about the lions?" Eden asked.
"No, it's about King Nebuchadnezzar." Megan told her.
"Oh, he put those guys in the fire!" Eden said between yawns.
"Yes, good Memory, alright let's read it."
"What did you think of that story?" Megan asked her daughter.
"I don't know that I would be able to praise God, if he made me like a cow for so long." Eden said honestly.
"Yeah that would be hard, why did God do that?" Megan asked.
"Well God did warn him about his what's the word for like not being humble?" Eden asked.
"Arrogance?" David asked.
Megan shot her husband a look over their daughter's head. "Yeah Daddy, that's it."
"Do you know why we read this story?" David asked.
"You must think that I've been arrogance."
"Arrogant." Megan corrected, "And not totally, but I don't want it to become that."
"Did I do something wrong?" Eden asked sleepily.
"Not exactly, Lovely, but the next time dances are handed out, I want you to thank Miss Abby, and not try to get a dance. The other kids might think that you think you're better." David told her.
"I'm sorry Daddy, I didn't think of it that way. I want the other girls to still be my friends, but I want to dance too." Eden said.
Megan kissed her daughter's head, "That is a battle you will have to fight for the rest of your life, Lovely, ultimately you have to be able to live with whatever you decide."
"I will think more before talking to Miss Abby." Eden told her parents honestly.
"That's all we can ask. Alright lovely, say your prayers then to sleep, it's getting late." David said kissing her forehead. "Love you!"
"Love you Daddy, Love you Momma!" Eden said.
"Love you my sweet Eden."