she and Abby were arguing over her hair," Giselle remembered, slightly laughing at the memory. "And Abby was like, "she's wearing her hair down", and Mrs. Miller was like, "no, she's wearing a ponytail", and they went back and forth with that." Almost everyone laughed at the story. "And on the competition day, Mrs. Miller wasn't there but then Abby told mom to style Evie's hair into a ponytail because she thought it'd look better, but I'm pretty sure it was because she was scared of her mom."

As everyone laughed, she turned to look at me, somehow expecting me to laugh, but I wasn't even able to smile.

"You see, now, that's nice that we have all these happy memories," Holly told everyone. "I love these Mrs. Miller stories and I hope we continue to remember Mrs. Miller the way that we s-- we-we grew up with her or we've seen her 'cause we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Mrs. Miller." The adults all agreed with her. "So let's bow our heads just for a moment, just to reflect, and think about Mrs. Miller."

Why is she slipping through our fingers so fast?

One second she was fine, then cancer came, and then-- then it took over.

Why was everything happening so fast?

Everything went by so fast, but it was like we were barely living through it. One moment we were standing in studio "A" for the pyramid, then we were sitting on stage, waiting for the results and to know whether we won or not. Life was passing by so quickly, but it felt like nothing happened. We spent every week inside the studio, not even knowing what we could do outside of it. Not knowing how wonderful life can be because we're always living in fear.

Is it fear of dying, or is it fear of living?

•     •     •

To clear things up, Melissa did say something about the threats to the kids, but I can't remember where. I think I saw it in one of the Dance Moms Uncovered episodes..?

-A