Abby didn't show up.

And Gianna said one of the most bizarre things ever.

Here's what happened: Abby hasn't shown up, so Gianna decided to go ahead and start working with the group dance. However, when she explained what was going to happen, she told us that the competition was "next week". As in next Saturday instead of this one. It means that we have over seven days to learn the dances. It was supposed to be a two-hour episode for the show, but something feels off. I know everything feels off nowadays, but this was beyond suspicious.

We were without Kelly, Brooke, Paige, but most importantly, Abby.

Gianna and James started teaching the new group dance "Black and Blue", and it was a little weird. For some reason ― also known as the producers and who knows who else ― I was stuck with the lead role once again. I already knew neither the moms nor the girls were happy about that one, but there was only so much I could do about it. If Abby chose me, then I should do it. She isn't even here, so she's counting on me.

My suspicions may have been confirmed when Brooke and Paige showed up. Abby wasn't at the studio, meaning that there wasn't a full-blown fight between her and Kelly, meaning that they could easily come in here and pretend she never stormed out the week of the recital in the first place.

The following day, Abby still hadn't shown up. For obvious reasons, I hadn't had a conversation with Brooke and Paige because they're apparently on Giselle's side of the drama, which means that they're on Kendall's. We were all told by Gianna to meet up in studio "A", and I didn't know what to make out of that. Maybe she was going to explain why Abby suddenly disappeared, or it could be something else.

"As you guys know, Abby's still not here. I don't know if she's coming. I don't know if she's coming today." Gianna started talking. "I tried to call her; she hung up on me."

"Did Abby give you any instructions about this week?" Holly asked. "Or something?"

"Like I already said, the competition is next week and we have more time to work with the numbers," Gianna explained. "We are going to Masters of Dance Arts in Charleston, West Virginia. As far as I know, all ten of you are gonna be in the group dance this week."

Jill: Ten kids, that's a lot. So, Gianna has her work cut out for her.

"Asia, you're having a solo this week. It's a jazz routine called "Lightning"." Gianna announced and everyone clapped. "The second solo is Maddie. Chloe is also doing a solo. The last solo is for Giselle and there's a duet with Kenzie and Asia."

That's a lot.

Brooke spoke up as she played with her hair. "Is there any way I could have a solo?"

"Have you asked Abby?" Gianna asked.

After a couple more things, we started rehearsing the group dance. However, this time around was quicker due to having to work with four solos and a duet. We all sat in the dancer's den as Maddie learned her solo. It was entirely silent, with us just resting and calming down from the rehearsal that had ended barely minutes ago. I, for one, wasn't going to be the one to break the silence. If I did, they would break the silence too, but yell at me for how "ungrateful" I am.

As Chloe started learning her solo about an hour later, most of the girls had left to do their own thing. I was left with Maddie and Asia. The only two who don't hate me. Maddie was resting from her solo rehearsal while Asia was playing with her phone, looking heavily focused on it.

"Do you know that I talked to Chloe about forgiving you the other day and she looked at me with a weird look?" Maddie broke the silence. "Like, when I tried to talk to Kendall about it, she shut me out entirely, but Chloe looked different."

"Mads, if Chloe wanted to forgive me, she would have done it already," I told her, moving to sit next to her on the bench in the middle of the room.

"Nope. Don't you remember?" She turned to look at me. "She isn't one to take the first step. She gave you the silent treatment when Cesar called you back after the auditions for "Annie". It was after you tried to talk to her multiple times that she talked to you again, and then it happened again after you won nationals."

"Then how am I going to get her to talk to me?" I asked as she stood up, tilting my head to the right.

"It's a little difficult." Maddie crossed her arms over her chest as she rubbed her chin with her right hand. "Christi absolutely hates you and she's her mom. This is more from Christi's side than from Chloe's."

Something came to my mind. "Haven't we had this conversation before? Chloe doing something because of Christi?"

Maddie realized, her eyes widened and her mouth slightly opened. "True, but it means that we have dealt with it before. What did you do last time, after nationals, to get her to talk to you?"

I knitted my eyebrows together, looking up to the ceiling as I tried to remember what I did. What did I do last time so that Chloe didn't see me as an enemy anymore?

Annie.

"We were talking about Annie," I announced. "Then we looked at each other and everything went back to normal."

"But there's no Annie anymore." Maddie realized. "And she doesn't want to talk to you. Maybe if we do something in a place Christi can't talk to her--"

"But they're always at the same place all the time." Asia interrupted and we turned to look at her. "I lost the game and it's your fault, but Christi kinda scares Chloe. She's really outspoken while Chloe is quiet. She doesn't stand up for herself, and she's definitely not going to fight her own mother."

"Then could we try with someone else?" Maddie suggested. "Like Kenzie. I don't know what's going on with her. She's mad at you, but she's also mad at Giselle. She only hangs out with you." She pointed at Asia. "And Paige."

"She's mad because of what Giselle did to you," Asia explained.

"Wait." Both of them looked at me. "What did she do?"

"It's nothing." Maddie was quick to shut it down. "Something simple, but Kenzie loves to hold grudges."

"Maddie." I stared at her blankly. "Stop lying. I'm pretty sure Giselle's capable of anything at this point, so just tell me."

She sighed in defeat. "The week the argument at the ice rink happened, Giselle and Kendall were talking about Asia, and it was bad things. They were talking about how she performed your part of "The Last Text" performance for "The View", then about how she could be your replacement, and that they didn't want either of you here. Then I told them that I was going to break the stupid promise the producers made us do and was going to contact you, but Giselle followed me and grabbed my phone. As I tried to take it back, she deleted your number, and then Kendall told the girls something bad about me so they would ignore me all week, so I gave up and couldn't ask for the number."

Both Asia and I were completely shocked. Maddie was out of breath for talking so fast, so she sat down to try to catch it.

Giselle and Kendall are treating Asia the same as they're treating me? At least Asia has the rest. But they also made a rumor about Maddie so no one would talk to her? They were making the three of us look like the bad guys when they were the actual bad guys. And the producers made them promise each other not to contact me? What more had they done?

"Giselle has never liked me," Asia commented. "Something about Kenzie deserving the spot instead of me. From the first week, she looks at me as if I killed someone. I don't know if it has anything to do with the girl that was on the team before me, but she's always been like that to me."

"Why did Annie leave the team?" I questioned. "I thought she was enjoying it."

"There was a family issue and she had to leave," Maddie answered. "But the day she left Katie and Abby argued, so maybe Abby wasn't that happy that they had to leave. Annie also looked pretty sad. Giselle was there when the argument happened, but she didn't tell us anything that happened in there."

Right after she finished talking, a man from the camera crew entered the room. Making it our cue to leave, I stood up and walked past the man as I heard him whisper something. Not being able to figure out what it was, I spent the rest of my time watching something on my phone.

~~~

The extra rehearsal days were good, of course, but I thought that Abby would come back.

She did not.

Asia, Maddie, and I continued meeting up every now and then. Not all the time because apparently I was a sickness, and if anyone got near me, they considered them dead. Now, however, we were rehearsing the group dance. As I finished a set of turns, Abby walked into the room and we all stopped dancing.

"What are you two doing here?" Abby asked as she glanced around the room, although it was obvious who she was talking to. "Thought you'd sneak in while I was away?"

I caught notice of how Brooke slowly stepped farther away from the teacher, trying to not be too noticeable.

Abby grinned. "If you have to be here, oh, you're gonna work. You two will be doing solos every single week. And you will have the same exact amount of time that Maddie has to win."

It was a bit of a relief that I wasn't the focus, besides being the lead in the group dance. The focus was the Hylands and Abby. There were two weeks until nationals, and the pressure was about to be felt. Also, if there's a two-hour episode for these two weeks, I wonder how much more happened in the places I wasn't in.