Melanie Ziegler || Dance Moms

The Last Week

I slowly made my way to the group with Liam. This week, it looked like we were having another one of our famous duets. Mom got down and started taking out some ALDC merch from a dance bag.

"Well, I am an Abby Lee supporter today." Mom comments.

"You cleaning out your closets, Melissa?" Jill asks, "Are you getting rid of all you Abby Lee stuff so you can start fresh and clean?" She chuckles.

"She looks excited." Liam whispers.

"She is." I whisper back, "You had to be home yesterday."

"Um, I was there yesterday."

"Shoot! Right, I forgot."

"So what do you wish for this week?" Jess asks as Mom closes the bag.

"Just a good week with everyone." Maddie answers, "Hopefully we have some really good dances and I also hope that Abby doesn't scream at any of us."

"That's easy wishes right there." Mom says, "Don't you think?"

"It would be very easy." Jess says.

"And it would be nice going into the last week that we could be on our absolute, most fabulous behavior." Holly adds.

"Yeah." Kalani agrees.

"I think we need to tell the mini moms that." Kendall says.

"Well, they're not really part of the team." Holly says.

"We just need to ignore them." Mom adds, "Just sayin'."

I sigh as we all start walking into the building. We quickly get ready and enter for pyramid.

"It's pyramid time. We were at Sheer Talent in Fresno, California." Abby starts, "The only group that won were the minis! I thought it was fun, I thought it was sassy. So we're gonna do headshots tomorrow."

"So if you're doing headshots for the minis, does this mean they're a team and they're your new team?" Jess asks.

"Well, they-they could be." Abby answers.

"But I don't think that anybody can fully replace us because we were the original." Maddie says.

"We're not trying to replace anybody, though." Sari says.

"So you think that we shouldn't replace you, we should just all throw in the towel 'cause you're throwing in the towel?" Abby asks Maddie.

"She's not throwing in the towel!" Mom defends Maddie, "Maddie's not throwing in the towel."

"No, you do whatever you want, it's your team." Maddie explains, "I'm just saying, like--"

"She's saying, and we-- I agree, there will never be another Maddie, Mackenzie, Melanie, or Melissa." Jess says, "Like, never!"

"But, there's other stars." Abby continues, "Life goes on. Had Melissa had her kids in any one of the five studios within, you know, a stone's throw from my studio, these three kids wouldn't be here right now. I am the vehicle to get these kids from their average, middle-class, humdrum lives in PIttsburgh, Pennsylvania to the Great White Way. And I did that."

Everything goes silent and awkward as she reveals the bottom headshot.

"On the bottom of the pyramid. Brynn. You got third place. Next, we have Kendall. You don't pay attention to the details in the choreography." Kendall shrugs, "Next we have JoJo. I still think you have work to do on your lyrical quality on your dancing. Next, we have Nia. Nia, uh, I thought you were good, other people were better."