The Show Must Go On!

Jacqueline and Natalie had been practicing the Nutcracker for overa year now, and couldn’t wait to perform it at the Colonial Elementarytalent show. So when they heard the most popular girls in school, Britneyand Miranda wanted to do the same dance they knew there was going tobe a problem.

“What’s up babies?”Jacqueline and Natalie could hear Britney’ssarcastic voice from across the auditorium. “Babies” was Britney andMiranda’s way of calling Jacqueline and Natalie since Kindergarden.

“What now,” Jacqueline sighed.“We just want to say we’re going to do the Nutcracker for the talent

show!” Miranda remarked. Her voice rung in Jacqueline’s ears asBritney’s 6 inch high heeled boots snapped around on the hardwood

stage.“You know WE were going to do that dance,” Natalie cried. Fury

rising up in her as she kept a straight face.“WE did NOT know that!!” Britney stammered, you could tell she

was lying.“Girlsss,”snapped Mrs. Murcaiss. “Class!” Mrs. Murcaiss was the

nice but loud science teacher they had for fifth period.“Fine!” Jacqueline said ignoring the teacher. “We will have a

contest, talk to’ yah later.”“Bye babies,” Britney snickered, waving her hand like a toddler.

In fifth period that day Jacqueline ,Natalie, Britney and, Mirandahad class together. Their teacher Mrs. Murcaiss smelled notes beingpassed in the air, but she didn’t say anything.

“Whisp,” went the sticky note being transferred into Jacqueline’shand from Miranda’s. Jacqueline quickly placed the note in her desk andbegan to unfold it. The note was fancily signed by Britney in long curlylettering. The note said, “We would like a contest to show who does thedance better and whoever does better will get to perform it. The judgewill be Jack, the one who hates the nutcracker. Deal?”

“Deal!” Jacqueline thought. “We would so win.” She passed the noteto Natalie adding the word DEAL!

Seconds later Jaqueline received the n0te again, under her wordwas Natalie’s word DEAL!! She handed back the note to Britney, and

listened to her teacher’s voice about the microscopic organisms on theirpaper towels.

After school that day Jacqueline and Natalie practiced the danceover and over again. Britney and Miranda didn't think it was necessary topractice. They chatted, and laughed at Jacqueline when she fell, and‘forgot’ to applaud.

“Times up babies,” Miranda yawned trying to impress Britney.“Game on!” they shouted back. “Wait, Jack isn’t here! Who should

judge ?”“We can judge each other,” Britney said as if it was obvious. “We

can go first.”“Sure,” Natalie responded, but there was no need. They were

already on the stage tapping their feet. Jacqueline and Natalie had justnoticed that Britney and Miranda had costumes on. They knew they werein for bad luck.

“Lights,” snapped Britney. “Now!!!” Soon the lights were on and themusic was playing. Britney snapped her fingers to the slow melody andbegan to dance. You could tell she was playing Clara. Her feet wereencased in her pink ballet shoes with the ribon tied around her legs like aprofessional. Her pink tights highlighted her poofy tutu and a sparklyleotard that was gorgeous. She spun and leaped in the air and Mirandafollowed with a high kick holding her leg on her body turning.

“This is going no where,”Jacqueline proclaimed.“Yah, I know right,” Natalie reinforced.“But we are just going to have to go through with it.”“Sure you are right, but do they really have to win?”Natalie said

back.“No! Of course not,” Jacqueline reminded her. “We can do it and

they will be surprised.” When Britney and Miranda were done they bowedand ran to Natalie and Jacqueline. Then they asked them how they did.The looks Jacqueline and Natalie gave said it all. Their faces were like,“No way you are not winning.” So Britney and Miranda made faces thatresponded, “Lets see how you do.”

The music played and as they danced, shock rose in Britney’s face asshe realized her competition. But slowly she snapped her fingers, and putthe false smile back on her face.

“We’re like one hundred times better than them, but no matterwhat we can do or dance they will win ‘cause they think they are better,”Jacqueline thought. So she put her whole heart in the dance.

People stopped and stared and Ms.Murciass dropped her beverageto applaud. When they were done they stepped off stage curtsied andwent to join Britney and Miranda.

“Nice work, didn’t really pay off. You could be on Barney with thatdance,” Miranda remarked devilishly.

“What? You couldn’t have done better. I mean look at Ms. Murcias,”Jacqueline returned with a two can play at this game look. Ms. Murciasswas still as a picture her Ice Tea was spilling on her black leather boots.

“Sure whatever,” Britney sarcastically gave in.“Hey lets start grading,” Natalie moaned.“Cool, here is your paper,”Britney said handing them a sparkly

paper with her name on it. “You write your opinion of our score in thisbox,” Britney said pointing to a non sparkly area on the page. “Now don’tforget you rate us one through ten.”

Taking their papers with them Jacqueline and Natalie plunkeddown into the seats in the far back of the auditorium.

“ Nat, you know me and you know I don’t like to give in, but writingour opinion on this page is giving in,” Jacqueline expressed herthoughts.

“Why?” Natalie seemed to not understand.“Well you see they don’t care what we write. Remember Britney’s

mom is all powerful and stuff so her mom would just be like let my littleBritney Whitney do whatever she wants .We are all scared of her youknow. So she would just win,” Jacqueline pointed out.

“ Got it.” Natalie cringed at the thought.“Well we can stop this, all we need to do is convince them to ask a

teacher who should do the dance and the teacher will be on our side

‘cause who wouldn’t!” Jacqueline seemed so impressed with her idea shealmost fell over.

“Great idea,” Natalie admitted wishing she had thought of it.Minutes later they were standing in front of Britney and Miranda

with a sheet of paper, nothing was on it.Watching Miranda fill out herform with a invisible pencil Natalie winked at Jacquelin.

“What's up?” Britney demanded.“We just wanted to say...”“Yah, whatever we are ready too.”“Here take our paper,” Jacqueline shoved her paper in Britney’s

hands not wanting to be cut off again.“Yah, yah, sit down we can look it over together,” Miranda said

kindly with her inner niceness.Jacqueline slumped in the chair next to Miranda then tapped on

the seat to the other side of her beconing Natalie to join her. SlowlyBritney unfolded the papers allowing her self a slight peek. This did herno good for the smirk on her face slowly faded.

“What is it?” Miranda asked.“Nothing its just that …”Both papers were blank not a word not a name.“We are tied, now what?” Jacqueline mentioned.“We will dance because it is tied!” Britney exclaimed. Her face

getting happier by the second. Jacqueline thought that this contest thingwas really ‘stupid’, and knew it was going nowhere so she tried to put astop to all the fuss.

“ What, that is dumb,” Jacqueline admitted.“NO it’s not, it is tied and you know it so stop trying to get out of

it!!!”“ I know it is tied but that shouldn’t mean you win.”“Well it does!”Miranda said back.“This was all my idea,” Jacqueline said her face sweating and her

light brown freckles darkening as she was getting furious. “But we AREgoing to ask the teacher who will perform this dance.”

“Sure , sounds great,” Miranda hit Britney with her elbow. Britneyknew what this meant. It meant Britney’s mom knew Mrs. Murcaiss incollege and let’s just say they were not friends. Or in short ‘ENEMIES’.

“Hey let’s go ask Ms. Murciass right now!” Britney mentionedsheepishly.

“Why not, she always has a honest and fair opinion on things,”Natalie added suddenly seeing how this debate would go down, her teamwinning of course.

Quickly the four girls walked over to the teacher. Nicely, Britneyshared her opinion on the story and then let Jacqueline do the same. Theteacher kindly listened to both sides then asked if the girls could wait afew minutes while she thought it over.

“Jacqueline and Natalie are such nice girls, and their dance wasabsolutely amazing,” Ms. Murciass thought. Her lips quivered, and herhair looked darker than normal, it shined like black not brown.“ButBritney’s mom would be furious if she found out I didn’t choose Britney.”Her thoughts were conflicting. “I know this won’t be the right decision,”she thought unknowingly. Her eyes shot directly up, and her brainwhirled with different thoughts. The girls were so anxious, and Ms.Murciass wasn’t accustom to making such hard decisions.

“Britney’s group will perform,” Ms. Murciass spoke quivering.“I knew anyone in the right mind would choose us, thanks Ms.

Muciass!” Britney and Miranda screamed jumping up and down.“Sorry girls I’m sure you will do great anyway,” she said focusing

her attention on Natalie and Jacqueline.“It’s fine we just wanted to know who should do the dance, “Natalie

admitted lying to her face. Then she turned to Jacqueline. “ So, I guess wewill have to find another dance.”

“Yah, sure will, but itsokay,” Jacqueline encouraged her friend.The next day was Sunday, and early that morning Jacqueline got a

call from Natalie. She asked if she could come over to talk about andchoose which dance they would do. Jacqueline of course said yes.

“Ding, dong.”“Hi!”“Hi!”the door creaked open. Natalie greeted Jacqueline’s mom then

she and Jacqueline ran upstairs to Jacqueline’s room. At first theychatted about random topics, and played on the computer. After a whilethey were on topic.

“About the dance, I was thinking that we should do Hunter’sPrincess you know the one we heard in dance class,’’ Natalie mentionedhoping Jacqueline would agree.

“Sounds great lets practice right now!” “Thanks Jackie I knew you’d agree,” Natalie was excited they didn’t

have to fight over what dance to do. The girls practiced until lunch anddecided they would practice every Sunday from 10:00 am t0 12:30 pm. atJacqueline’s house until the talent show. Every week they met andrehearsed and when the talent show neared they knew they needed topick their costumes.

“Hey Nat,” it was Jacqueline, the week before the talent show. “We

need to pick out our costume.”“Yah, let’s go online and shop at Dancing for Dreams,” Natalie

agreed.“Sure, I love that store, don’t you!” Jacqueline quickly fished out her

computer from the pile of things on her desk. She was a fast typer forsure because seconds later Natalie and her were shopping atDancingfordreams.com/costumes. They scrolled over many costumes andadds that they didn’t like, and some others that were fine but not fittingfor their song. Finally they scrolled over a brown leotard with a knee highskirt that flowed nicely. It also came with a red sash that tied behind theback.

“Wow, that’s perfect for me!!” Natalie gasped. Natalie was thehunter in the dance.

“Yah, it is so perfect!” Jacqueline was almost jealous. Many morecostumes apeared before their eyes until the screen showed that they hadseen 547 costumes. They never saw a costume this nice for such a lowprice. It was a light blue long sleeved leotard with shinning sequins and atutu and a flower for her hair.

“Nice, we are so buying this too!” Jacqueline screamed so loud hermom had to shush her.

“Yah, let’s buy them both!”A day later they both received the costumes and they were perfect.It was Friday night fifteen minutes before their act in the talent

show...“Hey babies, it’s such a surprise to see you today,” Britney

exclaimed, now wearing a new costume. “Thought you would just dropout!” Natalie and Jacqueline ignored her completely because they weredoing their hair. Doing her hair Natalie listened to Britney’s speech abouthow well she was going to do.

“Hey it is our turn,” Britney whispered as she tugged on Miranda’sarm. They skipped on stage then continued with the dance until the partwhere Miranda spun with her leg on her body. By accident she kickedBritney when she was bringing her leg up then Britney fell over and

started hysterically crying, while Miranda was apologizing. She reallydidn’t have to though, it was a very light tap on the shoulder. Quickly thejudges put up ZEROS.

“Our turn!!” Jacqueline gasped. “I didn't think their dance was soshort.” The girls chasséad on stage then continued with the dance. Thejudges loved the part when the hunter lifted the princess, and twirled heraround. Then when the dance was over they curtsied and glanced over tothe Judges who were all holding TENS!

“No way!” exclaimed Natalie.“COOL!!!!!” added Jacqueline. They were the last ones so they went

back on stage with everyone else to find out who won.“Jacquline Croftman and Natalie Kliffton won! Thank you all for a

outstanding performance!”a voice blasted over the loud-speaker.