The Show Must Go On! Jacqueline and Natalie had been practicing the Nutcracker for over a year now, and couldn’t wait to perform it at the Colonial Elementary talent show. So when they heard the most popular girls in school, Britney and Miranda wanted to do the same dance they knew there was going to be a problem. “What’s up babies?”Jacqueline and Natalie could hear Britney’s sarcastic voice from across the auditorium. “Babies” was Britney and Miranda’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 as Britney’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, Miranda had class together. Their teacher Mrs. Murcaiss smelled notes being passed in the air, but she didn’t say anything. “Whisp,” went the sticky note being transferred into Jacqueline’s hand from Miranda’s. Jacqueline quickly placed the note in her desk and began to unfold it. The note was fancily signed by Britney in long curly lettering. The note said, “We would like a contest to show who does the dance better and whoever does better will get to perform it. The judge will be Jack, the one who hates the nutcracker. Deal?” “Deal!” Jacqueline thought. “We would so win.” She passed the note to Natalie adding the word DEAL! Seconds later Jaqueline received the n0te again, under her word was Natalie’s word DEAL!! She handed back the note to Britney, and
listened to her teacher’s voice about the microscopic organisms on their paper towels. After school that day Jacqueline and Natalie practiced the dance over and over again. Britney and Miranda didn't think it was necessary to practice. 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 just noticed that Britney and Miranda had costumes on. They knew they were in for bad luck. “Lights,” snapped Britney. “Now!!!” Soon the lights were on and the music was playing. Britney snapped her fingers to the slow melody and began to dance. You could tell she was playing Clara. Her feet were encased in her pink ballet shoes with the ribon tied around her legs like a professional. Her pink tights highlighted her poofy tutu and a sparkly leotard that was gorgeous. She spun and leaped in the air and Miranda followed 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 bowed and 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 that responded, “Lets see how you do.”
The music played and as they danced, shock rose in Britney’s face as she realized her competition. But slowly she snapped her fingers, and put the false smile back on her face. “We’re like one hundred times better than them, but no matter what 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 beverage to applaud. When they were done they stepped off stage curtsied and went to join Britney and Miranda. “Nice work, didn’t really pay off. You could be on Barney with that dance,” 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. Murciass was 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 this box,” Britney said pointing to a non sparkly area on the page. “Now don’t forget you rate us one through ten.” Taking their papers with them Jacqueline and Natalie plunked down 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 writing our opinion on this page is giving in,” Jacqueline expressed her thoughts. “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 little Britney Whitney do whatever she wants .We are all scared of her you know. 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 she almost 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 her form 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. Slowly Britney unfolded the papers allowing her self a slight peek. This did her no 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 thing was really ‘stupid’, and knew it was going nowhere so she tried to put a stop 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 ARE going to ask the teacher who will perform this dance.”
“Sure , sounds great,” Miranda hit Britney with her elbow. Britney knew what this meant. It meant Britney’s mom knew Mrs. Murcaiss in college and let’s just say they were not friends. Or in short ‘ENEMIES’. “Hey let’s go ask Ms. Murciass right now!” Britney mentioned sheepishly. “Why not, she always has a honest and fair opinion on things,” Natalie added suddenly seeing how this debate would go down, her team winning of course. Quickly the four girls walked over to the teacher. Nicely, Britney shared her opinion on the story and then let Jacqueline do the same. The teacher kindly listened to both sides then asked if the girls could wait a few minutes while she thought it over. “Jacqueline and Natalie are such nice girls, and their dance was absolutely amazing,” Ms. Murciass thought. Her lips quivered, and her hair looked darker than normal, it shined like black not brown.“But Britney’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 brain whirled 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 we will 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 and choose 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 they chatted about random topics, and played on the computer. After a while they were on topic. “About the dance, I was thinking that we should do Hunter’s Princess you know the one we heard in dance class,’’ Natalie mentioned hoping 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 and decided they would practice every Sunday from 10:00 am t0 12:30 pm. at Jacqueline’s house until the talent show. Every week they met and rehearsed and when the talent show neared they knew they needed to pick 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 for sure because seconds later Natalie and her were shopping at Dancingfordreams.com/costumes. They scrolled over many costumes and adds that they didn’t like, and some others that were fine but not fitting for their song. Finally they scrolled over a brown leotard with a knee high skirt that flowed nicely. It also came with a red sash that tied behind the back. “Wow, that’s perfect for me!!” Natalie gasped. Natalie was the hunter in the dance. “Yah, it is so perfect!” Jacqueline was almost jealous. Many more costumes apeared before their eyes until the screen showed that they had seen 547 costumes. They never saw a costume this nice for such a low price. It was a light blue long sleeved leotard with shinning sequins and a tutu and a flower for her hair. “Nice, we are so buying this too!” Jacqueline screamed so loud her mom 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 drop out!” Natalie and Jacqueline ignored her completely because they were doing their hair. Doing her hair Natalie listened to Britney’s speech about how well she was going to do. “Hey it is our turn,” Britney whispered as she tugged on Miranda’s arm. They skipped on stage then continued with the dance until the part where Miranda spun with her leg on her body. By accident she kicked Britney when she was bringing her leg up then Britney fell over and
started hysterically crying, while Miranda was apologizing. She really didn’t have to though, it was a very light tap on the shoulder. Quickly the judges put up ZEROS. “Our turn!!” Jacqueline gasped. “I didn't think their dance was so short.” The girls chasséad on stage then continued with the dance. The judges loved the part when the hunter lifted the princess, and twirled her around. Then when the dance was over they curtsied and glanced over to the 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.