Face The Music

Evil Step-Dancers

I woke up early in our hotel room the next morning. It was a big day. Each year, the day after nationals we'd go to a theme park. Last year we went to Universal Studios, and this year we were finally going to Magic Kingdom. I'd only been there once as a little kid, and I was super excited for Zoey. She was a huge Disney fan. Mickey Mouse everything, down to the pajamas she was wearing in the bed next to me.

But this morning, something wasn't right with Zoey. I was expecting her to act the way she did last year: waking me up by jumping all over my bed. And she hated roller coasters, so Universal wasn't even really her thing. For a place like Magic Kingdom, I thought she'd be bouncing off the walls, especially following our big duet win yesterday. Maybe she was just tired or something?

I pulled the covers off myself, got ready in the bathroom, and went back out to the main area of our hotel room. Zoey was just sitting quietly at the desk, her earbuds in and looking at her phone. I didn't get a "good morning" or even a "hey". How weird. I know her period was on its way. That had to be it. She was always moody right before it started.

We went downstairs for breakfast at the hotel buffet. I stuck with some toast and plain cereal. It didn't work. I threw that up, but was able to keep some juice down. I felt so embarrassed coming back to the table after running to the bathroom. All the girls in my age group had their eyes on me. It was like they knew something was up.

I tried to engage in the conversation about all the places we'd go in the park and all of the characters we'd meet. We planned out each ride and every character we wanted to see and couldn't wait to shout "Andy's Coming!" when we found the gang from Toy Story.

I even found a big list of pregnancy-safe rides online, so I was mentally prepared to hold everyone's bags while they rode Space Mountain. I had my story ready to go about my "upset stomach" from "something I ate" so I could only go on the "easy rides."

After breakfast, we boarded the hotel shuttle to Magic Kingdom. It was about a thirty minute ride, and I was waiting in anticipation for the excitement to fill the air. I was sitting right next to Zoey, who was totally quiet again. It didn't make any sense. Disney was her whole life and we were literally on the way to Magic Kingdom. I expected her to be bouncing up and down in that bus seat the entire way there.

We passed under the archway to Magic Kingdom and went into the parking lot for the busses. Everyone got their bags and stood up from their seats.

"Okay everyone, have a great time! Do we all remember what time we are meeting back up?" asked Marcus.

"Eight o'clock!" shouted everyone from our dance studio. We all knew. He told us a million times.

"Let's do this!" I said to Zoey. She didn't answer. "Zo, aren't you excited?"

"Not really," she said under her breath.

"Huh?" I said, right as someone was pushing me forward.

We got off the bus and I went with all the other girls in my age group. Zoey came and joined us. I was trying to smile and feel excited, even though things were off. How could someone not be happy about going to Magic Kingdom? This was the happiest, most magical place in the whole entire world.

"So, there's something we gotta tell you, Deni," Addie said to me as I took my place amongst the other girls. I gave her a confused look, waiting for her answer. "You're not coming with us."

"What?" I said.

"You're gonna do nothing but slow us down. We all came all the way down here and we want to actually have a good time. We can't be stopping every few minutes because you have to throw up. We wanna actually ride the rides and meet the characters. You'll ruin the whole day," said Addie.

"We're sorry, Deni," said Claire and Sophia.

I froze because I think my soul left my body from the shock of it. I was that upset. Was this really happening? I looked over at Zoey, who wasn't saying a word.

"We all agreed. You just can't come with us," Addie said.

The rest of the girls, including Zoey, nodded their heads. It was like they voted me out. I felt so defeated. I couldn't force them to let me hang out with them if they didn't want me to, but hell, I was gonna try in the only way I knew how: standing up for my damn self.

"Zoey, you absolute lying skank! You told them, didn't you?" I said to her.

She didn't answer. Addie and her big mouth had to answer for her.

"You've been throwing up all the time for the past month! It doesn't take a genius to see that you're pregnant. We all can see you're putting on weight because you could barely fit into your tap costume," Addie said. "You can't even ride any rides."

"Yes I can! There's a ton of rides I can go on," I said.

"It doesn't matter. You're not coming. You're not ruining this day for us," Addie said.

"We all agreed on it," Zoey said. "I hope you understand."

"Oh, I understand," I said, crossing my arms. "I understand that you're a fake bitch Zoey!"

I huffed and walked over to the adults in the group. My anger was quickly turning into tears. Nina noticed right away.

"Denali, sweetie, what happened?" she asked.

"The girls won't let me go with them," I said.

"Well...how about this? How about you take Piper and Charlotte with you instead? I'll make it worth your while," she said, winking at me.

I looked over at Piper and Charlotte, her ten-year-old prodigy twins that just dominated the junior division with their acro duet yesterday.

"I don't get it," I said.

"I'll venmo you a hundred bucks to watch them. They're always a good time and will hang out with you, right girls?" Nina asked them.

"Huh?" they said looking up from their phones.

"Do you want to go into the park with Denali instead of your boring mom who hates rides?"

"Yeah!" they both said, smiles shining bright on their identical faces.

I smiled, too. At least some people wanted to hang out with me today.

"That sounds good," I said to Nina.

"Great. I'll get that over to you now, and I'm gonna go shop and have a beer with everyone else," she said, taking out her phone.

"It's ten in the morning, Nina," I said.

"Ha! I'm in Disney World. It's five o'clock somewhere," she said, right as my phone dinged from the Zelle notification.

The monorail was pulling up, so it was time to go. Hopefully these two kids wouldn't drive me up the wall, but I tried to be positive and use it as an opportunity to learn something. I figured I should get used to watching kids now, since I was literally going to have one.

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Author's note: This chapter is loosely based on something that happened to me when I was around Denali's age.