“Okay Aria, you can go first. Everyone else in your spots for now. I’ll move everyone around once I know what we are doing.”

Everyone moved to their spots, except for Aria. She stood there with a confused look on her face.

“Aria?”

She placed her hands on her hips. “I don’t know the lead part. I mean, I know parts of it, but I don’t know it, know it.”

Before Reese could say anything like, why the hell did you say you wanted to do the lead if you didn’t know the lead’s part, Claire said, “I know it.”

Everyone’s head whipped to Claire. She stood proudly, her bright red hair in a knot on the top of her head. She was wearing a black sports bra and bright purple booty shorts with green legwarmers. She crossed her arms around her back, holding her elbows as she looked up at Reese with pure confidence shining in her eyes.

“I mean I know most of it, I just need help on some parts,” Aria protested.

Reese pointed to Aria. “Okay, you’re on, Aria.”

Aria was nervous, that was obvious, but when she went to the spot the middle of the group of girls, she posed with such fierceness that Reese was sure the girl would kill the dance and then she would only have to clean up here and there, but boy, was she wrong. Aria knew maybe fifteen percent of the solo, and that was pushing it. When the music ended, it was obvious that Aria was pissed.

Reese shook her head as she said, “Okay, Claire.”

With a huff from Aria, Claire took her spot in the middle and posed in a different way, but it worked and was ten times better than the original. She posed like a diva, and Reese was excited to watch her do this. Hitting play to “Slow Down” by Selena Gomez, Claire ripped the floor up. She moved with such intensity, hitting each move at the precise time, enhancing the song and choreography in such a way that it made Reese want to squeal. She moved with the group as the star, her body singing the song and her face never dropping out of character even though she wasn’t on the stage.

The girl was a showstopper.

When the song ended, Claire dropped her arms, her chest rising and falling with each breath as she looked at Reese for her critique. “The part is yours.”

Aria threw her hands up. “That’s not fair! I am the other senior in the dance! If Mallory is out, I should be in! I don’t know it all, but I can learn. It’s not hard.”

“If it wasn’t hard, you’d know it. If you want to ever succeed in this business, you learn everything at every moment. You never know when the chance of a lifetime comes up, but you can’t take it because you don’t know it, and the girl beside you does. Let this be a lesson to you all.”

Everyone nodded but Aria. Her eyes clouded with tears as she screamed, “I can’t believe you are giving the part to her! I am a senior!”

Reese shook her head. “I’m sorry, Aria, but Claire will take the solo.”

A tear rolled down Aria’s cheek before she turned and rushed out of the room. Looking out at the girls, Reese shrugged her shoulders. If Aria needed a minute, that was fine, she could have it, but there was no way in hell Reese would go out and coddle that girl. No one coddled her when she was in the industry, and no one would Aria when she left this studio. Call it tough love, but Reese was preparing these girls for the dance world… and it wasn’t a pretty place to be in. It was cutthroat and scary, and Reese did her hardest to prepare the girls for it.

Letting out a breath, she said, “All right, let’s do it again. Hopefully, Aria will be back in a moment.”

The girls all nodded in agreement. Her gaze met Claire’s, and she smiled. Claire smiled back, getting in position, but before Reese could hit play, the studio door slammed open. Judith Chapmen stood there, looking like a mama bear coming out of hibernation to find that you ate her baby bears.

Shit.

“Are you kidding me?” she screeched.

Reese stood up and came towards her but, before she could even say anything, Judith was in front of her, her finger in Reese’s face. “You’ve got to be kidding me! Aria is a senior and the best in the class. How dare you put some sophomore in her spot?”

As calmly as Reese could, she said, “It wasn’t her spot, Judith. Can we please take this to my office?”

“No!” she screamed. “It was! You are playing favorites with this girl! We all know it! She is not better than my daughter, hell she isn’t anywhere near the caliber of anyone in this studio!”

Oh, to be able to punch this bitch’s teeth in and get away with it, but since that wouldn’t happen, she shook her head, pointing to the door. “Judith, that is enough. I will not have you talk down my students. Let’s go to my office and continue this.”

“I don’t want to go to your f**king office. I want to get this over with now. Aria will have the lead.”

Reese scoffed. “With the way you are acting, you’ll be lucky if you guys are still in this studio.”

“What? Are you kidding me?”

“No, I’m not kidding, haven’t been since you waltzed in here.”

She glared as she took a step towards her. “That’s how you are, huh, Reese? Cold, a bitch, you don’t joke, you don’t even care about any of us. All you care about is winning. That’s all it is here. Strictly work. What do I have to do to get through to you that my daughter is the best? She has the heart, the technique, and she is the f**king best. What do I have to do… sleep with you?”