Empire - The Next Step

friends are there for friends

Harper had missed a lot. She was sick over the week because she got food poisoning so she spent Thursday and Friday stuck in bed. When she returned to dance on Saturday morning, still feeling a little queasy, lots had changed. Firstly, Richelle and Piper had both lost their dance captaincy to Noah and the blonde hated to think of Richelle's reaction. Her position as dance captain was like her Crown Jewels.

They had also started working on a regionals dance for the qualifier video and had come up with idea to base it on the story of two rival team coming together. To consolidate for that, Richelle had been given a pointe solo which Harper knew she would thrive in so she was really happy. Obviously a lot more drama had taken place, but Michelle didn't really have time to explain everything and that was all Harper needed to know to be caught up.

"Are you sure you're okay Harps? You still don't look too good." Michelle said as she eyed her younger sister cautiously while they walked from her car up to studio A. Harper looked a little pale still from being sick for a few days but she was determined to get back to dance.

"I'm fine Michelle. I need to learn this dance now, we're filming it tomorrow." She argued back and Michelle nodded in understanding. Harper had a lot of hard work ahead of her if she was going to be ready for filming the video the following day.

The two sisters walked into the studio, they were a little late as Michelle had taken Harper to see a doctor just to check it was nothing more than food poisoning and thankfully, it wasn't. She would just have to wait it out. They entered studio A and saw that everyone was working really hard on the new dance but they all looked really glad to see her back.

"Hey Harps, how are you?" Richelle asked as she walked over in her beautiful purple pointe shoes.

"I'm alright, still feeling a little queasy but I know we have to do this by tomorrow. I'm really sorry about dance captain, but congrats on the solo. You're gonna be amazing." Richelle smiled in thanks but it didn't seem one hundred percent genuine. Harper wasn't sure what was wrong but she intended to find out at some point.

"Yeah, well I would love to help you learn the choreo but I have this solo and it needs to be perfect. Maybe you could ask Noah?" Richelle suggested as she nudged her best friend teasingly. The two of them looked over to Noah who looked really engrossed in whatever he was choreographing. Harper rolled her eyes but approached the boy anyway, he was probably her best bet to get the choreography down.

"Hey dance captain." She greeted with a weak grin, she was still extremely fatigued from being ill for days but tried to put on a brave face. Noah pulled out his earphones and smiled at the girl, but he seemed really stressed about something.

"Hey Harper, glad you're feeling better." He replied but was speaking extremely fast as though he needed the conversation to be a quick one. Harper understood how stressed he was but he'd be even more stressed if she didn't learn all the choreo by tomorrow. "Do you need something?"

"I was just wondering if you could teach me the new choreo." She said nervously because being honest, Noah looked a little on edge. It was as though he was a frozen lake that could crack and break at the slightest amount of pressure.

"I really don't have time. Can you ask someone else like Henry or Jacquie?" Harper felt a little dampened about him neglecting her but she didn't want to come across too needy so she nodded anyway. She would just have to find someone else.

"Hey Henry, could you please help me learn the new choreography?" She asked, almost sounding desperate, to the boy who smiled at her.

"Of course I can. Let's do it." Henry replied kindly, it seemed that he was the only one with his head screwed on right. Richelle seemed really distracted by something and Noah was lost in his own little world. But Harper couldn't worry about her friends, she needed to get this dance learnt for tomorrow or she would ruin the team's chance at regionals.

Henry spent about an hour to teach her all the unison section and explained to Harper what she was supposed to do in between the sections. She had a partnering section with Noah and a short acro pass with Richelle and Amy but that was about it. Thankfully it wasn't too much to remember.

After thanking Henry profusely, she made her way into the studio one locker room to grab a drink and she found Richelle in there. It was a lucky coincidence because she needed to talk to her anyways.

"Hey Riche..." the girl trailed off as she saw her best friends reading a card that had been attached to a large bouquet of flowers. "Well then." Harper said teasingly as she leaned across the wall. Richelle was not usually one to fraternise with relationships so it was nice for Harper to have the chance to do the teasing every once in a while.

"Hey Harper." Richelle said bashfully without even turning to face her friend as her eyes lingered on the card. Harper skipped over to Richelle and leaned over her shoulder to see that the name signed at the bottom of the card read 'Elliot'. It wasn't all too surprising considering how similar they were in personality and Harper was just excited that Richelle was showing interest in a guy for once.

"So Elliot huh?" Richelle turned to face her with slightly reddened cheeks as she shrugged. She clearly hadn't been expecting a romantic gift, but she wasn't completely opposed to the idea.

"I guess so." The shorter of the two replied as she took a seat on the bench. Harper joined her because she needed to confront Richelle about what was going on.

"Richelle are you okay? You seem really distracted." She visibly tensed up at the mention of something being wrong and Harper became all the more suspicious but as Richelle's best friend, she knew that it wasn't always a good idea to push her. "You would tell me if something was wrong wouldn't you?"

"Of course I would Harper, you're my best friend. I promise you nothing's wrong." Richelle life straight to Harper's face and although she still seemed a little suspicious, the blonde decided not to push her.

"Okay then, well I guess I better get back to rehearsal. I'll see you tomorrow?" Richelle nodded with a smile but Harper was certain there was still something wrong. If Richelle was hiding something it was clearly really serious as the two of them never kept secrets. They usually told each other everything so the only thought that ran constantly through Harper's head as she continued to rehearse was what was Richelle hiding? If it was going to affect the team, things would not turn out well.