Empire - The Next Step

problematic dance captain drama

Rehearsals had been strange for the past few days. Richelle wasn't back with them even though she should have been cleared to dance around that time and Piper was nowhere in sight. Things were changing at the next step and Harper wasn't sure how she felt about it. As everyone was having a quick stretch and waiting for Lily to show up, Summer was practicing her turns and Noah complimented her on them. Harper wasn't bothered because her turns were amazing but Jacquie, being the extreme go-getter, was.

"Yeah they were okay but you need to pull up on your supporting leg." Noah and Harper exchanged a knowing glance, it was typical Jacquie. Summer muttered out a word of thanks. Lily had finally decided to show up and she looked like she was in a scheming mood. Harper was struggling to find a reason to like her.

"Okay guys, I'm leading the warm up today so you should just spread out and..." she trailed off as Noah approached her. The team were glad that Noah was sticking up for himself but they also knew that Lily would somehow get her way.

"Um Lily, I usually lead the warm up. I was just waiting for you to get here before we started." Noah told her in his own defence, but Harper could tell he was a little intimidated by Lily.

"Okay well I'm here now so if everyone can spread out...come on guys." No one moved a muscle. The team respected Noah as their dance captain, not a new girl who thought she had all the authority because she was the studio head's daughter. "Oh I get it, you don't know whether to listen to me or Noah. Well let me put it like this, Miss Angela is my mom and she runs the studio so I'm pretty sure I'll be the one in charge this year." Harper was fed up with Lily and her bad attitude.

"Just because you're mom is our new studio head doesn't give you the right to steal Noah's position. He's a great dance captain and no one is going to listen to you over him." Harper said as she stormed forwards and squared up to Lily. She wasn't quite sure what came over her, but hearing Lily try and replace Noah after he had worked so hard as their dance captain was unacceptable. "Noah is better than you could ever-" before she could finish her sentence, Noah and Henry had each grabbed one of Harper's arms and pulled her back. She tried to fight them but they held her still.

"Harps, it's okay." Noah muttered under his breath as she yanked her arm away. No one had ever seen that side of Harper, it was like her inner Richelle had decided to come out for the day. She glared at Lily who looked furious but tried to regain her composure.

"Follow me dancers." The girl said stiffly as she began the warm up and everyone reluctantly followed but they were all giving Harper warm smiles all the way through. She had never really felt as though she had that much of an impact on the team, but sticking up for Noah made her feel more valued than ever before.

When the rehearsal ended, Miss Angela announced that they would be preparing their duets, that she mentioned the day before, and showing them tomorrow so she dismissed all the dancers. Harper wasn't sure who to do a duet with as she would usually pick Richelle but she wasn't there.

"Harper, thanks for sticking up for me earlier. Although you wanna be careful or you'll end up like Piper." Noah said as he approached the girl. Harper felt herself blush bashfully at Noah's words although she herself was a little worried about speaking out of turn. Lily has the power to get her kicked off the team and that was the last thing she wanted.

"I know it was risky but I don't even know what came over me, it was like Richelle was inside my head telling me to say something." She told him making Noah chuckle. As he lingered around but didn't say anything, Harper felt the need to address it, "did you need anything else?"

"Well I was just wondering if you wanted to be duet partners?" Harper considered the thought, dancing with Noah was a lot of pressure. He was the best dancer on the team, he was dance captain and he was also really strong at hip hop which Harper was not so great at.

"Sure." She replied with a smile, she would ace felt awful if she rejected him and most other people probably already had partners. They started working on their duet straight away and it was looking pretty great but then Summer walked in, and she didn't look too pleased.

"Noah can I ask you something?" The brunette asked him as he shared a confused look with Harper but nodded nonetheless. "So it turns out, the only way we can save Piper's spot on the team is if you make Lily dance captain. Are you willing to give up your position for Piper?" This was all news to Harper. She knew there was a chance that Piper would lose her place in A Troupe because Winnie, a girl from B Troupe, was invited to partake in rehearsals the other day, but she didn't think that would solidify that Piper was gone.

"If Noah gives up dance captain, Lily will completely take over. There's no chance he can do that, we can find another way to get Piper back." Harper argued but she knew that sacrificing Piper's spot just wasn't worth it. Sometimes they had to sacrifice something small for the good of the team, and that was what Noah had to do.

"It's just a position Harper, and there isn't really time to think of another plan. I have to do this." With that, Noah marched into Miss Angela's office and from what Harper could see she looked delighted. He must have done it. They all left the office and Miss Angela called all of the dancers to huddle up. Harper and Summer knew what announcement was coming, but it didn't make it any easier.

"I have an exciting announcement, Lily is our new dance captain." Miss Angela said as the girl stepped forwards with a sickly sweet smile and the team reluctantly applauded her.

"So as my first order of business, I'm sorry to inform you Winnie that you will not be bumped up to A Troupe this time around." Harper felt bad for Winnie but she was ecstatic, this meant that Piper's spot had been saved. Or so she thought. "Our twelfth and final position on the team will be filled by Richelle who had informed us she will be back at rehearsals tomorrow." Everyone was glad to hear that Winnie hadn't replaced Piper and that Richelle was coming back, but they were shocked to hear that Piper's spot was not saved. That was part of the deal.

"What about Piper? You promised her spot would be saved." Summer spoke out making Miss Angela send a sharp glare in her direction. "How can you not see the blatant favouritism you show Lily? We should all be treated equally."

"Summer, I respect you as a dancer but you need a refresher of how things work. Noah gave up his position to Lily and if Piper had followed protocol and called a sick day then she would still have her place on this team. Are we clear?" Summer mumbled a small 'yes' in response but her heart clearly wasn't in it. It was so unfair that Miss Angela would do this to Piper. "I will let you continue as a member of this team but you are cleaning mirrors tonight, no excuses."

Everyone released tension they hadn't realised they had been holding in when Miss Angela went to return to her office but when she turned back around, the room tensed up again.

"Oh and Harper," the blonde flinched out of surprise when she heard her name called sternly, although she had a feeling she knew what was coming. "Lily informed me of how you spoke out of turn during rehearsals earlier so you'll be joining Summer this evening. Everyone dismissed." Angela concluded and she waltzed off with Lily. Harper's mood had slightly dampened as she hung back with Summer and watched everyone else on the team pack up their stuff.

"Ready to start cleaning?" Summer asked in a deadbeat tone, it was so strange to hear her sound so defeated but Harper nodded with a sigh. When they began cleaning the mirrors, Noah and Amy filtered into the room and grabbed some cleaning supplies to help them. Soon the entire team, besides Lily, were all helping the two girls clean the mirrors.

"What are you guys all doing here?" Harper asked as she watched the team grab some cloths and mirror cleaner.

"We're a team, if two of us get in trouble, we all get in trouble." Noah answered as they all began to clean the mirrors together as a united team.

"Honestly guys Miss Angela is our biggest problem. She's a monster and we need to get her and Lily out so Piper can come back. We need a monster to fight that monster, we need a dance-zilla." Summer said and out of her peripheral vision, Harper noticed a familiar figure standing in the doorway. Summer turned around and they all saw that Richelle was back and better than ever. There was the dance-zilla they needed.

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a/n: hi everyone, hope you're enjoying, thank you for reading. richelle's back!!!! if you could drop a vote and/or a comment for this it would mean the world to me and if you are liking the story so far then let me know so i know i'm doing a good job :)