Empire - The Next Step

the return of michelle and emily

As much as Harper wanted her sister back as studio head, she didn't think that Kate would go for the idea. After what happened with Angela, she wanted a trustworthy person to run the studio but last time Michelle and Emily were in charge of things, there were two rival teams who were practically at war and Richelle really badly injured herself. Speaking of, said girl asked if she could grab Harper for a second.

"What's up?" The blonde asked her best friend in a perplexed tone. Richelle looked pretty serious about what she was about to say.

"Look Harps, I just wanted to apologise for what I said to you when I was Lily's assistant. I know how sensitive you are about that and I'm really sorry." Harper had sort of forgotten about what Richelle had said to her, but she was thankful that she had apologised. They could finally get back on track and return to how things used to be.

"It's fine, I know you were just doing what you had to for the team." Richelle hugged Harper tightly as though she never wanted to let go and she was over the moon that they were back to normal. Ozzy made his way over from the cubbies and made everyone gather around. They had sent him on a mission to try and listen in on the conversation in the office.

"Well I heard sorry, new direction and dance detention." Everyone pulled matching faces at the boy, what on Earth was dance detention?

"Do you think they said dance convention?" Noah suggested as himself and Harper shared an amused glance. Ozzy may have been taking himself very seriously, but he was a great source of laughter for the others. It was nice to have someone like him around to lighten the mood. Despite it making more sense, Ozzy denied that they were talking about a dance convention and started theorising about what dance detention could be. The two former studio heads left Miss Kate's office and looked as though they had something important to announce.

"We're back!" They exclaimed at the same time and hollers and cheers were shouted in relief. Harper wasted no time in tackling her sister in a bone-crushing hug which Michelle chuckled lightly at and then she moved to hug Emily. The two studio heads announced that they would be watching Summer, Kenzie and Finn dance so they could decide on line placements and then they would assign the positions later so they dismissed everyone else for a break. Harper went to grab her water bottle but a hand grasping her wrist stopped her. She turned around to see Noah.

"Hey Noah, everything okay?" She asked as Harper wasn't entirely sure what he needed to talk about. She felt as though she was missing something.

"Well if I'm correct, I believe you told me that you wanted to wait for things around here to calm down before we went any further with whatever it is we have." Noah said as a subtle smirk found its way onto his face. Harper had been dreading this conversation since they had discussed it in the first place. Now that Angela was gone, there were no excuses for her to not hang out with Noah.

"So what are you getting at?" Harper asked pretending as though she didn't know what he was suggesting.

"Harper, will you go on a date with me tonight?" Although she still wasn't one hundred percent sure about it, Harper couldn't help but feel the oh so familiar butterflies inside. Her voice caught in her throat as she became flustered and tried to muster a response.

"Sure. Where should I meet you?" She replied with a smile as she met his twinkling eyes with her own. Noah's smile visibly widened at her response.

"Uh just be in studio A at eight after rehearsals." Noah instructed her and he rushed away, Harper assumed, to go and set things up. She chuckled softly to herself a she saw Noah sprinting out of the studio with a slight spring in his step and was soon approached by Richelle who had a mocking smile on her smug expression.

"So a date with Noah?" The blonde asked teasingly as she nudged Harper on the arm who then responded by simply nodding with a slight blush across her cheeks. "Is something wrong?"

"Not really, I'm just nervous I guess. For some reason I feel like I still can't trust him." Harper vented to Richelle who rolled her eyes in realisation. Harper's issue wasn't to do with Noah, it was to do with herself.

"Harper you're just over thinking it. You keep doubting yourself and now it's interfering with your love life, just have a little faith and take a risk for once. Noah's crazy about you anyway." Hearing those words come from Richelle really meant a lot because she always told it as it was so clearly it was the truth. Perhaps she was over thinking it.

When they were called back by Michelle and Emily, everyone's nerves kicked right back into high gear. They were going to announce the line positions. Harper didn't necessarily want to be front and centre but she definitely didn't want the back line. Before they could announce anything, a timid looking figure walked around the corner. It was Piper. Everyone rushed over to give her a warm welcome back to the team, they had missed their twelfth and final member dearly.

"It's great to have you back Piper." Emily said before she switched on her 'business face'. "So in our back row, we have Piper, Finn, Kenzie, Ozzy and Kingston." The person who's name was called last looked particularly disappointed in his position but Harper believed that Emily and Michelle had put everyone where they were for a reason.

"And in our middle row we have Amy, Harper, Richelle and Jacquie." Harper was more than thrilled to be in the middle row as she beamed in excitement at her sister, but the other three didn't seem too pleased at all. Richelle and Jacquie looked especially irritated because that could only mean one thing. Summer had made it to the front row.

"And finally in our front row we will have Henry and Noah on each side, and Summer in the middle." Emily concluded as she informed the dancers that these would be the final positions for the ten person dance and if they heard any complaints, they would not be impressed. Harper knew for certain that Richelle and Jacquie were not going to stand for the middle row, and Amy appeared to be rather peeved as well. Michelle and Emily were in for a huge amount of drama.

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a/n: wow 2 chapter for you today! i hope you've enjoyed them. if you can, please drop a vote and/or comment if you wouldn't mind. thank you so much for reading :)