Fly With You - TNS Season 7

chapter 12

"Alright, dancers, listen up. We have some important announcements today."

Emily stood in the center of Studio A, clipboard in hand. Nick bounced on his heels excitedly beside her. The entirety of A Troupe were gathered around, awaiting the big news.

"Firstly, I want to let you know that I have to submit the names of the twelve dancers that will be competing at Nationals by the end of today," Emily continued. "Putting your name on this list means you are giving your full commitment to A Troupe. If anyone is going to have a problem with that, I encourage you to speak up now."

No one uttered a word. Good. I was confident that our team was dedicated, and ready to win. We were willing to do whatever it took, no matter how many hours we'd have to put in. We were going to win Nationals this year.

"If you're all 100% on board, I'll let the Absolute Dance board know the names of A Troupe later today," Emily said, making a quick note on her clipboard. "Now, with that settled, it's time to start thinking about who is going to represent The Next Step in each round of the competition."

"There are lots of different rounds at Nationals," Nick explained. "Each one is an elimination round. At the start of the competition, there's sixty-four teams. That gets whittled down to just one team. Hopefully, that will be us."

Emily raised an eyebrow. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'm going to go through the format for each round of the competition, for those of you who don't already know how it's structured."

She explained the different rounds, that myself and a few others were already familiar with - male soloist, small groups, duets, female soloist, and then the semi-finals and the finals (both being ten-person dances) - and then gestured to her clipboard.

"We're going to be holding auditions for all of these categories. I'd advise you to take today to think about which routines or positions you'd like to compete for. Sign-up sheets will be posted tomorrow, with more information to follow." Emily glanced around the room, nodded once, before briskly walking back into her office. 

The chatter began as soon as she'd disappeared. Everyone started to gather into small groups, excitedly discussing which categories they were going to compete in. I scanned the room. My eyes kept searching until I spotted Lena.

Huh. She was standing at the back of the crowd by herself, looking withdrawn and... upset? I made my way over to her, anxious. "Lena, are you alright?"

She whipped her head round to look at me, relaxing upon seeing who it was. "Oh, Richelle! Sorry, I was just... staring into space. Yeah, uh, I'm okay."

I wasn't convinced. "You looked pretty out of it. Nervous about auditions?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, I guess so."

Who did she think I was? Some kind of idiot? I took her by the hand and led her into the costume closet, shutting the door for a bit of privacy. The rest of A Troupe were still squawking outside. It was giving me a headache.

"Lena," I said, looking at her carefully. "Seriously. What's up? You seem sad."

After a good few seconds of silence, she exhaled, glancing up to meet my eyes.

"Will you promise not to tell anyone?"

* 

I'd not been planning on telling Richelle. In fact, I'd not been planning on telling anyone. What had happened between Dylan and I on Friday night was in the past. I'd convinced myself just to keep it between me and him. I didn't want to hurt him more than I already had.