Keep your shirt on, Noah.

True Colours

"Jacquie!" Noah called after her as she was about to enter the locker room for Emily's studio. She looked over her shoulder and saw him, but continued to walk in and start putting her stuff away. She wasn't going to let up so easily and she wanted to see Noah's true colours.

He followed her and his mouth started to speak before his brain, trying not to ask her straight away about the meaning of her possible threat. 

"Um... Jacquie, so how are you? Did you enjoy ballet? I did, i go every week. Wait, you do too, but we know that." He laughed but realised he wasn't acting as cool as he had intended. She side eyed him and carried on sorting out her dance bag.

He ran his hands through his hair, "Sorry, my brain and my mouth don't work well together when i'm around girls." This made Jacquie smile slightly but she had to try and keep a straight, stern face. 

There were a few seconds of silence and with no response from Jacquie, Noah decided to just ask her. He looked around to check no one was in ear shot, "Were you threatening me and Shell?"

She closed her locker loudly and turned to face him, "Shell?"

"Richelle. Were you threatening me and Richelle?" Jacquie looked at the ground, hoping Noah wasn't thinking badly of her. He seemed to really care about this duet. He sounded desperate, "You're not going to tell Emily are you?" 

Jacquie put her hands on her waist, "Emily has her studio and Michelle has studio A. If you want to dance in there, why are you even on Emily's troupe?"

This irritated Noah and he scoffed, "It's just a studio, we don't intend on leaving Emily's troupe." Like he had said earlier, the studio was special to him and Richelle. Plus, it really was just a studio! It wasn't as though they were rehearsing with Michelle or any of her troupe in there.

"Well," Jacquie looked him up and down, "Emily's been in her office since quarter to eight, with Daniel. She already knows you weren't rehearsing in there because she would have been able to see you if you had been."

Noah felt his stomach turn and his face heat up. He hoped that Richelle hadn't gotten the keys from Emily and that she hadn't told her about their plan to rehearse early. That way, Emily would be completely clueless to them even being in the building, let alone studio A.

Jacquie leaned on the lockers with her hand, "Emily wanted to talk to me about working on my technique a little more, so she told me to come in early." Noah frowned, wondering where this conversation was going. 

"She told me to work on my ballet using the barres in studio A," She rolled her eyes, "Even though i'm good at ballet... I think it was only because studio A has more mirrors... That's why i came in during your rehearsal."

Noah squinted, "So you didn't come for the water bottle?"

Jacquie looked disgusted and pulled a face, "The bottle is gross, it's been there for months, i threw it in the trash as soon as i left the room." Noah felt almost ashamed at how gullible he had been, and knew Richelle probably hadn't believed Jacquie's excuse.