In Another World

Chapter 5

Unfortunately, Joe and Dianne's respective commitments prevented them from seeing each other during the following week. They had managed to check in with each other every so often, but they didn't want to distract the other person from what they were doing, (or come on too strong) so, their conversations didn't last very long!

Dianne was busy rehearsing with Lee; which was intense, yet so much fun. He had taken to the Jive like a duck to water, and she felt confident enough in his abilities to get him more involved in the choreography; bringing his own style to the routine. She didn't want to get ahead of herself, but Dianne was feeling really positive about their performance at the weekend.

As well as producing videos, Joe had been overseeing the release of Zoe's new book whilst she was focused on Strictly. During the process, nobody realised that there would be an overlap in her commitments, but Joe was happy to lend a hand if it meant taking some of the pressure off his sister. She had been struggling over the last few days with the Charleston, which was apparently an even more upbeat dance than the Jive, involving lots of 'swivel action'. Joe hadn't known what that meant at first, but after some research, he could understand why she was finding it so tough! When Zoe called him during one of her breaks in training to complain about her dance, the young man jumped at the opportunity to raise her mood.

"Your book's doing really well," Joe had told his sister, "The copies are practically flying off the shelves!"

Zoe let out a breath, "Good, I'm so glad".

"And you should be so proud as well, you've worked really hard," Joe assured her before adding theatrically, "Vlogging, writing, dancing: is there nothing that Zoella can't do?"

"The Charleston," Zoe grumbled with a pout, "I just don't get it!"

"Hey, less of the negativity; thank you!" Neil chastised playfully as he approached his partner, then waved at the phone, "'Sup, Joseph?"

"You alright, Neil?" Joe grinned, "How's everything going?"

The ginger guy shrugged, "We're having a few... struggle moments," he replied diplomatically before squeezing Zoe's shoulder, "But I know it'll be alright on the night".

"Thanks," the young woman replied gratefully before turning back to her brother, "But if it's not, be prepared to spend the evening voting!"

"Don't worry, I've always got a 'plan B'..." Neil assured her, then nodded at the phone, "Yeah, Joe; you're the 'plan B'!"

Joe shrugged, "Well, I was gonna do it anyway!"

Neil chuckled, "You know, it probably won't come to that," he amended before rubbing Zoe's back encouragingly, "If you want, we can change the choreography to make it a bit easier; and so you're not worrying about it as much".

The young woman smiled slightly and nodded, "Thanks, partner".

Neil returned the smile, "No probs, but we'd better get back to it," he pointed out, "We need to review the choreography, make the changes, then get it in our heads; there's no time to waste!"

"Yeah, I get the message: 'put the phone away!'" Zoe sighed as Neil headed back to restart the music, then frowned at Joe, "Sorry to cut this short, Broseph".

Joe shook his head, "It's fine, you've got work to do," he assured her, "Go, be a slapper!"

Zoe did a double take, "Excuse me?!"

Joe's eyes widened in horror as he realised his blunder, "Oh, Jesus: 'flapper'!" he exclaimed quickly, "I meant 'be a flapper'!"

Even though he was on the other side of the dance studio, Joe could hear Neil cackling through the phone at his words, "Oh, brilliant!"