Missing Moments

The Third Time Finn Asks Piper Out

6x07

It was a rare day where Piper hadn't been required to be at rehearsal. Emily and Michelle were focusing on the dances for the upcoming Wild Stylz Dance Convention, which Piper hadn't been chosen for, so she technically had the day off. Even still, she'd walked to the studio anyway, desperate to get some fresh air that afternoon. Her mind had been running in overdrive all day with the thought that she had been overlooked for the convention dances because she was the team's weak link. After feeling suffocated by her thoughts all morning while trying to work on her online classes, she had eventually decided the best way to silence them was to go to the studio and work on her aerial.

It was late afternoon when Piper finally arrived at the studio. As she was putting her bag and shoes in her locker, she heard laughter in the hallway and the unmistakable voices of the boys. The voices faded away, and a moment later, Finn entered the locker room. Of course.

She should have known by this point that she couldn't come to the studio without running into him somehow.

"Hey Piper! What are you doing here? I thought you weren't coming in today," he said as he walked over to his locker and pulled it open.

"I could say the same for you," she told him stiffly, shutting her locker and crossing her arms as she faced him. The only people Emily and Michelle had officially called in for rehearsal today were Summer, Richelle, and Jacquie.

"Oh, you know the group dance for the convention?" Finn told her as he rummaged through his locker in search of something. Piper simply nodded, and he continued. "Kingston and Ozzy thought it wasn't fair that we didn't have a chance to audition, so we put together a routine for Emily and Michelle."

Perhaps that should have come as a surprise to Piper, but honestly, it sounded exactly like something the boys would do. In spite of herself, she asked curiously, "Did it work?"

"Nope," he said with a shake of the head. He seemed to find whatever it was he was looking for, his face lighting up as he reached to the back of the top shelf of his locker and pulled out what was clearly his wallet.

"Hey, do you know LaTroy?" he asked suddenly, abruptly changing the subject as he slipped his wallet in his pocket.

Piper nodded slowly, her brows knitting together. "Do you?" she asked, failing to see why her former teammate was relevant to this conversation.

"Yeah, he helped us choreograph our routine!"

"Wait, he's here? Now?" Piper asked in surprise. The last she had heard, LaTroy and Sloane were still on tour with Luther Brown.

"Yeah! We're all going to Shakes and Ladders now if you want to come."

It would be fun to see LaTroy and hear about the tour with Luther Brown, but Piper had come to the studio on a mission that she needed to see through. With a shake of the head, she told him, "I really need to work on my acro."

"Okay," he said with a shrug.

Even though he was smiling at her, she was sure he must be thinking something about how pathetic it was that she still hadn't gotten her aerial down yet. After all, his first impression of her had been that she was the girl who the whole team had to do planks for because she couldn't do an aerial while everyone else on the team could.

But he did say you were an incredible dancer, the voice of reason pointed out in the back of her mind.

He was just being nice, her anxiety piped back.

Dread filling her at the reminder of the worst rehearsal of her life, Piper turned to leave the locker room but stopped when it dawned on her that she couldn't go to Studio One because AcroNation was renting out the space. Would Studio A even be open right now? Reluctantly turning back to Finn, she asked, "Um, is anyone in Studio A right now? Do you know?"