Missing Moments

Dancemania - Piper's Perspective (Part Two)

7x23

It was honestly a shock that A-Troupe was actually going to be dancing in the finals at Dancemania. Piper was still trying to process it all as she followed Nick and Emily out to the green room. As much as she hated to admit it, she had been preparing herself to pack her bags and fly home in the morning. It wasn't that she hadn't had faith in Ozzy or Finn, but she had just been trying to be realistic. But Ozzy had outdone himself with his solo, and she was ecstatic to be staying another night.

"Wow, that was really something, wasn't it? I mean, Fredrico doesn't like anyone. Ozzy should be so proud of himself," Nick was enthusing to Emily as he turned around to face Piper and the rest of the team. His brows knit together, and he asked suddenly, "Where is everyone?"

Piper looked behind her to realize that her team wasn't following her like she thought. She was about to offer to go back and see what was going on when the doors to the studio suddenly opened, and Amy led the rest of the team out. All of them were grinning in their excitement about moving on to the finals tomorrow.

"Okay, you all need to be here bright and early in the morning. We have the stage at 9 to practice for the finals," Emily told them all, getting straight to business as usual. "Make sure to get plenty of rest tonight, okay?"

The team nodded, and Emily and Nick were about to lead the way back to the hotel when Henry suddenly spoke up. "Actually, we all wanna hang out here for a while. Celebrate as a team, you know."

Nick simply nodded and told them that was alright, and Emily left them all with the instructions to not stay too late and to walk back to the hotel as a group. Piper turned to Amy curiously. "Why are we staying here?" she asked. She had clearly missed some kind of team meeting when following Nick and Emily out of the studio. Personally, she was ready to go back to the hotel, change into pajamas, and go straight to sleep, but her teammates clearly had other plans.

"We're celebrating making it to the finals," Amy said with a shrug before moving to sit on one of the couches, Summer plopping down next to her. Both of them threw their feet up on the coffee table as the rest of their team spread out.

Piper glanced around, noting that Finn was absent for some reason. Had he slipped out to find the washroom or something?

She was proud of her boyfriend for taking initiative today. He'd really gone out of his way to help Ozzy. It was that caring attitude and thoughtfulness that had attracted Piper to Finn in the first place. She had been so fixated on his flaws recently that she had lost sight of all the qualities that she loved about him.

She had been avoiding him, at first because she was mad at him, and then because she was mad at herself, and now, she just didn't know how to make up with him. She'd brought all of this on herself, and she was tired of making herself and everyone around her miserable. She just wanted to pretend like none of this had ever happened and go back to normal.

Heaving a sigh, she squeezed onto the couch on Amy's other side and admitted, "I may have overreacted with Finn."

"Oh gee, you don't say?" Amy said sarcastically.

Piper gave a tight smile in response. "I'm sorry for being so difficult this week."

"It's okay. I still love you."

Smile growing less forced, Piper lay her head on Amy's shoulder, looping her arm through her best friend's. Amy smiled, resting her head on top of hers.

As their teammates chatted around them, Piper glanced around the green room. Finn had yet to make an appearance, and she was starting to worry about him. Where was he? Should she go look for him? Surely he wasn't still beating himself up for missing the flight. After tonight, no one was thinking about that anymore.