Showtime: S7 Ending And S8 Fanfic

Warm-Ups and Whispers

Richelle's POV: 

Well, that was a disaster. It's only been one day since Jones forced me to lead B-troupe's rehearsal and it went... I mean you know how it went. It's clearly a sign that teaching isn't for me. Leading isn't for me. 

I came into the studio an hour early to practice my solo and to not be bothered by Jones. But I can't stop thinking about what Summer said: no one in their right mind would leave a tour to compete. No one would, I keep telling myself. There's no reason to fear everyone leaving, although I don't think anyone's found out yet. Still, gossip spreads like wildfire so none the less, I wouldn't be surprised. 

"Hey, blondie." The way I audibly growled caught me off guard. I slowly turned around. 

"What do you want Jones?" 

"I came to rehearse, but you beat me to it." No, he knew I would be here early and came regardless. He didn't even have anything to rehearse yet. We had barely choreographed any up dances. If anyone did leave A-troupe, I guess it wouldn't have that big of an impact. 

"In that case, you can watch me... and be quiet," I demanded before continuing to run through my choreo. 

"So, how did you find yesterday's lesson?" 

"It was horrible." I should have ignored him but at the same time, I wanted to tell him his idea was horrendous. 

"It wasn't that bad." A grin grew on his face as though he got a kick out of infuriating me. I calmed myself down. 

"Yes, it was." I did a double, no triple, pirouette. Showing Jones that he wasn't putting me off. If we were competing, I would already be suspicious of him. I had heard countless horror stories of the way people play with the dancers' mind and sneakily steal choreo only for them to leave the team at the last minute. But we weren't competing so there wasn't really much to lose. Although, it was quite strange to think I missed the risk that came with competitions. Being almost professional dancers, created a new sense of security. 

"Wait, I'm still confused about everything that happened. Could you explain it again?" At this point, I was sure he was just testing me. 

"Even though I explained this, like, ten times, I will explain it once again. We had A-troupe. 10 dancers, two alternates." I broke down each phrase and he nodded along to every other syllable to show he was understanding. 

"The ten dancers wanted to audition for Dancemania but Summer left the team-" 

"Why did she leave?" 

"Not important," I brushed off his comment without hesitation. "She left and an alternate took her place. We get into Dancemania, she doesn't. She goes to B-troupe. B -troupe plan to go to Nationals. I leave A-troupe. Summer takes my place. B-troupe no longer has any regional-winning dancers."

"Ooooh!" His mouth gaped open as though now he finally understood. 

"I'm glad you understand now." I got up to continue rehearsing but time had flown faster than I thought. I stopped dancing before I could start as other A-troupe members began to walk in. 

"What's B-troupe gonna do?" Henry asked. So they had heard. Ozzy shrugged; he must have gotten the news from Izzy. 

I joined them on the benches. 

"I feel bad for them," Ozzy said. Henry agreed. But, as Summer said, there was nothing we could do. Unless someone was willing to make a massive sacrifice. 

They both let out a sigh, before Ozzy brought out his phone, changing the topic. 

"Guess what I saw on my for you page?"Henry leaned, looking for the answer to Ozzy's question. I also leaned in, trying to get a better look; the angle of his phone favoured Henry. 

On his screen was Kenzie. She was in Studio-A and by her outfit, I could tell it was from yesterday. 

Henry cupped his hands around his mouth."Damn, 1.2 million likes?" I thought I had misheard Henry. 1.2 million likes? 

"Can't lie, it was a good combo." Ozzy swiped to the right of his screen. It was Kenzie's only video but it had already gotten her ten thousand followers. A few more A-troupers walked in. Some stretched, while others continued their conversations. Kenzie walked into the studio. We had all secretly been waiting for her.

"Ooooh," Ozzy mocked. "Miss Famous has arrived." Kenzie shot him a quizzical look. 

"What are you talking about?" 

Henry laughed along as though he thought she was playing some game. "Have you not checked your phone?" 

"No." A look of concern grew on her face. "I left it at the studio. Summer said she's returning it to me today." She looked around to check she hasn't arrived. 

"Wait," Amy joined the conversation. "Are you talking about that Tik Tok. Kenzie, was that you?" Kenzie nodded slowly. 

"You guys saw that?" Before anyone answered, Summer briskly walked in. 

"Sorry, am I..." She seemed relieved to find that rehearsals had started. However, I glanced at my fitness watch and realized that we should have started about seven minutes ago. 

"Kenzie, here's your phone. Sorry, my mum really needed me last night." 

"No problem," she said, grabbing the phone from her hand. Everyone stared at her intensely. It was like you were watching her open a Christmas you had gotten specifically. 

"Oh, my gosh." 

"Dancers," Michelle strolled in with a clipboard in hand. "Why aren't we dancing?" We all murmured apologies, spreading out to begin warming up. 

"Kenzie, can you lead today's warm-up." Kenzie nodded. She still had the same stunned look on her face. I genuinely felt happy for her. 

Michelle left, letting everyone continue their gossip. 

"Have you guys heard what happened to B-troupe?" Ozzy asked, bringing up the topic again. Which seemed weird, seeing as I thought A-troupe would want to talk about Kenzie's video more. 

"What happened?" A few people asked. 

"They can't go to Nationals," I said, just realizing how little I had talked. 

"Why?" 

"There are regional-winning dancers on their team," Jones said. I rolled my eyes. What did he know about all of this? Except for the stuff I had explained a million times. 

A few of the A-troupers began to look guilty. It wasn't our fault and we couldn't help if those were the rules. 

"So, The Next Step isn't going to Nationals?" Lily asked. When you put it that way, it sucked. 

As much as I felt sorry for B-troupe, I felt sorry for my past self. The lengths we had gone to qualify for Regionals, back when we were divided: East vs West. I danced on an injury just for that video. Jeopardizing our places at the studio to overthrow Miss Angela. We risked dancing in a higher division and eventually Noah left because of it. After all of that, we were going to throw away everything we had worked for?

Michelle walked back in, disruption my thoughts. "Are you guys ready?" We all nodded, even though we had done more talking than stretching. 

"Okay, so today I'll be teaching you the choreo for our opening dance."