Clandestine {Harry Styles Fanfiction}

Part 7

I'm so sorry it took me so long to update! It was because I decided to write two chapters instead of one before posting them. They were originally supposed to be all one chapter but it was way too long!

Enjoy:))

Maddie's costume>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Madeline

“Ten minutes until showtime.”

It was Christmas Eve, the night of the Capital FM Jingle Ball. All of the little girls and boys were curled up in their beds, waiting for Santa Clause to leave presents under their Christmas trees. I however, was about to endure the longest ten minutes of my life.

Ten more minutes. Ten long, unbearable minutes until I would perform in front of twenty thousand people. I looked over at Ryan who was warming up next to me and he grinned, obviously not nervous at all. I, however, was petrified.

I continued my warm-up, stretching my splits and then my back. But inside, I was shaking. I was full of insecurities and doubt. It wasn’t that I didn’t know the dance. I did. It was simply the sheer number of people in the audience. That was it. I had stage fright.

Stage fright had never been a problem for me before this night. I had always loved performing in front of people. But this was high stakes. I would either rise to the occasion, or crash under the pressure.

I pondered this as I stretched my right oversplit, then my left. My dressing room was so close to the stage that I could hear the frantic screaming of teenage girls. That probably meant that either Justin Bieber or One Direction was performing at the moment. This did nothing to calm my nerves.

“Maddie!” Ryan was standing over me, hands on hips, and impatient look on his face.

“Huh?” I said, meeting his eyes.

“I’ve been trying to get your attention for the past minute now!”

“Sorry. What did you want to tell me?” I eased out of my split and sat with my knees to my chest.

Ryan sighed, sitting down on the floor across from me, “Maddie, I can tell that you’re nervous. And I’m telling you, you have no reason to be.”

I sighed. “I can’t help it. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you. You are so talented Maddie. I’m so grateful that I got the chance to partner with you. And I’m telling you this as your friend, not as your partner. You are going to do great. Don’t worry about the people in the audience. Just focus on dancing. You’ll have them all in the palm of your hand,” he paused to meet my eyes, “You were born to dance.”

Ryan’s brown eyes sparkled with truth. There was complete honesty in them. He was being genuine.

 “Thank you Ry. You’re the best,” I told him, pulling him in for a hug.

“I know,” Ryan sang, a cocky grin stretching across his face, “Now let’s mark the dance before we go on stage.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet.

We quickly went through the choreography one last time and I felt my heart pound in my chest. Ryan’s kind words had helped to settle my nerves, but I still felt like I was going to puke. We were close now. Less than five minutes away.

I sat at my dressing table and double checked my makeup one last time. A professional makeup artist had done my makeup and my hair, and they both looked almost perfect. My hair was down and softly curled but pulled back away from my face, so it wouldn’t get in the way when I was turning and during lifts. There was a large white bow in it, to make me look very young and innocent, since I was supposed to be a young school-age girl. My makeup was a little heavy for my taste; sparkly eye shadow and fake eyelashes on my already thick natural ones. I had gotten my thick eyelashes from my grandmother. My grandfather always used to say I was the spitting image of her on stage.