HEARTBURST,, The Next Step

[2.21] hello trouble

‧₊˚✩

Applause echoed from every seat in the room whilst Maxie, Giselle and Thalia watched on as a woman dressed in a nicely fitted navy blue dress made her way onto the stage to announce the evening. In the small amount of time since they had arrived, the performance hall seemed to have filled up every seat with spectators, family members and even dance scouts, all ready to watch the entertainment.

Maxie herself couldn't exactly fathom why so many people had turned up with so much excitement, I mean, the night was going to be filled with the same music playing on repeat so many times it would've driven her mad if she didn't have her own choreography to focus on.

"Right now, Max, Thalia and I are just in the audience waiting for the quartet competition to start," Giselle informed the camera with a giant beam stretched across her face. "We're so excited!"

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen." The woman on the stage began to talk, silencing the applauding crowd. "Thank you for joining us this evening. Please help welcome our junior dance troupe from The Next Step!" She called out, welcoming the first four dancers to the stage.

Walking onto the stage alongside Beca, Josh and Richelle was incredibly nerve-wracking for Elvita, purely because she had never done such an important competition before. No matter how bubbly she presented herself to be, she was still just a twelve-year-old girl wanting to be a dancer, wanting to be the best version of herself.

Looking into the audience, El scanned the crowd for some sort of push for her confidence before her view fell on Maxie. The two girls shared a smile that seemed to encourage the young J-Trouper as she made her way into her starting position beside Beca.

Back in the crowd, Maxie's attention was pulled away from the stage and over to a certain blonde-haired girl who made her way over to sit on the empty chair — that was allocated to Amanda, but the girl was M.I.A. — next to her, giving Maxie, Thalia, and Giselle smiles in greeting as she did so.

"Oh, my gosh, Michelle! What are you doing here?" Giselle asked somewhat excitedly, half confused, half glad.

As if it was obvious, Michelle responded with a playful eye roll. "I came to watch, of course. I mean, just because I'm not dancing anymore doesn't mean I can't support you guys, right?"

"Well, I do hope you paid for a ticket, Michelle, because if you just turned up here unannounced, I don't think that's very supportive of you," Maxie told her, the serious look on her face wiping the girl's grin away momentarily, before she broke into a small giggle, assuming Maxie was joking.

"I don't get why she's laughing." Maxie shrugged, completely unamused. "I mean, it's an increasing problem in this day and age that people just rock up at places unannounced and just don't pay."

Giselle, on the other hand, laughed it off slightly before admitting, "I have a feeling that Michelle might be missing us, just a little bit."

"Regardless of whether or not you paid," Thalia began, shooting a look to Maxie that told her not to scare Michelle off again, "I'm really glad you came."

"All three of us are," Giselle then added, nudging Maxie slightly.

"Yeah, I guess."

The same music the three girls, plus Amanda, had been working on the past week began to play, causing the four J-Troupers on stage to begin their dance, the adrenaline from the first competition seeming to push them to perform harder than ever.