SHAMELESS

EIGHTEEN

NEW DANCE PARTNER...

NEXT DAY...

The school bell rang announcing the end of the school for the day and the school's entrance doors flew open. Minutes later, Lilliana and Tessa together with Jake and Daren walked out of the building with their backpacks loosely hanging over their shoulders. They crossed the street to get to the ice rink for the auditions. Walking through the glass doors, the small group of friends made their way to the audience seats and sat down.

They waited... and waited until too much time had passed and Mrs Bassett had finally ran out of patience. Getting her phone from inside her bag, she tapped on the screen before placing the phone's speaker over her ear and got up from her seat. She walked closer to the rink to talk with the person on the other side of the call. They had been sitting there for about an hour and oddly enough, none of the auditionees had shown up to their auditions yet.

Lilliana was beginning to worry, she bit on her nails while staring at the closed glass doors in hopes that someone would walk in. Noticing this, Tessa wrapped her arm around the girl's shoulder and said "Let's wait a little more, maybe they're running late" trying to comfort her friend.

"All of them‽‽ I doubt it, maybe they changed their minds" Daren carelessly shared his thoughts out loud and earned himself a glare from Tessa. His words weren't very helpful to their current situation. She gestured for her boyfriend to deal with his friend before going back to calming Lilliana. She whispered sweet nothings into her ear all the while rubbing her back with her hand soothingly.

After hanging up her last call, Mrs Bassett walked back to the group with her head low in disappointment. She let out a heavy sigh, attracting all their attention to herself and said "No one is coming" Lilliana scowled at her, confused causing her to explain further " ...other than Daren, everyone who was going to audition with us just cancelled"

“What‽‽ how?? Why?? That can't be right” Tessa asked the right questions but to the wrong person. Mrs Bassett too wandered the same, until yesterday… Everything was fine. She had even spoken to them through an email to confirm the date and time for the audition so why were they suddenly cancelling?? She didn't dwell much on the reason though as they had very little time left until the competition.

Clearing her throat, she quickly took on her role as Lilliana's coach and turned to Daren… their last and only option "... Congratulations Daren, you'll be competing together with Lilliana in the Last Chance To Dance competition" she said. Daren bit his lower lip to keep his lips from stretching into a smug smile and nodded.

The coach smiled, clapping her palms together and said "Good, now you two go change so that we can get started... we have no time to waste"

Sighing heavily, Lilliana silently stood up and walked to the girl's locker rooms to do as she's told. She stripped out of her uniform and neatly folded them before placing it inside her locker along with her backpack and took out her sports wear. While changing, she couldn't help but think about how suspicious it was for everyone to cancel their auditions all at once... that too on the day of the audition. But without proof, she couldn't do anything. She was only glad that she had Daren for now, even if they didn't win the competition at least they would've been exposed to the world.

She put her hair up in a messy bun and grabbed her skates before heading back out to the rink. She sat down to put them on and carefully made her way onto the frozen surface. To warm up, she skated around the rink while she waited for her new partner.

Five minutes later, Daren joined her on the ice and like a day ago... the two began skating. On their coach's instructions, they started doing the dance routine Cameron and Lilliana had been working on for the past few months especially for the competition while the others observed them. Surprisingly, other than the girl's body stiffening up everytime Darren would lift her, their moves were on sink... almost like that of a couple that had been figure skating together for years. Daren wasn't as crusty as expected of a person new to figure skating. It was clear he had lied about his skills, he handled himself well on ice and even knew a couple of tricks.

◇

DAYS LATER

It was finally the day of the competition. Lilliana and Daren were in their changing room waiting to be called outside. The girl stood in front of a vanity table with her phone over her ear while Daren was laid back in a sofa.

“You're really not coming??” Lilliana said on the phone with her father, feeling both sad and disappointed.

The man sighed on the other side and said “No princess, I'm sorry. I thought the work would be done by this time but…” the girl bit her lower lip to stop it from trembling and looked down at her feet as tears welled up in her eyes. Though she understood his reasons behind not being present, it would've made her feel better to have at least one of her parents present on that important day.

“It's okay dad, when do you think you'll be able to come back??” she mumbled.

“In two weeks and I'll make it up to you when I come back princess, I promise” Jackson said, sensing his daughter's sadness through the phone.

“I know…” Lilliana said just as Mrs Bassett walked in the room “... Okay dad, I gotta go now. I'll call you later, wish me luck”

"Good luck princess" her father said before disconnecting the call.

Mrs Bassett looked at the girl with concern and asked “Are you okay Liana??” The girl hummed in response and turned to the vanity table behind her. Looking herself in the mirror, she wiped her face clean of any tear stains and retouched her make up before turning back to their coach.

“It's time to go, you're up next” Mrs Bassett informed them. Daren got up from the couch he had been laying on and walked to the door. Pulling it open, he let the ladies go through first before stepping out himself and followed them out to the rink just in time for their names to be announced for the next act.

“Up next, coming from the city of London… Lilliana Barnette and Daren Malcov” they carefully got on the slippery surface and under the spotlight, began their dance. Although she was upset at first, Lilliana quickly relaxed and focused on their routine.

Damon sat in the front row along side Tessa, her parents and her boyfriend… the least pleased and no, it wasn't because of the dance but the boy dancing with Lilliana. He recognized him to be the boy from the club and immediately wanted to snap his neck for daring to show his face after his warning. What had happened to her old partner anyway??

Five minutes later, the music finally trailed off and the two finished their performance. They came to a stop and the crowd erupted into cheers as they bowed in thank you before leaving the ice and went to sit down. Taking their seats, they nervously waited for the results to appear on the big billboard screen. All the contestants’ names appeared on the screen with their scores next to them, Lilliana jumped in joy when theirs was the highest of them all making them the winners of the competition.

She hugged her new partner before running to hug her coach who was standing nearby and then her friend.

“hey, don't I get a hug too??” Damon joked, standing next to the two friends. Lilliana pulled away from Tessa and hugged him, jumping into his strong arms. Though they haven't been seeing eye to eye lately, she was glad he was there.

“Congratulations little flower” Damon whispered into her hair before carefully putting her down. Mumbling a small shy thank you, she smiled at her coach before going to get their award with Daren. They did a couple of interviews with the press before going home.