Keep Your Shirt On, Noah 2

Back and Better

Richelle walked down the corridor to studio 1, trying to ignore the anxiety she had about returning, especially considering the terms she left on. Richelle had been forced out of her duet, and the team, by Jacquie, yet Noah was too infatuated to see her true colours. It had been two weeks since she had violently smashed a photo frame with a photo of her and Noah in, in the middle of studio A, with everyone watching.

He had asked Jacquie to go to a prom themed party, even though he seemed to not like her for how she had been treating Richelle. Truthfully she had started to like him a little again, so it hurt a lot, more so though because she thought he was her friend. The prom was in just over a week, but she had no intention of going now. She was just going to take things easy.

She had butterflies in her stomach but she made sure her face looked as normal as possible. The thought of everyone knowing that she felt completely on her own, and defenseless, was terrifying. She was Richelle. She was strong, straight faced and intimidating. She wasn't weak.

Richelle walked into studio 1 and didn't hold eye contact with anyone for more than a quarter of a second. She sat on one of the benches and messed with her nails while she debated what she would usually be doing right now. Stretching? Just sitting? Waiting? Josh and Zara were in the corner warming up, Amy was in a split against the wall and Lola wasn't here yet. She didn't want to think about where Noah and Jacquie could possibly be.

Richelle took a breath, slid herself onto the floor and started stretching. Eye contact was still being avoided, but she could sense Zara and Josh muttering about her.

Richelle had her face on her knees in a pike stretch, with her eyes closed, breathing into the stretch to get the most out of it. At the sound of a familiar voice though, her eyes snapped open and she could feel her heart beat start to quicken. 

"Joshy boy!" Noah called as he walked into the room and Richelle heard the footsteps across the floor as Noah presumably went to Josh. She had yet to sit up, and continued listening. "How was the hockey game?"

"Good! The atmosphere was great, I always forget how much I love it." Josh replied, and Richelle bit her lip as she slowly sat up, still avoiding eye contact. She slid into a split and kept her head down. 

Richelle saw Zara's feet leave Josh's side and go towards the door way, where another pair of feet were, in size 5, black trainers. Richelle switched the leg she was splitting with and peered to the doorway for half a second, long enough to know Jacquie was looking at her. She looked back down but Jacquie had seen her now, it was too late.

"Hey Richelle." Jacquie called over to her, loud enough to over power everyone else's conversations. 

Richelle rolled her eyes, prepared herself, and looked at Jacquie. "Hi."

"Come over, we're having a girls catch up." Jacquie smiled at her and Richelle had to make a decision in under three seconds whether she was faking this niceness. She kept her guard up, but thought maybe she'd chance it. Richelle got up from the floor and approached them both, still finding it hard to make eye contact without feeling awkward and out of place.

Zara was showing pictures of a boy she had a crush on, "I like him, but I don't like him... Do you know what I mean?"

"Totally," Jacquie nodded.

"Like he's so clever and he compliments me all the time but then sometimes he's a bit of a jerk, so... I don't know." Zara showed a photo of him to Richelle and she nodded politely in response, not really interested. Zara put her phone down on the bench, "Anyway Richelle, how are you?"

Richelle tried to be optimistic, "I'm fine. Ready to get back to work."

"Good! I'm just going to put my phone away then I'll teach you some of the new choreo if you like?" Zara was being really nice but Richelle just didn't really trust anyone anymore. She agreed nonetheless, although now it meant she was stuck talking to just Jacquie. Zara went to the locker room and Richelle attempted a smile that didn't look as fake as it actually was.