Fight Song

Chapter 8

Joe's PoV
The end of Saturday was drawing near, and we'd really made some good progress. Since opening up to each other and trusting each other, we suddenly connected way better than we had done before. Everything just came naturally, and pretending we were in love with each other wasn't too difficult. I honestly almost considered Dianne a friend. Almost. She's still a rival who at the end of the day will do whatever it takes to win. But we'd definitely become closer.

"It's 7pm," Dianne breathed as we finished our run through, putting her hands on her hips. "We've done a heck of a lot today, what do you say we call it a day? I don't wanna over-rehearse, you get me?"

"Yeah," I nodded. It was a good idea. Over-rehearsing was always a bad idea, especially at a competition as big as Internationals.

Dianne and I picked up our stuff and started walking down the corridor, but as we came to the second studio we heard Wonderland playing loud and clear. I knew that was the song Caspar and Briar were dancing to, so I paused and peeked in the window.

"Shit," I said, looking at their dance.

"What?" Dianne asked, coming over and peering into the room. She gasped when she saw what I was staring at. "They're using silks too."

"And their dance is GOOD," I bit my lip. "Briar's choreography is insane."

"Ours is good too," Dianne said, but she sounded concerned.

I paused. I had no idea what to do. The silks and hoop were what could've put our routine at the top, but now Briar and Caspar had them too.

"Okay look," I grabbed Dianne's hand and spun us away from the room. "They have silks, but they don't have a hoop, and the majority of their dance seems to be focused on the silks. And I didn't see a story. Ours still has tons that will make it iconic. And as long as we don't get paired with them, it won't matter."

"The judges are gonna think we copied them!" Dianne looked worried. "The other competitors might too!"

"We just have to hope we're going first," I said. "But even if they do, both of us using silks won't be anything to mark us down on. Plus, both our teams know we didn't copy them, so just let the other teams think what they want."

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind," Dianne smiled.

"Dr Seuss," I grinned, and she nodded. "My mum used to read all his books to me and Zoe when we were kids."

"Same, my mum used to read them to Andrew and I," Dianne giggled. Her giggle was kinda cute.

"Let's go grab some food, I'm starving. We can work on how to blow the others out the water tomorrow," I said.

And this time she didn't decline.

Dianne's PoV
I'm not entirely sure why I agreed to get dinner with Joe, but it felt right somehow. Had we become friends? I couldn't believe I'd basically befriended the enemy.

"What do you want?" he asked me as we headed out the theatre.

"I'm honestly not fussy," I shrugged.

"Well how about takeaway pizza, bring Katie and we can all go to mine and Neil's hotel room for a movie night," he grinned. "You can pick the movie, I don't mind."

"Sure," I laughed. It sounded fun enough, and I could really use some down time after all the rehearsing. I texted Katie, and she said she wanted to pop out and get some snacks and she'd meet us over there.

"I have a crazy idea," Joe said suddenly.

"Uhh, yes?" I looked at him warily.

"Let's invite Briar and Caspar too, we can be nice to them and maybe they'll tell us something about their dance we could use to or advantage," he said.