Fight Song

Chapter 20

"Would the two teams please take the stage!" the voiceover announced.

"After this," Milo sighed.

I nodded, and we all headed onto the stage.

"The winners of this round are... SOUTH AFRICA!"

The crowd erupted in cheers. Wow...were we really that hated? People were thrilled South Africa won and not us. But neither team on stage looked particularly happy. South Africa knew they'd only won because I'd screwed up so royally, and we knew we were going home earlier than we'd gone home in over a decade.

"Let's go," Lucy said, dragging all of our group with her, pointe shoe in hand.

"Hello, how may I help?" a lady from the Internationals board said as we arrived.

"Someone broke my friends pointe shoe," Lucy slammed the shoe down on the desk. "It meant she fell on stage and could've injured herself really badly. I don't know who did it, but I wanna know who just cost us the competition."

"Those are some serious allegations," the board lady said. "Are you positive? How old were the shoes?"

"Two weeks," I sniffed. "Pointe shoes don't just break after two weeks."

The lady looked suspicious. "It does seem like an odd situation... I'll see what can be done. Do you have any idea who could've done it? Someone on your opposing team?"

"No," I shook my head. "We were against South Africa, they wouldn't do this. It was someone who didn't want us to win though."

"Should we warn the other teams?" Devon asked.

"I don't think it'll be a problem," the lady said. "But I'll take the shoes and look into this problem for you."

"Thank you," Lucy nodded.

Joe's PoV
I'd been watching from the wings with my team. We were on against Estonia straight after Caspar and Briar went head to head. I saw her fall, and I saw her cry. It was over for them.

"Good luck," the Estonian dance captain came up to me after South Africa had just been announced winners. I remembered her from the meetings and past Internationals events. Her name was Heidi. She seemed nice enough.

"Thanks," I smiled. "You too."

"Oh, I won't need it," Heidi laughed. "But thank you anyway."

Her smile made me feel very uneasy. I looked over to see one of the girls from the Canadian team holding Briar's pointe shoes, one of which had just snapped. I looked back over at Heidi, who was grinning at the Canadian team.

"Quite glad South Africa won," Heidi said. "I feel like it's about time the underdogs had a chance and Canada, Britain and Australia stop winning just because they're judges favourites. Your names are worth ten points in themselves. None of you are even that good."

"We don't win out of favouritism, we win fair and square," I glared at her.

"Not what I've heard," she shrugged. "But you keep believing that."

"Can Britain please take the stage!"

"Looks like you're up," Heidi shrugged. "Have fun out there."

I'd never felt so nervous to dance in my life.

Dianne's PoV
I'd decided to come watch Joe's team dance. There were another three teams dancing before Australia, so I wasn't really supposed to be in the wings, but I wanted to see my boyfriend smash it on the stage.

His music started playing, and I was amazed with how good it was. Zoe and Amy were doing ballet on pointe at the beginning, and it wasn't easy pointe work. I loved it. They were so in time and it looked truly spectacular. Then they span off to opposite sides of the wings as Joe, Neil and Kevin tumbled on. I saw Zoe hastily take her pointe shoes off and stuff them to the side, and assumed Amy was doing the same. She quickly pulled her reversible tights back over her feet and around her ankles before running straight on stage into a lift with Neil, Amy doing one with Joe while Kevin did some very impressive Russian fouettés. There was a hip hop section, all looking super impressive. It was all so big and then suddenly went massively small and the boys did standing tuck backs to the floor as Amy and Zoe did free walkovers. The they started turning. And boy could they turn. The audience was cheering. It was one of the most awesome turn sequences I'd ever seen. I looked over to the other side of the wings where the Estonian team were standing, expecting them to look worried, but none of them looked phased. In fact, the captain was smiling. I narrowed my eyes. Usually, if your competition is smiling when you're performing a stellar routine, it means they're up to something and know you're not going to win. The turn sequence finished, and they were so near the end. It was too good a routine to end it catastrophe. but then as Zoe was about to do her free cartwheel, a very bright came and shone directly in her face. It startled me too, and I had to cover my eyes. When I looked up, Zoe was on the stage floor, crying. I looked around, but there was nobody backstage except the Estonian team and me. And who would believe little me? Especially when the whole Estonian team would vouch against me, saying I was making up lies because Joe was my boyfriend. They'd never believe me. But what I'd just seen was cheating, and I was mad. Their music had stopped, and a paramedic had come to see to Zoe. The rest of the group crowded round her, but Zoe was eventually picked up by the paramedic and the group was told to go back to their team. Joe spotted me, and I ran to him and gave him a hug. He was crying.

"She just fell," he sobbed. "She just fell and I don't know how but then there was blood and she can't move her arm and now we're going to be out the competition and she'll blame herself and that's not fair. Did you see the bright light? I saw a bright light but I don't know whether I made it up."

"You didn't make it up," I said, glaring at the Estonian team, who had now begun their dance. "Their captain shone it on stage so Zoe would fall."

Joe looked up at me. I'd never seen him this mad. "I'm sorry, they did WHAT?"

"Shhh!" I hushed him. "Not here!"

I dragged him out back into the foyer, where I saw Briar crying too. What the hell was going on today?!

"What happened?" I looked at Briar.

"Her shoe was snapped by someone and she fell on the stage," one of her teammates said.

"WHAT?!" I gaped. "Do you know who did it?"

"No idea," the girl sighed. "There's nothing we can do, but it's cost us Internationals."

"I have an idea," I said roughly. "Zoe just massively injured herself on stage by falling because the Estonian team flashed a really bright light in her eyes. I was the only one there looking at the time, so I was the only one who saw. Nobody will ever believe me."

"Heidi," Joe said. "Their dance captain. She said she was glad South Africa won and that Canada, Australia and Britain only won because they were like celebrities. She said I'd need luck but she wouldn't. She sabotaged both Canada and Britain."

"Oh my god," Briar said. "We have to go tell the board."

"We have no proof," I shook my head. "It'll be our word against theirs, and they'll deny everything."

"This is so unjust," Milo said. "I'm appalled."

"I'd watch out, Di," Briar warned me. "If she's ruined us, she'll be out for your team too."

I nodded. "Don't worry, I won't let her get away with anything more. We have one chance to catch her, and there's no way I'm not taking it."

Oof. B x