Flying (Fight Song Book 2)

Chapter 16: The aftermath

"Our finals dance," I say. "And then we just blow them out the water with our finals dance which we will come up with and create."

There are murmurs of agreement, but also some of scepticism. Understandable.

"I agree," Dianne says, backing me up. I smile at her and hold her hand. "It's a mediocre dance with a mediocre theme. Fix You will get us to the finals, this Avengers thing won't."

"She's probably right," Jack shrugs. "I say we do Fix You as the semi finals."

After the whole team is on board, we're told to run Fix You full out.

Even as we start it, I know it's a much stronger dance, and I feel so much more confident with the knowledge this is our semi finals dance. It's more powerful, it's more emotional and the judges will probably be able to relate on a personal level somehow. This song has helped us all at some point in our lives, and the dance shows it.

"That's amazing," I head Alice say. Well, not just me. Everyone hears Alice say it.

"Thanks," Dianne smiles at them, but then turns to me and screws up her face. "But now we have no finals dance, Joe."

"Quite honestly, I don't think this was finals material anyway," I say. "Our finals routine should be Internationals standard, you know?"

A few people nod, and the general consensus is yes.

"So we need a new concept," Alesha says. "Today, we'll rehearse the dances we already have, because they're far from perfect, and Joe and Dianne I've not even seen your duet yet."

I freeze and look at Dianne. She looks equally concerned. Alesha doesn't know we've scrapped everything and are waiting for the B Troupe competition this weekend before we proceed.

"This week I want you all to come up with Internationals standard themes that could create Internationals standard choreography," Alesha continues. "On Monday, we'll discuss the themes and decide on one, and we can work from there."

Everyone nods. That seems like a pretty reasonable idea. I could maybe nab a few ideas from the duet competition this weekend, not only for mine and Dianne's duet, but also potentially for the finals routine.
I think it's good that we're focusing on the dances we already have now before putting any work into the finals dance. Like, we won't even get to finals if our other dances aren't perfect.

"Right, get a drink of water and then I want to speak to my soloists, the group dance and the duet," Alesha looks at us all, her eyes settling on Dianne and I in particular. I gulp. She'll hate our idea, I know she will.

"So, you're duet," Alesha says as we sit down on the bench beside her.

"You know what, I'll be honest when I say we haven't really started," I say, biting my lip in the hopes she'll be less mad.

"What?!" Alesha looks (quite rightly) furious.

"Well we've got plenty of choreography, but we're currently choreographing two duets for B Troupe at a competition this weekend and decided whoever's duet places highest will get to pick the theme," Dianne says quietly.

At this, for some bizarre reason, Alesha actually looks less concerned.

"This is good," she says.

"Good?" Dianne and I repeat in unison.

"Well, there are going to be other teams at that competition who aren't going to Nationals, so you can grab ideas from them," Alesha says. "They'll be putting their best routines into the smaller competitions now they're not in the running for Nationals."

"You know, I did actually think this," I nod.

"Well, it's good thinking," Alesha says. "However, by Tuesday I want to see at least half this duet done, you hear me? We're nearing the end of week 3, and we only have so long."

"We will," I say, both of us nodding our heads.

"Good," Alesha says, then shouts for the small group.

———

"Not bad," Tilly shrugs at the end of the session. If it were legal, I'd throw her into the road. "But you seem extremely disorganised. If it were my team, I'd probably be worried. Nationals is what, a month and a half away? And you don't even have a duet or a finals dance! Talk about unprepared..."

"Shut up, Tilly," Lola glares at her. Tilly simply smiles and waves, leaving the studio.

"Thanks for inviting us!" Rosie and Alice bounce up to us once Tilly's left. "We'll definitely be back to take classes. We really like it here."

"You're welcome," I chuckle. "See you tomorrow."

"See you!" they wave as they leave too.

———

It's weird getting into my mum's car after dance without Zoe. She's always been next to me in the back. Always. We'd be chatting away to Mum about our day, and I suspect Mum wasn't really listening. But now I don't have her.

"Good day?" she asks me after five minutes of silence.

"I guess," I reply. "I'm tired though. We have to work doubly hard since Zoe decided to just leave us."

My mum sighs. "You know Zoe had to do what was best for her, Joe. And she isn't even considering dance as a career choice, so it seems silly for her to waste her time on that when she could be studying. I get it with you, because you're looking to be a professional dancer one day, but it's just not the same for her."

I know my mum's right, but I just don't want to believe it. I want my sister back.

I actually dropped a few foreshadowing comments in this chapter if you wanna go back and try and find them😏 Looking forward to writing everything that comes next, because it's just a bit too smooth sailing for them right now...

See you all in another chapter! - Bee xo