Chapter 17: The Competition and The Kiss

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Dianne's PoV
I'm up at 7am, ready to go to the competition. Today is the day where my duet will beat Joe's and I'll get to decide on the theme for our Nationals duet. I've already got a fair few ideas, all of them absolutely brilliant of course.

I showered, got dressed and brushed my teeth in what can only be called record time, and then made sure my lunch was in my bag which I'd packed last night because I'm super prepared like that.

Joe: you ready?xx

Joe's mum is giving us a lift to the competition today, which is really sweet of her. Alfie offered to drive Mikey, Sophia and Cinzia, but there wouldn't have been enough room for Joe and I too, so his mum was taking us.

Dianne: yep!!!xxx

Joe: ayyy, okay we're almost at yours xxx

Dianne: awesome i'll wait down stairs xxx

Joe: *downstairs ;) xxx

I laugh and shove my phone into my coat pocket. He's always correcting my spelling or grammar or whatever. I should really learn from it, but I never do. Just goes in one ear and out the other!

———

The competition venue is way larger than I'd imagined considering it was only a 'small' competition. There's a huge stage and an audience that can fit like 1000 people! Mad.

"I'm super excited," Cinzia claps her hands. "I feel our routine is so gonna win."

"It will," I agree with a smile.

Even though we had the same dressing room, we've put up a barrier so neither of us can see each other. Joe, Mikey and Sophia are already in there setting it up while Alfie, Cinzia and I are checking out the venue. Apparently Zoe, Alice and Rosie are coming to watch later which will be nice for the B Troupers.

"You may come in," Joe pokes his head around the door.

"Okay," I giggle and walk in, my dancers following.

It turns out Joe and his dancers have taped out a stage on each side and pulled a curtain across the middle. I'm impressed.

"I love the stage," I say. "A nice touch."

"Why thank you," Joe flashes a smile back at me.

We decide to let our duets rehearse without us so we could go grab a coffee in the cafe nearby.

"See you guys soon," I wave as we leave.

"Omg okay so I have a really funny story from school yesterday," Joe says as we walk hand in hand out the automatic doors.

"Yeah?" I ask, looking at him. I'm always wary about hearing Joe's stories about school. Some of them are really lovely and make me love him even more, but some are downright chaotic and make me worried for his wellbeing; like Lola's almost scary tales which could literally be made into a TV show. It's unbelievable we go to the same school.

"Okay, so me and this guy Matt were sat at the front desk in maths and the teacher was getting super angry at our whole class because we were just chatting and we're meant to be one of the smart groups," he says. "So basically she takes our exercise book to show the class what questions we should answer and yells and shouts and stuff and then says to be silent for the remainder of the lesson until every person has done all those questions, but then she takes our exercise book and just dumps it on her desk and sits at her computer, so obviously Matt and I no longer have a book so we kinda look at each other like 'ummmmm' because how are we meant to do this work when we don't have a book right?"

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