Missing Moments

INTERLUDE: Amy Feels Replaced

7x01

"It'll be so weird without Michelle around, huh?" Amy asked. She and Piper were pulling their shoes on, getting ready to leave the studio after staying behind to help the new studio owner Nick clean up the decorations from Michelle's going away party.

"Tell me about it," Piper said as she pulled on her converse then spun around on the bench to face Amy. "Hey, do you remember A-Side?"

"How could I forget? It was our first A-Troupe dance!"

Piper let out a nostalgic sigh, holding her hands over her heart. "That was such a good day."

"It seems like so long ago now."

It felt nice to talk to Piper again. They had drifted apart due to their busy, conflicting schedules while Amy had been at AcroNation. She had missed Piper the most while she was at the rival studio, and she was ecstatic to be dancing with her best friend again. Coming back to A-Troupe felt like coming home from a long trip away. It was like nothing had changed in some ways.

But in others...

"Hey Pipes! Check this out!"

The girls looked up as Finn approached them, sucking the helium out of a balloon then saying, "Nick told us to take the balloons with us," in a nasally voice. He promptly burst into giggles at his own voice, and Piper laughed as well, her eyes shining in amusement.

Amy simply raised her eyebrows, frowning as she glanced around Studio A. Henry, Kingston, and Ozzy were doing the same thing across the studio. "Um, you do know that's really bad for you, right?"

Finn's gaze flicked to her, his eyebrows knitting together in disbelief. "What? People do it all the time," he retorted though it was difficult to take him seriously when he sounded like a chipmunk with a bad cold.

"It can cause lack of oxygen. People have died from it," she told him shortly, glancing to Piper, who appeared to be internally debating whose side she was supposed to take. Clearly, she should be taking hers.

Finn chuckled, his voice already returning to normal as he said, "Okay. Sure, Amy." He glanced at Piper and rolled his eyes as if Amy wasn't sitting right next to her and could see him.

Amy huffed, but Piper simply smiled good-naturedly. Without a moment's hesitation, Piper reached up and snatched the balloon out of Finn's grasp. He protested at that, and she quirked an eyebrow as she told him, "We can't go to the movie tonight if you die of helium inhalation beforehand."

He sighed and threw his head back dramatically. When he looked at her again, however, he was grinning a charming smile that, for whatever reason, really annoyed Amy. "See you at 7:30?" he asked, pointing to Piper as he took a step toward the doors.

"It starts at 7," Piper reminded him patiently.

"Oh, right." His brows knit together again. This seemed to be news to him. "Got it. See ya then."

"Don't be late!" Piper called after him as he turned to leave Studio A.

"I would never," was his response followed by a wave of the hand.

Amy watched their exchange with her lips pursed. She had known that Piper had started to become friends with Finn after she had gone to AcroNation, and that hadn't bothered her until the Christmas party when Finn had basically told her he was better at cheering Piper up than she was. She had taken full offense to that. Who had been Piper's best friend longer? (Spoiler alert: Not Finn.)

"So, you're going to the movies tonight?" Amy asked as casually as she could once Finn was gone.

Piper looked back to her and smiled. "Oh, yeah, we're going to see some spy movie. Finn says it's supposed to be really good, but we have very different standards of what qualifies as good entertainment, so I'm keeping my expectations low. But don't tell him that."