high infidelity

chapter one

Riley was getting ready for a surprise date with James, she had no idea where they were going and he wouldn't give her any idea of what to wear, so she just threw on some casual clothes and grabbed her dance bag, since one of the only things she had told him about this date was that they were going to dance practice straight after. 

A-Troupe had already competed in 'the challenge', and they had lost Emily and Stephanie, as well as Daniel who left for Superstar Dance Academy. Two girls called Thalia and Amanda had also joined the team, and Emily was still weary of Amanda as she used to be dance captain of Elite, and honestly Riley couldn't blame her. 

"I don't know where you guys are going but I filled up a water bottle for you," Emily smiled, indicating her head towards a water bottle sitting on the marble surface. 

"Thanks Em," she smiled, giving her sister a fleeting side hug before walking towards the front door to put her shoes on. The bell rang, and Riley hopped over to the door, holding the shoelaces of one of her trainers and clumsily opened it, praying that it wasn't a delivery person.

James stood in the frame of the door, cracking a grin at Riley's current situation. 

"Who is it?" Emily called, seconds before walking through to see James laughing at Riley. 

"Hey Emily," he smiled, and she greeted him before walking over to the stairs and sitting down next to Riley who, thankfully, had stopped hopping frantically around. 

James was, in his words, 'pumped' for his date with Riley. He was taking her to the beach where she lost her necklace because it was the first place she really accepted him as a friend.

 He'd gone to the trouble to prepare a picnic, before Piper told him that ready-made sandwiches weren't good enough, so she took the liberty to make him some proper date food, complete with shawarmas. 

Once Riley had successfully tied her shoes, James dragged Riley's hand without warning and dragged her out of the front door, Emily handing Riley her dance bag as she was swept away. She got up from the stairs and leant against the door frame as she watched the younger couple stroll down the driveway, their hands intertwined and chatting softly to each other. 

Riley's plan was to annoy the truth out of James as to where they were going, credit to James, he didn't let one detail slide. They boarded the bus and Riley peered out the window, trying to figure out where they were headed. Once they stepped off the bus, James clasped his hand over Riley's eyes and didn't relent, no matter how hard Riley tried to prise his hands off. Granted, this earned them some weird looks from strangers, but James didn't really care.  

Riley could feel the sun bearing down on her neck as he lead her blindly before finally lifting his hand. Riley winced as the bright sun bore down into her eyes before she registered that they were at the edge of the sand. She grinned before looking at James, who was gazing at her with anticipation. 

"Thank you James, it's beautiful!" she grinned, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a hug. They then ambled down to where Piper was sitting on a picnic blanket, fiercely guarding the food from the seagulls. She stayed for a short time, before she had to leave for her own dance rehearsal- at a different studio. 

Once Piper had left, they sat down on the picnic blanket and James opened the bag of food with a flourish. "Voila!" he said dramatically, and Riley laughed. 

"Piper?" Riley questioned knowingly. 

"Uh huh," he mumbled, his mouth already full with a couple of grapes. They sat there for a while, just talking and enjoying each other's company, as well as the delicious food. Riley made a mental note to thank Piper later. Soon after demolishing their shawarmas, James got a message from Miss Kate. 

"Oh shit," he muttered, sitting up from where he was lounging on the sand, before starting to pack up their things. 

"What's wrong?" Riley asked him, leaning her head up and looking concerned. 

"So I kind of lost track of time and now we're ten minutes late for rehearsal. But don't even worry about it." He explained. This made Riley sit up and help to rewrap the food. They grabbed their bags and Riley ran back to the bus stop, dragging a much less stressed James along by the hand with her.

"We're dead," Riley grumbled.  

"Calm down." James laughed, before getting on the bus. Riley just hit his arm as he followed her onto the, thankfully, relatively empty bus. 

"I hate you so much." Riley muttered to him once they had sat down.

"No you don't." James grinned. 

"Yes I do." She replied as she scrolled through the many, many messages from Emily on her phone asking where she was.