Missing Moments

Dancemania - Piper's Perspective (Part One)

What was most surprising, however, was the number of people commenting about her and Finn.

'Don't know what the judges are talking about. Beautiful and fun performance from The Next Step! Excellent decision to put this couple at the center of the dance. Beautiful couple 💕'

'Fave performance of the night 🙌🏻 @dancemania @thenextstepdance And Piper and Finn?? 🔥🔥🔥'

'Apparently these two are dating and they're super cute 😍 #pinn is the ship for season 13!'

It was too weird to see so many strangers on the Internet going on and on about how cute she and Finn were. If they knew what was going on behind the scenes, maybe they wouldn't think they were so cute.

Piper set her phone aside, rolling over onto her back. She glanced over at Amy, whose back was still to her, then returned to frowning up at the ceiling.

She had just wanted to help Finn and give herself a peace of mind when she had set all of those reminders on his phone. She wasn't actually mad that he'd put his phone on silent. She was mad because the alarms she had set to help him had hurt the whole team instead. She was mad because he'd been MIA for hours yesterday, and she'd worried herself sick over him, and he didn't even seem to realize or care what he'd put her through. She was mad because her team had spent the whole day rechoreographing a routine centered around Piper and Finn without Piper and Finn. She was mad because she'd needed Finn to calm her nerves tonight, but he couldn't because he hadn't been there when she'd needed him to be there.

But mostly, she was mad at herself for being so mad in the first place. Because maybe if her emotions hadn't gotten the best of her tonight, she would have let Finn apologize in the scramble to hair and make-up or right before they were about to perform, and maybe, just maybe, their chemistry wouldn't have been so off and they wouldn't need the Resurrection Round to be moving forward.

Really, this was all her fault, not Finn's.

And she was mad about that too.

-----

The next morning, Piper's alarm went off at 7 a.m., and she groaned as she reached out to turn it off. She laid in bed, trying to wake up and get her bearings. The team wasn't competing today, but they did have the Resurrection Round to think about.

She really hoped Finn was ready.

But she couldn't worry about him today. She had already done enough of that over the last two days. No, he had signed himself up for that responsibility. He could worry about it himself.

Amy was the first one to get out of bed. She quickly got dressed then grabbed a room key and left to go down to breakfast without a word to Piper or Lily. After Amy had called her out for being unfair last night, Piper was glad that she didn't have to face her. She didn't want to have to face her and admit she was right.

Lily rambled about Kingston the entire way to breakfast, but Piper immediately tuned her out when they entered the dining room. Finn was standing at the buffet table just a few feet away. He didn't see her as he filled his plate with food, which gave her just enough time to compose herself. Taking a deep breath, Piper strode toward the food tables, holding her head high.

She was ready to pass by him without saying a word to him when he suddenly looked up, turning to find a seat. He froze at the sight of her, his face falling slightly. "Hey," he said slowly, unsure if he was supposed to talk to her or not.

Piper glanced at him, her resolve faltering for a moment as she mumbled a, "Hi," and continued on to the fruit display. If she didn't want to face Amy, she couldn't face Finn. She was still mad from yesterday, but she was a lot of different emotions today, and she didn't want to think about any of them. She just wanted to watch the competition and not think about the fact that her relationship might be falling apart because of a few (okay, a hundred) stupid alarms that her boyfriend had probably deleted at this point. (And honestly, she wouldn't blame him if he had.)

When she reached the fruit table, she furtively glanced over to find Finn joining Henry and Summer at a table they were presumably sitting at with Amy. Finn's shoulders slumped as he sat down, and something in Piper's heart gave a guilty twinge as she turned back to the fruit spread in front of her.

Someone suddenly appeared next to her, and then Amy was saying, "Are you going to talk to him today?"

"No," Piper told her stubbornly, dropping the strawberry she had picked up a little more aggressively than she meant to on her plate.

Amy gave her an exasperated look, "Piper—"

"I don't want to hear it, Amy," she snapped, looking up at her best friend and shaking her head. "I just want to have a nice day, okay? Because yesterday was not."

Amy pursed her lips and tilted her head to the side in disapproval before moving to join Henry, Summer, and Finn at their table, which only sat four people. No room for Piper to join them if she wanted to (which she didn't).

After filling her plate, Piper joined Lily, Kingston, and Ozzy at the table they were sitting at. "Welcome to the Land of Disgusting PDA," Ozzy told her with an eyeroll as she sat.

Piper feigned a smile, glancing to where Kingston and Lily were currently rubbing their noses together in an Eskimo kiss. Overhearing Ozzy's comment, Kingston pulled away and threw a crumpled napkin at his best friend. "Shut up, bro. We're in love."

"Are you sure?" Ozzy retorted, raising his eyebrows skeptically.

"Go confess your undying love to Richelle if it bothers you that much."

"Nah, she's eating with Jones." Ozzy frowned, sending a glare to where Richelle was eating at a table with Jones and one of his teammates, a genuine smile on her face.

Piper shot a bitter look towards their former teammate before sighing and picking at her potatoes with her fork. All of this talk about love was the last thing she wanted this morning.

Unwittingly, she risked a glance over to Finn. He was watching her, a sad look on his face, but he immediately looked away when she caught him staring. Sighing, Piper shook her head and stabbed a piece of potato. Why were they sitting here like pining fools when they'd been dating for over a month?

She couldn't believe the two of them had been so excited for Dancemania, and this was how they spending it- Finn beating himself up and Piper too stubborn in her anger to just admit she was wrong and apologize for getting them into this mess in the first place.

It was bad enough that Richelle, someone Piper had always respected as a dancer and considered a friend, had left the team without any warning just to become their competition. Fighting with Finn made everything feel a hundred times worse. At this point, Piper couldn't wait to just be done with this entire competition.