The rest of the week had gone by quickly. On Sunday, Harry and I had practiced the dance about twenty times in a row. He's quite good at it, considering all the twirls and quick steps. Although, if he could do the Argentine Tango, he can do this.
I've chosen to do the dance with an easy song that I know he knows the beats to - Fireflies by Owl City. It's an easy song to remember and I made sure to make the dance go with the song the best I could.
Our airtime was quickly approaching. They're making us go third instead of ninth this time, so we don't have much time in between breaks to practice.
Hal and Lindsay went first with four straight sevens. Roseanne and Keo were next with two sixes and two sevens. Harry's leg has been bouncing for the past five minutes until we're called to go on stage. I've told him to stop four times now, but he only seems to be able to for 30 seconds before it starts back up again.
"I'm nervous," He mutters to me.
"Obviously." He glares at me. "I'm not good at comforting people so that's the best you're gonna get."
His glare turns into a sigh and a lip bite. I glance over to the screen that counts down the time until we're back on air. There's only about 20 seconds left.
"C'mon," I say. He looks up at the screen then over to me. My hand is set out to help him up, which he takes gratefully.
"Thanks,"
"Just some last minute advice; don't let them see you're anxious. Don't focus on anything but me and your steps. I'll be counting off to you just in case you lose the place. If you can't do that, then pay attention to the music. Sing it in your head and go along to the beat." He nods, looking back at the screen. We have ten seconds.
He tangles his fingers with mine and tugs on my hand. "Are you ready to get eliminated?"
I roll my eyes and shake my head. He smiles a little before pulling me onto the stage. Our training over the week's video is playing on a big screen and everyone's eyes are looking over to it. We get in our position with my back to his chest and standing a few feet apart.
I shake out my arms and look up at the video myself. Our current position is on Thursday when Harry and I were dancing and he tripped over heels. Everyone laughs when he complains that I'm taller than him in heels and it's irritating. I laugh a little, too, glancing back at him to see his pout.
The man introduces us and the music starts. I take my one step forward, as I'm supposed to do so, when I'm whipped around by Harry grabbing my wrist. The lights around us flicker to represent lightning bugs as we're thrown into the course of the dance.
The entire dance basically revolves around a date at night gone wrong, or at least that's how I perceive it. I'm trying to get away while my 'date' keeps pulling me back, begging for a second chance. Every time a turn is made, it's made into a twirl. Every time I step back away from him he takes a step forward.
"'Cause everything is never as it seems..." The song ends with Harry pulling my back to his chest with my face turned away and my hands on his chest. The audience erupts into applause, and Harry pulls back. I smile up at him, even though I know exactly what the judges are going to say. I could feel Harry's stiff back and shaky hands every time he touched me.
He smiles back at me, out of breath. He kisses my forehead. I lead him over to the judges table where I can see all their smiles or frowns. Len and Julianne are writing something down on their pages, probably thinking about what they need to say to us.
Tom greets us with a big smile and compliments on our beautiful performance. He pats Harry on the shoulder. "Carrie-Ann, let's start with you."
Carrie-Ann smiles at us and sets her pen down. "I thought it was a beautiful performance. It was interesting to see Harry's facial expressions through it all. Harry, what was going on there?" Harry shrugs, looking down for a second. "I wasn't sure what exactly you're mood was on that dance floor. One second you would look happy, the next sad, the next angry? Either way, I did think the dancing portion was wonderful, I just feel as if you weren't with the mood of the song by the way you weren't showing the supposed emotion." Harry bites his lip. The crowd it complaining as they usually would whenever we're grilled, but they don't understand how this actually helps me see what I need to work on.
Next Bruno is told to judge. "I have to say that I do not agree with Carrie-Ann. I feel as if you seemed actually pained, which was the intended emotion of the dance and song." He stands up and motion around with his arms. "The one thing I did see was your reluctance to get into the music. You hadn't taken your eyes off of Nicolette the whole time, even when she was facing away. You were paying more attention to her than to the actual dance which made some of your steps late."
"I think you're dance was great, but you're presence was lacking. You focused mainly on getting the steps right than actually letting yourself just flow with the music. The performance was wonderful and there were no wrong steps, but it didn't seem as if you were there. It was like you were copying the steps right out of a book." Len grills. The crowd complains that they're being to hard. He looks around with a distressed look.
Julianne starts her statements when the crowd calms down a little, "Well, I loved it. I thought you were very expressive with how you were feeling. I don't agree with Carrie-Ann about the facial expressions being in the wrong place because your moods did seem to match the right timing. When she turned away, you got sad. When she turned around, you looked happy. When she was walking off and you were reaching for her, you looked depressed. The thing that I do need to point out is your nervousness. It didn't seem as if you wanted to get into the music because you were afraid to mess up. Yes, it is a competition and there are times to be nervous, but right now wasn't one of them. You were able to do the Argentine Tango quite well, and you're also paired with Nicolette. She's known for adjusting to someone else's strengths and weaknesses. You just need to tell her if you absolutely need something changed and she most likely will change it."
I look up at Harry; he's biting his lip and nodding quickly. He looks down to me. I smile a little, trying to smooth out the holes they've just punctured into his ego. I know he felt he did wrong, but he wasn't expecting a grilling as bad as it was.
Tom exclaims how the judges are being too hard and how he loved it before sending us up to the sky deck. Erin is waiting with a large smile on her face. The other couples clap from behind us, sending us apologetic looks. Zayn sniggers at Harry's saddened face and it takes my all to not flip him off. He catches my glare and smirks. I roll my eyes and wrap my arm around Harry's waist.
"Wow. I wasn't expecting such a heartfelt performance. Nicolette, you taught him well." I can tell she's trying to lighten the mood.
"Yeah. It was a difficult task, considering how hard-headed he is about, well, everything." Erin smiles wider. I glance over at the screen that displays us and I notice Harry's small smile.
"Harry, did you enjoy your first official grilling?" Erin asks.
Harry scoffs, "I surely wasn't expected. But hey, they're here to help us, right?" Erin and I both nod.
"Alright, let's get your scores." Harry and I both look up to the screen.
"Carrie-Ann Inaba,"
"Six,"
"Len Goodman,"
"Six,"
"Julianne Hough,"
"Seven,"
"Bruno Tonioli,"
"Seven,"
"Alright with a score of 26 out of 40, these guys really need your votes if they're going to want to make it to next week's live shows." Erin carries on while I hug Harry. He's holding me tightly, burying his face in my shoulder. I rub his back, and look towards the camera. Harry pulls away and looks at the camera too, pointing down to our voting number that appears at the bottom of the screen.
_-_-_
"I fucked up," Harry mumbles. The show had ended a few hours ago, but Harry refused to leave the studio. I could have left him here but I know he needs me.
"No, you didn't." I say. Harry nods and wraps his arms around his knees. Everyone else has already left the studio and I know we're going to be kicked out soon.
Harry and I were tied for tenth place with Roseanne and Keo. Amy Lee and Liam were the ones to take first place this time, with two eights and two sevens. Our combined scored with last week's placed us fifth on the leader board, which doesn't seem to be enough for Harry.
"Yeah, I did."
I roll my eyes and sit down next to him. "Do you seriously think you did?"
"Yeah. The Argentine Tango is one of the harder dances, right? And we got a better score on that on the first week than we did this week on one of the easiest dances."
"Everyone is different, Harry. What you find easy to do isn't the same as what the other Star's find easy. It was simple mistakes. And, to be honest, I think they were going easy on us because it was such a hard dance last week. Since it's the second week and we got an easy dance, they decided to kick in with the real judging. You didn't do anything wrong." He looks at me with wide eyes. His eyes would resemble that of a puppy if he tried, but the colour and the shape just don't seem to be able to make it very effective.
"Did they have to be so hard on us?" He asks innocently. I scoff.
"They weren't hard on us. It was your first brutal judging and of course it's going to affect you this badly because you haven't had to deal with something like that in a long time. Trust me, the worst has yet to come."
His nose screws up, "Now you tell me."
_-_-_
"How long have you been dancing for?" My dance instructor asked after the class was dismissed. The small community college I chose to attend when I moved seems to provide me with as much knowledge and training as a highly-rated school would.
"Uhm, since I was young. Really young." I reply, picking at my fingers. I'm wondering if she's going to point out my lack of experience. My parent's never agreed to sign me up for any ballet or dance lessons so I was forced to have Meghan and her mother teach me. Thankfully, Meghan's mum was a very nice lady who allowed me to come to some of her classed for free so I could learn at a class pace and not alone in her basement.
"Have you had any training?" She shuffles through some papers. After she finds one that I'm guessing was meant for me, she passed it over to me along with a pen.
"Very little. My... my parents couldn't afford to sign me up for any classes so I had to take lessons from my neighbour." The paper is a type of syllabus, with rules and demands that must be met in order for me to move on to the next semester in this course.
"Well, those lessons paid for themselves quite nicely." I glance up through my eyelashes. The instructor is smiling at me. "You've very talented. You're quick on your feet and much more advanced than some of the students that are in this class. I might consider moving you up to a harder class; classical and ballet just seem to easy for you."
_-_-_
The first elimination night was always the easier to get through. The Stars and dancers hadn't had enough time to get to know each other so whoever was eliminated wasn't a complete loss.
Harry has been trailing behind me like a lost puppy all night. So far, Jack and Karina, Roseanne and Keo, Demi and Louis, and Kendall and Henry are all safe. Zoe and Mark and Hal and Lindsay are both in jepoardy.
It's mine and Harry's turn to go up to the stage and told if we are going to next week shows or if we are in jepoardy, along with Amy and Liam, and Lorde and Derek. All three of us had done well. Amy and Liam were in third place, Lorde and Derek in fourth, and us in fifth.
Our replay of last night's dances and scores play across the screens. Harry's arm is wrapped tightly around my waist as our video starts. There's a small part at the end that shows Harry's sadness written across his face while I run my hand through his hair.
"I didn't think they got that on video?" He looks down at me with confusion. I shrug, not really letting it bother me. I'm used to having the cameras follow me around everywhere. That's why I was confused when we could go to his to practice without a camera crew. I've always had to inform them if we were going to practice somewhere else so they could get a crew to come with us. They've never told me about the new cameras in the houses.
For all I know, Harry could have requested them.
"Now it's time to announce who's safe and who is in jeopardy." Erin says into the microphone seriously. The camera zooms on on Amy and Liam, which means they will be told first. "Amy and Liam,"
The dramatic music plays and you can physically see Liam's uneasiness. It would such if he was kicked off the very first elimination night, considering it's also his first season. Liam, just like Louis and I, hadn't been chosen to be in The Troupe so he was immediately thrown into the live shows.
I hope he gets through.
"You are safe!" Tom says excitedly. Both Amy and Liam let out sharp breaths of relief and hug tightly. He gives them a moment for everyone to applaud and cheer, also for them to have their moment before moving on. "Harry and Nicolette,"
Harry's arm tighten around me. I bite my lip because his pressing into my pelvis, almost touching my private part. I know it's weird to get nervous about his finding out about me - especially when there is much more intimate touching in the dances. I've never had anyone here in America wonder about my gender.
I define as a girl so they think I'm a girl.
The dramatic music seems to play forever. With each passing second Harry's hand presses down harder, causing me to squirm.
Louis would never let me live it down if I get aroused on stage.
"You're also safe!" The crowd applauds, but I have no eyes or ears for that as Harry turns me around and lifts me up. He holds me up by my thighs, buring his face in my neck. My hands reach around to steady myself on his shoulders and also play with his hair hanging down over his neck.
I don't hear if Lorde and Derek make it through to next week's shows or not. Harry has carried me back stage when they go to a commercial. His head is still in the crook of my neck but I don't mind. It's nice having someone hold me like this without a camera.
For all I know, there could be a camera on us.