[2X05]
{Hunter challenges Eldon to a secret dance battle; Kate asks James to dance a duet with Beth, choreographed by Maxie, when her partner drops out.}
❝Pick it up, or pack it up, okay?❞
It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since the results for the final cut had been announced and Maxie had already been called into Kate's office once again. Maybe it was because she had done something wrong. Maybe she had been kicked off the team entirely. Or maybe it was because she left one of James's shawarma's in Riley's locker on accident and now the pungent meaty stench was the only thing she could smell whenever she walked past it.
Maxie was just about ready to opt for the third option as she entered the office to find James and Riley already there before Kate offered her a welcoming smile and gestured for her to take a seat on the fourth chair that Max could've sworn was not there during Regionals.
"Hi, Maxie," Kate smiled at her as she sat down next to Riley, giving the brunette a 'good morning' smile as she did so.
"I didn't keep you waiting, did I?" she muttered through a yawn, after all, she still wasn't used to getting up so early after her month or so off.
As James attempted to hide a snicker, Kate sighed, "No, no, only fifteen minutes."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Anyways, as I explained to James and Riley, though she's probably long gone now, Beth was pretty upset about not making it into A-Troupe," the woman explained exasperatedly; it was becoming more and more clear to the three dancers just how much Kate was having to deal with because of those auditions.
Rubbing at her eyes, Maxie shrugged it off, "Yeah, well, it is what it is, right? Not our problem that she didn't make it, is it?"
A sharp elbow to the ribs, courtesy of Riley, snapped Maxie back into reality as she slightly chuckled to play it off as a joke, obviously not fooling anyone in the room, for James was still trying to contain his laughter.
"Do you want to, uh, tell us why we're in here then?" Riley asked hesitantly, still wary about how Beth and James used to date.
"Oh, yes," Kate corrected herself, "She was so upset when she didn't make it, so, to cheer her up, I decided to give her a duet at a small dance competition. But then her duet partner, Charlie, bailed on her and she's gone all... Beth again."
With a scoff, Maxie muttered under her breath, "Curse the Charlie's of this world for dragging me out of bed in the morning. I shall find where he lives and that boy better sleep with one eye open tonight-"
"Anyway," Kate cut her off, giving Maxie a look to tell her to stop mumbling violent things again, "That is why I brought you guys in. James, I would really appreciate it if you stepped up and decided to be her dance partner for the competition."
As both girls turned to look at James, both with different expressions on their faces, the boy himself looked like a deer in headlights when turning back to look them in the eyes.
On the one hand, Riley seemed highly uncomfortable about the idea as she told the camera, "James should not take the duet. You know, I don't wanna say anything 'cause Kate's right there, but, hopefully, he'll say no."
On the other hand, Maxie seemed somewhat slightly amused as she spoke, "I think it's hilarious that Kate asked James to do this. I mean, the girl just confessed her undying love to the guy, so, there's no better time to tell Riley than now. And if he doesn't, he's stuck with Beth for a good few weeks. Sucker."
"I don't really know what I should do, because I look at Riley, and she didn't say anything, Maxie's just about ready to cry with laughter and Kate needs this done, I can tell," James explained, oblivious to his girlfriend's feelings.
With a simple exhale, James told the woman, "Sure," as he shrugged his shoulders slightly.
"Thank you, I totally appreciate that," Kate grinned back at him.
"Yeah, don't worry about it," he brushed it off, oblivious yet again.
Riley held a sour expression before turning to Maxie and furrowing her brows, "Uh, Miss Kate?"
"Yeah?"
"Why is Maxie here, then?"
Clapping her hands together, Kate gasped, "Oh goodness, Maxie, I almost forgot! Since Charlie's moves are a little... How can I say not the best without saying bad?"
"Just say they're terrible and get to the point."
"Right, yes, well, I want you to choreograph the routine. What with your skill in dance and preciseness when it comes to your moves, I think you can help get them on top with this routine," the blonde concluded with a grin.
This time it was Maxie who was oblivious to Riley's glares as she nodded as if it was nothing, "Sounds good to me. Sound good to you, Jameseth?"
"Sounds brilliant to me, Maxeth," he responded, mimicking her accent.
"Don't do that again."
"I was just-"
"No."
"Okay, but-"
"No, James, just no."
"Alright."
Shaking off whatever little reprimanding had just happened between the two teens, Kate continued, "Well then, uh, why don't you go tell her the good news?"
"Kate, she, uh, left a while ago," Riley mumbled, flicking the hair out of her eyes almost too aggressively to be seen as calm about the whole James dancing with Beth situation.
"Oh, right. Because Maxie was late-"
"Fashionably late," she corrected, however, upon receiving a stern glare from an already frustrated Kate, she shrunk back.
With an awkward nod, James spoke up once again, "So, I'll just go catch up to wherever she is and, uh, tell her the good news then?"
"Yep," Kate grinned as James strode out of the room, happy to be well away from the tension for once.
‧₊˚✩彡
'Tied to You' played over the speakers of studio A, however, all anyone could hear were the yells coming from none other than Maxie.
"Five, six, seven, and- Beth!" she yelled, making both James and Beth stop in their tracks as they turn to find out what was wrong this time.
It had been a few hours since the chat with Miss Kate and Maxi had already set out clear choreography for the pair to follow - arguably better than what Charlie and Beth had come up with before hand.
Continuing, she went on to exasperatedly exclaim, "How many times?! Kick your leg higher, alright? You do not mark my choreo unless you're dying, you got that?"
When Beth just stared back at her with a blank face, Max sighed, "Right, just- Just take it from the top."
"Right now, Maxie is just going through the choreo for this duet that I'm now doing with Beth," James explained, his face showing no sign of excitement at the prospect.
James then got to the part where he hand to hold Beth during the dance, however, there was a fair bit of distance between them, making Maxie groan once again.
"James!" she called out, throwing her arms in the air, "A little more passion, please? This is a duet not a quarantine zone. If either of you want to make it even remotely close to top five, you need to at least pretend that you have chemistry."
The boy dropped his head with a slight chuckle, "Yeah, uh, Maxie's choreography is actually really good. She puts a lot of passion into her dance and her choreo... and her teaching."
They finally got to the next bit, so Maxie stepped towards them, grabbed both of their wrists and brought them together so they were holding hands and explained, "Now James, just-"
However, the girl was cut off when Beth flustered at the contact and backed away, releasing her hand from his.
"Beth?" Maxie deadpanned, "What do you think you're doing?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I just..." she trailed off with a blush.
"It's okay, you can trust me," James reassured her.
With a nod, Maxie added, "Yes, and trust me when I say if you don't get this done I will cut each of your fingers off so that you'll never hold hands again. Now, James just spin her around on the floor a bit and- There we go some actual dancing!"
Both James and Beth were seemingly terrified of the fact that Maxie probably wasn't joking, so for the rest of the rehearsal they made sure that whenever they hesitated or made a mistake, they would quickly cover it up.
Soon enough, Riley walked in, followed by one or two B-Troupers, holding four bottles of water in her hands, an unsure look on her face as she saw Beth lean on James in one up-close move they had to perform.
"Seeing James and Beth dance... kinda hard, I mean, they have this chemistry. But I'm sure it's probably just the way Max has choreographed the dance, like, they'd danced together in the past, and Maxie has a very unique way of dancing. Mix that together, and it's probably just nothing."
"All right, guys, I think we're finally getting somewhere, so-"
Once, again, Maxie found herself cut off by another brunette love interest of James as Riley cleared her throat to get their attention.
In the most relieved way possible, James grinned, "Oh, hey, Riley, what's up?"
"Heyy," she trailed off with an obviously fake smile before handing Beth, James and Maxie their drinks.
"Thanks."
"Thanks."
"Oh, thank goodness. I'm so out of it, my throats getting dry."
"Maybe your throat wouldn't be so dry if you weren't yelling every five seconds."
"Maybe I wouldn't be yelling every five seconds if you were actually good."
"Right, right."
Brushing off the bickering match between James and Maxie, Riley turned back to Beth, "So how are things going?" she asked, yet it was quite clear to everyone that it wasn;t what she really wanted to know.
"Good," James shrugged.
"Amazing!" Beth conluded, "We're doing so well. Maxie's just taught us it and we've already got it nailed."
Scoffing, Maxie gave Beth and incredulous look, however, chose not to argue for she was still busy sipping on her capri-sun and did not want to yell again.
"Yo, I have this hip-hop part I wanna add," James explained, looking over to Maxie who just nodded, too exhausted to even disagree at this point.
"James and Beth do not work well together, especially not with this advanced choreo," Riley stated, "I mean, James is very hip-hop, Maxie is very 'feel the music' and as much as she is technical, she's also very passionte, and Beth... Well, Beth is an idiot."
‧₊˚✩彡
At least twenty minutes r so had passed since Riley had joined them and Maxie was currently just helping Beth et her legs higher in the kick.
"Come on, Beth, you're more flexible than that," she groaned all while James stood beside them, trying to hide his laughter.
"I'm really not," Beth moaned in a whiny voice.
"I'm really not," Maxie mimicked her, before giving the girl a death glare and continuing to push her leg higher.
The three of them didn't even notice the two boys walking into the studi in such a hurried state anyone who notice them would believe there was some sort of emergency.
"I enter Studio A to get get some advice from James, Maxie and West," Eldon told the camera, "About this dance battle."
Beth seemed just about ready to topple over when the blonde called out, "Yo, Max, James."
"Yo."
"What now?"
"We need to talk, now," Eldon pressed.
West walked up behind him as he commented, "Bro SOS."
That was all Maxie needed for her to abandon her worst nightmare as she and James made their way over to where West and Eldon already were at the ballet bar.
ALmost immediatrly, Eldon began to fill his friends in on what was up, "I have a problem," he began, "It's about one of my friends."
"Okay," West nodded, showing that he understood, "But this... this has nothing to do with you, right?"
"No," Eldon quickly shut him donw, making James and Maxie share a look, "No, no, no, no."
Sheepishly, Eldon admitted, "I don't want James, West and Maxie to find out that it's me in this situation because, I'm a little embarrassed about it."
Maxie was the one who spoke up then as she asked, "Well, just so we don't get confused," she began, gesturing to herself, West and James, "Can we call this friend 'Eldon'."
The boys backed her up as they used air quotes to emphasise the point.
"Sure, yeah," Eldon agreeed, "But, it's not me."
"Oh, yeah, it's not you," West confirmed.
"Okay," the boy began, taking a step back for dramatic effect as he began his story, "'Eldon' has a girlfriend, all right?"
James was the one to cut in then, holding his hand out he uttered, "Sorry. Can we just call his girlfriend 'Michelle'?"
"Just for the purpose of the story," West added, "Just so we can, like, wrap our heads around it."
"Mhm, not linked to anyone we know, obviously," Maxie agreed.
"Obviously, but, it's not Michelle, though," Eldon told them nervously, making the others nod in 'agreement' before he continued, "So, 'Michelle' has this ex-boyfriend. Let's call him 'Jorge'."
Silence filled the space between the four of them as West repeated, "'Jorge'," making the blonde nod furiously.
"So we have Eldon and 'Jorge'," James confirmed, trying his hardest not to burst into laughter.
"And 'Michelle'," Eldon added frustratedly.
"Right, 'Eldon', 'Jorge', and 'Michelle'. Glad you've confirmed that," Maxie nodded, she too having a hard time keeping a straight face.
"Eldon is a huge doofus," James simply stated, "He thinks that we can't comprehend what he's actually saying."
Maxie couldn't help herself as she doubled over in fierce laughter, "I- I can't," she got out between breaths, "I mean, I was really keeping to together until the whole Jorge thing. Oh my days."
"So 'Jorge'," Eldon started once again, "Challenged me- I mean 'Eldon' to a dance battle."
"Um..." West tried before he, James and Maxie began snickering under their breath, making Eldon roll his eyes.
Looking arund the room to try and see what was happening, he asked, "What's so funny? Like, what did I miss?"
"Yo," James told him, "Just do the battle, man. Put 'Jorge' in his place. SHow him up."
"Yeah, man! This needs to be done," West agreed, "At the end of the day, you are the best dancer in this studio. Maybe even 'the country'," he added in finger quotes.
"Exactly," Maxie nodded in agreement, "Hun- 'Jorge' won't know what's hit him."
Eldon nodded bfore cathing himself off, "Okay, but it's not me. It's, like, the other 'Eldon'."
James seemed fed up at that point as he stated, "Listen, any 'Eldon' should battle any 'Jorge' to get any 'Michelle'."
"All right. Thanks, guys. That helps a lot," Eldon nodded, still completely oblivious that his friends knew exactly who he was on about, "That other Eldon guy is going to be really happy to hear that."
"You gut it, buddy."
"Happy to hear that."
"Eldon will throw Jorge to the floor-hey."
‧₊˚✩彡
The little 'pep-talk break' was over and Maxie, James and Beth were back on the dance floor and Max was adding in the hip-hop part that James had asked for previously.
"Right, so you go after the twirl you wanna slide your leg across like so and pop, pop, boom. Push down," she spoke whilst going through the moves.
James followed the girl pretty easily, however, Beth just stood there with yet abther blank face, obciously not getting any of the hip-hop parts Maxie was choreographing for her.
Placing an arm on James shoulder to stop him, Beth spoke up, grabbing Maxie's attention, "Can we just go slower? Please?"
It seemed James was about to agree before Maxie responded, "No. No, Beth. Life doesn't 'go slower', so this dance is not gonna go slower. There are three of us doing this and only one third isn't getting it. Pick it up, or pack it up, okay?"
"Yep, got it," Beth nodded with wide eyes, forgetting how scary Maxie was before.
Riley who had been trying to contain her giggles at the side of the room, smirked, "Watching Beth try t get the hip-hop section... it's kinda painful."
"We've been at this forever and Beth is just not getting it," James explained, "I'm so glad Maxie said something because at this rate, we're not even gonna make top ten."
"I want to cry and scream and kick someone," Maxie began, before regaining composure, "But I won't. Because I'd get arrested and nobody wants that."
Once again, the rehearsal was cut off by Beth's complaining, "Ugh, I'm having so much trouble with this part."
"Really?" James asked through gritted teeth.
"You'd think you;d have gotten it seen as we've been through it ten times already," Maxie told her with the biggest fake smile she could muster.
From the bench, Riley called out, "Eleven, actually! I've been counting..."
"You know what, Riley, you've seen it enough times. You do it," Maxie huffed, ushering the girl over as she dragged Beth to sit with her on the bench. She leaned over and whisapered, "Watch and learn, alright?"
Riley and James began to perform the dance almost perfectly as soon as the music started, making Maxie wish that it was Riley who she was chreograping for. Not Beth.
A/N
hi guys sorry for the long wait, i was trying to somehow incorporate Maxie into this episode because not much happens other thank the chloe and baby ballet, riley and beth and james and hunter and eldon.
remember to vote and comment if you enjoyed!
stay safe <33