{Austin}
After what happened with Calli I am livid. I can't believe someone would do that to her. First that they disrespected her family, and second what happened after. I can see right through her 'tough girl' act. I know she's really hurting inside, and it tore me up to see the pain in her eyes. All I wanted to do was run after her and make her feel better, but I had to finish the show.
Even after, I couldn't go find her. I had to load my bus to go back to the hotel. My bus beats the dancer's bus back. I sit outside Calli's room, waiting for her to get back. Finally I see her walk around the corner. I push myself up as she lifts her head. She smiles like nothing's wrong, but I can see her eyes are rimmed red and her face is tear stained.
"What are you doing here?" She asks trying to keep her voice steady.
"I waited up for you." I say stepping towards her. I put one hand on her cheek, softly stroking it. "I wanted to make sure you were ok."
"Yeah I'm fine." Her voice shakes. I can see she's on the verge of tear again.
"Can you try being honest for a couple minutes?" I whisper, getting closer to her face. "I know you're hurting. I can see it."
Calli nods her head as tears spill out of her eyes. "I'm not fine." She whispers before completely breaking down.
She doesn't cry loudly, but her shoulders are shaking violently. I take the key from her hand and open the door, leading her inside. I try leading her to her bed so she can lay down. Instead she wraps her arms around my waist, holding onto me like I'm a lifeline. I wrap my arms around her neck and pull her closer to my body. Her shaking eventually slows down and Calli pulls away from my chest. I move my hands to her neck, pulling her head to look up at me.
"What do you need me to do?" I softly ask her.
"Just be here with me." She whispers.
I nod my head and press my lips against her forehead. Once I pull away she walks to the bed so she can sit down. I walk around to the other side and lay down. Calli lays down next to me, placing her head on my chest. She sets her hand on my stomach, next to her head. I take it in my hand, entwining our fingers.
We lay in silence for a while before she softly sighs. "Why did they have to bring Grey into this? He doesn't deserve this."
"Neither do you." I say squeezing her hand. "You don't deserve it either."
"I'm fixing this." Calli suddenly says. She sits up and grabs her phone.
"What are you doing?" I ask sitting up next to her. I lean over and see she's on twitter typing furiously.
She sends the tweet then shows it to me."I am not dating Austin. We are just really good friends. Don't bring my family into your petty drama. Jealousy isn't cute."
"Do you think that will help anything?" I ask.
"Probably not." She sighs. "I just needed to get that off my chest."
"I know. I just wish we could find out who did it." I say to her.
"I do know." She says. "It was Maddi and Monica. They planned it."
"What? Why don't you tell someone else?" I ask trying to face her.
"No that's what they want." She says. "I'm not going to run and tattle on them. I'm going to face the problem."
"And how are you going to do that?" I ask again.
"By ignoring them." She says plainly. "It's that simple."
"If you say so." I say smiling at her. I look at the clock on her nightstand and see how late it is. "I should probably get going so my mom and Dave don't worry."
Calli nods her head then walks me to the door. At the door she wraps her arms around me and buries her face against my chest.
"Thank you for waiting up for me." She whispers.
"Anything for you." I softly say before kissing the top of her head. I let go and start walking away. "Goodnight Calli."
"Goodnight Austin." She says before closing the door behind her.
{Calli}
The next morning we load up the buses and head out to Ohio. Once we're in Dayton we immediately go to rehearsals. The choreographer and Michelle call everyone together before we start.
"We are making some changes to the routines we're doing." Michelle says. "We want there to be a leading girl dancer with Austin." She pauses to look around at everyone. "You are not required to audition ladies, but we would like it if someone would."
"I'll do it!" Maddi interrupts. "Since no one else wants to, I guess it's mine right."
I roll my eyes at her idiocy.
"Calli should do it!" A voice yells.
I look around and see Calum and Toby together nodding their heads.
"Yeah what Calum said!" Toby agrees. "Calli would be great."
I look over at Maddi, who looks like she's about to explode.
"Calli , what do you say?" Michelle says.
"But I called it first." Maddi whines.
"If Calli wants to, we will hold a dance off in a couple hours to see who gets it." Michelle says. Her voice is full of irritation.
"Will Austin be choosing?" Maddi asks crossing her arms. "Cause we all know who he'd choose."
"No he will not be choosing. It will be determined by al of you." Michelle gestures to the dancers. "Either whoever gets the loudest applause, or whoever fails to comply with the other dancer." She looks at me again. Her eyes pleading. "So. What do you think Calli?"
I hesitate for a minute. "When do we start?" I smile wickedly at Maddi.
"As soon as both of you are ready." Michelle says.
"I'm good now." Maddi says. "What about you, Pissy?" She refers to the name she gave me on the bus.
"Bring it on." I say taking off my jacket.
Michelle moves us to either sides of the stage. The other dancers are moved to the stadium seats to watch.
"Now, I will call out a type of dance for each round. There are five rounds At the end of each round we will determine who had the loudest applause and that person gets a point. At the end of five rounds, or if someone gets the first three, we will have a winner." Michelle backs away. "Maddi you're up first."
Maddi gets in place, center stage.
"Contemporary!" Michelle calls out. Beautiful Soul by Jesse McCartney starts playing as Maddi begins. She is pretty good. She tries to throw in fancy tricks that throw her off. When she lands in an ending position, I immediately jump in. Literally. I areal into the center and start my dance. I can already hear my cheers are louder than hers were. I end in the splits as the song finishes. Maddi fake yawns as I pull myself to stand up.
"Ok, now all those for Maddi please cheer." Michelle says into the microphone. She gets a slightly loud cheer, but it almost sounds like its out of politeness. "Ok, now for Calli." I get a roar of applause that goes on for a few seconds longer. "Calli wins round one!" Michelle says. "Ok Calli you'll begin this round."
I move to the center stage.
"Jazz!"
This one is a little more difficult. I've never been big on jazz, but I roll with it anyway. My section finishes as Maddi begins. She's trained in jazz her whole life. When she finishes Michelle calls out my name. Again I get a loud applause. Maddi's name is called and her applause is only slightly louder than mine. "Maddi gets round two!"
Maddi starts the third round.
"Lyrical!"
Lyrical is basically contemporary and jazz, just more flowy. Maddi is incredibly choppy with all of her movements. Finally its my turn. I win this round. I have two, Maddi only has one. As long as I win this I'm fine.
I start the fourth round.
"Hip hop!"
This is where I get nervous. I'm good at hip hop, but Maddi can moves her hips better than I can. I do the best I can, and Maddi starts. Her moves are provocative and sexual. I'm afraid that's the only way she's going to get chosen. "Ok now for Maddi please cheer." Maddi gets incredibly loud cheers. I feel my confidence slowly diminishing. "Ok now for Calli." My cheers are at least ten time louder than Maddi's. She stands there eyes bugging out of her head. I'm pretty sure I can see smoke coming from her ears. I bow to everyone in the audience. They stand up and cheer for me.
We finish up rehearsals, as Austin and I learn the new work. This work almost seems like deja vu. At the end of the song I walk away from Austin. That move, just seems way too familiar.