Derek's pov.
The light of the ballroom made my eyes squint, my palms were sweaty, and my heart was racing. I know my job is to dance but I can't help but get nervous when we have contests like this. I remember when Tom told me about it just a couple days ago, I had thought he was out of his mind. But now it was really happening and I was nervous. Tom and Brooke were explaining the contest, that me and two of the other professional dancers would each be going out in the crowd and picking one girl to dance with us, each couple would have only one hour to rehearse the dance then we would come back and preform for the audience, then the judges would score us as usual, the couple with the highest score would win and the audience member would get $10,000 and the professional would get a spotlight dance at the finally show. I wanted that dance more than anyone, so I was definitely getting the jitters. I had been nervous but excited about this all week and now it was about to happen. I try to stay cool as Brooke calls me and the other professionals up to the stage, I close my eyes, take a breath, and run up to the stage, you can do this Derek. Tom released us from stage to pick a partner and then I saw her, long black curly hair, Brown eyes, and that smile, wow. I start to make my way to the girl and we meet eyes, she is definitely the one, when I get to her I extend my hand to meet hers, and she accepts. I have a partner.
Arielle's pov.
This is a dream right? I think as the gorgeous Derek Hough makes his way to me. No, there's no way Derek will pick me to dance with him, he must be asking the girl behind me or something, then all of a sudden his beautiful eyes meet mine, and then he extends his hand and Is greeted by mine. Wait, what am I doing? I don't know how to dance, I'm about to make a complete fool out of myself on national television. Well, I can't back out now. Derek leaves his hand in mine and leads me to the stage. Holy crap, I'm on dancing with the stars, on tv, and I'm about to dance with Derek Hough. This is surely a dream. The hosts come over and ask each couple a couple of questions, when they get to me I can't even think but somehow I answer their questions. I tell them my name is Arielle, I'm 18 years old, and I'm a recent high school graduate hoping to peruse a career in writing. Then we are lead off stage and into a rehearsal space. Then I realized Derek was still holding my hand and I started to blush, my hands started to shake in nervousness. "Hey, I'm nervous too. But we're gonna rock this." Says Derek with a wink. And surprisingly my nerves calm a bit. Then, we begin to rehearse...
Arielle's pov.
The lights in the ballroom seem a lot brighter than before as they pierce down on me. It's been an hour, and I have to say, I think our dance really came together a lot better than expected. When Derek started teaching it's like it became natural. Although I'm even more nervous than before, I have a sense of relief and looking into Derek's beautiful blue eyes makes me feel confident and safe. Both of the other girls have performed and were pretty good, one was a little stiff, but who am I to judge? This is the first time I've ever danced, except for ballet recitals when I was 5 and in my room or in the car. Finally the second couple is done dancing and the crowd fills with clapping hands. Just as they get off the stage we step on to it. I close my eyes a take a deep breath, Derek reaches his hand for mine and I look up at him. "Don't worry, just have fun." He says, giving me an award winning smile, then lifts his hand and gently touches my nose. My face produces a huge grin as we get in our places. I cannot believe this is happening right now. The music starts, and I want to faint. Our song is Dance with me tonight by Olly Murs and it's actually one of my favorites. When it's my cue, I begin to swing my hips to the music and follow the steps as best as I can remember, hoping everything turns out alright.
Derek's pov.
As we reach the end of our dance I look over to Arielle, the light in her eyes is beautiful and her smile is huge, she has done every step perfectly and I couldn't be prouder of the beautiful girl whom I met and taught this dance to mere minutes ago. We end the dance with a lift and it goes beautifully. The world stops in that second as we wait for the audiences reaction, and to our surprise, a standing ovation. I don't want to be cocky, but I can only assume we are going to win, considering the audiences reaction. They didn't give a standing ovation to either of the other contestants. As I gently bring her body down from the lift, I pull her into my arms.
Arielle's pov.
I am on top of the world as I see the crowds reaction. Derek gently brings me down, and I still feel as if I'm in the air, he pulls me in to a tight hug and I can't help but pick up the perfect scent of cologne and mint on him. As the crowd calms down, the other two couples appear along side us along with the hosts. I stop breathing for a second as Tom starts to speak. "Lets give it up for our three wonderful contestants and their dancing instructors! Who will walk away with $10,000? Your just going to have to wait and see. The results next, on dancing with the stars." And with that, the show goes to commercial.
Arielle's pov.
The commercial break was the longest 120 seconds of my life, We stayed on the dance floor, and I started a conversation with the contestant next to me, "Your definitely going to win hun, you guys were so amazing together!" The older woman named Peggy exclaimed, I reply with a quick Thank you to the sweet woman and find myself glancing at Derek, he must have noticed because he sticks his tongue out at me from across the room and I return the favor just as we are told the commercial break is about to be over. I make my way back to him and he gives me a quick twirl before Tom starts to speak again. "Welcome back to dancing with the stars, the results are in!" I can't even bare to look at the crowd before me, so I close my eyes. "And the winners of our first ever 1 hour crowd dance challenge are...... Derek & Arielle!" Oh. My. Gosh. Derek picks me up off my feet and twirls me around before I have the chance to think. "I knew you could do it!" He whispers in my ear, then gives me a quick kiss on the cheek and my heart flutters with happiness. Tom and Brooke make their way to us, bring a small shiny mirror ball trophy along with them. As they place it on my hands hold it up high above my head and the crowd is going wild. The hosts close out the show but I'm too busy celebrating with Derek to pay attention. When we are off air, my mother comes running to me with the proudest grin on her face, I had forgotten she was here this whole time. "You did amazing baby girl! You made me so proud!" She screams, tears forming in the corner of her eyes. I made her proud.
Derek's pov.
The rest of the night is like a dream, it has gone by so fast. In the last 2 hours me and Arielle have been going around, thanking everyone, and doing interviews, but separately, I haven't really seen her since that moment on the dance floor when we won. I still can't believe we won, and even more surprising is realizing I get to do a spotlight dance in the finally. A tap on my left shoulder interrupts my thoughts and I turn around to see those gorgeous brown eyes, and the beautiful smile. "Hey, long time no see." I tell her with a wink. She l laughs and says "I just wanted to say thank you for tonight, It was one of the best nights of my life." And I can't help but to agree, tonight has been so fun. "Its really no problem, I had a great time as well." She smiles that great smile. "Well, it's getting late so I guess I better go. Thank you again." I wish she didn't have to go, I've known her for one night but something about her is so beautiful. I somehow manage to tell her goodbye. I watch as she leaves the ballroom, head high and her long curly hair following behind her.
Arielles pov.
When we get back to the hotel room for the night I still feel like I'm walking on clouds. My mother has already called the whole family and told them what happened. We decided to celebrate so we ordered milkshakes from room service and had an I love Lucy marathon. After a couple episodes it was getting late so my mother decided to go to bed. I still had the jitters and excitement filled my body so I did what I always did when I was in a good mood, I grabbed my favorite red hair tie, put my hair into a messy bun and began to write. By the time I had successfully written about the day in my journal and written a new chapter to my latest book I decided I would try and get some sleep. I looked over to the alarm clock and saw that it was already 3am. And I couldn't help but wonder what Derek was doing right now.
Dereks pov.
After the show my friends had offered to take me out for drinks to celebrate my win but I didn't feel like going out so I politely declined. I decided to go home and do what I did best, dance. I had installed an in home dance studio about a year ago and I couldn't be happier with it. It was definitely my safe haven. Once I was home, I changed into dance clothes, grabbed my iPod and headed to the studio. As I went in I put my iPod into my speaker system and only one song felt right, the song I had danced to with Arielle earlier that day. I danced my heart out for hours until I couldn't feel my legs. When I was done I took a shower and went to lay down for bed, and as I did I couldn't help but wonder what Arielle was doing right now.
Arielles pov.
The next morning, The money I had won was already in the bank although I hadn't touched a penny of it. When we returned home my family threw us a little surprise dinner to congratulate me, it was kind of silly really, but I enjoyed it anyways. My Facebook exploded, tons of my friends leaving me messages, even people I didn't know. Our performance was even uploaded to YouTube, and had over 3 million hits overnight! It was all so insane. Even my little brother, Max who is only 3 called me a "super star" and asked for my autograph. But the craziest part was that the local paper and news both did stories on me. Even with all the craziness going around I couldn't help but think of Derek, his smile, those eyes, the way he was so relaxed and fun while teaching me, I just wished I could do the whole thing over again.
Derek's pov.
4 days had gone by so fast, and I had missed the excitement of that night, I missed Arielle, her beautiful hair, her gorgeous eyes, the way she was so shy but in a cute way. The whole experience made me more eager to dance then I had been in a long time. But when I got to the studio this morning, there were crowds of fans and reporters waiting for me, I mean, I know I'm kinda a celebrity but this was very unusual, so I went to talk to my publicist the director for the show. When I walked in to the office, it's as if they were already ready for me. "AH, Derek! Just the man we wanted to see! Your dance was a hit, everyone's going crazy over it!" Says my publicist, John. I am started by his words, I mean, I knew our dance was good, but I didn't know it was that great. "You've reached 10 million hits on YouTube, the dance has gone viral, everyone's doing their own take on it, even Beyonce has shared the video! Your face is on every news station and talk show, I don't know how you did it, but you've started a phenomenon!"