Shout out to SleepwalkingAwake for the cover!
Chapter 1
I was the type of person that didn't mind going to school, and I definitely didn't get bored in any of the classes.
Well, except my English class. I always finished my work ahead of time, and was always so bored in the class because there was nothing for me to do except for count down the minutes until school ended.
Unfortunately, after school I had to go to my twin brother's dance competition. Don't get me wrong, I really loved dance and going to dance competitions, unless it was a male solo competition Zayden was competing in. He had been winning for the past three years and every year, I always get told, "Oh, your brother is so amazing at dance, just like your parents. Why don't you dance like them?"
I didn't have to do every single thing my parents or my brother did. I was my own person, but people tended to see me kind of like Zayden's clone, only with glasses.
It wasn't my fault I hated being in front of a lot of people.
"Hey," my cousin, Kingsley, said softly as he leaned over. "You're staring again."
I looked at Kingsley. "I wasn't....I don't....I was looking at the clock."
Kingsley snorted. "The clock is up there." He gestured his head towards the clock hanging on top of the whiteboard. "You were looking over there." He gestured towards where Eleanor Burgess was sitting, also known as the girl I've had a crush on for probably ever.
"I wasn't," I lied. "I was....thinking."
"About her?" he asked.
"No," I said. "Just do your work."
"You see, I would, but I don't have the motivation right now," he said. "School's almost done for the day, which means it's relaxing time." He leaned back in his seat and placed his arms behind his head.
"Kingsley," the teacher, Mrs. Stanford, said. "Are you done your work?"
"Nope," Kingsley said. "I'm relaxing now. I have a saying. If you don't have the motivation, then just relax and forget about your schoolwork."
Mrs. Stanford raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really?"
"Yes, really," Kingsley said. "Thus, me not doing my schoolwork right now. I just don't have the motivation. And at least I'm not trying to balance a pencil on my nose."
My uncle Gray dropped the pencil he was trying to balance on his nose and looked at Kingsley. "Don't throw me under the bus."
"Yeah, don't throw him under the bus," his twin sister, Magnolia, said.
Mrs. Stanford sighed. "I never get why the school thinks it's a good idea to put more than one Prince in a class. I have five I have to deal with."
"Uh, three," Kingsley said. "You don't have to deal with Rhys bothering you because he's Rhys."
"Then that's four," Mrs. Stanford. "You, Zayden, Grayson, and Magnolia."
"False," Kingsley said. "I'm a Prince-Roy."
"You are Zayden and Rhys's cousin, correct?"
"Yes, but I'm still a Prince-Roy. My last name is different."
"Your dad is still a Prince," Zayden pointed out.
"No, he's a Roy," Kingsley said.
"Do you have to do that every time?" Zayden asked. "I was talking about Nolan, not Jerome, and you know it."
"Then be more specific."
"I was. I said your dad. I usually say your papa if I talk about Jerome."
"They're both my dad."
"You're unbelievable."
"Actually, I'm quite believable, thank you."
Mrs. Stanford sighed again as the bell rang. While everyone was packing up, she said, "Make sure you schoolwork is completed for tomorrow's class."
I packed up my stuff before leaving the class with Zayden and Kingsley. While we were in the hallway, Eleanor walked up to us. Well, walked up to Zayden. "Hey, good luck at your dance competition today," she said.
Zayden smiled. "Thank you. Will you be in the audience?"
"I might," Eleanor said, smiling back before walking away.
Why did my crush have to have a crush on my twin brother? At least Zayden was too oblivious to notice it. Or he pretended he didn't.
....I'd rather him be oblivious.
"Well, I have to go meet my devil sisters at my car before heading to the dance competition," Kingsley said. "You'll see me there anyway, but good luck Zayden."
"Thanks," Zayden said before Kingsley walked away.
After Zayden and I went to our lockers, we headed outside to the parking lot. When we got to out car, he pulled the keys out of his pocket and tossed them to me. "You're driving," he said after I caught.
"Wow, really?" I asked. "That's a first." Zayden always insisted on being the one to drive. The only time I got to drive the car was when I was going somewhere by myself. So why was I driving now?
I didn't even question him as we both got into the car and put our bags in the backseat. While I was driving to our house so Zayden could pick up a few things for the dance competition, I noticed him rubbing his ankle.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"Oh, yeah, yeah of course," he said. "It's just a bit itchy. I think I got a bug bite there or something."
"Alright," I said, though part of me didn't believe him. I was his identical twin brother. I could tell when something was up.
I still didn't question him. I was never really the type to question anyone.
I pulled into the driveway of our house and Zayden went in to grab the things he needed before coming back out of the house and into the car. I then drove the where the dance competition was going to take place. It wasn't going to start for another hour, but it was good to get there early and get a good seat.
Besides, Mom, Dad, and my little sister Willow already said they were going to meet me and Zayden there was soon as school ended.
When we got there, Zayden went to the entrance where the dancers entered, and I went through the main entrance and met the rest of my family in the lobby. We then went inside the auditorium after we showed our tickets at the door.
A few people liked coming really early to the competitions as well, but not too early so we couldn't get a seat.
"Hello, favourite cousin," Kingsley suddenly said before sitting down beside me.
"Excuse me?" Willow said.
"Rhys is my favourite cousin, deal with it," Kingsley said as his parents and sisters sat down as well.
"You shouldn't have favourites, Kingsley," Willow said. "That's quite rude to your other cousins."
"I can have a favourite cousin all I want," Kingsley said. "Right, Aunt Mae? After all, you have a favourite brother."
"I only have one brother," Mom said.
"And he's the best brother ever, bitches," my uncle Jerome said.
"Must you swear all the time?" my uncle Nolan said.
"Yes, I can," Jerome said. "Deal with it."
"Well, I can see where Kingsley gets his 'deal with it' attitude from," Nolan said.
"Yes, from Papa, so deal with it," Kingsley said.
For people who didn't know my family, they would assume that Kingsley actually was Jerome's biological son judging by how similar they were. Kingsley really loved it when he was thought to be Jerome's biological son. He didn't mind being adopted, but he was the only adopted one in the family. His sisters were conceived with surrogate mothers, so they were either Jerome or Nolan's biological daughters.
It didn't take long for the competition to start. As soon as it did, I got a text from Zayden saying, SOS.
Confused, I excused myself before getting up from my seat and heading towards the doors that would lead backstage. Zayden was waiting there and he grabbed my arm before pulling me into a small dance room. "I need a favour," he said.
"Okay?" I said. "But it couldn't wait until after the competition?"
"No, it couldn't," Zayden said. "I need you to compete for me."
"Wait....What?"
"I need you to be me and dance on that stage," Zayden said.
"Whoa, I can't dance," I said. "And why would you want me to?"
Zayden sighed. "You know how I went to the dance room at lunch to practice my solo? Well, I ended up hurting my ankle a tiny bit. I thought it would be fine, but while I was practicing right now, it kept bothering me. There's no way I can go full out with my hurt ankle."
"Okay, but didn't someone else on the team make a solo just in case something happened and you couldn't perform?" I asked.
"Yes, but it's not about that," Zayden said. "I won the title three years in a row. I can't lost my title now."
"What if someone else at D.A.N.C.E won it?" I asked. "Wouldn't that be the same thing?"
"No, it wouldn't," Zayden said. "You know what does jerks at Nonpareil are like. They keep saying there's no way I am going to win again. It's not about D.A.N.C.E winning. It's about my honor, my title. Please, compete for me."
"Zayden, I have never competed before," I said. "Or taken a single dance class in my life. I can't dance, especially in front of a bunch of people."
Part of that was a lie. I could dance. I danced all the time at my dad's dance studio when either no one was there or they were all practicing, and I technically have been taking dance classes since I sit in at D.A.N.C.E's practices all the time. I'm just not one participating.
"Come on, you must have some dance in you," Zayden said. "Both Mom and Dad are dancers. There's no way you can't be one too."
"Dancing isn't something you're born with," I said.
"I know, but their love of dance must have transferred to you someway," Zayden said. "Please, I'm begging you."
"I have to wear glasses to see. That will be a dead giveaway that it's me, not you."
"I know, and I thought about that earlier. I wanted to be prepared just in case my ankle was still hurting then, so I brought your contact lenses. Please, Rhys?"
"So what? You think I'll just be able to freestyle?"
"Yes?"
"No."
"I'm begging you, Rhys. Please? I'll owe you big time."
"You still owe me from when I took your driver's test for you because you were sick and the next time you would have been able to take it was three months later."
"I'll owe you even more?"
"Forget it."
"Bacon."
"What?"
"I'll buy you one....No, three packs of bacon."
"Don't do that to me."
"So, is that a yes?"
I sighed. "Alright, fine. I'll compete for you."
Zayden released a sigh of relief. "You are the best brother ever. I'm not scheduled to go until the very end, so you can just let the music play and see if you can think of anything."
"What song is it?" I asked, so Zayden went to where his backpack was laying and pulled his phone out to play the song, once I heard it, I couldn't believe my luck. That was one of my favourite songs, and I even created my own routine that I dance to whenever I need to forget about all the stress in my life.
"Ooh, but first, you should put the contacts in," he said, getting my contact lenses from his bag. I really hated putting them in and it took my a good five minutes. In fact, the only reason I had them was for whenever I had to pretend to be Zayden.
We switched places all the time, and it wasn't just me pretending to be him. He pretended to be me to for things I really couldn't do, like giving a speech in front of my class. I was fine presenting some things, but if it was longer than five minutes, I couldn't do it so he always did it for me.
Some people may say that was cheating, but we say it was playing to our strengths. Speeches were his strengths, not mine.
"You should probably go pretend to be me and sit in the audience," I said, mainly because I didn't want him to see me practice a dance I already had.
"I already thought of that," he said, pulling his fake glasses out and putting them on. "Oh, wait, the clothes. They'll probably notice if you dance on stage wearing what you're wearing now."
Since I was wearing a tank top under my plaid shirt, I just had to take off the plaid shirt and hand it to Zayden. Our jeans were close enough to not be able to tell the difference.
Once he left, I went through the dance routine I had before I heard Zayden's name be called to stay close to the stage.
I took a deep breath before walking out of the room and heading backstage. Two performances were ahead of me, and I was trying my best not to freak out. The only person I had ever danced in front of was Kingsley. He was the only one to know that I actually danced, because I always trusted him the most. He may be a very open person, but he knew how to keep secrets.
When the MC announced Zayden was up next, I was feeling a lot more nervous as I walked onto the stage. I tried not looking at the audience as I stood with my back facing them. I could do this. I could do this.
The music started playing and I forgot about the audience completely. I had danced this routine to this song so many times to forget about the stress, and that was what it was doing right now.
However, it felt different for some reason. A good different. I was always dancing in a studio, never on stage and being on stage was....very comforting. It finally felt like I belonged somewhere.
When my dance ended, the audience began applauding, and some even gave me a standing ovation. Since I was the last dance, the MC called all the other dancers onto the stage to announce the top three.
During dance competitions here in Miami, the two dance studios that always seemed to be neck and neck were D.A.N.C.E, and their long-term rival Nonpareil. Most of the time, it was one of the two that won.
I felt even more nervous listening to the results. I wanted Zayden to keep his male soloist title, and I didn't want to fall behind third place at all.
Nonpareil was announced second place, and I closed my eyes listening to the dancer in first place and the overall Male Soloist.
Zayden Prince.
I heard my family cheering when Zayden's name was announced as the Male Soloist. I felt a huge wave of relief wash over me as I walked over to accept the trophy. I looked over at Zayden and he gave me a thumbs up. He was definitely happy I was able to do this for him.
And part of me felt like I did it for myself as well.
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OMG I'm finally writing this book. :D I have so much planned for it and I cannot wait for it all. I've actually had this very first chapter (Rhys dancing in place of Zayden) planned ever since I decided to make a book for Rhys, which was during Ryder the Love Genius. Usually, I don't keep the plans I had so I'm very proud of myself for doing so. :D Then again, this certain thing is going to set off a lot of events in this book.
But yeah, I am so excited to write about this cinnamon roll. <3
And since it's very early in the book, I want to know if you have any predictions on what might happen. (I love reading predictions :D)
The song attached is the one Rhys dances to. This is probably my favourite song from TNS and every time I hear it, I go like, "Eyyyy it's Rhys's song." cx
I hope you love this book!