Richelle's house
"Bye, sweetheart!" Finn called to his excited child, as she rushed under Richelle's arm and into another room. She loved it here, although he had no idea why. Something to do with colouring? He suddenly hoped she didn't start drawing on the walls. They'd only recently got past that phase.
"Bye Daddy!"
He smiled as she vanished, knowing that she would be safe with Richelle in the house. The blonde had certainly grown a softer side since leaving The Next Step, and definitely had a soft spot for Grace.
"So, may I ask, was that Piper in the photo?" The woman asked, tilting her head to one side with a smile. Finn suddenly became fixated on the floor. They were standing in Richelle's hallway, and it was certainly incredible. It was wallpapered white with grey patterns traveling up and down in spirals, with the occasional photo hanging up. There was also a canvas, with a painting of a ballerina mid jump hanging to his left.
"Yeah, it was. But you can't say-"
"It's all over the freaking internet. Anyone who's known her long enough will recognize her."
"Hmm. Well, that will be interesting."
"Have you seen what they've been saying? It's actually awful - although it's mainly people making her seem as though she's only come back because you're fa-"
"Which she hasn't!" Finn interjected, already knowing what was going to be said next.
"Where is she, anyway?"
"She's at her apartment," He shrugged, not exactly wanting to get into the fact that she'd lost her job and apartment in the space of a night.
"And, how are you?"
Again, he shrugged. It all felt upside down and back to front and tangled up in his head. Honestly? Nothing felt like it was going to make any sense anytime soon.
"I should be going, Natalie will kill me if I'm late, and I'll probably be fired," Finn narrowly stopped himself from adding 'too' on the end of it.
Richelle nodded, before Grace came running back in with a green pen lid in her hand, but no green pen.
"I don't know where the pen is," She explained, looking slightly embarrassed. Then she noticed that her dad was still there.
"Did you tell Mummy how to get back?" The small child asked, for the fifth time that morning.
"Yes, I did Grace," Finn smiled, and she ran to hug him.
"Good. Now she won't get lost!"
And then she was ready to launch a full-time quest for the missing pen.
"Come on, Rich Elle!"
"Bye!" Richelle called over her shoulder as she was dragged away. "Show yourself out!"
Finn let out a small chuckle as he did so, calling out a final goodbye.
4 hours later
Piper and Audrey's Apartment
Audrey was picking at the roll of sellotape with one yellow painted fingernail, sitting cross-legged on her bed with her belongs packed into a cardboard box. Seeing as most of the furniture came with the apartment, neither of them had that much to pack. Arguably, Audrey had the most, as she had a lot of her makeup stashed at the place, as well as her sewing machine and other equipment.
Piper, on the other hand, was currently sorting her possessions into 'keep', 'throw away' and 'charity shop'. Unlike her flatmate, she didn't have a place to go after Christmas, although she wouldn't admit it to anyone.
"It's your turn to start making lunch!"
Audrey's voice came from the other room, and Piper checked the time on her phone.
12:00
"Okay, do we have anything that needs eating in the cupboards?" She yelled back, listening for a response as she pushed herself to her feet.
"Salad!"
"That wasn't what I asked!"
Silence.
"Salad it is then," Piper muttered under her breath as she made her way to the kitchen. She had her trainers on, the ones she usually wore around the house. They squeaked slightly on the tiled kitchen floor as she entered, and it made her skin crawl slightly.
After looking through the cupboards, she'd made more groups on the counter. 'Needs Eating' 'Food Bank' 'Snacks'. She had admittedly needed to throw away a furry orange from the back of one of the cupboards, and tried to disinfect anything near it.
Once the piles had been sticky-noted, she threw her pen and pile of notes down on the table. Finally, she could make the salad without worrying about how the kitchen could be sorted.
Back in Audrey's room, she was busy clearing out her closet. The clothes had disappeared from the hangers, and had been folded and stacked in an unlabeled cardboard box. I should probably label these before Piper attacks me with a sharpie. Again.
She smiled fondly at the memory of her last day at film school, before she transferred to study hair and makeup.
Flashback
"Audrey! These aren't labelled!" Piper complained, moving one of the boxes to the side so she could get to the bathroom.
"I'll label them in a minute!" She called back, rummaging around for the box cutter. It seemed to have vanished of the face of the Earth.
"They better be."
"Or what? Going to challenge me to a dance battle?" Audrey joked, hinting at her dorm buddy's past as a competitive dancer.
"I'll poke your eye out with a Sharpie!"
They both laughed, but when Piper returned and the hadn't been labelled, she genuinely chased her around with a Sharpie. Terrifying.
Soon, both of them were laughing so hard they had to hold their sides in pain.
"By the way, have you seen the box cutter?"
Piper's smile vanished.
"Yeah, I think so.." She rummaged under the bed for a while, and produced the tool.
"Thanks!" Audrey opened one of the boxes, before realizing that it was the wrong one.
"That's exactly why they need to be labelled!"
End of flashback
Audrey was snatched out of her flashbacks by Piper's cry of pain, followed by the clattering of an object landing on the tiles.
She was there in a flash, to see Piper's hand bleeding onto a towel, and the knife on the floor. Cucumber slices were still on the chopping board, and her flatmate was giving the blade a dirty look.
"Piper, what happened?"
"I knocked the knife off, and caught it by the blade. Stupid reflexes."
"Is it deep?"
"No, I let go again. It caught my palm and fingers, but they'll stop bleeding soon," Piper explained, pulling the towel off to peek at the wound.
"I'll go and get the First Aid kit, see if there's a bandage or something," Audrey offered upon seeing the size of the wound.
"Audrey-"
"Yeah?"
"Nevermind."
Richelle's house
Grace carefully opened the door, and crept inside. She was a Princess Ninja, master of stealth, breaking into the castle to steal the crown jewels so she could be the Queen.
"Woofy? Come in Woofy" She pretended to hiss into a walkie talkie, and grabbed the toy dog from beside her and deepened her voice.
"I am here. Repeat. I am here. There is a guard. I Repeat. There is a guard. Over." Woofy told her. The seven year old nodded.
"You distract her. Repeat. You distract her. Over."
This was the Princess Ninja's most dangerous mission yet.
"Go!" Grace cried, throwing Woofy at a surprised Richelle, and running to grab the picture of a crown.
"Oh!" The blonde woman cried, as a toy dog came flying past her.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, it's just Grace, hang on Jacquie." She held a palm up to her phone.
"We've been spotted! Run!!!" The child snatched up the dog and raced out the room.
"Is Finn still in NYC then?" Came Jacquie's voice from down the phone.
"Yeah, he is,"
"And was it Piper who he.."
"Yep," She popped the 'p' trying to follow Grace out of the room so she could keep an eye on her.
"Yeesh. Anyway, talking about couples from TNS, did you hear about Kingston and Lily?"
"No- what is it?"
"Kingston proposed,"
"Really? Oh wow,"
"Everyone was a bit surprised at first I think, but it was on Instagram, and they seem happy so..."
The rest of what was being said got lost in the noise that followed. The was a crash and a small scream, followed by an even louder bang.
There was a heavy bookcase in the other room.
Richelle felt her blood run cold.