Emily and Michelle had decided to make Harper's worst nightmares come true and assigned her to teach J Troupe's Tuesday night class. It wasn't that she didn't like J Troupe, quite the opposite actually, she just found them rather intimidating. They were all very talented kids and often came across a little judgemental.
As she entered studio A, Harper noticed that the whole group was already there and were talking amongst themselves while stretching. She took a deep breath and glanced towards Michelle and Emily inside their office before walking forward into the studio. Michelle was in for it after making her do this.
"Hi guys, I'm taking your class today so make sure you're ready to go in five." She announced as she removed her hoodie and went over their dance in her head so she could give them appropriate corrections. There were only six of them which wasn't too bad, but Harper was still extremely nervous. "Okay, so if you can get in line along the barre we'll do a quick ballet warm up, stretch, then I want to make sure your competition routine is clean."
The blonde dragged one of the barres out as the children got the other one and then lined up beside it. She switched on the music and took them through a few exercises like pliés and tendus to ensure they were nice and warm. Then they all followed along in a quick stretching routine that Harper demonstrated so they were ready to go for their group dance. What she didn't notice as she was teaching, was that Noah had entered through the front entrance and was watching the class.
"Okay so if you-" Harper began to instruct them to get into position for the group dance but she was quickly interrupted by Presley, one of the J Troupers.
"What's going on with you and Noah?" Probed the young, yet extremely confident, girl. Harper was completely taken aback by the question as she searched for something to say.
"Um, that doesn't really matter right now." The blonde replied awkwardly as her love life wasn't something she was keen to discuss with J Troupe. Emily and Michelle were also counting on her to get their routine ready for their upcoming competition.
"Are you gonna break up?" Another J trouper who was named McKenzie asked curiously. They were all losing focus and soon, countless questions were being thrown Harper's way.
"Do you still even like him?"
"I thought you would be together forever."
Harper was so overwhelmed as the entire group broke out into a full blown debate about her relationship with Noah. She was lost for words as she tried to speak above them but they weren't anywhere close to listening. She glanced towards Michelle and Emily's office but it appeared that both of them had headed out for a lunch break. She was all alone.
"J Troupe, it's time to focus!" A voice echoed across the room causing the kids to fall silent. Everyone's attention turned to Noah who they had all just noticed was there. Harper had no idea how he was able to do that but despite needing his help, she really didn't want to see him. "Now you need to listen to Harper because it's you that's performing at the competition, not her."
"Fine." Presley grumbled as the entire group scrambled to find their opening places. Harper was once again lost for words. She was thankful that Noah had come to help, but she was still mad at him.
"Thanks." She muttered without looking at her boyfriend as he took a seat on the blocks to observe the rest of the class. Luckily J Troupe kept their opinions to themselves for the remainder of their rehearsal and listened to Harper. Once they had run the dance twice, she offered them some corrections so that they could perfect it. "McKenzie really try and point your feet in that aerial to finish your lines and Zack just make sure you get there on eight so you can be on time for the unison section okay?"
Everyone nodded and applied her corrections to the routine which was looking much sharper by the end of the rehearsal. She could feel Noah's eyes fixated on herself as she watched them rehearse but Harper was determined to stay focused on J Troupe. She gave them a big round of applause as they finished.
"That was so much better, good job! You can go home now." Harper dismissed them and almost forgot that Noah was still there until he walked out into the middle of the studio where she was standing. Harper turned to face him, but her expression shocked him. As far as Noah knew, he had done nothing wrong and had completely forgotten that upset her at all the other day on the stairs.
"Harper, what's up with you? We haven't talked in days, even the J Troupers think somethings wrong." Noah asked with concern lacing his tone but all Harper could do in response was scoff. She was in disbelief that he had already forgotten how rude and distant he was acting the other day.
"I know we haven't talked in days because the last time I tried to talk to you, you completely brushed me off." She told him in a calm yet firm tone. Harper, despite how angry she might have been, never yelled. Especially at Noah. She just wasn't like that.
"I'm really sorry about that but I just needed time to think about...something." Noah sounded hesitant in his tone and the blonde narrowed her eyes at him as she took a step closer to her boyfriend. Noah's eyes widened at their now extremely close proximity. He knew what Harper was doing. When they were younger and he was hiding something, she used to force it out of him by staring right into his eyes. It was like a superpower of hers and it was yet to fail.
"Please don't do it." He mumbled quietly as her eyes began to widen and they pierced into his own. It was too hard to resist her unblinking eyes, they put such immense pressure on Noah that he couldn't help but crack. "I might have to leave A Troupe." Noah blurted out making Harper's expression falter as she took a step back with eyes full of confusion.
"You might have to what?" She asked to clarify she had heard him correctly. Noah sighed defeatedly as he watched a look a hurt fill her eyes, that was the exact reason he didn't tell her in the first place. He hated to be the one who made her feel like that.
"Michelle and Emily told me that because I turned eighteen, if I compete with the team at regionals then we'll have to compete in the senior advanced division." Noah explained making Harper furrow her brow in realisation.
"But what's wrong with that?" She asked not realising why it would be an issue. Harper had never been to regionals and the competition they faced every year was tough, but facing much older groups with much more experience would be twice as difficult.
"The senior advanced division is next level hard, I think we could do it but it depends on what everyone else thinks. I've thought about it a lot but I don't know what to do, I think I'm gonna have to call a vote on it." Harper was in disbelief of what she was hearing. Noah putting this decision to a vote was a risky move because that meant that if any one person felt nervous or scared then he could be off the team.
"Why wouldn't you tell me that?" Harper asked in disbelief as she averted her eye contact. Noah let out a sigh as though finding the right words.
"Well you can sometimes be a little" he hesitated briefly before finishing off the sentence, "unpredictable."
"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked with a slight scoff as she walked over to gather her belongings. Noah followed behind her silently cursing himself inside his head for saying something that would obviously upset her more.
"It doesn't mean- I just" he stuttered out trying to find a correct answer, but it felt as though nothing he said would fix this. It was just one of those times when she needed some time and space to cool off and collect herself.
"You can stop trying, I just need some time. Alone." She emphasised grabbing her bag and heading out. Noah released a sigh that he had been holding in as he watched her go. He hadn't meant to upset her but telling her at first would have also upset her, although maybe keeping it from her was also a mistake. If Noah was certain of one thing, it was that he had no idea what he was going to do if someone voted him off the team and he could only hope and pray that no one would.
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a/n: a little bit more of a filler here but i hope you enjoyed it anyway. please consider voting and/or commenting if you did it would really mean the world to me. also, the book is now at 2k reads!!! that is actually insane thank you so much, it's honestly amazing so thank you to anyone who reads, votes or comments. i hope you liked seeing a less cute but more realistic side to their relationship here because at the end of the day, all couples fight about stuff. also, the way she stared at him to get the truth out reminded me of jiley in season 4 (even tho i didn't like them that much in s4 don't hat me lol), so yeah thought it would be cute. thank you so so much for reading :)