People tend to think they know themselves. But truth is, we're constantly learning every inch of us throughout our lives. And when we realise it, we're someone completely different once we let our true, inner emotions come out and speak for us.
***
"Noah, I swear to god, if you don't hurry up soon.." Richelle yelled facing the stairs.
"I'm coming!" Noah yells back.
The blonde sighed. She had been waiting for her best friend to get ready for ages, and it was, in all honestly, frustrating. Not that she wasn't used to it already, but she had a very important test that day and wasn't planning on arriving late for school.
"You have been saying that for the past ten minutes Noah, you're always like this it's unbelievable. It doesn't matter how many times Jacquie and I set your alarm, you'll always snooze it and sleep in." She kept on complaining as she paced around the living room, anxiously.
"Jacquie!" Noah exclaimed, remembering he had planned on meeting up with her before school the previous night.
"What about Jacquie?" His best friend questioned, confused.
"Shit shit shit" Noah mumbled countlessly as he ran down the stairs, putting his jacket on.
"Mister may you watch your language, please?" She joked watching him run around the room desperate, as if he had lost his mind. He truly had indeed.
"I forgot I had planned on meeting her before class, and now it's too late, classes start in ten which is the time we take to get there by foot." He explained as he prepared something to eat.
Richelle giggled, finding the whole scenario hilarious "You're telling me you stood your girlfriend up?" She laughed even harder.
"Don't laugh Richelle, I'm in big trouble"
"Considering we're talking about Jacquie, hell yeah you are bro"
"Thanks a lot" Noah said with sarcasm in his voice.
"Shut up I'm just being realistic"
Suddenly, a familiar ring is heard. The two of them turn their heads to look at Noah's phone, which was placed over the table next to the sink. Noah ran over to it, a panicked expression all over his face as he read 'babe 💘' on the screen.
"What do I do??" He whispered.
"Answer the call idiot"
"Only if you tell me it's impossible to be killed through the phone"
Richelle rolled her eyes, grabbing his phone out of his hand before answering the call.
"Hi Jacqueline it's Richelle"
"Stop calling me Jacque- wait Richelle?" Jacquie cut herself off, surprised her boyfriend wasn't the one answering her call.
"Good morning to you as well" She joked ironically.
"Yeah good morning"
"Now that's better" She took a glance at Noah, waiting for Jacquie to start screaming about how Noah forgot about her.
"Good. Anyways I just wanted to tell Noah I'm a bit late so we can't meet up before class today, maybe later. Where are you guys though?"
Richelle bursts out laughing.
The way Noah got all freaked out over being late when in reality Jacquie too was late was comic. His reaction had been priceless, therefore it very certainly had been worth it.
Noah, confused, grabbed his phone and talked himself to Jacquie, as Richelle fell on the couch, grabbing her stomach that was getting sore from all the laughing.
"Oh"
Meanwhile, at a not too far away house, Lola was saying goodbye to her family, more specifically her sister.
"I'm gonna be late sweetie I need to go, but I promise I'll be back before you know it" She told her little sister Hazel on her knees, just so she would be by her height.
Lola and Hazel had a very special bond. Whenever Lola felt sad, Hazel was always there to cheer her up, just as if she were her saviour, her forever comfort person.
"Can we play with my dolls when you come back?" Hazel asked.
"Of course we can" Lola smiled down at her "As soon as I'm done with the rehearsals we can play all you want"
Hazel jumps up and down as she clapped her little hands, out of joy.
"Okay bye Lola" She said hugging her big sister one last time, before she left the house.
Lola called Kingston to tell him she was gonna be late.
"King I'm sorry I'm really late, can you tell that to Mrs.Green? Because she wanted to talk to me before class started"
"Heyy sure don't worry"
"Are you alone? I hear a lot of people talking at the same time in the background " Lola giggleed as she walked at a fast pace.
"No I'm with Kenzie, Julian and his boyfriend. We're at the cafeteria actually, Kenzie had no food at home because her parents forgot to do the groceries so she had to eat breakfast here and you know how grumpy Kenzie is when she doesn't have breakfast" Kingston explained, followed by a "Ow".
"Did Kenz just hit you?" Lola asked through laughter.
"Well yeah he deserved it" Kenzie answered instead of letting Kingston do so.
"Hi Kenz!!" Lola greeted cheerfully.
"Hey girl!!"
"Hey Lollipop" Zayan greeted too.
"No stop that's my nickname for her" Kingston complained.
"Don't be selfish King, you need to learn how to share" Zayan defended himself.
"How about calling me just Lola?" The blonde suggested. Not that she minded them calling her 'Lollipop" or any other nickname - in fact, she loved nicknames - yet if that meant her friends had to fight because of it, she'd rather be just called Lola.
"Nope"
"Just as I predicted"
Lola was getting closer to the school, excited to see her friends and to talk to them without a screen in between.
She loved school. School had always been easy - she was naturally smart, and didn't have to study much to get good grades. Learning was something she enjoyed, and apart from that, she always had a great time with her friends there.
Lola ran towards the school's entry, trying to get there on time, and just as she stepped her feet on the building the bell ring went off.
"Just in time girl" Kenzie said as she saw her.
"Let's go" Lola breathed heavily due to the running.
Noah, Jacquie and Richelle eventually got there on time too, after a lot of running, ready for another exhausting day of classes.
***
"Let's go dancers let's warm up we've a lot of work to do today" Emily, The Next Step's co-studio head, commanded as the A-Troupe dancers started stretching.
A-Troupe was the elite group of The Next Step, only the best dancers made through the auditions. It was a honour for all of the A-Troupers to be there, yet they also had in mind that no spot was ever guaranteed and if they didn't work hard they could be replaced by a B-Trouper - or even, on a rare situation, by an outsider.
This season they were working their way up to Nationals - one of the biggest and hardest competitions amongst the best canadian studios. And considering so, both Michelle and Emily made sure only the best of the best were a part of the team.
This year's A-Troupe had twelve dancers (with no alternates) : Richelle, one of the best and most admirable dancers; Noah, the dance captain; Jacquie, an ambitious and competitive talented dancer; Amy, considered the acro queen, who was bubbly and sweet; Piper, whose technique was flawless yet wasn't good at acro; Henry, the best hip-hop dancer; Kingston, a talented self-taught dancer; Kenzie, sassy and hardworking; Maya, a previous B-Trouper who worked a lot to get to A-Troupe; Zayan, muslim, activist and a member of the debating club; Julian, passionate classically trained dancer; and Lola, who came from a prestigious british dance studio, being new there.
Despite their differences and the short time they'd spent together - which had been roughly a week and a half - the dancers had already gotten along, and befriended each other almost immediately.
Lola and Kingston immediately clicked and became best friends. Lola was very scared she wouldn't have any friends considering she was new, but as soon as she got to The Next Step, she felt like home. And those people already felt like her second family.
"Emily and I have decided to start by choreographing the semi-finals routine today, and I, as a co-studio head and A-Troupe's choreohtapher, am going to show and explain you all the steps and after I'm finished with that we'll do an exercise in which each one of you suggest something to add to the choreo, or maybe even change it." Michelle adds, finishing her wife's previous words.
"I have some paperwork to do and I also need to have a word with Mr. Iván and Miss Chloe so Michelle will run the rehearsal for today. Focus." Emily tells them, walking back to the office.
From the moment The Next Step won Regionals on, the studio became more and more successful. More and more dancers joined the two other troupes, including baby ballet, therefore Emily and Michelle could afford hiring teachers for those other troupes.
Mr. Iván was chilean, yet had been living in Canada for five years. He was a great teacher and was in charge of teaching and leading B-Troupe for each competition and to help them dancers grow and improve. However, he was a very clumsy person, which always made his students laugh.
On the other hand, as Chloe - a previous A-Troupe member - finished her tour, she decided she wanted to settle down and teach little kids the basics of dance. Margie had showed her how much she truly loved being around kids, and how good she was with them. Ironic, we shall admit. The studio heads decided to hire Chloe, and they had to confess it had been a great decision. One day, those kids would be the future of TNS, and no one could be a better teacher than Chloe.
Emily walked in on Studio 1, only to see the dancers goofing and playing around - with Mr. Iván leading.
"What is going on?" She questioned.
Mr. Iván looked over at Emily, and composed himself "Oh Miss Emily, uhh the dancers and I were just relaxing and playing around as a way of warming up"
"Oh! Okay then, I just wanted to talk to you for a minute, is that okay?"
"Sure-" He cut himself off as he turned to the dancers "I'll be right back, Summer could you please get the group stretching?" To which Summer nodded.
Summer almost made it onto A-Troupe, however Lola filled her spot. If Lola never arrived to the studio, Summer would be a part of A-Troupe - much to Richelle's contentment. The both of them had never gotten along, therefore them being on separate troupes was the best for everyone.
Back in Studio A, Michelle had finished showing the dancers the steps, which they picked up easily. Richelle suggested quite a few moves, most of them moves only she, Noah and Amy could do - mainly because they were the best at acro.
Nationals was what they had always dreamt of. And each dancer was determined to give their best and win the competition.
After a while they took five, and Michelle walked to Studio 1's office, which had turned into the dance teachers' hangout room. They had coffee in there, talked about the dancers, also had reunions every once in a while, and relaxed during the breaks.
At the juice bar, the dancers chatted and hydrated themselves, namely Richelle, Noah, Jacquie, Henry, Kingston and Amy.
"It was so hard though, I might have like a D, no more than that" Kingston talked about his math test, which had gone awfully.
"To be honest I might have an A, it was way too easy" Richelle confessed.
"I think you should focus more on your studies, Kingston, if you start failing most subjects your mum might pull you from the studio and we need you" Henry pleaded as he played with his straw.
"No, it's okay I just didn't sleep well last night"
"You guys" Noah spoke up "I don't know about you, but I think our semi finals routine is beyond amazing. We'll totally kill it at Nationals."
"I know right" Jacquie agreed "I'm so excited, you should totally add that trick though Richelle, it would definitely put us over the top"
"Obviously, I'm not taking a no for an answer from Michelle" Richelle said "Noah you could try and convince her, you're the dance captain and she listens to you"
"Will do. And if any of you have any trouble with the choreo don't hesitate to tell me, I will gladly help you, yeah?"
They nodded. Noah was the best captain TNS had ever had. He was always there for the dancers, yet never let his personal matters come in between. He indeed was a true professional.
Meanwhile at the locker room, the rest of the dancers (such as Lola, Zayan, Julian, Piper, Maya and among others) chatted as they drank their water.
"My boyfriend and I went out on a date last night, it was amazing. He makes me so happy" Julian was telling his friends about his date with his boyfriend Emil.
"That's so cute, where did you go?" Lola asked as she organised her locker.
"To the cinema" He answered "We went to watch that new action movie that came out last week"
"I'm so happy for you guys" Zayan confessed "Last night I hung out with the debating club actually, and I basically came home like at two in the morning so I just slept for like five hours"
Soon, their break was over, and the dancers were back in Studio A for an hour more, until the clock hit 6 P.M.
Every dancer was sweating from all the hard work, not mentioning how exhausted they felt.
"I just wanna feel the cold water hitting my skin" Richelle whined as she walked with Jacquie to the dressing/shower room.
"Same, I feel exhausted" She agreed.
A few seconds of silence passed by when Jacquie spoke up again "It's really weird"
Richelle looked over at Jacquie frowning "What's weird?"
"Lola spent like most of the rehearsal staring at you."
Richelle's facial expression changed from confused to a blank one. The fact that Lola had been staring at her all afternoon was indeed weird. They barely knew each other. What was the reason?
"Oh. That's weird" Richelle chuckled softly.
"Yea- Amy!!!" Jacquie yelled, cutting herself off "Can I borrow your hair drier?" She asked as they already were inside the shower room.
"Sure"
"Thank you very much" Jacquie smiled.
"I just wanna go home you guys" Richelle sighed as she ripped her clothes off.
This time, she felt someone looking at her. She turned her head around only to see Lola's eyes on her, once again. And not on her face specifically.
"Let's go then get into the shower already" Jacquie said, dragging Richelle away.
***
Half an hour later, the team was at the building's entry chatting one last time before they headed home.
They were chatting separately, with their own friend groups.
"Can I come over tomorrow because I can't understand anything about Philosophy and you're great at Philosophy, Ri?" Kenzie pleads.
"Uhh.. Not really, my parents don't like it when I invite friends over" Remembering about her parents made her upset, yet she tried brushing it off "I can help you
tomorrow after lunch though, is that okay?"
"Yeah, sure"
Everyone knew Richelle's parents were busy people. They ran a company, which provided their family wealth, however everyone also knew they were very strict towards Richelle. And she tried not showing how much it upset her, yet sometimes it was hard.
Richelle stopped focusing on her friends' conversation, and started looking around. The place had lots of people, ones that studied on Lost & Found Music Studio, others that danced at The Next Step, and so on.
She looked at the other dancers, yet only one caught her attention. Lola.
She looked at her, almost as if she were analysing her. She still didn't know why she had been staring at her all afternoon, her head couldn't make it out.
As she saw Lola looking back at her, Richelle flashed her a sweet smile, to which Lola smiled back slightly.
She was pretty, and looked like a sweet person. Maybe it wouldn't be bad to get to know her better, after all she was new there and a very talented dancer.
Richelle's thoughts were interrupted, and her and Lola's eye contact was broken when their friends started leaving, eager to get home.
Whatever was going on with Lola, a part of Richelle wanted to know her better. And maybe then, find out why she was so interested in her to the point of staring at her throughout the afternoon.
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{ ✧ } :: 2847 words
Author's Note :: im so happy to be releasing this book, and i am so excited for you guys to read the rest! this chapter was more of a boring one, considering it contained lots of explaining and contextualising.
the posting schedule is sundays and wednesdays, i really want to try and post it that regularly, to maybe entertain you throughout xmas break (to those who celebrate xmas of course)
anyways, for now that's all, sending you all love, stay safe <33