A Love as Hard as This

Chapter 40

Author's Note:
Basically the entirety of Season 5 Episode 20 :)

Richelle's Perspective:

My mouth hung open in shock, my heart pounded against my chest, almost as if it were trying to make its way out of my body. I had opened my locker door to get my pointe shoes, expecting to find them in peak condition, ready to be danced in. I was far from right.

As I pulled out the right one, it flopped in my hand. I knew something was wrong, the shanks would prevent that from ever happening. Unless they were broken. Turning it over and studying it, I immediately realized that my initial suspicions were correct. The shank was broken. And there was no way that it could've broken on its own; someone had broken it.

I knew exactly who it was. Zara had always been jealous of me, always hated me, and when I took the solo from her, it gave her the perfect incentive. She'd broken my pointe shoe, ensuring that I wouldn't be able to dance on it, and therefore securing herself the solo.

I couldn't believe it. How could she do this? This was just about the number one sin that could be committed against another dancer. Not only could they be seriously injured by using a broken pointe shoe, but they were expensive, and hard to replace as the fitting process was so draining, not to mention that they molded onto your feet perfectly once you broke them in.

There was no time for me to get another shoe and break it in properly to use it. Zara had gotten exactly what she wanted. I worried I wouldn't be able to dance today.

As all these thoughts clouded my mind, I scowled and took off running to where I knew Zara was rehearsing in Studio 1. I was ready to have a serious talk.

I saw her immediately when I walked in, and was so aggravated that I threw the shoe, not caring that it hit her. "Zara!" I yelled, "You did this to me!"

"Wha—" she sputtered, but I didn't give her a chance to even finish her world before I shouted again.

"Look at this, how am I supposed to do my solo on this?! This is all because of you! You're just so jealous, aren't you, that I took your solo? So this is what you do back?!" My anger was spiraling out of control, but at this moment, my mouth had a mind of its own.

"I didn't do anything, I don't even know what you're talking about." Zara defended. There was a small part of me that thought she really was being sincere, but I willed it to quiet.

"I can't wait to tell Emily about this!"

"I didn't do anything—"

"You're through here." With that, I stalked out of the room in search of Emily. I wasn't going to let Zara get away with this.

——————

I snuck back into Studio 1 an hour later so I wouldn't encounter Zara again, hoping to find Emily in her office. Unsurprisingly, it was empty. Emily and Michelle were constantly working on the Regions video lately, and it was almost impossible to find Emily by herself, especially on this side of the studio.

"Richelle?" I heard behind me. A familiar, masculine voice, belonging to a particular person I was glad to see. "Hey," he said solemnly as soon as he saw me, nearing me. He looked terrible, sad, almost... guilty? But I knew that couldn't be it. Noah had nothing to be guilty for, he'd probably just heard about my pointe shoe and Zara.

"I cannot wait to tell Emily what Zara did to my shoe." I said harshly. "She is going to be out of The Next Step, she is going to be done, done in the dance world in fact. She is gone—"

"It wasn't Zara." he interrupted.

I couldn't believe what I'd just heard. "What?" My voice was small, shaky.