The Next Step - Euphoric

Ch~4

Looking for Amy had proved to be harder than Adriana originally thought, but in the end she managed to find her in the locker room. Thankfully, alone.

"Amy! There you are, oh my god. This place seems so much bigger when you are looking for someone."  Adriana exclaimed. Despite being an active person, Adriana was a little out of breath. She definitely wouldn't admit it to anyone though. 

"Hey, Adriana." Amy replied back - looked confused as to why she was being approached in the first place. Adriana intimidated Amy a little bit. 

"I just wanted to thank you for earlier. You know at the bars?"

At this Amy simply gave a soft smile in return, before Adriana accepted this and started walking towards the door to get to rehearsals. 

Amy stopped her though before she could, "We've only known eachother for a few days, but you look exhausted. So just let me know if you need anything, okay?"

At this Adriana managed to muster up a small nod with a fake smile, before walking out successfully this time. 

It felt nice, for someone to check up on her. Just like Ozzy and Kingston earlier, but she didn't need the worry. She was fine.

Most people were already in the studio as Adriana walked in. She decided to just keep to herself in the corner to start stretching. Acro was something Adriana did enjoy very much, so this is what she started to do after her stretching. 

Summer approached her, after Jacquie had given her some 'helpful criticism'.

"Hey Addie. Those were such good flips! Your acro is insane!" Summer complimented, cheerfully.

Adriana didn't think they looked good, not at all. But the comment from Summer perked Adriana up a lot more.

"Thanks, Summer. I could say the same about your flexibility! Don't listen to Jacquie, I thought it was so cool."

Summer was pleased to hear this, but still could tell something was off with Adriana. Summer actually really enjoyed Adriana's company, even though they haven't known eachother long.

"Are you feeling okay?" Summer decided to express her concerns.

"Yeah, of course. Just feeling tired." 

Summer decided to drop this subject. For now at least.

Lily entered the room, with a confident stance.

"Ok, guys, so I guess I'm leading today so let's all get ready and spread out." 

Why was Lily talking? Noah is the dance captain, Adriana thought in her head.

Noah wondered this too, as he decided to confront her about it. 

"Hey, Lily, I..usually lead the warm-up." 

Lily, however, seemed unfazed by this and continued on. "Ok, well, to me it just looks like people are goofing off." 

"Nobody is goofing off, Lily. We were waiting for you." Adriana said, deciding to speak up once again.

Lily's gaze directed over to her, where she couldn't help but notice her tired state. She still worried about Adriana, even if they hadn't been friends for a long, long time. She had no more time to think about this as Noah spoke up.

"Yeah, I was just waiting for you to arrive before I started the warm-up." He answered confusedly.

Lily remained confident, "Yeah, ok, well I'm here now so I'm going to get everyone moving, so everybody spread out." 

Nobody moved, and nobody wanted to move.

This pushed Lily to open her mouth once again. "Come on, guys, let's go." 

Nobody was going to listen to her over Noah, she needed to realise that.

"Oh, I see what's going on. You guys don't know if you should listen to me or Noah!" Lily's sarcastic voice, didn't waver once. "Well, let me put it this way, Miss Angela is my mom and I'm the closest to her, so do you really think that Noah would be the one in charge?"

Anger filled Adriana and she tried to advance closer to Lily, only to feel a hand on her elbow. She turned around to realise that Kingston and Ozzy had now joined herself and Summer. Ozzy had her arm in his grip. 

Kingston looked over to her with pleading eyes, as if telling her to let this one pass. She had no energy to argue, so she sighed loudly before Ozzy dropped her arm and stepped back. Summer looked towards her with a sad smile and Adriana could see that Summer wanted to speak out as well.

Everybody got into their positions. The only sounds being Lily's bossy voice echoing off of the walls locking them all in.

"Ok, perfect, we're going to start with plies, so, everybody, arms out." 

Nobody could be bothered to object. 

This is what it would be like from now on.

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Thank you, to everybody who is continuing with this story and giving it a chance! I appreciate it!