Richelle wakes up, her head pounding with some form of a headache.
Nevertheless, she still gets into her usual dance attire, with the addition of a black hoodie. Nothing will stop her dancing, even a small bug.
It's probably nothing, just a cold or something little and stupid that she only needs to take one dose of medicine for, but she'll survive without.
Instead of doing what she probably should to help herself feel better, she lazily walks to grab her dance bag and drive to the studio. The clock in her car informs her that she's barely going to make it for usual rehersal time, nevermind an hour early.
When she does get to the studio, she just sits in her car, not managing to conquer the energy to get up and walk into the building.
It takes a while, 27 minutes to be exact, but eventually she manages to make her way to Studio A, walking in late to rehearsal for the first time since, well, ever.
"Nice of you to join us." A snarky remark comes from her boyfriend, who is stood with all the guys, as she walks to her line placement, oblivious to the fact she's standing in the middle of Jacquie, Piper and Summer helping each other learn the new section of choreo.
She just stands there, aimlessly, as she waits for Noah to say something more. The realisation only hits her, the one where she realises she probably looks like a complete fool, when Noah leaves his group and takes her hand, leading her over to one of the benches.
"Sit down." He says rather softly, but still in a tone that'll get her to do what he says.
Slowly, she sits down on the cold, wooden bench and looks up at Noah, eyes barely open. He takes a seat next to her and puts his arms around her, but she doesn't lean into his touch. She stays as stiff as a board.
"Rich, relax for a second." He whispers, knowing she hates it when other people hear her conversations with him. It often leads to a great deal of teasing, a thing she does not like to endorse.
Still, her body refuses to move from the position it's in, so Noah moves his hand down her spine to her lower back, pressing gently on the weak spot. Her whole body loosens. She would've fallen off the bench if it wasn't for Noah grabbing her waist and pulling her closer to him.
"That wasn't very nice." She mumbles, shuffling closer to him. She rests her head on his shoulder, forgetting that the rest of A-Troupe is there. She hates PDA, hence the fact Noah is completely dumbfounded by her actions.
"Says the girl ignoring all her made up life rules just to give me a cuddle."
He turns his head to try and get a proper look of her face, but instead sees Henry sniggering in the corner. Noah sends him a pointed look, getting him to shut up and get back to work pretty quickly.
When she manages to process what he said about 30 seconds ago, she shuffles away to the other side of the bench, remembering the 'no touching at dance' rule she made up a few weeks ago.
The rule has already been broken, of course. Noah always finds a way to sneak his arm around her when listening to Michelle and Emily, or when they're stretching and he finds a way to 'help her stretch better'.
"Do you feel ok Richie?" He asks, to which she just nods, not having the energy to even come up with words, "Wait a second.. are you sick?" Noah asks, having to wait a while for a response.
When he doesn't get even a slight movement from her, he stands up and crouches infront of her. The sight shocks him slightly, he hadn't had a good look at her face yet.
Her eyes are slightly puffy and swollen, only half open. Every blink she takes is extended and exhausted. The rest of her face is like a ghost, apart from the tip of her nose which looks slightly red from irritation and the dark purple bags under her eyes.
