HEARTBURST,, The Next Step

[2.9] never enough

[2X09]

{Michelle demands an answer from Eldon as to why he has been avoiding her the past few days and Riley and James struggle to cooperate in rehearsals for their duet.}

❝"So, you came in second?"
"Yeah."
"How many studios were there, two?"❞

The sound of the audience applauding the two dancers onstage rung through Maxie's ears as she tried to focus on getting James and Beth ready. The three of them were backstage at the local theatre for the competition they had spent so long preparing for.

"I'm waiting for our duet competition to start," James began, a little out of it, "And I can't help thinking that I made another big mistake."

Maxie sighed, the girl had heard her friend repeat the line 'big mistake' all day and was growing increasingly tired, "James, James James..." she began, even though James wasn't even with her, "The only big mistake he'll make is by quitting this duet and throwing weeks of my hard-worked choreography down the drain."

James, still heartbroken and utterly oblivious to Maxie's frustrations, continued, "Even though Riley broke up with me, I still don't feel quite right about dancing with Beth."

For what seemed like the hundredth time that day, Maxie patted Beth and James on the shoulders before asking, "How are we feeling guys, since you're next up? Nervous?"

"You can say that again," Beth chuckled, adjusting her ponytail slightly.

"I don't know," James responded with a slight head shake, "I don't know about this."

Just as Maxie was about to snap the boy out of his concerns, Beth got in there first. Placing her hands on his shoulders in a heavily non-platonic way, Beth spoke, "Look at me. We got this, okay?"

"Yep!" Maxie cut in with a bright, yet forced, smile, breaking the pair up, "And if you perform this right, there's no way you won't place."

"In dance competitions, everyone wants their dance to place," Maxie explained to the camera, "It's basically having your dance come in the top three performances of the competition and... Looking at the teams here, James and Beth need to go big or go home."

"Yeah! What Max said," Beth grinned, lightly elbowing the girl who gave her a small smile back, thankful that she was helping get James back into it.

It seemed their pushes were enough for James to give in as he cracked a smile, "Yeah, okay, let's do it. Let's do it," he repeated before he and Beth dashed off around the corner to take their places on the stage, leaving Maxie in the wing to cheer them on.

"Maxie and Beth are right," the boy admitted, "I am glad I came."

The small crowd erupted with applause as the previous dancers exited the stage and James and Beth entered, some of that applause coming from Maxie in the wings as she gave them both a nod in encouragement.

'Tied to you' began to play and the two of them went on to go through the steps of choreo that Maxie had taught them in the weeks running up to this.

It seemed the piece was going well, nobody had messed up yet, which was a relief, and Max spent the entire dance standing to the side watching on like a proud mum, which was rare for her to do when it was someone other than herself dancing.