HEARTBURST,, The Next Step

[2.12] time to move on

[2X12]

{Love is in the air for Emily and Hunter when they are trapped in the costume closet together, however, not so much for Riley as she tries to move on from James after a catastrophic duet rehearsal.}

❝Work it, twerk it, go.❞

"Yeah, I feel like that would definitely push our dance over the edge," Giselle nodded in agreement before taking a sip of her juice.

Maxie smiled at the ginger in front of her. It was open mic night at Culture Shock and the two girls had decided to meet up there, not only to watch Thalia's accent impression, but to also discuss how they were going to make their small group dance stand out at Nationals. They had also invited Amanda, however, she seemed a bit too preoccupied at the time, so they decided to leave her be.

As they watched Thalia interact with two children who had volunteered to be a part of her act, they couldn't help but share a laugh at just how good their friend's 'Gertrude' character was.

Leaning over the table, Giselle whispered, "You know, Thalia is really good at this. If I didn't know any better, she could have been a double-threat at her old studio."

Turning back to Thalia, then looking to Giselle once again, Maxie shook her head, "Nah," she brushed it off, "If there's one thing I learned from year 8 drama lessons, it was that every good acting piece must have a freezeframe with a voiceover, it can't function without it," she informed the ginger, confusing her slightly.

"Right..." Giselle responded with a hesitant, tight-lipped smile, still finding every anecdote Maxie brought up about England to be the most random and irrelevant piece of information that somehow seemed to amuse Maxie and only Maxie.

The performance was short, but once it was over, it had the whole room applauding and even some people, including Eldon, wiping away tears of laughter at Thalia's mock country accent. After taking a bow, the girl practically skipped over to where Maxie and Giselle were sat and joined them at the small, round table.

"What are we talking about, ladies," she grinned, resting her head against the palm of her hands and her elbows against the table, "Nothing bad, I hope."

Reciprocating the girl's smile, Giselle told her, "Oh, no, I was just saying how great you are at that accent thing, I mean, you'd make a totally convincing country girl called Gertrude," she joked, causing Thalia to laugh at the compliment.

"Hold on, hold on, hold on," Maxie interrupted, holding her hand up before clearing her throat a bit too dramatically, "Let's have a go."

Cocking her eyebrow, Thalia questioned, "A go at what?"

"Doing an accent," she shrugged, causing the other two girls to exchange looks of worry and bemusement, "Hiya, I'm Maxie Harding and I was born and bred in Donegal," Maxie proclaimed in a proud, and surprisingly accurate, Irish accent, making Giselle and Thalia's faces warp into that of shock at how easily the girl had done it.

Maxie smirked, obviously proud of herself for impressing her friends so easily, "I love showing off my different accents, it's my party trick. I can do Irish, but not Northern Irish, I'm still working on that one; Australian, however, I'm pretty sure everyone can pull that one off; Essex and Scouse, they're my favourites; Texas if I put my mind to it; Scottish on certain days; Russian after I watch a Russian movie, and Cat Valentine. Now, I know Cat Valentine isn't exactly an 'accent' but after years of watching Sam and Cat and Victorious, I kinda adopted the accent Ariana puts on for the character," she shrugged, completely unaware of how off-topic she had gone.