HEARTBURST,, The Next Step

[2.24] under pressure

[2X24]

{Emily tries to expose Amanda, however, gets caught in her own trap and ends up dragging one of her innocent teammates down with her.}

❝Someone stole the Nationals money.❞

'When The War Is Over by Jena Gogo' played from the speakers as the troupe watched Amanda go through her nationals solo, smoothing over any imperfections and generally just showcasing to them what she had so far.

Noticing the majority of the dancers' expressions, it was pretty clear how impressed they were by not only her dance, but by how much she had done for The Net Step in such a short space of time.

"Amanda is great." Chloe gave the camera a grin as she continued, "She stepped up as a dance captain when we really needed somebody to be a leader, and she's doing great things for our team."

With a simple shrug, Maxie decided to voice her opinion. "I think she's great, yeah," She told the camera with a nonchalant tone, "I mean, the solo is good, but I still don't know if it'll beat whoever we're facing at Nationals. I'm just glad I'm not in her shoes, right now."

Miss Kate continued to cheer the girl on as the rest of the troupe filtered into the studio, both to watch Amanda perform and to hear what their studio head had called them in for earlier on.

Whilst the group continued to encourage their newfound friend, a lot of them couldn't help but notice how standoffish Emily was being: as of recent, she hadn't had her mind in the right place. She would show up late, she was being rude to people, and it was completely out of character and not at all who many of them thought she was.

As the song went on, Maxie gave a nod to James and Eldon, who made their way to come and stand beside her.

"You know, you'd probably be able to do a better solo than that," James stated under his breath, keeping his eyes glued to the dancer in the middle of the floor.

"Yeah, we'd get that female solo round in the bag if you had volunteered to dance it," Eldon then added from the other side of Maxie. The two of them remained in the same position, acting as if they weren't insulting their current dance captain as they did so.

Swallowing harshly, Maxie scoffed, "Well, I guess we'll never know." She responded curtly, not wanting to agree nor disagree, rather wanting to change the subject altogether.

At her comment, both Eldon and James shared a dubious look, however, brushed it off, knowing that if Maxie had something to say to them, she would've said it already.

Once the music came to its gradual end and Amanda took her final position, a chorus of claps and cheers followed along with Miss Kate's words of enthusiasm. "Great job, Amanda!" She exclaimed before waiting for the applause to die down. "All right. Now that I have you guys here, I need someone to get trained in first aid for Nationals."

"At least one person from every team at Nationals needs to have at least some form of first aid training," Miss Kate informed the camera.

"I have first aid training," Maxie stepped forward, a proud grin spread onto her features as she recalled the one time a pair of paramedics had come into her year five classroom and gave her class the most basic run-through. "It's just, like CPR and kiss of life." The girl then placed her hands together and pretended to be giving someone chest compressions as she hummed the tune to the chorus of 'Nellie the Elephant'.

Giving the girl an apologetic smile after the troupe had stopped chuckling at her CPR impression, Miss Kate sighed, "Unfortunately, Maxie, I think we're gonna need someone trained in a little more than just CPR."