HEARTBURST,, The Next Step

[2.29] old friends

[2X29]

{As Eldon's competitiveness ups upon discovering he'll be facing Daniel in the male soloist round, confessions are made between Maxie and West that may threaten the very grounds of their friendship.}

❝He's got his game face on and he's ready to win this thing.❞

Excited was quite literally an understatement for how the dancers felt as they sat in the audience, ready for day two of Nationals. So far, half of the male soloists had taken their turn on the stage and half of those had been sent home, just like that.

It was safe to say that the pressure was on for Eldon; not only did he have to compete in front of hundreds of prying eyes, but he carried the weight of supporting his team towards the second round on his shoulders, meaning, if he lost this round, they were all going home. No wild card spots, no second chances.

A hushed silence soon fell over the audience as the camera overhead panned to the two adults sitting in the raised box, commentating on the competition so far.

"Welcome to the seventeenth Annual Absolute Dance National Championships," The man announced, his voice sounding familiar to a few of the Next Step dancers seen as he had been the same man commentating at Regionals. "I'm our host, Chuck Anderson. Alongside, my esteemed colleague Tre Armstrong. How are you doing, Tre?"

As the pair of them continued to make light conversation about what had already happened the previous day and what was about to happen, Maxie, James and Eldon sat in one of the furthest back rows of the auditorium when the first soloist of the day, Lacota, was finally called to the stage.

Once the applause died down and the music began, James almost immediately tuned out of the dance — already growing bored of the boy's continuous moves and repetitive actions.

"Man, are you nervous at all?" He asked from beside Maxie, who sat in between the two boys.

With a swift shake of the head, Eldon brushed it off. "Eh, nah."

Both Maxie and James exchanged looks of concern and confusion at their friend's response. In all honesty, Eldon should've been nervous, because if he didn't make it through that round, none of their team would get to dance and all the time they had spent preparing had gone to waste.

"As the days go by, I have less and less faith in Eldon's common sense," Maxie sighed, dreading the worst-case scenario as she pictured going home as swiftly as they had arrived.

"Yeah, I'm not really that nervous," Eldon had continued, looking back to catch the end of Lacota's piece, "It's just dance. I'd be more nervous, like, asking out a girl."

Whilst Maxie furrowed her brows at the unlikely connection her friend had just made, James threw his head back with a smile, "True, true that."

"Seriously?" The girl asked amusedly, "You were more nervous asking out Emily than you'll be dancing on that stage?"

Squinting slightly, the blonde gave her a shrug. "Well, maybe not with Emily, 'cause I was used to the rejection and that. But say I were to ask out someone new, once I've hit thirty pirouettes, of course, I feel like the nerves are just fully there."

"That's mad," Maxie chuckled: she couldn't help but find humour in the fact that there was more of a chance of Eldon stumbling over his words to get a girl to like him back than there was of him stumbling over his own feet on stage.