HEARTBURST,, The Next Step

[3.20] we are the world

❝ Thalia, how many languages can you say 'hello' in again?❞

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A sense of excitement rushed through Maxie as she raced down the stairs towards her team, after having just been debriefed by the board on what the next round would entail. At Internationals, the Dance Captains from each team meet with the Internationals board to hear what the next challenge was going to be: you never know what to expect.

"Hey, okay, so what's the first round?" Riley quizzed the girl as the rest of the team moved to surround her.

Almost out of breath, Maxie was quick to inform them, "Okay, so basically, they're putting four dancers from different nations onto one team, so you have to learn how to work together. But, the thing is, there's forty teams and only the top four will advance."

What that meant was there were 160 countries competing for a spot in the next round, and only 16 would make it through.

"So... who's the best fit from our studio?" Eldon spoke up.

"We get to choose, so," Maxie shrugged, "If it helps I can speak Russian, French, a bit of Irish and some German at a stretch, but obviously if there's no-one from those countries in the group I'd be useless."

Elvita nodded slowly, "Okay so, helpful but not really."

Maxie turned to the girl beside her, "Thalia, how many languages can you say 'hello' in again?"

"Fifty-five," She stated matter-of-factly, "Well, fifty-six because I taught myself Swedish this morning."

"You speak fifty-six languages, I speak one," West chimed in, causing the group to laugh

Maxie smiled at her boyfriend, "So, no to West, yes to Thalia. Okay, the team will be waiting up there," She pointed to the spot up the stairs where Canada was assigned to meet their team."

"Let's go," Miss Kate added before she and Thalia walked off, the sounds of encouragement from their team followed them.

‧₊˚✩

Hotel played over the speakers in the rehearsal room as Riley, Giselle, Michelle, Cierra and Elvita worked through their group dance, though some seemed more determined to dance it than others.

Despite each of the older girls going all out to make sure they had the moves and spacing down correctly, Elvita was more than a little distracted. The girl was marking through the routine and hardly moving at all for some parts, and it was very noticeable for the others.