Change Your Mind

11

James 

Another year, another A-Troupe. We all got the texts about 10 minutes ago, I think it's safe to assume the rest of the Troupe were probably in Studio A already
After we find out, Miss Kate likes for us all to meet one final time before heading home to find out who made the team, who our alternates are and how this season is going to work

As I walked into Studio A, I was surprised to see I was the second person here, the rest of A-Troupe were nowhere to be seen but there sat on a bench towards the back of Studio A was Riley
I knew she would have made it

"Do you want me to leave and come back when the rest of the Troupe are here?" I asked making her look up from her phone
I looked at her to see a few tears rolling down her cheeks
"Are you okay?" I asked stepping closer but not too close, I didn't want to overstep but I also wanted her to know I was here if she wanted me to be

"I'm fine" She said wiping her tears locking her phone throwing it into her bag
"Are you sure? because people who are fine don't tend to be silently crying" I said making her nod
"it'll be okay" She said and I sighed nodding
I wasn't going to push

"A-Troupeeeee!" Noah bellowed as the rest of the team came in
"Welcome guys!" Miss Kate smiled soon joining us
My attention wasn't where it should be though,  we were all celebrating but my head kept glancing to the side of us where Riley stood pretending that everything was fine 

But it clearly wasnt..

"Alright, let's get straight down to business" Miss Kate said nodding in our direction
"Let's start off with Welcoming the newest A-Trouper! Riley!" Miss Kate said making everyone one look over at her smiling 
She was going to fit in like a glove if she gives everyone a chance 

"Now our alternates for this year.. I had to have a long hard think about it" Miss Kate said
"I want to try and include our Alternates in some routines seeing how big our competition is at the end of the day" She continued
"But as it stands, Amanda and Michelle.. you are the alternates" She said and Riley looked around a little confused 

"When it comes to auditions for the Solo's and the Duets you'll all be auditioning including the Alternates, there will be two Duet rounds. The first one I'll pair you off so I can see how people work together and then the 3 pairs I take from those auditions will have the choice to stick with that partner or mix with another one. Then we'll decide on the Duet to take us to Internationals!" Miss Kate smiled

"How does the competition work?" West asked, none of us had ever made it this far, we barely scrapped through Nationals
"So it's a week long competition, on the first day we have the Female and Male soloists. They will be back stage the entire day and can only have one person with them I believe? I could be wrong but I'll double check" Miss Kate explained
"Then we moved to our first Duet round on day 2, this one is will be given a theme closer to the time. It could be anything from a genre to a hidden meaning we have to interpret" Miss Kate explained 
"Then 2 or 3 depending on what time slot we get, one of our soloist will be selected at Random to perform a combo along side 2 other teams, the one who completes it the best will make it through with a 5 point advantage" Miss Kate continued to explain

I glanced at Riley again who was biting her nails while also chewing the inside of her cheeks. I mean I'm freaking out too but this is her first competition. I can't even begin to think what she's thinking

"Then day 3 also has a our 2-5 person dance, I want us to use the full 5. We can work on our weakness' and our strengths and make a full powerhouse of a routine" Miss Kate smiled
"Then on Day 4 we have another challenge, it'll be Duets again but this time the pair will go head to head with the same music as every other team and they have to improv it" Miss Kate said 

"That is then repeated on Day 5 with a small group, then Day 5 we also have our awards ceremony before the big routines start" Miss Kate added with a slight nod
"Day 6 will be our Semi Final routine, we get 2 hours in the morning to go through it and I want us to use that time wisely. There will be no messing around this year boys" Miss Kate said making Eldon gulp
He knew that comment was directed at him

"The Day 7 will be our final routine. Does that all sound okay?" Miss Kate asked and we all nodded before she took a big deep breath in
"I should also prewarn you, if at any point during the competition we are stuck at a tie it falls to the duet. The duet needs to have 2 routines in place just in case that was to happen. One for the duet round and one for a tiebreaker round" She explained

"This competition isn't going to be easy but I think we'll all get through it if we work together" Miss Kate smiled one final time 

Miss Kate dismissed us and before any of us could even say boo, Riley was out the door 
I wanted to go after her just to check she was okay but something tells me that would be the wrong thing to do..