Change Your Mind

23

Riley

"Good morning good morning" James sung coming over to my locker the next morning
"hey" i smiled closing my locker giving him my full attention
"How are we feeling this morning?" he asked leaning against the locker directly next to me
"as good as can be, how about you? How's Piper this morning?" I asked and she offered me a sympathetic smile
"Dad offered her the day off of school but she wanted to go. I've told her to call me if anything happens" He explained and I nodded offering him a comforting smile

"She'll be okay James, I know it" I said placing my hand onto his making him smile
Before either of us could say a single word more, I noticed Alex walking our direction
"Has he spoken to you since?" James asked intertwining our hands
"not a single word" I said making eye contact with Alex

"After I blurted what I did to Chloe, they broke up.. He's probably plotting something though, It's Alex" I warned breaking the eye contact looking back at James
"Oh he can try all he wants but he won't do shit. Not with A-Troupe and I around" James said smiling over at me
"Morning lovebirds" Giselle teased coming over 

--

It was later that afternoon, we were practicing for Internationals, James and I were about to work on our duet but he'd excused himself to talk to West and Eldon 
So I thought, what better time to work on my solo

Or at least that was the plan until a small panicked brunette walked in looking more flustered as the seconds passed
"Hey are you okay?" I asked making her eyes dart to mine, from her body language.. it was evident that she was on the verge of having a panic attack

"Have you seen James? Miss Kate said he would be in here? I don't mean to both-" She started before I offered her a smile
"You must be Piper? I'm Riley " I asked and she took a deep breath in before hesitantly nodding
I smiled heading over to her, taking her hands before guiding her over to the bench towards the back of the room

"James will be back in a minute, he's gone to speak to the boys before we rehearse" I said and she looked around panicked again
"oh god I'm bothering you aren't I" She said and I shook my head rubbing her hand gently to try and calm her down

"No Piper, you're not okay? how about we try and take some deep breaths okay?" I asked her and she nodded before shaking her head making her breathing pick up once again
"It's not working, it's not working" She said pushing her hands through her hands, tears began streaming
"Okay Piper look at me" I said crouching in front of her, she looked at me with her dilated brown eyes looking for the glimmer of hope

"How bad it is on a scale of 1 to 100" I asked and she looked around avoiding my eye contact
"look right here Piper" I whispered earning her attention again
"maybe a 62?" she whispered, I smiled at her taking her hands in mine again
"Alright, then here is what we are going to do okay?" I asked making her nod
"We are going to count backwards from 62" I explained
"Then by the time you get to 0, it'll just be a bad couple of minutes" I said and she looked at me a little unsure 

"I'll do it with you" I smiled crossing my legs, Piper copied my actions now sitting on the floor in front of me
"62" I said taking a deep breath
"61" Piper added making me smile 

"8" I said with a smile on my face
"7" Piper continued
"you've got this" I said shaking her hands
"6" Piper said making it sound little like a question
"5" I continued
"4" Piper added, a gentle smile appearing on her lips
"3" I whispered watching as her breathing was truly stabilised again
"2" Piper said looking around the room again
"look at me Piper, 1" I said making her lock eye contact with me again
"0" She said taking the biggest sigh of relief 

I smiled looking at her, the panic attack was well and truly over with
"See, I told you" I said before she pounced on me giving me a tight hug
"Thankyou" She said as she clung on tightly
"If you can't find James, you are always more then welcome to come and look for me okay? I've been through this a lot myself" I said making her smile with a nod 

"Thankyou Riley" She said still hugging me tightly
"What on earth did I miss?" James said finally making his grand entrance