Snapshots

10. Emily & Michelle

Coming up with obscure facts about all ten of your dancers for an escape room is no easy feat despite Michelle's assurances that it would be.

They spend hours wracking their brains, scouring Facebook, and even discreetly questioning a few of the dancers to find enough fun facts. And once they finish that, they have to figure out which dancers need to be paired up the most.

This escape room is probably more trouble than its worth, and they should absolutely be thinking about Regionals instead, but frankly, Emily's always been a fan of puzzles. This escape room is a welcome distraction, and she rarely seeks out distractions, but what can she say? Those three-inch-long ropes and the team's morale being so low two days before Regionals is really stressing her out.

Being Studio Head has given her a lot more respect for Miss Kate and Chris and how they rallied the team together back in her own A-Troupe days. They certainly hadn't made it easy on them.

"Oh my gosh, did you know Summer was in a band?" Michelle asks excitedly. On her laptop, she's scrolled through several years of pictures on Summer's Facebook page and has pulled up an image of a young Summer holding a guitar and smiling with two other kids, one of whom is holding drumsticks and the other frowning at the camera like she'd rather be anywhere else.

"I can't say I knew that, no," Emily quips while scrolling through Finn's Facebook page, which has told her nothing other than Finn is awful at updating his social media and really likes pizza (according to his most recent status from 2014). While the love for pizza is relatable, it's not escape room material.

"You'll never guess what the name of the band was," Michelle goes on, stifling a giggle. Her brown eyes are shining brightly, and Emily suspects she's having way too much fun with this.

"What is it?" she asks, not looking up from her phone. She doesn't have to to know Michelle is rolling her eyes at her.

"You have to guess, Em. It's no fun if you don't." At the unamused look Emily gives her, she huffs and reveals, "It was Spaghetti Pedicure."

A laugh actually escapes Emily's lips, and she sets her phone down, moving to look over Michelle's shoulder. "Spaghetti Pedicure sounds like something West would come up with."

"Right?"

Emily paces behind Michelle's chair, ticking off their dancers in her head. "So that covers Summer. The only one left is Finn."

"Did you find anything on him?"

"Nothing," Emily sighs, throwing out a hand exasperatedly. "How is it that he's our most talkative dancer, and we still know nothing about him?"

Michelle shrugs, shaking her head in wonder, but then her eyes catch on someone out the window, and she suddenly smiles. "I think I know someone who might though."

Emily pauses in her pacing, brows creasing as Michelle jumps up and moves to the doorway, calling Piper into the office.

Piper. Of course. She's been spending a lot of time with Finn these days. Emily can't believe she didn't think of her sooner. Sometimes, she supposes, it does help to have Michelle's mind working alongside her own. Michelle occasionally has a few good ideas, this escape room being one of them.

Piper enters the office, smiling at the two of them as she asks, "Did you need something? There's not a problem with my paperwork for Regionals, is there?"

"No, everything's fine, Piper," Emily quickly assures her. The last thing they need is Piper worrying about something like paperwork two days before Regionals. They're not Riley. They had all of that triple checked and submitted months ago.