Richelle thought her crush on Noah was over long ago. But now it has to have picked the worst time to make a reappearance, and maybe she has a crush on Jacquie too. That wasn't supposed to happen, Richelle doesn't get crushes on people, not like thi...
Author's Note: This was supposed to be a oneshot. And I got distracted. This is cross-posted on AO3 which has all the tags and headcanons. The most important ANs I'll put here as well but I use AO3 as my main platform.
When this was still a oneshot it was set later in Season 6, now that it's become longer this is set around Mash-Up Match-Up.
"Are you guys ready to start?" Noah asks. The three of them have been warming up in Studio 1. Even with Regionals right around the corner Noah, Richelle, and Jacquie are preparing for a trio competition the following weekend. They've been choreographing it on their own, and getting Michelle and Emily's input when they've disagreed; but now they're focusing on cleaning it. Richelle shares a look with Jacquie as they nod at Noah.
Richelle rolled her eyes when Noah and Jacquie told her about the story they wanted. A good dance should stand on its own without the need for a frivolous story, but she's outvoted; 2 to 1. So she stubbornly goes along with their stupid love triangle plot line. Richelle and Jacquie start on opposite sides of the stage with Noah in the middle, and they're each trying to lure him to their side with different styles of dance. Richelle doesn't really know why it feels like her heart breaks a little when the dance is over and Noah picks Jacquie. It makes sense story wise she guesses, but, whatever, she's not really that invested in the story anyway; they're just together at the end because they're dating. Richelle doesn't care, there's definitely no feelings bubbling back up. Because if there were she would be shoving them back down, she can't let anything distract her this close to the competition.
The three of them run it together on their own a few times before Noah runs to the office to get one of their studio heads to watch and critique them. Richelle isn't really sure when she became friends with Jacquie (not that she would ever admit to being friends with Jacquie), but they definitely got a lot closer while competing with Summer, and each other, but mostly Summer. And now they're in a trio together, waiting for Noah to return and the silence between them doesn't feel tense. But Richelle feels like her newly returned feelings for Noah could ruin everything. She lost Lola when her friend left TNS, they said they would stay in contact, and they did at first, but Richelle's always had a hard time making and maintaining friendships. Noah's her oldest friend, they've both been at The Next Step since they were old enough to walk. Even when they were in different troupes Richelle always knew she could talk to him. He's her best friend and now her stupid crush is back, when he has a girlfriend.
As much as it hurt when Noah told Emily about her having trouble with "emotions" while TNS was still in two pieces; at least when she's withdrawing into herself even more to avoid having to interact with The Next Step's happiest couple, neither of them think anything's wrong. Richelle can pretend to act all happy and hopeful that Noah will choose her during the dance and it looks unnatural, but that's just who she is. They expect her to have issues showing emotion while dancing. A fact Emily reminds her of when they're done showing her their dance. She can't explain why the sadness and hurt when he chooses Jacquie is so much more real though, why her feelings are authentic. Not without revealing one of her biggest secrets.
What really scares her though is the fact that she's not sure which one of them she's jealous of when they kiss at the end of rehearsal. Noah is really the only person she's ever had a crush on, but now there's a twinge of something watching him kiss Jacquie, but it's not that she wants to be in Jacquie's place. She's had those feelings before, mostly when Noah was still crushing hard on Abi, Richelle desperately wanted to be Abi and have those nonsense conversations with Noah. No, now it's almost like she wants to be Noah. She rushes through a good-bye before running out the door.
Richelle isn't even really sure where she's going, her sister is using their shared car. She just needed out of that room. She ends up in Shakes & Ladders, it's late enough that it's mostly empty. She orders a strawberry juice and collapses onto the couch, clenching her hands into fists trying to regulate her breathing. By the time she's calmed down a little bit Emily has come to find her.
"Noah and Jacquie said you ran out of Studio One." Emily pauses, looking over at the younger girl, "We're a lot alike, you know, we don't often listen to our hearts." Emily shakes her head, "Michelle is usually better at this kind of thing, but if you ever need to talk, I'm here."
Richelle knows it's not exactly what she meant but she looks over at the woman who is practically a second older sister and asks, "Do you mind driving me home? Natalie has the car and I'm not sure when she's going to be back. Noah was going to give me a ride..." She trails off, not really knowing where she's going with it.
"He told me. You freaked both of them out a little. I know you don't always see it, but they care about you, we all do." Emily gives Richelle time to answer but when she doesn't she starts walking out of Shakes & Ladders out toward the parking structure. "Come on. If you are going to be alone at home anyway you're welcome to come hang out with me until Natalie can pick you up. Riley's coming over so what's one more little sister."
"I kind of want to be alone right now. But thanks for the offer," Richelle hurriedly tacks on after a few seconds. "And thank you for driving me."
She's in the kitchen reheating leftovers when her phone buzzes with a text from Noah.
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[An iMessage style text. The contact name is "Noah Andrews". There are two texts from Noah. "Are you okay?" and "After today". In the type bar at the bottom Richelle has typed "I'm fine." but has not yet sent it.]
She starts typing more before deleting it and sending what she has.
Everything just feels like it's too much. And she doesn't even know why. She puts her headphones on and blasts music so the outside world disappears and she doesn't have to think. She manages to eat a few bites of her dinner before wrapping it up and putting it back in the fridge.
Logically she knows she should eat more. She's just come from a long rehearsal with Noah and Jacquie, which came after a long A-Troupe rehearsal. And she barely ate lunch at school. But she just can't bring herself to eat, Nat can yell at her later for it.
The next morning Richelle wakes up, still on the couch, but her headphones are on the side table. Nat must have turned her music off when she got home last night.
"Morning Riche. How are you feeling, you had your big headphones on last night." Natalie gently shoves her sister upright on the couch and sits next to her.
"I'm okay, I guess. Yesterday was just a lot."
"Yeah, I got a text from Emily. I know the two of you have your whole 'think with your head not your heart' thing, but I'm your sister too. You can talk to me if you need to. Make sure you're listening to your emotions too, not just your logic."
Richelle smiles a little bit when Natalie refers to Emily as her sister. "I know, Nat. Thank you." Richelle leans into her sister, there aren't a lot of people who "get" her, it's pretty much just Natalie, Emily, and Noah. Lola was starting to, but when she left it was just another reason Richelle had to not let people get close to her. But now Jacquie is starting to find a place on that list, and it scares her. Most people don't stick around long once she lets her walls down around them.
