Lost in the Middle

Four

AN: A little bit of a time skip to "Amy's Prom Has Got It Goin' On".

When Richelle hears that Amy is planning a studio prom she's not really sure she wants to go. Her only friends at the studio are dating (she's finally admitted to herself that Jacquie is her friend, it's weird that she could admit her crush before their friendship), and she doesn't want to feel like a third wheel, except every other time the three of them have hung out together it hasn't been weird. But this is different, prom is such a couple-y event, and she doesn't want to feel like she's intruding on them.

During a break for their convention dance Richelle sits with Jacquie on a bench when Noah comes over and sings a, really quite cute, song for Jacquie asking her to prom. What Richelle doesn't expect though is immediately after Jacquie runs over to hug Noah she rushes back to the bench and pulls Richelle into a hug.

"We should go dress shopping together!" Jacquie excitedly suggests. And Richelle's stupid crush won't let her disappoint the other girl and tell her that she doesn't even want to go to prom. So she finds herself agreeing to go dress shopping over the weekend.

Richelle is actually kind of looking forward to going with Jacquie to the mall. She's a little surprised when Jacquie's sister, Davis, joins them, mostly because Davis doesn't go to their studio and isn't coming to prom. Davis is easily as outgoing as Jacquie and she keeps trying to engage Richelle in conversation. And Richelle can say she tries, but dance is pretty much the one thing she's comfortable talking about (and maybe cats, but she doesn't really like to info-dump on people she's just met) and Davis would rather talk about pretty much anything else. Apparently she and Jacquie butt heads about dance a lot.

By the fifth store Richelle is so over being at the mall, she found her dress in the second shop. She really likes it, it's dark blue, tight, and most importantly, soft, she keeps running her fingers over the fabric in the bag. Richelle was almost positive she was going to have to settle for a dress she didn't love the texture of and then she found the perfect dress. She wanders around the latest store for all of five minutes before abandoning Jacquie and Davis to go sit at a table just outside the store. There was barely enough room to move inside without bumping into a rack of dresses.

It's not long before she gets a text from Jacquie with a picture of her latest find. It's beautiful, it's dark purple and it flares out around her waist. She sends back a thumbs up emoji and sincerely hopes this is the dress. Not only because Jacquie looks gorgeous in it, but also because she really just wants to leave. Richelle is immensely relieved when Jacquie finally emerges from the shop, and she's holding a bag.

"Davis is still looking around a little, but I thought I would come and keep you company." Jacquie sits down opposite Richelle, "How are you doing?" It's been a couple weeks since the trio competition and this is the first time Jacquie has seen Richelle even close to how she was when they finished their dance. She doesn't know why, she's sure Richelle will tell her if she trusts her down the road, but she does know that Richelle sometimes has issues in crowded spaces. And dress shops right in the middle of prom season are some of the most crowded stores in the mall.

"Oh, yeah! I'm fine, there were just so many racks in there, I was pretty sure I was going to knock something over," Richelle laughs. Jacquie's pretty sure it's not the whole truth, but she's not going to push.

"Hey, did you want to maybe—get dinner. Davis has to go to rehearsal soon, so it would just be us though." Jacquie doesn't know why she's so nervous asking Richelle to go to dinner. "Or we could see if Noah wants to come too."

"Sure, that sounds good, dinner and inviting Noah. Let me just check with Natalie first and make sure she didn't have any plans for us tonight."

By the time Davis also makes her way out of the store and to their little table Jacquie and Richelle have the beginnings of a plan for dinner and have extended the invite to Noah who has yet to respond.

They end up deciding to stop by Noah's place after dropping Davis at her studio, when he still hasn't replied to their text.

Richelle hears feet pounding on the stairs before Noah throws the door open. "Oh, hey guys, what's up?"

"We're going to dinner. We texted you but you never answered. Wanna come?"

"We're getting Thai food," Richelle supplies. "At the place by the studio."

"Yeah, sure. Let me go grab some shoes real quick." And with the same foot pounding as before Noah disappears back upstairs. Not a minute later he's back at the front door with them and they're off in Jacquie's truck.

***

Richelle only feels a little awkward when she asks Noah and Jacquie if she can tag along with them to prom. Well, she asks Noah because he's her best friend, but Jacquie answers because she happens to walk into the locker room at the exact right (or wrong, depending on how you look at it) time. (Her answer was "yes, of course.")

Noah feels a flash of panic in the split second after Jacquie answers for him. "How am I going to find a tie that matches both of your dresses?!"

"You don't have to match me." Richelle tries to brush him off. "Jacquie's your date, just match with her."

Noah doesn't know why he's fighting her on it, but he says, "No one said I can't have two dates..."

Both girls turn to look at each other and Noah's sure he's made a huge mistake. Until Jacquie slowly says, "I'm okay with it if you are."

Noah can't be sure, but he thinks Richelle is fighting to hide a smile when she answers. "I'm okay with it. I've gotta go meet with Emily about some sister stuff, but we'll talk later about our plans?"

They both nod and Richelle tries not to squeal when she's outside the locker room. And she succeeds until she makes it to Michelle and Emily's office. Michelle is out, teaching a modern class if she remembers correctly, but her bonus sister is in the office. There's nobody currently in Studio A so Richelle lets herself unmask a little bit and excitedly stim in the office. It takes her at least a full minute before she's calmed down enough to even tell Emily what happened.

"I as-as- I asked Noah if I could, if I could go to the-the-the-the-the the prom with him and Jacquie. And Jacquie said yes because she came in. But then Noah freaked out because he said he, he said he needed a tie to match both of us. But I told him he didn't need to because I was, I wasn't going to be his date. But then Noah said he could have two dates and Jacquie said okay and I said okay." She slurs through a lot of her words because her brain is moving faster than her mouth. She takes a second to breathe. "And I know it doesn't really mean anything, but it still makes me really happy."

"I'm so happy for you Richelle! Have you told Nat yet?"

Richelle shakes her head, "No, I came straight here. She should be here soon though, I'll tell her on the way home."

"Be careful though, yeah? I know this is exciting, but I care about you Riche. I don't want to see you get your heart broken."

"I know Em, we're just having fun at prom. I'll be okay." Even as she says it, Richelle knows it's a lie.

AN: The colors and styles of Richelle and Jacquie's dresses are slightly inspired by mockingariana's video of redesigning the prom outfits. As much as I kind of loved the Richelle/Elliot storyline (they made a lot of sense together and I totally understand why the two of them would have gotten together) it just doesn't work for this.

Also a random headcanon I came up with while writing this chapter, I can't explain why but it makes total sense to me that Jacquie would drive a pick-up truck that only has a single bench seat. And currently Noah gets to claim the middle spot, but when these three finally figure all their stuff out Noah and Richelle fight over who gets to sit in the middle.