Lost in the Middle

Thirteen

AN: Only two chapters left after this. Set during His Girl, Summer and A-Troupe Escape.

They're only a week away from Regionals and now they have to completely redo their entire final group routine. Well, mostly, they're still using the ropes, but they have to restart all their choreography because Davis left.

Richelle can see how stressed Noah is trying to come up with new choreo, especially because Summer and Henry don't seem to be staying on task and Kenzie can barely stand to be in the same room as Jacquie.

They're on a break, talking about where to get dinner from because they're definitely going to be stuck here for several more hours, when Noah has a meltdown after Jacquie asks him for his opinion. Their break ends up going longer than anticipated while Noah calms down.

Even without the ropes the dance doesn't look too bad, but even that combined with the fact that the new, correctly sized, ropes will arrive tomorrow doesn't seem to be helping Noah's mood. He doesn't even fight her for the middle seat on the drive home (they're back to all being in one car, usually Jacquie's, since Davis left), she ends up giving it to him anyway.

***

Rehearsals for "the rope dance" as they've taken to calling it, aren't always the smoothest. It took some time for them to get the ropes to go in a straight line, and there were more than a few collisions. Even with the accidents Richelle loves the feeling of swinging through the studio on the ropes. After rehearsals are over, even with her arms burning, she'll climb back up and push herself off the floor or a wall and fly through the studio. The past few days Emily's driven her home because Jacquie and Noah, well, mostly Noah, want to leave right after rehearsal.

"Hey Riche, if you're going to climb that high at least put a crash mat down please," Emily says idly from the office when she sees her sister has climbed the rope almost to the ceiling. She knows there's no stopping Richelle from climbing, and realistically she's not likely to fall, but safety precautions still exist. She makes sure she's watching as Richelle climbs down and rushes off to the closet with the crash mats.

Michelle has long since left, leaving Emily to do all the last minute paperwork for Regionals. Not that she minds, this is one of her favorite parts of running the studio. And as an added bonus because she's staying late Richelle gets to goof off a little. Richelle is always so focused on dance and competitions and seeing her like this is a nice change. She steps out of the office long enough to get a video of Richelle laughing as she swings through the room, pushing off the wall with her bare feet when she gets close enough, to send to Natalie.

When they finally leave the hair that hasn't quite been contained by Richelle's ponytail is plastered to her forehead with sweat. "You're going to miss those ropes after Regionals aren't you?"

"Uh-huh. We're keeping them though, right? Like, I could put them up again on days we don't need the studio for rehearsals or class?"

"We'll keep them in the costume closet with everything else, but I will have to get back to you about putting them up again."

***

The week passes in long days spent at the studio drilling the new choreography with the ropes, and making sure the small groups and duet haven't slipped in the meantime. Now though it's the night before Regionals and they've been released from rehearsals for the day, but told to stay close for an A-Troupe meeting later.

Richelle, Jacquie, and Noah decide to kill time in the bed of Jacquie's truck. "Any secret knowledge as to why we have to hang around for an hour instead of going straight to the meeting, Dance Captain?" Richelle asks when they're all cautiously wrapped around each other. Close enough that they can all reach one another, but not so entangled that they can't easily break apart and uncouple if someone makes it out into the parking garage.

The only reason Richelle is even remotely okay with being this open, this close to the studio is because this late, the only people left are their teammates who have no reason to be coming out here yet.

"I should be asking you that. Emily tell you anything during sister night?"

"One, we have a 'no studio talk' rule at sister night," Riley instated the rule when she first became studio head because "this is supposed to be a fun night, I don't need the two of you telling me how to run my studio." "And two, we haven't even had sister night in weeks. We should probably head back up soon though."

It takes them another five minutes to make it out of Jacquie's truck. Almost everyone is already in Shakes & Ladders by the time they get there. A few minutes later Finn comes rushing in and all that's missing is Emily and Michelle. They're waiting around for almost ten more minutes before an envelope slides under the door.

Once they make it out of the "escape room" Richelle has to admit it was a good idea. Their team doesn't feel as fractured and Noah is certainly more relaxed than he has been all week.

Even if this maybe wasn't the most productive way to spend the night before Regionals, they're all better for it.

AN: I kind of love the idea that Riley and Emily have sisters outside of blood so sister night is Riley, Piper, Emily, and Richelle, (and very occasionally Piper's two older sisters and Natalie) hanging out doing girl's night stuff.