Even When You're Gone

Fourteen

AN: Apologies for the very late chapter once again. Hopefully the extra long chapter makes up for it.

Because she's not competing during the first night, afternoon, whenever they're filming, Richelle has the first Monday off. Mostly. Even though she doesn't have to, she's planning to go sit in the audience with Nick. But it takes up significantly less time, sitting in the audience to watch the filming, than it will the days she has to film. Jacquie and the rest of TNS had to leave the hotel early in the morning to get ready.

Since filming doesn't start until 3 Richelle spends the morning doing homework. With filming taking place while school is in session they'd all had to get packets of schoolwork to complete during filming so they wouldn't fall behind. It's incredibly boring, but Richelle almost likes it better than going to classes. But without Jacquie doing her own schoolwork next to her, Richelle only makes it through one worksheet before giving up.

She pulls out her book and sets up her DanceMania playlist, the one with all her songs for the competition, to kill the time instead. She switches from her new book to her favorite book, hoping it will hold her focus better, but it's hard to focus when she's alone. Eventually she gives up on doing anything productive and starts getting ready to head over to the studio.

They all spent Sunday in camera blocking. Essentially marking their first round dance so the cameras know where to follow them around the stage. And so it's weird going to the studio as an audience member rather than a participant. Going in through the front to get a wristband instead of the performer entrance in the back. Even though she met most of the other soloists and duettists the day before, Richelle still beelines to Nick as someone familiar. He's slightly awkward about her presence, but he's awkward about most things. Although, really, she wishes one of her sisters could be here, but she settles for what she has.

The first troupe to perform is mostly only memorable because their costumes match their name, the Ice Maidens, and because they're first. The next couple teams are equally unmemorable, although one troupe, Dance Lab, do get an impressively high score. When J-Cruise is called onto the stage Richelle pays close attention. One of their dancers, Jones, danced with Lily and Ms. Angela at Encore, and honestly, J-Cruise might be better than Encore. And with a score of 97 they're currently the highest scoring team. Of the next two teams, one she's surprised even made it past the auditions and the other is pretty good, not good enough to beat J-Cruise, but they're definitely not in jeopardy of heading to the resurrection round.

Both Richelle and Nick sit up a little higher when TNS's video package plays. Richelle hasn't seen how they've changed any of the dances so she's looking forward to seeing the revised version of "One Dance". She's (hopefully) subtly stimming with her feet under her seat waiting for them to take the stage. It's not immediately obvious, but the longer their dances goes on, the clearer it gets that something is off. Richelle can't quite figure out what it is, but then, once the dance is over one of the judges comments on their lack of chemistry. Richelle feels partially responsible for it, a few people on the team have forgiven her and it's clearly causing tension. But also, she tried to apologize and they wouldn't give her the time of day. She doesn't feel too bad though because they're still in the top five.

The next team, The Pretty Boys, surprisingly not an all male team, isn't particularly impressive, but their name does make her giggle. She starts to get worried though when, after TNS was bumped down to fifth by Silver Tops, the ninth team to go, the final group is good, like really good. And they end up rocketing to second place, pushing TNS into the resurrection round.

Once filming is done and most of the audience has left, Richelle pulls her knees up to her chest and talks to Nick while they wait for the team to come back out. Kenzie and Lily join them first, although they make a point to sit as far away from Richelle as they can while still sitting in the same section. Jacquie and Cleo come out next and Richelle smiles a little to herself when Jacquie comes out wearing one of Richelle's hoodies, she hadn't even noticed it was missing. Jacquie sits down next to her and Richelle briefly glares at the arm of the chairs they're in when she can't raise them and Cleo sits down in the row in front of them, turning in her own seat to talk to them. Kingston, Ozzy, Finn, and Henry don't even look in their direction but they don't go out of their way to avoid her, so that's something at least. Piper and Amy are the last two to come out, and Piper at least smiles at her before they all head back to the hotel.

Nick pulls Richelle aside with Jacquie in the lobby while everyone else goes back to their rooms or to find dinner. "Look, I know you're friends, but please be back in your room by curfew."

"I will, sorry Nick."

***

The most frustrating part of being on DanceMania is the lack of control. They picked her costumes and doing her makeup and she keeps getting told off by the makeup artist for flinching. The third time it happens she tells the makeup artist to please tell her when she's about to start. In addition to the lack of control Richelle just doesn't like the feeling of applying makeup and so she masks a little less and stims in the chair. She's not allowed to wear her headphones because it will mess up her hair, but once she's finally, finally done with hair and makeup she finds an empty room to decompress a little bit before she has to go change.

Richelle double checks the time, and the time difference between LA and Toronto, before calling her sister. "Hi Nat, do you have time to talk?"

"Of course Kid. Is something wrong?"

She shakes her head, even though she knows Natalie can't see her. "Not really. There's just a lot going on. I just spent 45 minutes getting my makeup done. It was horrible."

"Sounds like it. So what are you doing now?"

"Hiding out."

Her sister barks out a laugh on the other end. "Sounds like you. I miss you Kid. The apartment is too quiet without you here."

"I miss you too Nat. It feels like it's been so much longer than just four days."

She doesn't say anything for a long time and neither does Natalie until, "Are you really okay?"

"I think so. I haven't gotten overstimulated yet and the makeup artist knows to tell me when she's about to do something. Now. It looks like most of my costumes are tight too which is nice. Thanks for talking to me, I feel a lot better."

"Any time Riche. I'll talk to you soon, okay?"

"Okay. Love you Nat."

"I love you too. You're going to do great tonight."

When her sister hangs up Richelle just stares at her phone until it lights up with an alert reminding her to get changed into her costume for round one. She actually kind of likes the gold leotard they picked for her first round dance. The material on the outside is a little weird, but it's nice on the inside, it just feels like soft cotton.

The run order is posted in every room backstage and there's a few more in the hallways but Richelle still takes a picture of one just in case. She's going last so it's not really that important to know the full order anyway. The green room has a tv mounted to the wall so they can watch what's being filmed and as the night goes one the room gets emptier and emptier.

One of the first performances for the solo/duet category is The Lionettes, and aside from having an awesome name, they're adorable little ten-year-olds who have been followed around by a crew member all day. They don't necessarily have the technique of their older counterparts, but it's clear how they made it past the auditions. Richelle almost wishes she could join the audience booing their low score. Even though it's a pretty even split between solos and duets, there's slightly more solos, although at the moment, the leaderboard looks like they might end up with more duets than solos moving on. Really she should be paying more attention to the other teams, if anything it's polite, but she keeps zoning out.

"Good luck," the French accented voice of the team going before her startles her out of her thoughts.

"Thanks. You too," she replies without even really thinking. And then she's alone. It's not really enough time to do anything, but she shakes off the last of her distraction and gets ready for her own dance.

Since they decided on DanceMania they haven't done any small competitions and it feels like all her energy has been building and she can't wait to get on the stage and prove to herself that she made the right decision as impulsive as it was.

It is. She has to press her nails into her palms to keep from stimming but all the judges give her compliments (even if Fredrico's is backhanded) and she scores a 96, topping the leaderboard for their division.

AN: The mention of The Pretty Boys is solely because it's my favorite name that I came up with for one of the other troupes. Other favorite that didn't get a mention, The Fatal Floridians.