Tied to you

Chapter 1

Riley's pov:
I walk into squeezed with my dance bag wandering my eyes to find Emily. She came straight here after school so I don't know exactly where she is.

"Hey ri!" Her voice shouts and I turn around. "Over here!" She says as she waves me over. She's sitting with some girls and a guy with his arm around her. I recognize Stephanie immediately but that's only cuz she's her best friend so she comes over all the time. I knew she had a boyfriend but our parents don't since we aren't allowed to date. Because of that I've never met him, just listened to em talk abt him at school. I take a seat next to Stephanie.

"This is my sister Riley" emily says introducing me. "I'm Michelle!" A girl with blonde hair says on the other side of me. "That's Chloe" she says pointing to the girl next to her, "and that's James." The boy with his arm around my sister raises his hand and waves with a slight smile.

"So are you auditioning for atroupe?" Michelle asks me. "Yeah I thought I'd like to dance with my sister again!" I reply. "I started at the next step, but I got a ballet scholarship to elite dance academy a couple years ago and never came back." I told them. "You got a scholarship to elite?" James asked, "they have the most prestigious ballet academy in the nation" He pointed out. "Our little ballerinaaaa" Emily said chuckling and kicking my feet. I rolled my eyes in response. A timer went off on Stephanie's phone. "Crap, guys we have to go warm up." She said. We all got up and went upstairs to the studio.

:::::

Once we got to studio A we put our bags in the cubbies. "Oh my gosh Riley!" Miss Kate's voice said ecstatically. I turn and her face brightens even more when she sees how much I've grown. "I haven't seen you since no you were 12 years old!" She said while she pulled me into a hug. "Yeah it's been a while" I replied.  " well go warm up I'm excited to see how the ballet scholarship payed off." She said as she grabbed her clipboard and walked to the front of the room chuckling.

A man joined her at the front. "Dolphin tail!" He yelled to get our attention. Everyone started waving their hands in the air and making a noise. I was so confused. He didn't work here when I danced here. I felt a hand on my arm as James pulled it up and shook it back and forth to match the rest of them. "Ohh thanks" I said laughing. He shrugged and smiled saying no problem and took his hand off my arm. "In case some of you don't know my name is Chris, I am the head choreographer here at tns." The man said regaining my attention. "There will be two rounds of auditions. A solo, and then you will be taught choreography." He explained. "Kate you wanna split them into groups?" "Sure" Kate said flipping through the pages on the clipboard. "Ok, group one is Daniel, west, Tiffany, Noah, and Jake. Go ahead Daniel" she said stepping back.

Daniel stepped forward and started dancing. "His technique is insane" James whispered to me. "Yeah he's totally making the team." I said back to him. The rest of group one went and Kate announced group two. Me, Eldon, Michelle, Charlie, and Beth. I winced when I heard my name be called. The nerves set in and my hands started to shake. "Your gonna so great don't even worry about it prima ballerina." James said giggling noticing my nervousness. "Riley come on out!" Kate said with a smile. I stretched my arms and got into my first position. The music started and my heartbeat rose. I felt like it was gonna pop out of my chest. Once I got more comfortable I became less tense, and felt a little more confident.

James pov:
I've never seen someone dance the way Riley dances before. I knew she'd have good technique, being that she did ballet with elite for 4 years, but I wasn't expecting this. She finished her solo and began walking back to her seat panting. She's nothing like Emily it's crazy to me how their sisters. Emily's a great dancer and all, but I can't take my eyes off of Riley when she dances. Kate announces the next group after everyone goes. It was me, Emily, Chloe, Giselle, and Steph. All previous A troupers.

:::::

Riley's pov:
After the solos they gave us an hour for lunch. I go into squeezed and get in line with Stephanie and Tiffany. Out of the corner of my eye I see James and Emily yelling at each other in the hallway. Really it's Emily yelling at him. He's leaning against the wall with his head down just letting her scream at him. Once he lifts his head up I can see how drained emotionally he is. Then he catches me looking. We hold each other's eye contact until I look away in embarrassment and talk to Steph and tiff again. But I can feel his eyes on me still. "Ugh look the happy couples bickering again." Tiffany says noticing them too. "Again?" I asked. "Yeah this happens all the time. At school, at dance, on dates. I've had Emily sobbing to me over FaceTime about it." Stephanie adds. "Yeah their really toxic." Tiffany says. "And Emily is so over dramatic about everything he does." "Oh my god yesss!" Stephanie says like a weights been lifted off her shoulders. "She yells at him about everything! I honestly feel bad." I felt bad too. I looked over again and Emily was gone. It was just James leaning against the wall with his hand over his head like he had a migraine. I looked back when we became first in line and it was our turn to order.

::::

James pov:
After lunch we all met back in studio A to learn the choreography for the last round of the audition. I could feel Emily staring at me from across the room with her arms crossed. At lunch she lectured me about how I need to improve my technique and turns. I kept telling her that I know. Not to back talk but because I do know. Hip hop is my comfort zone. It's where I do best. My turns get pointed out all the time by her, miss Kate, myself. But she doesn't show any sympathy for it. She doesn't realize not everything's about her and other people have problems too. Sometimes I miss the old, sweet Emily. When Michelle started here about 6 months ago she became competitive and bratty. We haven't been the same sense.

"Dolphin tale!" Chris yelled once again. I look over at Riley who was a couple people away from me, to see if she knew what to do. Sure enough she looked back at me with a smile and her hand up, doing the dolphin tail. "Now it's time for the choreography round. Everyone come out of the floor." Chris instructed. Everyone spread out and Chris started teaching the combo to us. After he taught us the last move he gave us 30 minutes to go over and perfect it. Before I knew it Emily was walking over to me. "I'm so sorry baby can we please go over the combo together?" She asked wrapping her arms around my neck. We all have our faults. I couldn't stay mad at her forever. So I gave in and she dragged me to studio b to practice.

Riley's pov:
I was about to go to James to ask him if he wanted to practice the combo, but Emily got to him first and started hugging him. It was kind of irritating how shortly it took for him to give in. He looked miserable with her at lunch. I shook it off and asked Daniel instead. The 30 minutes were up in what seemed like 5 minutes. We all cleared the floor and group one was called out...

::::::

"Thank you group 3 that was amazing!!" Miss Kate said once the last group was done. "Me and Chris have to make a very tough decision. Good luck you guys!" Her and Chris walked into the office. James finally wasn't being shadowed by Emily so I went over to him. "Hey are you ok? I uh saw you and Emily in squeezed." I told him. "Oh yeah no I'm fine, it was nothing." He said looking down. I could tell he didn't wanna talk about it, and I didn't wanna push it. So I just wished him good luck and went back to Steph and Chloe. Moments later Kate and Chris came out of the office. "You all did very good, you should be very proud of yourselves." She says. "Without a further ado, the team going to regionals this year is..

Chloe, Eldon, Daniel, Riley, Stephanie, James, west, Giselle, Tiffany, and Michelle.