Brave

He's On My Side

|Emily's P O V|
I have to stay back and clean the mirrors, it's Miss Kate's way of punishing me for being a complete bitch to everyone. Whatever, it's not that bad.
Riley walks up to me, James behind her, I know it's time for that part of her list. James has to find out three things about me that Riley doesn't know, that's gonna be hard.
"So... James, Emily, have fun." Riley walks out of the studio leaving James and I alone. I continue to wash the mirrors, pretending James isn't even there.
"You need help?" James awkwardly asks, I say nothing, still ignoring him.
"Emily, I'm never gonna get this list done if you ignore me." James says, I continue to ignore him, secretly having fun hearing him so frustrated.
"Emily please, I'll do this half of the mirrors, then you have to talk to me, okay?" James suggests, I can see he's growing impatient, but even when he's impatient he somehow remains calm.
I shrug my shoulders and James starts to clean the mirrors, I guess my workload was cut in half.
"Emily, I don't know what's up with you, nobody does, but please just go back to the nice Emily you still are, and help me out." James says, finishing his side of the mirrors.
I let myself smile, it's nice to know someone still thinks I'm my new self. I'm glad Amanda isn't here, or else I'd be completely busted.
"Fine." I say, then I head off to the music room, leaving him to follow me.
I head into the costume closet to complete my next task, sort out the new costumes that just came maybe an hour ago and to load them into Miss Kate's car so she can take them to her apartment. She's keeping these costumes under high security after what just happened the other day.
James follows me in, "Emily, work with me please." he pleads.
"I need to sort through these costumes, then bring them to Miss Kate's car. Can you help?" I ask him, he nods and starts to sort through the costumes with me.
"If you don't mind me asking, what's up with you?" James asks.
I stay silent for a second, thinking about how I'm gonna answer this.
"It's nothing." I state.
"If it's nothing then can you please go back to normal Emily? You know, the one we like. I'm sick of hearing everyone complain." James asks.
I sigh, "I still am normal, new Emily, I haven't gone back to old Emily. I just have to deal with something and I'll be back to my normal self, I promise."
I hope that answer was enough for him.
"What's this something you have to deal with?" James asks, I stay silent.
"Look I know we don't have the best past, but you can trust me now, I've changed too." James says.
"I can't tell you, it's something too big. You can't tell anyone I even said anything to you, or was even nice to you, if you do, you put everyone at risk... do you understand?" I explain,
I stare James right in the eye,
"Wait..." James says, "Are you like being blackmailed or something? What's going on?" he asks, he's sure not as dumb as he comes across as.
"I'm not being blackmailed. Just drop it, and keep this our little secret, okay?" I finish sorting out my half of the costumes.
"I may not be a math genius, but I can put two and two together, if you're not being blackmailed, someone else is." James says, "If someone is in danger, you have to tell Miss Kate or someone."
I roll my eyes, "Nobody is in danger okay. I promise I can handle everything." I open the door and bring the costumes to the car, James close behind,
"You can't just leave me in the dark. If someone is getting blackmailed and you know who's doing it, you need to tell me." James says, not leaving me alone. I stop and pull him aside, I know he won't rest until I tell him something.
"If I tell you this, you have to swear you won't tell a soul. If you do, this studio isn't going to nationals. Am I clear?"
"Crystal." James replies.
"Okay, so the person being blackmailed is Michelle." I say.
"That make sense I guess... but what do they have on her?" he asks.
I know I have to lie about this, it's not my place to tell him their secret.
"She won't tell me, but it's probably something big. Anyways, Amanda is the one behind it, she's still at Elite."
James' eyes widen, "Really? Okay, that means she's the one who took the costumes right?"
I nod, "I helped her, she wanted to shred them but then I convinced her to put them in the garbage. Then told West where they were, and the reason I'm acting like a total bitch right now is so she thinks I'm on her side, that'll make it easier for me to get her on camera doing something evil and I can show it to Miss Kate." I explain.
"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. Does anyone else even know?" James asks.
"Yes, Michelle and Riley know. That's it." I say.
"Okay. Hey thanks for telling me, I hate being left in the dark about things. This secret is safe with me, don't even worry about it." James says.

|Michelle's P O V|
"Wait so James knows about Amanda now?" I ask,
"Yep." Emily responds
"You're sure he'll keep quiet?" I ask, still not completely sure about James.
"I'm positive. Anything new with you?" Emily asks me.
"Not really... oh did Hunter and Eldom tell you yet?" I ask, putting my phone on speaker momentarily to drink my water.
"Tell me what?" Emily asks,
I put my water down,
"Well they're planning on coming out to A-Troupe soon." I inform her.
"Really? That's great!" Emily happily replies, "If they come out soon, you can come back! You have nothing to be worried about."
I smile, I didn't think about that.
"That's right, I can..." I say.
"I can't believe how brave they are, you'd think they'd be more scared, they have more to lose. Guys can be harder to deal with with this type of of thing." Emily says.
I decide to ask her something big,
"If things go good for them, can you consider us coming out to A-Troupe soon?" I ask, nervous about her response.
"Maybe, I don't know, once things settle down, then sure." Emily responds.
That answer was good enough for me.