When Cupid Falls In Love

Chapter 6: Penny

"Here it is folks, your three selected finalists! Performing in next week's finale are—" the drums began to play. "Oliver Bardot, Beats Dynasty, and, last but not least," as the drums pounded from the laptop's speakers, my heart started racing again as it had on stage. "The Soldier Gals!" Like a lion's roar, screams of excitement echoed around the theatre as the host gave the camera a winning smile. "Tune in next week for the final showdown! Who will take home the ultimate dance award?"

Harley sighed miserably before slamming the laptop shut. "So much for making it to finals. How are we supposed to win if we're a woman down?" She groaned, throwing an arm across her face as she fell back against her propped-up pillows.

Swallowing thickly, I shared a look with Elena. I couldn't help but silently brood over our future on the show. No one expected anyone to get hurt, especially Harley, the least clumsy in the group. The only reason we didn't stop midperformance was because she hid the accident so well everyone thought it was part of the show. Unfortunately, we couldn't get away with that again.

After we got back from the theatre, Todd called a doctor to come up to the house and visit Harley, so she wouldn't have to worry about getting swarmed in a waiting room. Currently, we were all waiting for him to finish advising Todd in the hallway, as we sulked in the bedroom.

Struggling to conceal the brewing sea of negativity in my gut, I reached out and grabbed Harley's hand tight. "It's going to be okay; every dancer falls at least once."

"Yeah, it's not worth beating yourself up. We still made it to the finals, you should be proud of yourself." Britt soothed as she rubbed Harley's head while Lennon iced her swollen ankle.

"But what if we lose because I'm not there?" She whispered, inspiring worried looks from Gwen, Stacy, and Cece. No matter what we said, her injury was an unfortunate disadvantage. Of course, if it did cost us the competition, none of us would blame her.

In fact, most of the blame would probably fall on me. Especially from my parent's end.

"Here, I think you need this more than I do," Amber said as she passed over her container of frozen yogurt, she'd been saving in the freezer. She didn't normally share food, which made the situation feel more severe.

Harley took it gratefully and started to scoff it down with a sniffle. "Thanks for being so sweet guys, it means a lot." She sighed around a mouth full of milk chocolate as Todd finally reentered the room, bearing a grim expression.

"I have good news and I have bad news," he said, attracting our attention.

Lennon steadied the ice on Harley's ankle. "What's the verdict?"

"The good news is the ankle is only sprained."

Harley began to eat the frozen yogurt faster.

"The bad news is, she won't be back on her feet for two weeks." He sighed with a creased brow. "Essentially, there is no good news, but I'm going to get on the phone with the network director and see what we can work out." He decided. He seemed just as unsure of the situation as we were. "In the meantime, I want Harley to stay off her ankle. Maybe it'll speed up recovery or something." He pulled out his phone and scrolled through it. "I don't know though, I'm not a Doctor," he grumbled as he pressed the phone to his ear and left the room.

"We're screwed," Harley whimpered.

She's right. We were.

Brit shushed her. "Just focus on the yogurt dollie, we'll work everything out,"

Biting her nails, Elena began to pace around the room. "Maybe they'll let us post-pone the finale. We only need an extra week." She looked disheartenedly between us and then Harley. "I don't want to perform without you. It's not fair, we're all in this together," she said, vocalizing everyone's disappointment. The finale was an incredibly big deal for us, it'd feel wrong to storm that stage for the last time without our whole team there.