What if...? A TNS fan fiction [Ended]

Chapter 5

Shantel's POV
I pull Riley aside to tell her my plan. I hope she agrees. Lucien knows, of course.
"So, what is it?" She asks. I take a deep breath.
"Long story short, we get James back on A-troupe," I say.
"Right, but how do we do that?" Riley says back.
"We gonna have to kick someone off. I don't know who, or how, but we'll have to," I explain. Suddenly, Riley's face sinks. She's such a sweetie.
"Well, we can't get rid of me or you," she says. I nod.
"Who do you think is the weakest dancer?" I ask.
"And you too; you know your teammates, I know mine. This could work!" I say. She smiles.
"Alright, A-troupe! Rehearsals start now!" Lucien barks as he comes down the corridor. I stay behind Riley. I the smile to myself. What Lucien has planned for James and Riley and the remaining TNS team members is going to be good... 

Michelle's POV
We drag our feet into studio A for another hellish rehearsal. I don't enjoy dance now. I used to love coming here; seeing and talking to my friends. But now, everything is always silent. I don't like most of the people on this team. We're always tired, exhausted. It sucks. 
I drop my stuff into my bottom cubby hole and stroll into the middle of the dance floor. With everyone else in front of Lucien. Silence. We stand in our formation; elite dancers at the front and TNS dancers at the back. Lucien gets his blood-red clipboard out and starts to call out everyone's names in alphabetical order by surname. It's like school. We all reply to him in our mono toned, toneless voices. 
I reply to my name, puts his hands and the clipboard behind his back.

"Right. Today we are going to be holding the auditions for the Internationals routines. At Internationals there will be a female solo, a male solo, a routine with two to seven dancers, a routine with 5 dancers, semi finals, finals and also a duet in case a tie occurs. We will doing solos first then the others," I look at Riley's disappointed face when he mentions duets, "So who would like to audition for the male solos?" I look around the room. Eldon, Nick, Max, West and Daniel raise their hands. That's all the boys on this team. Lucien makes a note on his clipboard which he must've pulled from behind his back while I was seeing the hands of teammates go up, "Who like to audition for the female solos?" He asks. I decide to raise to my hand. I'm Miss National soloist title defender. Why wouldn't I? Tess's, Shantel's and, with some hesitation, Riley's hands go up. Lucien makes note, "And duets? Hang on, I'll choose these," he says. The room tenses up. He's telling us who to dance with. Kate would never do this. His eyes scan across the room slowly, "Tess and Nick...Shantel and Max and...Daniel and Riley."
Riley looks up, startled. She looks at me, then at Lucien. 

"But I asked for a solo," she says to him hesitantly. Lucien scoffs. 

"Well you're doing a duet now! We all know you can do pretty good ones."

Riley's POV

Something, a large weight, holds me down where I am and stops me from storming out of the room in anger. Daniel looks behind him over at me, smirking. It's like he knows about this. I wanted a solo. Not a duet. It would feel so strange doing a duet at competitive level without James. We probably won't even have to use it. But, knowing this studio, we will. 
"You all have ninety minutes to come up with something. Then we perform," Lucien orders. We disperse in silence. I don't even look at Daniel as we leave for Studio B.