Chapter 1

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Derek's pov.

The light of the ballroom made my eyes squint, my palms were sweaty, and my heart was racing. I know my job is to dance but I can't help but get nervous when we have contests like this. I remember when Tom told me about it just a couple days ago, I had thought he was out of his mind. But now it was really happening and I was nervous. Tom and Brooke were explaining the contest, that me and two of the other professional dancers would each be going out in the crowd and picking one girl to dance with us, each couple would have only one hour to rehearse the dance then we would come back and preform for the audience, then the judges would score us as usual, the couple with the highest score would win and the audience member would get $10,000 and the professional would get a spotlight dance at the finally show. I wanted that dance more than anyone, so I was definitely getting the jitters. I had been nervous but excited about this all week and now it was about to happen. I try to stay cool as Brooke calls me and the other professionals up to the stage, I close my eyes, take a breath, and run up to the stage, you can do this Derek. Tom released us from stage to pick a partner and then I saw her, long black curly hair, Brown eyes, and that smile, wow. I start to make my way to the girl and we meet eyes, she is definitely the one, when I get to her I extend my hand to meet hers, and she accepts. I have a partner.

Arielle's pov.

This is a dream right? I think as the gorgeous Derek Hough makes his way to me. No, there's no way Derek will pick me to dance with him, he must be asking the girl behind me or something, then all of a sudden his beautiful eyes meet mine, and then he extends his hand and Is greeted by mine. Wait, what am I doing? I don't know how to dance, I'm about to make a complete fool out of myself on national television. Well, I can't back out now. Derek leaves his hand in mine and leads me to the stage. Holy crap, I'm on dancing with the stars, on tv, and I'm about to dance with Derek Hough. This is surely a dream. The hosts come over and ask each couple a couple of questions, when they get to me I can't even think but somehow I answer their questions. I tell them my name is Arielle, I'm 18 years old, and I'm a recent high school graduate hoping to peruse a career in writing. Then we are lead off stage and into a rehearsal space. Then I realized Derek was still holding my hand and I started to blush, my hands started to shake in nervousness. "Hey, I'm nervous too. But we're gonna rock this." Says Derek with a wink. And surprisingly my nerves calm a bit. Then, we begin to rehearse...

Arielle's pov.

The lights in the ballroom seem a lot brighter than before as they pierce down on me. It's been an hour, and I have to say, I think our dance really came together a lot better than expected. When Derek started teaching it's like it became natural. Although I'm even more nervous than before, I have a sense of relief and looking into Derek's beautiful blue eyes makes me feel confident and safe. Both of the other girls have performed and were pretty good, one was a little stiff, but who am I to judge? This is the first time I've ever danced, except for ballet recitals when I was 5 and in my room or in the car. Finally the second couple is done dancing and the crowd fills with clapping hands. Just as they get off the stage we step on to it. I close my eyes a take a deep breath, Derek reaches his hand for mine and I look up at him. "Don't worry, just have fun." He says, giving me an award winning smile, then lifts his hand and gently touches my nose. My face produces a huge grin as we get in our places. I cannot believe this is happening right now. The music starts, and I want to faint. Our song is Dance with me tonight by Olly Murs and it's actually one of my favorites. When it's my cue, I begin to swing my hips to the music and follow the steps as best as I can remember, hoping everything turns out alright.

Derek's pov.

As we reach the end of our dance I look over to Arielle, the light in her eyes is beautiful and her smile is huge, she has done every step perfectly and I couldn't be prouder of the beautiful girl whom I met and taught this dance to mere minutes ago. We end the dance with a lift and it goes beautifully. The world stops in that second as we wait for the audiences reaction, and to our surprise, a standing ovation. I don't want to be cocky, but I can only assume we are going to win, considering the audiences reaction. They didn't give a standing ovation to either of the other contestants. As I gently bring her body down from the lift, I pull her into my arms.

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