TNS Season 6 - Noah and Richelle

The Visit

Hey Guys! Thanks for sticking with me I've been extremely busy this past month especially with studies crushing me but I'm now here! I've read all your feedback and all I can say is Thank you guys so much! You all motivate me to keep going and inspire me to push my writing skills. Your words are all so kind and supportive! They mean a lot to me. I wanted to publish this today because as of right now... IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! I wanted to publish this chapter on a special day for me cause I've worked pretty hard on it so I'll leave you to it. Hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it and I can't wait to hear your feedback! Peace out for now!

Richelle's POV

I'm just trying to distract myself as best as i can in the circumstances i'm currently in when I hear someone knock on the door. I hope it's Emily then I can prove to Skylar she was wrong.

"Come in" I call and instead of seeing Emily walk in I see..  Oh Great, first Skylar now Noah! I'm starting to get irritated.

"Hey Richelle, how's the hip?"

"Fine " I say kinda bluntly. "How's yours?"

He laughs slightly "That's funny"

I gave him a look that told him I wasn't ammused.  

"Um, well the team heard about your injury they wish you all the best. Unfortunately they couldn't make it cause we're all busy practicing so I came on their behalf. And to see how one of my best dancers is doing."

Well all this does is make me feel worse, seriously NONE of them wouldn't see me so they sent Noah on their behalf. I know what you're thinking, that Richelle shouldn't care if someone cares about her and gives her attention or not. But I just can't help it, I wanted to see if my team would pull through for me. But I just got my answer.

"Oh okay so this is one of those dance captain responsibilities, just "taking one for the team" or what? Did you draw the short straw?" I replay pretty aggressively 

They must see Noah as their hero to come here so they don't look "disrespectful" to me. I get it, I mean why else would he come here if it wasn't for the team. So why doesn't he end both our misery and just leave.

"uh no Richelle I did want to see how you're doing you know, after everything" he says hesitantly.

I look at him and give him an "I'm not buying it" look. He hasn't shown any concern for me in a long time so why all of a sudden now. I thought he was mad that I hid my injury. 

"Why are you sugar-coating the situation? Just tell me why you're really here." I say straight up.

"Well I guess cause I also kinda owe you since you came to see me when I was in hospital." he tells me while he sits down on the chair near my bed.

I stay silent looking at the wall across from me so I don't have to make eye contact.

I eventually say in monotone "Don't worry about it, you didn't need to come just to pay me back. I only went to visit you in the hospital because back then we were friends."

Noah's POV

Okay that took a turn... What the hell am I supposed to say to that?

"Well I really appreciated it and I just wanted to show my gratitude." I look at her as she diverts her eyes from the wall to me as I give her a slight smile.

I knew it wouldn't be easy seeing Richelle again, she hasn't danced or moved in a while so I get why she wold be cranky. After all I'm probably the last person she wants to see right now. But after I heard Skylar's offer I'm making it my mission to keep her at TNS. I can't force her to stay but I can at least get her to change her mind. So I'm trying to be extra nice but I think she's catching on my suspicious behavior since I'm sugar coating my words. She can't know that I know about the offer, I just have to be subtle.

"Well um the team's pretty worried about you." I try changing the subject I notice her face change, did I say something wrong?

"I bet they are" she says flatly.

"And have you heard we qualified for regionals? your pointe solo was definitely a huge help." I tried again

"I bet it was" just as enthusiastic as before.

Maybe Skylar's right, I haven't taken much notice of Richelle and maybe I should.

"Seriously Richelle how are you?" I asked her genuinely.

"I'm fine, this is exactly how I wanted to be spending my week instead of learning our regionals routines and working on what I'm best at." she says extremely sarcastically. I feel for her.

"Yeah I know how it feels to be in this situation" I try to sympathize with her.

"No you don't, you couldn't. You had the whole team at your side and even when you came back everyone had confidence you. So you still had all the glory and got all the big dances making you the star." she replied as I felt the tension rise in the room.

That's something we were just discussing before, who was gonna be the star of A troupe. Okay so we didn't go through the exact same experience.

"But I remember I didn't feel ready to come back to dancing full out" I tried getting her to believe I know what she's going through.

"But I am ready" she assures me and gives me a look  that showed how serious she is.

I turn myself around in my chair so I was fully facing her and said calmly "Richelle, are you really sure about that?"

I didn't realize that as soon as I asked I would regret it. I ended up getting a completely different response to what what I thought. I saw flames of aggression rise in her eyes before she yelled, "I knew you guys would be like this! Think I'm too fragile to handle myself. Uhh! I knew you guys wouldn't trust me! I get it Okay I messed up but that doesn't define me! I'm a hard worker I can get back on top again. But you all will never see what I can really do if you all keep measuring me by my mistakes and underestimate me!"

I was frozen, pure shock was written all over my face.

I've never seen Richelle like this before. Is this how she's been feeling this whole time?

She was breathing heavily now. I was lost for word but I eventually tried saying softy "I didn't mea.. that's not what I was trying to-"

"That is what you meant Noah, and you can try denying it and convincing yourself otherwise but we both know the truth." she finished looking at me a way she's never looked at me before.

Before I could say anything we were both startled by a new voice calling loudly "What is going on here?!"

I turn to find ... Elliot?

He was looking directly at me with a glimpse of hatred in his eyes. I almost forgot how much of a jerk he is.

"What are you doing here?" he asked challenging as he walked towards me. I stood up going to him and told him confidently "I could ask you the same thing."

All he did was give me a slight smirk before saying "I'm the one who brought Richelle here in the first place." Before I could say anything he continued, "Richelle is this captain wannabe bothering you at all?" he asked her without taking his eye off me. I turned my attention back to Richelle. "He just came on the studio's behalf" she tells Elliot then looks at me, "But he's was just leaving."

"Richelle I really was just-" I tried making the situation better but was cut off. She closed her eyes and let out a breath saying "Just.. Go"

And with that I looked at her one last time with a mixture of concern and sympathy before turning to walk out the door avoiding the burning glares Elliot sent straight to me. This isn't exactly how I pictured this visit would go.