Project Popular (A James Mcvey Fanfic)

Chapter 10

School the next day seemed to drag on forever, James had kept his distance from me but dropped me a smile or a wink every now and again. It was finally the end of the day and I practically ran from my science classroom to the school gates, I leant against them and opened up my bag. I searched through, I had my bottoms, shoes, hair bobble and grip, where was my top? I sighed deeply, I'd left my top at home and didn't have time to go back and get one. Great.

"Hello you," I looked up to see James smiling at me, his eyes were covered by his usual black sunglasses and he'd changed his blazer for his leather jacket.

"Hey." I said, zipping my bag back up in a huff.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked, leaning against the gates.

"I left my top at home, so I have to dance in my school shirt." I snapped, rubbing my forehead.

"I've got a top in my bag, I was supposed to do PE but I had to do some history work instead. Do you want to borrow it?" I frowned at him,

"You're joking right?" He shook his head and pulled a black and red striped top out of his bag,

"I seem to be saving you quite often now," He chuckled handing it to me, I rolled my eyes and stuffed it into my bag.

"Thank you, but this was just a coincidence." He nodded slightly,

"If that's what you want to call it." Before I could respond Tristan came running and dived onto James' back, knocking him forward and into me. I stumbled back but James grabbed me before I could fall, Tristan jumped off James and laughed.

"Guessing he's your knight in shining armour then, saving your life." He joked, James let go of me and I rolled my eyes.

"No Tris, I don't have one actually." He stepped forward with a grin on his face,

"I could be it if you really wanted." James shoved him away and glared at him.

"Back off Tris, she's not yours."

"And I'm not yours either." I replied, Tristan swung an arm around my neck and looked at James.

"Yeah James she's not yours." He raised an eyebrow at Tristan and shoved his chest.

"I'm not joking Tris, let go of her." He removed his arm and raised his hands up,

"Didn't know it was such a big deal, sorry." I spotted Danni coming out of the gates.

"I need to go, bye." I said walking away, James grabbed my wrist and turned me around.

"I'll text you later okay?" I nodded and he let me go, Tristan shouted something but I blanked him and walked up to Danni.

"Why were you with them?" She laughed,

"James came over to say hello and Tris joined us." We waited for the other girls and then set off for the dance studios. If we perfected this dance then we had a good chance of getting into the dance college we wanted to go to, we reached the studio and signed in before heading to our changing rooms. We each got changed into our dance clothes, I slipped James' top on and laughed at how it was a bit baggy on me.

"That's not your top." Danni said, I tied it up into a sort of crop top with a bobble.

"I know, I borrowed it because I left mine at home." 

"From who, James?" Hope laughed, I stayed silent and walked out into the dance studio.

"As if you're wearing James' top! You said there was nothing going on between you two!" 

"There's not!" I said, holding my hands up.

"He was supposed to use it for PE but had to do something else, he knew I'd left mine at home so he let me borrow it. No big deal."

"No big deal? He was practically going to kill Tristan earlier for touching you." Danni scoffed. I dropped the topic and we all got into position to start the dance. Some parts I kept forgetting to include and others we bumped into each other, we all sat down and sipped water.

"Why are we all of a sudden going wrong? We perfected it the other day." Hope sighed,

"I think it's because we're so nervous." I mumbled, Danni rubbed my arm.

"We'll be fine, we can only do our best. We've perfected it once so I'm sure we can perfect it again, let's have one more go before we eat." we threw our drinks aside and got back into position, the music began and we hit play. 'High Hopes' began belting out through the speakers and we stepped carefully to the song, twirling on time, perfecting our dance. Dropping to the floor and rolling elegantly, I was surprised at how well we were managing our dance. The song ended and we all bowed before running over to each other and squealing,

"We did it!" Hope yelled, we all cheered and hugged it each other tightly.

"Let's get food now." We all picked up our bags and walked out onto the streets, debating on where to go.

"Let's be cliche and go to Nandos, I really want some chicken." I said, they nodded and we stood in line, waiting for a table.

"Somebody's audition has been posted," Danni said anxiously, she pressed the play button and we watched the audition in awe. There were two girls dancing beautifully, each of them singing along to the song they were dancing to. It was amazing that they were dancing and singing at the same time,

"There is no way we are that good," I sighed, both girls looked at me sadly.

"We need to do something that they won't expect, something that will blow them away so we are guaranteed a place." We followed the waitress to our seats and sat down, stuffing our bags under the table.

"Like what?" Hope asked, I shrugged my shoulders.

"I honestly have no idea at the moment." I pulled my phone out and smiled when James' name lit up on my screen,

james: hey you, how was your dance thingy?xxx

ella: pretty good, we perfected it in the end. we're just scared that we won't do well enough xx

james: aw no why:( i'm sure you'll be great xxxx

ella: we just watched an audition and the girls sang the song that they are auditioning to, all we've done is made up a dance, we're nothing compared to her xxx

james: so you want to do something better than that?xxxx

ella: yeah:/xx

james: leave it to me xxxxx

"What are you frowning at?" Hope said, nudging my arm.

"I just told James about our problem and he said leave it to me, as in him?" Both girls raised their eyebrows,

"That's why you were smiling at your phone then, you were speaking to him." I laughed,

"Shush, I just want to know what he's planning." they both shrugged and we got up to order our food.