One Step at a Time (A Joanne Fanfic)

Chapter 3: Week 1 - The Jive

Dianne's POV
I was extremely proud of Joe. He has persevered so much over the two weeks that he was learning the jive. No, he isn't a natural dancer, but he is doing so much better than both of us ever thought he would do. He's amazing. Not only do we get on with training, we have so much fun whilest dancing. That's what makes my connection with Joe so strong. We spend so much of our time having heaps of fun, but at the same time get on with what we are supposed to be doing. I value our friendship so much.

It was drawing near to week one of Strictly Come Dancing 2018. I think I was just as nervous as he was. The previous year, me and my partner were knocked out of the competition on movie week, so we were only the second couple to leave. Of course I was devestated. It was only my first year on the show. But I wasn't exepecting to go far in the competition. At least this week no one would be leaving, and besides, I was super confident that Joe had got this jive in the bag. We'll show Craig. We'll do Joe's Nan and family proud. Hands up if you agree.

The Friday before Saturday night was the worst day by far. We were doing dress runs in Estree Studio and it honestly felt like the real deal. Joe was extremely nervous. He had never done anything like this before. He was trying to hide his nerves, but I knew him too well by then.

Joe's POV
I was so worried. I tried to conceal my nerves, so that Dianne didn't think that I was weak or anything like that. The Friday was the most nerve-racking experience of my Strictly journey so far. The pressure was really on. We had to run through the dance so many times. I'm pretty sure I was shaking all the way through it. God knows what Dianne must think of me now.

We had done for the day, so I was in my dressing room, relaxing for a while, when Dianne walked in.

"Hey, Joe, well done today. I'm so proud of you. You have come so far. I couldn't have asked for a better partner to be with." she said, whilest walking towards me and giving me a warm hug. She was the best hugger. Her hair smelt of strawberries. She made me feel so calm, and so good about myself. We just got eachother, you know?

"Thanks so much, Dianne. You've done so much for me. I can't describe how grateful I am." I said, Dianne still hugging me. She pulled away, but kept her hands on my shoulders.

"We'll smash it tomorrow." she whispered, looking me in the eye. We just stood there for a moment. We had a special connection. We both knew it, but it felt like neither of us wanted to accept it. She was with Anthony anyway. He seemed like a nice person. They were happy in their relationship, surely.

Dianne's POV
As we stood there for a couple of moments, all I could think about was Joe. He was lovely. He is everything a girl would want in a guy, and we were already so close...

But I soon snapped out of my fantasy, and started to think about Anthony. We were happy. Happy enough anyway. I would never want to ruin what we had.

*THE NEXT DAY*

Joe's POV
I tried to get plenty of sleep, but I just lay awake all night thinking about the show. I kept telling myself that I would let Di down and humiliate myself in front of millions of people. However, throughout the day I somehow started to get less and less nervous for the show. Dianne had helped me so much. She was used to this. I wish there were more teachers like her.

We were in the dressing room, getting ready for the dance. We had had our spray tans and were going through the process of being truly "Strictlyfied". Surely everyone else must  have been feeling the same way as me. At least I wasn't going first. I had practically the whole show to prepare for the big moment.

I hadn't realised that the competition would be so big. Everyone was amazing. Way better than I would have ever imagined. This got me worried. Dianne noticed this, so she grabbed my hand a reassured me that everything was going to be fine. And somehow, suddenly, I began to feel better. I don't know how or why she had this effect on me, but she did. It's like she's my own personal therapist, but she didn't even know it. She told me that it didn't matter too much if I messed up, as no one would be leaving the show that week. I think she was nervous too, though. She didn't seem her normal, bubbly self. She seemed calm, but deep down I knew she was worried.

Dianne's POV
It was almost time to go on, and the couple before us were performing. The producers had told us to get ready and stand infront of the camera ready for Tess to call out our names. I was more nervous than I should have been, but I was better at hiding it than Joe was. Besides, I was used to this, and he was used to being by himself, infront of a camera, in his own room, being able to do as many takes as he liked and editing out bits that he didn't want in his videos. Tonight he had one shot to impress the judges.

I loved his videos. I must admit, I hadn't really heard of him or watched any of his videos before he came on the show, but since then I think I might have watched all of them, just for research, obviously. He's so funny; the funniest person I know by far. His impressions are the best. I'll have to get him to teach me some.

I was suddenly distracted by Tess calling our names. I had completely zoned out, I didn't realise that the couple before us had already got their scores and the camera was about to turn on us. Me and Joe stood there smiling at the camera as Tess started talking about our routine.

When she had finished, and the video of our training was playing, we sprinted to the top of the stairs, where our dance was going to start. Once we got there, we hugged for good luck. I could feel Joe trembling in my arms.

I looked him in the eye, winked, and said "We got this Joe, I believe in you. We can do this!". I ran to my starting possition.

This was it, the moment we had all been waiting for.

A/N:

Sorry this chapter is so long. I had so much to write about and I felt bad for the previous chapters being so short. Do you prefer long or short chapters?

I've decide to just go with the flow with this story and write whatever comes to mind. I will write a bit about very episode on Strictly, excluding It Takes Two episodes because it just won't be accurate, but I will not make a new chapter for each of the episode because I feel that there will not be enough to write about. I'm not sure how far this story will go either, but, as I said, I will juat write whatever comes to mind.

Thank you all so much fpr reading!
xoxo