Flying (Fight Song Book 2)

Chapter 1: A New Arrival

Internationals concluded in the July of the year Fight Song was set. They had a summer break and Regionals were held on the 9th of December. It is now the 6th of January, and auditions for Nationals are about to take place at the British Dance Company. The current team is the same as the one that competed at slightly different to the one who went to Internationals, but there are plenty of very talented dancers who train at the BDC, so the whole team could change.

Joe's PoV
I was so excited. We'd just gone and won Regionals! I mean, Regionals was always an easy win for us, but the win felt so good anyway. However, at Nationals we always held auditions for everyone again. Nobody's spot was guaranteed. Except for mine - I was Dance Captain again, a position that I was to keep for the whole dance season. It was my choice, along with Shirley and our new team manager Alesha, as to who made the team. Alesha and I had choreographed three movement phrases, as the first elimination round was down to an improvised solo audition.

We usually had an average of 100 dancers audition for a spot on the team. Naturally it was only open for students who train at our company or sometimes there are special circumstances allowed, for example when Amy joined it was because her family moved from Wales and she needed a new studio. We did this in case a rival studio sent a dancer to be a spy, and also because the British Dance Company was a family, and we loved our family. Most people knew everyone, particularly if you were in one of the three competition teams. This year was no different, although we apparently had two dancers from different studios auditioning, because, like Amy, they'd moved location and needed a new studio.

I'd been given a list of names yesterday to see who was auditioning, but, as I did every year, I've totally ignored it and just looked at the number. 119. I sigh. This is going to be a long load of auditions.

"Ready?" Alesha asks, coming and sitting beside me.

It's almost 9:30am. The auditions start at 10am, but dancers always came in early for their own warm ups and stretches, as we only did a brief warm up with them. Each dancer would have a one minute improvised solo to music they hadn't heard before. We were using Control from The Next Step, a personal favourite of mine.

"Yeah," I shrug. "Auditions can just get so boring you know?"

"Yes," Alesha laughs, "but we have to have the best of the best on our team for Nationals."

"Yeah," I nod. "Where's Shirley then? She's supposed to be helping us out with this too, and I know for a fact the Strictly tour hasn't started yet."

"She said she'd only come for the final cut because she trusted us to make the decisions on our own," Alesha informs me.

"Okay so basically she can't be arsed to go through the whole audition process and will only be there when there's a few dancers remaining," I laugh.

"Pretty much," Alesha echos my laugh.

I like Alesha. She's younger than Shirley, so she's able to dance with us and can do acro too. She's overall much better at teaching us, and understands a lot of our 'teen slang' as she calls it. Zoe adores her and refers to her as the big sister she never had.

After some big debates, Conor had decided to leave our team to take up music, something that Shirley was horrified by. However, he surprised all of us by releasing an EP at Christmas that was actually...pretty good. So fair play to him. A dance career isn't for everyone I suppose.
Even Zoe isn't going down a path of dance, not really anyway. She'd started a blog over the summer, and since then it'd got a lot of readers. She was a pretty popular online presence. And even more recently, she'd started making videos online too. She's been trying to get me to be in one with her so we could do the 'sibling tag', but it just doesn't seem like my cup of tea. She's doing pretty well for herself though, and I wouldn't be surprised if this year was going to be her final Internationals. She's 18.
Neil is still set on becoming a Strictly pro, something he bangs on about every single day. He'd started taking more Latin and Ballroom classes though, so he really is quite set on it. He'd make a good Strictly pro. Andrew had been helping him out too. Whenever he's not working on Strictly, Andrew always comes to the BDC to take some classes. It was nice having him around, because he reminds me a bit of Dianne.
Me? I'm just kinda taking life one step at a time, hoping I'll find my calling soon. I mean, I'm only 17, so I have plenty of time. But then again, most people left the competition team at 19, so do I really have that much? Maybe I'll just join Neil on his quest to be a Strictly pro. Or Conor. I can sing pretty well. Maybe we could make a band.

"Did you read the list?" Alesha asks, taking a bite out of the chocolate bar she bought.

"I briefly glanced at the number of people auditioning," I reply, taking her chocolate bar and taking a bite.

"Okay, firstly that's my chocolate bar," Alesha says, "and secondly Joe! You're meant to be the Dance Captain! You can't just be like 'lol whatever', you have responsibilities!"

"Look, I'll meet them when I meet them, and that'll be it," I say, smiling.

Alesha sighs, but our conversation is cut short when a group of girls come skipping into the studio. 9:25am. We'd obviously do a short warm up with them when everyone arrived, but it was good of them all to do their own warm ups and stretches. We don't know what their plan is so we can't adequately do a warm up specifically for their dance style, especially if they'd chosen acro.

More and more dancers began to pile in, all of them already dressed in their dance attire. Good. That ticks boxes - always come on time and prepared for everything. Slackers get cut, and most of the time people are easily replaceable.

I see my current team walking in, and go up to greet them.

"Joe!" Neil grins, handing me a cinnamon hot chocolate. "I got this for you! Not a bribe or anything, obviously. Just make sure you consider me for the team."

I roll my eyes. Neil is almost guaranteed a place. He's one of our best dancers, and hasn't failed to get in yet.

We'd chosen to hold the auditions in Studio 5, because even though it's not the studio we usually rehearse in, it's the studio used for Latin and Ballroom, so it's by far the biggest.

I start trying to count everyone as they warm up and stretch, just to make sure everyone's here. I count about 90, though I can't necessarily be sure. What I do know though, is that these auditions begin at 10am, and anyone who turns up late is automatically out. I'm brutal, but I have to be.

When the time reaches 9:55am, I start to look at the door, making sure nobody who arrives late gets in.

"You truly are brutal," Alesha laughs, coming over to stand with me.

"We don't tolerate tardiness at the BDC," I say simply. "I'm more lenient for Regionals, but once it gets to Nationals I make no exceptions."

"Clearly," Alesha raises her eyebrows.

I stare at the time on my phone, watching dancers as they quickly hurry through the door. I recognise a few of them by name, but some I only remember seeing in classes at some point. Poppy Jenkins, Asha Clark, Georgie Day, Michael Roberts. But then, at 9:58am, a certain someone walks through the doors that I couldn't in a million years have thought would come to audition. The red hair is unmistakable and the look on her face was exactly how I picture it in my dreams.

Dianne Buswell.

Welcome to the sequel! The team will be shaken up a bit, so get prepared for some changes! This is gonna be fun though, I'm excited to write Joe and Dianne on the same team at last!

Hope y'all enjoy this - B xo