Behind The Spotlight

Chapter 5 --The First Lie--

It's 9.30 a.m. and I'm walking towards The Next Step dance studio. I only need to be there at 10 a.m. today. Emily mailed us each our individual schedule for the next two months so we know when, where and with whom we have rehearsal. My first practice of today is my duet practice with Piper. I'm really excited to perform with her at regionals.

I enter the building and walk up to studio 1, where I find Piper, already warming up. "Oh hi Blakely", she says as she comes running over to me and gives me a hug. "Oh no, what happened?", she asks pointing to my cheek. "That?", I say as I touch the big bruise on my cheek. "I ran into the bathroom door last night. I'm very clumsy for being a dancer", I add, starting to laugh so that Piper would believe my story.

"Are you ready to start?", she asks me sweetly once we stop laughing. I nod my head and I put my point shoes on. The duet we did yesterday was choreographed in only two days but now we have plenty of time to re-choreograph and perfect it. Emily and Michelle really liked the concept of our dance so we're going to stick with that. Piper will portray the white queen who tries to take mine, the red queen's crown. Emily and Michelle told us that we're going to get beautiful costumes to go with it so this is going to be an amazing duet. And it's very age-appropriate, because I'm only 15 years old and Piper just turned 15, we have to compete in the Junior age category. And of course, because The Next Step is such a competitive studio, all the dances will compete in the advanced division of each age category.

Once I have my point shoes on, we just quickly run through the duet as we performed it yesterday. "You know, what if we start out different?", Piper asks, "You do a left leg hold and I'll lift and spin you around." "You won't be able to lift me", I say back to her. "Yes I will. Have you seen yourself? You are as thin and light as a feather", she answers me and I look down kind of embarrassed. "Let's just try it. It would be really cool", Piper tells me and I nod my head. She walks up behind me as I lift my leg up and hold it. She grabs onto me, don't ask me how, and she spins me around. I have to say that it looks really cool. "I told you that I could do it", Piper says in a sassy tone. I let out a giggle and Piper starts laughing as well. "It looks amazingly cool. It kind of looks like we're fighting", she adds and I totally agree.

So now that we changed our beginning, we start going over the rest of our duet.

"Omg, do you think we're going to get a real crown?", Piper suddenly asks. I laugh at her sudden remark. "I don't know, but it would be very cool!", I say back to her as she grabs my arm and drags me out of studio 1. "Where are we going?", I ask Piper, still laughing. "To Emily and Michelle!", she almost screams excitingly. So we run over to studio A where Emily and Michelle's office is. Once we arrive, Piper knocks on the door of their office. "Piper, Blakely, come in", Emily says before we enter. "We just came to give you a suggestion on our duet costumes", Piper starts and looks and me to continue. "Yeah. Since we are doing a dance about the queens of Alice in Wonderland, it would be really cool if we could actually wear real crowns", I continue. Emily raises an eyebrow. Is this a good or a bad sign? "Well, I admire you girls' determination. I'll see what I can do", Emily tells us, giving us a little smile. We return it and walk back out of her office. "Okay, she's totally going to get us crowns", Piper says excited and I just let out a little giggle. Piper is so cute when she gets excited. I've never had a friend like her. Well, I've never had any friends at all.

We walk back over to studio 1 to take our point shoes off and grab our dance bag because it's time for our next practice. "What do you have next?", I ask Piper as we sit down on the ground to take our point shoes off. "I have my solo rehearsal now", she tells me, "What about you?" "Me too", I say. I'm really excited for my solo rehearsals. Although I have to learn three solos, Emily and Michelle believe in me so I think I can do it. We both stand up and put our point shoes in our dance bag. "Where do you have to go?", I ask Piper. "Studio B." "Oh, I have to be in studio A." "I'll see you later then!", Piper says as we walk to the door of studio 1. "Yeah, see you later", I say back to her before we go our separate ways.