Behind The Spotlight

Chapter 8 --Only Two More Weeks--

These next two weeks will be pretty crazy for me. If only I had known what was about to happen.

So, it's already one and a half month later which means Regionals is only two weeks away now. We have been rehearsing like crazy for the past seven weeks. We almost finished choreographing our team dance. We just have to do the ending and then clean it. I've been focussing on all my dances that affect other people like duets, trios and small groups first, my solos can come later. I did finish my junior solo but haven't got time to start on my other ones yet. I really don't want to let anybody down. My duets with both Piper and Davis are finished. Noah and I decided to postpone our duet training until everything else is perfect because we both have a lot of dances and dancing together just comes natural to us anyway. My trio with Richelle and Jacquie is coming along. It's kind of hard to work with Jacquie though. I don't know why she hates me but it sure seems like she does. And that's probably why we didn't even start our trio with Davis yet. Uhm but both of the small groups are finished. We are just cleaning it and getting it in our body now. West and Eldon really did an amazing job on these routines.

It's 8 o'clock in the morning and I enter studio A. I'm immediately greeted by Davis, Richelle and Summer. "Hi, Blakely." "Hey", I say back to them as I put my dance bag down and take off my shoes. "What's this?", I hear Davis ask firmly, pointing towards my face. "I ran into the living room door which is made out of glass, and it broke so it scratched me in the face", I answer but I can see her raising an eyebrow. "I don't know what's going on with you, but just know that you can't keep lying to me", is all Davis says before she turns around and walks over to Summer and Richelle. I sigh and just follow her lead. "Blakely!", I hear someone say from behind me. I turn around and I'm greeted by Noah. "Hi", is all I say back to him, looking down so that he wouldn't see the scratches on my face. "You want to start on out duet this afternoon?", he asks me sweetly. "Yeah of course", I say back to him quickly before Eldon walks through the door. "So, you all ready to start cleaning your routine?", he asks us and we all nod our heads. We start rehearsing and I think we ran through our dance a total of twenty times before Eldon decided that it would be good for us if we would do some conditioning.

After about two hours of rehearsing and an hour of conditioning, West walks through the door, followed by Ozzy, Kingston, Kenzie and Henry. "I think it's my turn now", West tells Eldon. I think they're even more competitive then we are. We all laugh at their competitiveness before Eldon gives in. "Good luck!", Summer and Davis both say to me before they walk over to the bench by the cubbies. They all take their dance bags and leave studio A. "Okay guys, we are just going to run through it a few times so your body can get used to performing it", West tells us and he starts the music. We mark through it a few times before doing it full-out for about four times before we get a quick water break. "Okay, now I want you to perform the routine in little groups. The others will watch and give feedback. Blakely and Ozzy, you can go first", West says and me and Ozzy take the floor. "Kenzie, you watch Blakely and Kingston, you watch Ozzy. Henry, watch the overall performance", West tells them. We perform and once we're finished, we try to catch our breath. "That was amazing you guys. Let see, Kenzie, what did you see?", West asks her. "It was really good. Blakely has a really fun groove about her that is really pleasant to watch", she says and I smile. "I couldn't agree more. Thank you Kenzie. Now Kingston, what do you have to say?" "Well, I think Ozzy needs to work on not showing that he gets tired. You can see him getting weaker towards the end", Kingston tells West as he nods his head in agreement. "Henry? What about you?" "They were both really strong, but I think that Ozzy can learn a lot from Blakely's facial expression. If you would put them against each other, Blakely would dance circles around him, even though she's a girl", Henry says and don't get me wrong, it's a really nice compliment but I do feel bad for Ozzy. They are being really hard on him right now. "I think you were amazing", I quickly tell him and I can see a little smile on his face. He mouths a 'thank you' before we both sit down and it's the other group's turn to perform. I got the instructions to watch Kenzie so I do as I'm told and when they finish dancing, West asks me for my feedback. "Kenzie is absolutely fabulous at the waacking part. I think she should be front and centre during that part of the routine", I tell West and I can see him thinking. "Yeah maybe you're right", he says, "Okay so during the waacking part, Blakely and Kenzie switch places." We both nod our head and I can see a big smile forming on Kenzie's face. I mean, of course I like being front and centre, but sometimes someone else deserves their shot. "This was a really great rehearsal guys", West tells us. "You guys are going to kill it at Regionals! Now go and enjoy your break", he adds before we all walk over to our dance bag and exit studio A.

I head downstairs and enter Shakes and Ladders. I've been spending a lot of time here lately. I walk over to the counter and I'm immediately greeted by a very worried Heather. "Oh Blakely, what happened this time?", she asks me, mentioning to the scratches on my face. "I ran into the living room door which is made out of glass, and it broke so it scratched me in the face", I tell her and I can see her sigh. "Please, you have to be more careful", she says sweetly and I just nod my head. "I'll try", I say back to her. "The same as always?", she asks me. "Yes please", I answer her and she starts making my drink. "Here you go", she says once she's done and hands me my smoothie. "Thank you", is all I say back before turning around and walking over to the little table with the chessboard on it. I put my full cup of smoothie down on the table before setting up the board to start playing.

"Hey Heather, a strawberry-peach smoothie please", Davis asks her. "Coming right up", Heather answers as she starts blending. "Davis!", Noah screams from behind her. "Noah, you scared the crap out of me", she says but he doesn't seem to care. "Have you seen Blakely?", he asks her, a little hint of panic in his eyes. "No... Why do you need her so urgent?", she asks him. "We agreed to rehearse our duet, and I've been waiting for her for almost two hours." "Are you looking for Blakely?", Heather asks, cutting Noah off, as she hands Davis her smoothie. They both nod their heads. "She's right over there", she tells them, pointing to the table I've been sitting on for quite a while now. "She's been sitting their, playing Chess with herself for quite some time now. I was kind of getting worried", she tells Noah and Davis before they come walking over to me. "Hi Blakely", I hear Davis say to me. I look up and see both Davis and Noah standing there with a worried and confused expression on their face. I just give them a small smile before looking back at the chessboard. "Are you playing with yourself?", I hear Noah ask me. "Yeah, we are ourselves biggest obstacle", I answer him, not even bothering to look up at him. "How long how you been sitting here?", Davis asks me as they both take a chair and sit down on either side of me. "I don't know, does it matter?" "Why do you even play Chess?", I hear Noah ask me. I look up at him, ready to attack but I calm myself down inside before I say something. "Chess always makes me see things more clearly. Chess can help us out on our bad days. There's nothing that a good game won't clear up", I tell him but I can just see him raising on eyebrow, a puzzled expression on his face. "You want to play with me?", I ask turning my head around to face Davis. "Okay", she says confused, looking at Noah, but going along with me for a second. She sits down on the opposite side of the table before I say: "Okay, you can start." "Shouldn't we at least reset the board?", she asks me confused. "Why would we do that? It's always more fun starting when you start in the middle", I say back to her still looking at the chessboard. "Okay that's it. Blakely, can you please just look at me for a second?", Davis asks me firmly. I look up and I can only now see the worried look in her eyes. "What's going on with you?", she asks me. "What do you mean?" "Apparently you've been sitting here playing Chess with yourself for almost two hours." "So?" "That's not normal Blakely", she tells me and I know that she's right. "Blakely?", I suddenly hear Noah say, "We agreed to meet up to rehearse our duet, but you never showed." "It's not like you to miss a rehearsal. You never miss rehearsal", Davis joins in. "I'm sorry. I just drifted off. It will not happen again, I promise!", I tell both of them. "Yeah, but you also promised me that you would tell me if something's wrong", Davis fires back me. "I will, but nothing is wrong, I promise you", I tell Davis but I can tell that she's definitely still not believing me. "Do you still want to rehearse?", I hear Noah ask from beside me. "I can't do this right now, I'm sorry", I say, tears welling in my eyes as I stand up and walking out of Shakes and Ladders, leaving Davis and Noah as confused as ever. This is getting too much. I can't keep doing this. I can't keep showing up with these bruises and convince everyone that I'm okay. I can't keep lying to everyone.