Behind The Spotlight

Chapter 14 --Regionals Day 2--

Out of nowhere, I hear a loud disturbing noise. I open my eyes and realize that Davis alarm is going off. I jump out of bed and turn it off. I see everyone slowly waking up as I look at the clock. 5 a.m., I don't normally have a problem with that but with everything that happened lately, I've really been loving my sleep. I walk over to the side of our hotel room where I put my suitcase down. I take Davis' competition bag out of it and put all my costumes for today in it. I throw a pair of black sweat shorts on, a black sports bra together with a burgundy shirt with long sleeves. "Is your bag all ready?", I hear Davis ask me as she's packing her bag. I nod my head as I grab the special skin-coloured band-aids Emily and Michelle purchased for me. "Can you help me for a second?", I ask her. "Of course", she answers as we both walk towards our bed. I lay myself down and lift up my shirt. Davis rips off my old band-aids and puts the special skin-coloured ones on the cuts. "Stay down", she says as she walks over to my suitcase. She takes out the make-up bag she put together for me and walks back towards me. She sits herself down and takes a little bottle of foundation out of the make-up bag. She puts some foundation on the band-aids and blends it in. "There, you don't even see it anymore", Davis tells me before I thank her. "Now, sit up so I can do your hair", she says and I do as I'm told. Our team dance is the first dance we have to perform. All the girls wear their hair up, but I wear my hair down. She puts it half-up, half-down and curls the ends before I do her hair. I braid the front and put the rest of her hair into a bun. "All ready", I tell her once I'm finished with her hair. We both walk over to the mirrors and sit down. We start doing our make-up as Richelle and Jacquie join us. I just put some foundation on, then some highlight before I start doing my eyes. Some eyeliner, mascara and eyeshadow. Lastly, my lipstick. I look over at the clock and see that it's already ten to seven. "Guys we need to go", I say before everyone gets up and grabs their bags. I throw my TNS-sweatshirt on before following the rest downstairs.

"Good morning everyone", Michelle excitingly screams as she comes walking towards us, with Emily, Riley and Amanda by her side. "You guys have everything?", Emily asks us and we all nod our heads. "Okay, then who's hungry?", Amanda says and we all start laughing, before walk over to the restaurant to have breakfast. It's a buffet-style breakfast, so we get escorted to our table and sit down. A woman comes to ask if some of us want any coffee or tea, before we stand up and get some food. I'm not a big eater in general, but especially not in the morning. So, I just grab a slice of toast, some scrambled eggs and a glass of almond milk before walking back to our table. I sit down and start eating my food.

Once we're all finished eating, we get up and make our way over to the competition venue. We enter the main hall and Emily walks over to the registration desk. "The Next Step has changing room 1", Emily says as she walks back to us. "Maybe 1 will be our lucky number", Kingston says and we all start laughing. "Okay, the Mini Team division starts in 5 minutes, so we'll get to our dressing room, get ready and sorted out because some of you might have some really quick dress and make-up changes. So, follow me", Emily says as she mentions for us to follow her. We walk over to dressing room 1 and there is a big sign with our name on it. Once we enter our dressing room, we see 12 little make-up tables standing in the middle of the room. Everyone picks on and starts sorting out their stuff. "Guys, listen up!", we hear Emily says and we all look in her direction. "Make sure that your costumes are ready to change into and that all your make-up and hair stuff is sorted out." "And we know that some of you have more dances then others so please, help each other and make sure that everyone gets ready and on stage in time", Michelle adds. "Okay", we all answer as we continue putting our make-up, hair supplies and costumes in place. I'm seated at the first make-up table on the left, so I put my bag down next to it and take out my costumes. I hang them on my clothing rack in chronological order before getting mu make-up bag out and putting all of my make-up on the tablet of the little make-up table. I also take out my big bottle of hair spray, a bag with rubber bands and a whole lot of bobby pins. I put all of it down next to my make-up, together with my brush. I put the final touches on my make-up before I start stretching and warming my body up. I take off my TNS-sweatshirt, and change into my team dance costume. I put a pair of black arm warmers on as I look around the room. Everyone is hyping themselves up to go on stage in a few minutes. This is great. I never would have dreamed to join the Next Step Dance Studio, and now I'm at Regionals with them. This is the best team I've ever danced with, and they feel like real friends. "Okay guys, gather round", we hear Emily say. We all make a little circle around her and listen to what she has to say. "Riley, Amanda and I will be in the front row in the audience, and we are going to film your performance so we can adjust and clean what needs to be cleaned." "I will go backstage with you guys. So, let's go!", Michelle says excited and we all follow her out of the dressing room, over to the backstage area. "Are you all warmed up?", she asks all of us and we just nod our heads. We kind of form a little circle one number before we have to go on. "Remember, this is only the first round. There are 85 teams in total and 43 of them advance, so there is no competition yet. Don't burn yourself out because there are still a lot of other dances to come so, use this opportunity to get a feel of the stage and get yourself mentally prepared for the real competition that starts after this", Michelle tells us. "Now, get ready", she adds and we all give her a smile before taking our positions in the wings. "That was a great performance by Dance Express. Now, we've got a team waiting in the wings that is one of my personal favourites. Here is The Next Step!", the announcer screams through his microphone before we run on to the stage. We take our beginning positions and we start our routine. Our dance is about me. It's about how I am new at The Next Step. Even though I'm kind of an outcast and I have a lot of problems outside of the studio, I still fit in with them. And we end up being a real family. So at the start of the routine, everyone is wearing white, and I'm the only one in black. I'm different and throughout the routine, they get to know me better and they befriend me. Then, at the end of our dance routine, Davis giving me a white shirt to put on so that I'm one of them, but still myself. Our dance goes flawless. Once the music dies down, we give each other a big group hug before running off the stage. "You guys were great!", Michelle almost screams at us. We're all so hyped up and excited that we almost forget that this isn't the only dance we have to perform.