Head Vs Heart

3

Riley's POV:

I'm waiting for Michelle with Piper in The Next Steep. We chose The Next Steep as our secret meet-up location because Emily is banned from here. Something about she protested about its integrity. I don't know, sounds like my older sister to me! So anyway, we're waiting in The Next Steep when a blonde walks in. My blonde best friend walks in and I can't contain my excitement. I haven't seen Michelle since our Christmas reunion and I couldn't be more excited.
"Hey!" I smile, getting up to hug her. I don't know who is more excited me or Piper. Probably me because Michelle is the only person I'm focusing on right now. James is doing a demo at Lost and Found, which has just been renovated and reinvented. It's now thriving and I couldn't be more proud of him. But today isn't about James for me. It's about Emily and Michelle.
"How are you?" I ask, not wanting to let go of her. It had been too long.
"I'm so excited." I could tell that there was a little glimmer of nervousness within her, but I tried to focus on this reunion without making her feel uncomfortable.
"So, are you excited to see Emily again?" Piper asked Michelle as I observed their conversation.
"Yeah, I'm so excited." She replies, the most genuine I have seen her since she walked in. I can tell she really cares for Emily.
"Anyway, let's focus on you, Pipes." Michelle says, sipping her drink. It's almost time for us to send Piper up to Emily, but not just yet.
"Well, me and Finn kind of kissed a few days ago." She says, looking at her hands, raising her shoulders.
"Posture Pipes." I'm not a studio head anymore, but Piper still looks grateful that I told her.
"Okay, that's great! I mean, we all knew that you and Finn would get together." I notice that Piper's face goes red and she looks as if she's extremely uncomfortable. I feel bad.
"No, it's a bad thing because Amy's with Finn. Not me." I believe that Michelle will have the right advice because she went through something similar with Eldon and Emily. Personally, I try not to think about anything to do with cheating because it's still my biggest regret.
"Well, you just need to be honest with them both. I know that's probably the one thing you don't want to do right now, but if you want to be able to grow from this, you and Finn have to tell Amy." Piper sighed. It was clear she was contemplating how she could break her best friend's heart.
"Okay, well it's almost Emily's break so we need to get Michelle away from here, thank you again for doing this Piper." Piper nods, leaving to go straight to Emily.
"I wish I could remind her of how she felt when she found out about me and Alfie but I can't do that to her. All of us are in a good place now." I say, patting Michelle's shoulder as we watch her leave.

After a silence, me and Michelle began to talk, catching up on everything we hadn't been able to say over messages. I admired how she had travelled straight back here just to see Emily.
"It's crazy, we were like the OGs and now there's a whole new generation A Troupe." I say, thinking about Piper and all her friends.
"I know and we've both been studio heads in our time." She laughs.
"I just don't understand how we got here. Like I'm now in school again and you're going professional." Michelle grins back at me, knowing that we have come so far.
"Yeah, it's so weird to think about like that. The fact there's a whole new generation of A Troupers." There was something else on her mind, I could tell.
"And they don't even want to go to Nationals, Emily told me." She finishes.
"I know, we never would have passed up that opportunity. I guess it's just different." I see the sadness in her eyes and instinctively half hug her in the middle of the sidewalk.
"We just have to focus on helping Emily get that fire back in them. I know that they think this will lead them to better opportunities, but how many people from our A Troupe are professionals now?" She begins to count by hand, naming each person who has made some kind of impact within the dance world or within the industry.
"Well there's Steph, who now lives in L.A and is constantly in shows there, then there's James who is a drummer, Chloe, Giselle and Amanda on tour, Emily, Eldon and Thalia who are all running studios and West, of course! When he isn't on tour or helping out at Bangers and Mashups, he's teaching dance at Seeds." Michelle doesn't mention herself, but I don't mention it.
"Almost everyone is professional now. Because we won Regionals, we won Nationals and we won Internationals. We're all professionals now because of that, not because of a tv show. I just feel like they should be able to see that from Noah for example. He's a professional now too." As I realise how big of deal it is that the current A Troupe are not going to Nationals, I also realise that Emily either has to convince them to go or to leave herself.

A/N: This is a slightly shorter chapter I think. Hopefully the uploads should pick up soon but I'm working on another project for my other account UnbreakableHeart333 for the Wattys!

Thanks for reading!