Empire - The Next Step

tension in the air and everywhere

Rehearsals the next day were very intense as Richelle had them all running a new piece of choreography for a regionals video. The video was really important as it allowed them to qualify for regionals. No video mean they couldn't compete. Things were going relatively smoothly until Richelle gave Zara a correction and Elliot spoke up against her.

"I'm just trying to make a suggestion to make this dance better." Elliot argued as the room suddenly became very tense. Harper couldn't quite tell what her best friend was thinking, Richelle was hard to read in situations like this.

"Well I know how to make it better." She told him firmly as they squared up to each other. Amy, Zara, Josh and Harper herself were all watching the exchange nervously. She had no idea when one of them was going to snap. They were both so similar.

"I understand that, but we need to impress Daniel so good enough isn't going to cut it." Richelle looked like she was having a silent inside her head. She silently signalled Elliot to teach what he had done to everyone else and shared an exasperated but slightly impressed look with Harper.

"Elliot," the boy turned around confidently to face Richelle. "Good job." It was not an easy feat to gain a compliment from Richelle, especially after overstepping the boundaries, but somehow Elliot had managed it. The troupe rehearsed the choreography for another half hour until Emily walked in.

"Okay, good job today dancers. Let's cool down with some barre exercises." She ordered as they pulled the barred out from each side of the room and lined up along them. As Emily was calling out corrections and watching her dancers improve their technique, the music suddenly turned off. They all turned around to see Michelle standing beside the stereo with some papers in her hand.

"Emily, you're not going to regionals." Harper was extremely confused. She knew her sister was having a difficult time coming to terms with the loss, but now she just sounded insane. "Elliot has disqualified all of you."

As the two studio heads and Elliot entered Emily's office, all the dancers on A Troupe exchanged nervous glances. They had no idea how Elliot could have disqualified them, but Michelle seemed pretty confident in her statement. Harper glanced through the window and saw that Emily seemed pretty angry, perhaps Elliot had done something bad to get them all disqualified.

"Elliot, get out of my studio." Emily demanded and the boy reluctantly left. Everyone shared perplexed looks as the studio heads continued talking. Harper knew how stubborn they both could be, so whatever they were discussing was not going to end well. When Michelle left, Emily reentered the studio and put a faux smile on but everyone knew something was wrong.

"Emily what's going on?" Richelle asked nervously as some of the dancers put away the barres and listened in to what their studio head had to say.

"Unfortunately, Elliot has lied to us all. He is a professional dancer and has therefore been kicked off the team." The studio head explained and she seemed rather stressed about it. Harper glanced cautiously at Richelle who looked significantly more hurt than anyone else on the team. She knew they had some sort of connection that Richelle had never had with anyone before. "This is a minor setback, and I can assure you that we will be going to regionals. Now in your places for a cool down."

All the dancers spread out, Harper taking the position beside her best friend, and began to follow Emily's instructions to stretch out their muscles gently and cool themselves down. As they were rolling up from the floor, a loud herd of footsteps sounded from the entrance and the entire team of TNS west walked in.

"Alright guys, spread out and get comfortable. We're gonna be here for a while." Michelle instructed them as they all spread in amongst the A Troupe dancers and sat on the floor. Harper was appalled, they may not have liked losing but this was ridiculous. Noah and Henry, who had apparently made up, decided to grab each one of her legs almost making her fall over.

"What are you doing? Get off!" She exclaimed as she tried to wriggle from their grasp but both boys held on firmly.

"Come on Harper, be reasonable. You know your win doesn't count." Henry told her as himself and Noah smirked at one another. When the girl folded her arms they yanked her down so she fell to the floor and she struggled to escape them. Each dancer from both west and east were in a huddle on the floor, all scrapping and struggling to get out of each other's grasp. Noah and Henry had progressed to clinging onto each of Harper's legs like Koala bears so there was no physical way she could stand up. They only let go when everyone saw Miss Kate walk in with a furious expression and they all scrambled to their feet.

Both studio heads began to argue their case to Miss Kate who looked appalled at the sight of her dancers. Both teams also tried to defend their respective studio heads but Harper knew Miss Kate was going to snap soon.

"Enough!" The studio owner yelled to silence every single person in the room. "I know exactly who's going to regionals. None of you." Everyone exchanged looks of shock and disappointment. How could Kate have cancelled the biggest competition of the season? Especially when they had worked so hard for it. "You two have let this get way out of hand, I thought having two teams would bring the studio to greatness but clearly it's brought out the worst in everyone."

"Miss Kate, I can explain what-" Michelle began but Kate looked as though she had made up her mind. Nothing was going to sway her decision.

"No you don't need to explain anything. The next step had always been about the love of dance, but you have all clearly forgotten that so your time should be spent thinking about what made you all love dance in the first place. The competitive dance season is over."

No one could quite believe that regionals was cancelled. It was the first time in years the the next step hadn't competed and it was going to make everything different. Beyond all the drama and anger, regionals was everyone's main goal. To have it ripped away felt like having a part of the taken, and Kate had just changed everything for them.