The Next Step Season 8

4 - Calm Before the Storm

It was the morning of the auditions and tensions were running high. All of A-troupe, B-troupe and even some J-troupers were in Studio A, warming up and mentally preparing. Amongst the TNS members were dancers from all over the region, vying for a spot on the team.

Kingston approached Kenzie, who looked a lot less confident than usual.
"Hey, are you okay?" he asked her, concern written across his features.
"I want to make this team more than anything. But looking at the calibre of dancers here, I'm not sure who's going to make it." she replied.
"Kenzie, you're an amazing dancer. You're," he brought his fingers up to mimick quotation marks. "'The Kenz'. You've got this." Kenzie laughed.
"Oh God, I really was cringey when I used to say that. I thought we promised not to bring it up again."
"Sorry, I won't do it again. Anyway, I need to get in the zone now. No more distractions. This audition is the most important one of my life." Kingston said, as he left to warm up.

Richelle was stretching alone in the corner when she noticed a familiar face across the room.
"Skylar?" Richelle said, storming towards the brunette dancer. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to audition. The Geminis lost Regionals and obviously I'm good enough to go to Nationals. Easily better than anyone here." Skylar scoffed.
"You think you're better than me?" Richelle demanded, narrowing her eyes and folding her arms tightly across her chest.
"In my sleep."

Richelle made to launch herself at Skylar when she felt strong hands securely gripping her arms.
"Richelle! Leave it, she isn't worth it." Ozzy said. Richelle gave her competitor one final glare before letting Ozzy guide her away.

"She's just so infuriating!" Richelle said, annoyance laced through her tone. It was apparent she wasn't going to let this go easily.
"Richelle, look at me," Ozzy said. Richelle reluctantly lifted her gaze to meet his. "You're better than this. Don't let her get inside your head." Richelle shook her head quickly.
"You're right, you're completely right. Thanks, Oz." she said and patted his arm gratefully as she left to carry on preparing.

Marcus approached Ethan, confidence radiating from his strong form.
"So, you think you can beat me, Ethan?" Marcus said.
"Think? I know that I can." Ethan responded.
"Care to make it interesting?"
"What did you have in mind?" This was not the first of his and Marcus' bets, so Ethan was prepared for whatever Marcus was going to say.
"If one of us makes the team and the other doesn't, the loser has to be the winner's slave for a week."
"Deal." Ethan said without blinking. There was no doubt in his mind that he was going to win.

Lily was much more nervous than she expected to be. She was determined to be good enough to make the team, after all that she had gone through to get where she was. She approached Kingston.
"Kingston, do you have a minute? I'm really stressed out." she said.
"Not now, Lily," he replied. "Can't you see that I'm busy trying to stretch? This is such an important audition, you can't blow this for me." Lily recoiled, and walked away. Her nerves were even worse than before.

Amy noticed Piper walk in later than most of the others looking paler than normal.
"Hey, Piper. Are you feeling better? You left quickly the other night, Finn said you were sick."
"Yeah, I'm mostly better now. Now I'm ready to crush this audition!" she said with feigned enthusiasm. She gave Amy a quick hug, hiding the worry on her face, before walking towards Finn.

"Pipes! How are you feeling? I haven't heard from you since the other night." Finn asked.
"Yeah, I'm sorry, I was on strict bedrest. Mom wouldn't even let me leave to go down to the kitchen for 2 days." Piper laughed it off, hoping that Finn wouldn't notice that her mystery illness was completely made up.
"Ah, that makes sense." He softened his voice. "And how are you feeling about the audition?" Piper's face contorted with worry.
"I'm scared, Finn. What if I'm not good enough?"

Hearing Piper talk about herself like that really broke his heart. He wished not for the first time that she could see herself through his eyes.
"Pipes...you're one of the most beautiful dancers I've ever seen. And I'm not just saying that because you're my girlfriend. You just need to believe that and you will go out there and crush it." Piper leant into Finn as he enveloped her in a warm hug. She inhaled his scent and immediately felt a thousand times more at ease.
"You know I love you right?" he said into her hair. Piper smiled as she squeezed her arms tighter.
"I know."

The buzzing of chatter quickly dissipated as Giselle and Nick entered the room.
"Okay everyone! Who's ready to audition?" Nick said, receiving lots of cheers in response.
"Thanks all you guys so much for coming. Here's how the audition process is going to work," Giselle explained. "We'll start with feature spots, where you'll each get the chance to perform a solo. From that we will narrow this group down to 20 of you. And then tomorrow we are going to have a guest choreographer come in to teach you some choreo. You'll perform that for Nick and I, and we will decide which 12 of you to take onto the team. Good luck!"

All the dancers looked round nervously at each other. Making the team was going to be a lot harder than they thought.