Missing Moments

Regionals - Piper's Perspective

Between 6x24 and 6x25

Piper just wanted to be by herself.

The first day of Regionals had come to an end, and if Noah and Richelle hadn't performed the duet of their lives tonight, The Next Step would be going home. All because of Piper's mistake.

She couldn't believe that after all of the hard work and extra time she had put in to learn and nail her aerial, she had still managed to mess it up onstage. And everyone had seen it. Her team. The judges. All of the people watching at home. And worst of all- Miss Angela. All season long, everyone Piper trusted most – Finn, Noah, Amy, James, Riley, Emily – they had all told her that Angela was wrong- that she was a good dancer, and she would nail her aerial, and she belonged on A-Troupe.

She had proven them all wrong today.

At least she could take a little consolation in the fact that even after she had humiliated herself and their team, Finn still wasn't embarrassed to be seen with her. He was the only person who had come to check on her after she'd run off to be alone and had tried to cheer her up with that silly Fruity Moons song. And to his credit, he had succeeded – for a moment at least.

The last thing Piper had wanted to do after messing up the contemporary routine was go back and face her teammates, but Finn hadn't given her much of a choice. She'd held onto his hand like her life depended on it until practically the moment Noah and Richelle walked onstage for the Pas de Deux. Throughout their duet, she had felt physically ill, knowing that if it wasn't good enough for the judges, the whole team would be going home.

But miraculously, the team had qualified for the finals, and Piper felt like she could finally breathe again. Maybe her teammates would hate her less now for messing up the contemporary routine. She allowed herself to celebrate with them all onstage and hugged Finn extra tight as if doing so could somehow communicate her gratitude to him for being there for her when no one else was- something that he had been doing all season in fact, not just today.

The whole team was on cloud 9 as they ate dinner in the food court of the convention center. Piper stuck with Finn and Henry, and they spent a good portion of dinner telling Finn about last year's Regionals competition and all of the drama that had led up to it. As Henry enthused about his friendship with the Prince Alfie of Switzerland, Piper pointedly made no comment and focused on her stir fry instead.

The thought crossed her mind that if they hadn't qualified for the finals tonight, this would be the second year in a row that The Next Step lost at Regionals after her brother's team had become Internationals champions.

But we did make it to the finals, she told herself crossly, trying hard to focus on the positives instead of the negatives for once in her life.

Everything had turned out fine. They still had a shot at winning this whole competition.

It was when Emily and Michelle stood and began going over the schedule for the next day that the realization suddenly hit Piper. Her fork dropped to her plate with a clatter, and she rigidly sat back in her seat, no longer able to hear what her studio heads were saying over the blood rushing through her ears.

She had an aerial in the finals routine.

Oh no.

Oh no.

If she messed up tomorrow, there was no coming back from that. The studio would lose for the second year in a row, and it would be entirely her fault. The team would hate her, her parents would be disappointed in her, and gosh, what would James say?

This was too much pressure.

Despite the fact that she'd only eaten half of her food, her appetite was gone. Feeling like she was about to be sick, she excused herself to the bathroom as discreetly as possible and practically ran all the way there. When she reached the (thankfully empty) bathroom, she collapsed in one of the stalls and dry heaved into the toilet bowl. When it became clear that nothing was going to come out, she slumped against the stall, breathing hard until she had enough strength to pull herself up and walk on shaky legs to the sink. After washing her hands, she stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were glassy, and her cheeks seemed a little pale, but she didn't look too worse for wear. She hoped Finn wouldn't notice anything was off.