Your smile - The Next Step

first day jitters

Harper physically could not have been more nervous. Michelle was forced to shove her younger sister through the doors to the building since it appeared that she was not capable of moving on her own. The older blonde knew how it felt to be the new girl, but she was certain that Harper had absolutely nothing to worry about. She was a great dancer and was sure to make lots of new friends in J Troupe. Convincing Harper herself of that was not so easy.

"Come on Harps, you're gonna do great." Michelle said as she stood behind her younger sister and fixed her ponytail. "I have to go to rehearsals in studio A, but I'll meet you after at Squeezed okay?"

"Alright." She mumbled out as she flattened down her blue tank top and took a deep breath. Harper tended to overthink things, but she was trying the best she could to stay calm. She watched Michelle make her way up for A Troupe rehearsals and secretly wished that she could go with her, but she couldn't always be by her side. She remained where she was to take a deep breath but something collided with her head making the girl yelp in pain.

"Are you okay?" A panicked voice suddenly came from behind her. She glanced over as she rubbed the back of her head to see that a boy dressed in red had walked in through the doors, but he hadn't realised anyone was standing there and managed to accidentally hit her. Harper turned to face him properly and realised it was the same boy she saw a few days back who had been doing a number of impressive turns.

"Yeah I'm fine." She lied despite the loud thumping noise inside her head. She smiled at the boy as it was clearly and accident on his part and he finally got a decent look at her after he finished internally panicking. Noah couldn't actually believe he hit a stranger in the head with a door.

"Noah!" He yelled at her suddenly out of panic, he had never been too smooth when meeting new people. Harper flinched slightly and took a step back to distance herself from the strange boy. "No, sorry, I meant m-my name's Noah." Harper nodded in realisation and was slightly less alarmed than before. Slightly.

"I'm Harper." She replied in a reserved tone as she offered him a hand to shake. For some strange reason, Noah wasn't quite sure how to respond to this so instead of shaking her hand, like any regular person, he grabbed hold of it and bowed in front of her. Inwardly cringing as he stood back up, he noticed that Harper was struggling to keep a smile off her face. At least his nervousness was offering someone some entertainment.

"I-I don't know why I did that. Uh, are you the new girl Miss Kate told us about?" He asked, trying to divert the attention away from his strange and awkward behaviour. Harper nodded silently as all her nerves from before came rushing back. She had only ever danced at one studio back in Maddison so it was quite daunting to be joining a new one for the first time ever. "Well we should probably head in for rehearsals anyway."

Her eyes glanced up to the green door leading to Studio B and she decided that Noah was probably right, she didn't want to be late on her first day. Luckily, not too many people were there so she clearly wasn't late. The room was much smaller than Studio A but it had the same aura of warmth surrounding it and instantly made her feel more welcome.

"So have you been dancing long?" Noah asked, interrupting her trance as she took in the atmosphere of the new environment. She glanced over and watched as he placed his bag on a bench to the side of the room and mimicked his actions. She must have looked like a lost puppy latching onto the first person it saw.

"Since I was three so, yeah I guess." She responded. For some reason, Harper was already feeling more at home than she thought she would. Noah instantly made her feel more relaxed, apart from when he hit her with the door of course.

"Yeah me too! I wanted to play soccer when I was younger but my mom insisted and luckily I stuck at it otherwise I wouldn't be here. I mean I guess it would still be fun to play soccer but wouldn't wanna disappoint my mom because she's my favourite person, I mean my dad's pretty great too but..." Harper was struggling to fully grasp what Noah was saying. He appeared to be quite the rambler. At one point she was almost certain he mentioned having a cat named Montevideo. Luckily he stopped himself as Chris entered the studio to begin their class. Harper suddenly felt all the nerves flood back into her as the other J Troupers found their places. Noah was about to join them but noticed that she looked frozen in place.

"Hey, if you get nervous I'll help you out." He told her softly as he held out a hand to pull her into the space. Harper released a sigh she'd been holding in and shot him a small smile before taking his hand and joining him with the rest of the troupe. She noticed that Gabby, who she met a few days back, sent her a small smile so Harper returned the gesture.

"Everyone I'm sure you've noticed we have an addition to J Troupe, welcome Harper. We're very happy to have you here at The Next Step." She smiled nervously as Noah nudged her and Chris went on with the class. She was keeping up just fine as he first took them through some ballet exercises to properly warm them up and then began to teach them their competition routine. The rest of the troupe had been working on it for a few weeks already but Chris seemed pleased with how Harper was picking things up.

At the end of the class she waved goodbye to a few of the J Troupers who had introduced themselves throughout the class. Obviously there was Gabby and Noah but she also met a girl named Camille and an extremely energetic boy called Chad. He was quite the handful. She began to pack up her stuff as Noah joined by her side and Chris walked past the two of them.

"Good job today Harper, I'm really impressed with what I've seen so far." He complimented her with a smile in the girl's direction before leaving the room. She smiled to herself feeling proud. Harper never thought in her wildest dreams that she'd have the confidence to go through with joining The Next Step. She could not have been more pleased with herself.

"You really did do great! I thought you might be super nervous but you did amazing. I mean, not because you looked nervous or anything it was just because you said-"

"Thank you." She cut him off with a small chuckle. One thing that was going to take some serious getting used to was Noah's constant rambling, but Harper didn't mind it. He had definitely been the most kind person to her since arriving. "And thanks for being so nice".

"Nah don't sweat it." He brushed her off with a smile as the two of them walked towards the doors to the parking lot, luckily that time around Noah managed to open it without hitting her. Despite what he said, she really was grateful, it was nice for her to have someone she felt more comfortable around. Harper wasn't sure if they could call themselves 'friends' yet as they'd known each other an hour, but she was just glad to have someone there for her.

"Well I guess I'll see you on Saturday?" She asked as she noticed Michelle standing against their mom's car waiting for her. Noah followed Harper's gaze and his eyes widened.

"Are you Michelle's sister?" He asked in realisation, they did look a little similar so he probably could have figured it out. Harper was a little confused as to why he looked so awestruck. Was Michelle really that popular? She didn't even think Noah would know her.

"Uh yeah, have you met her before?" The blonde asked as her focus returned to him.

"No, but Gabby told me she was miss national soloist. That's insane!" He gushed over her older sister. Hearing so much about Michelle didn't necessarily make Harper jealous, in fact she was extremely proud to be related to someone so talented, although she most certainly didn't want to start being compared against Michelle. That was what the kids at her old studio did and it was one of the reasons she wasn't too upset they moved away from Maddison. She just wanted to be recognised as her own person.

"Yeah it's pretty cool I guess." She replied distantly but snapped herself back to reality and realised it really was time for her to go. "I better get going then."

"Yeah me too, and I promise next time I won't hit you with a door. Or anytime after that hopefully, although you were kind of standing in the way so I guess it wasn't entirely-"

"Bye Noah." Harper said with a small chuckle to cut off his rambling once again. He sent her a bashful smile and wave so she headed over to the car. For a first day it was interesting, but Harper could already tell she was going to love it at her new studio.

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I actually only just realised how different Noah was in earlier seasons. HE WAS TOO CUTE!! Like don't get me wrong I love him in the later seasons but he was so awkward and adorable i love it! I hope everyone enjoyed, I tried to make this chapter a little bit longer so hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you thought in the comments and please do consider dropping a vote, it  really means a lot to me. Thank you for reading! :)