When new girl Michelle joins A-troupe, everything changes. What'll happen now that Emily's throne is up for grabs? With love comes scandal, sex and secrecy, and with these dancers, there's always a price to pay.
The Next Step TV show reimagined as...
Trigger warning- sexual coercion and mention of sexual assault.
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Walking into the studio, I'm wearing my fitted brown aproned dress that I wear to work, my shift finished just in time for me to make it to dance, but it was a close call and so I had to wear my uniform to the studio to get changed here.
It's no secret that the rest of the dancers on the team have their dance fees fully paid for them by their parents, many of whom work as doctors or lawyers, or elite business professionals- but my mom is a cleaner and my dad is an ex-mechanic at a run down company, but he got made redundant a few months back so the little money that he used to earn, has now been reduced to nothing.
That leaves me to come up with the rest of the money for bills and our living expenses, as well as using the money I get from work to fund all of my dance expenses, meaning I wear battered old pointe shoes and second hand ballet leotards, but at least I'm able to dance.
I'm not ashamed of having a job, it allows me to be grateful for the fact that I'm privileged enough to be able to dance at a studio in a competitive team, but I also don't want the rest of my team to know about my situation, I'm sure most of them wouldn't care, but people like Stephanie and Emily would make my life a living hell if they knew that I wasn't just another stuck up snob like them, so at the studio, I'm rich girl Chloe who doesn't have to worry about whether or not she'll be able to make ends meet.
I walk down the corridor leading to the changing rooms, sneaking into the room without being seen by any of the other dancers.
Luckily enough, most dancers come to the studio wearing their dance clothes, so I'm hoping that I won't run into any of them before I can join the team in studio A, looking like I had just arrived.
I open the first of the four blue stalls, and place my duffel bag on the hook next to the door.
"Hey Chloe, I didn't hear you come in," a voice alerts me to the fact that I'm not alone.
Shit.
I involuntarily freeze, my heart beat instantly begins to stammer and all I can think of is the fact that I've well and truly blown my cover- I'm in a lot of shit and I don't have any way of getting out of it.
Turning nervously, I see Michelle standing before me, a large grin plastered on her face.
Great, she's smiling. She's probably thinking of the ten thousand insults that she could spit at me right here, right now for having a job, I deserve them after all, I did vote her off the team no less than three days ago.
I open my mouth but I'm too nervous to enunciate any of the words I could possibly say, it's not like my brain is helping, the only sentence I can even remotely think of forming is "please don't tell on me," I can't embarrass myself even more by saying something as ridiculous as that- I'm eighteen years old, for Christ's sake, not a child.
