Too Young

39

James 

The way this wild card works is that all four dancers are in separate rooms. When they have a routine they think is solid enough then they can come to the stage an perform. They have a maximum of 2 hours but I have the upmost faith in Riley
"Don't choke" I heard someone laugh as soon as I had got Riley sorted into her room, I looked over my shoulder to see Henry stood there looking at Riley's room that had just had the door slammed

"Oi" I said making him look at me, he rolled his eyes attempting to walk away
"No I'm talking to you" I said grabbing his shoulder making him chuckle

"What's wrong James. Scared that little girlfriend of yours is going to mess up again or worse, worried she'll come crawling back to me?" He smirked
God the temptation to beat this boy senseless right now

"Is this what you do Henry? You belittle someone to win a competition?" I asked
"Does it make you feel like a man? Do you get a kick out of it?" I continued
"I think the biggest question is how much do you really know your girlfriend" He questioned making me roll my eyes

I knew the game he was playing. He was attempting to get into my head just like he had with Riley. The only downside for him is I know his type more then Riley
Riley is too kind hearted to see the bad in people

"I'll tell you this once and one time only. Mess with Riley or any of my dancers again and you and I are going to fall out very quickly" I said pushing him lightly before turning to see Eldon stood there looking at me confused

"Everything okay?" He asked with furrow brows
"It will be, lets go. The routines will be starting" I said making him nod

--

We sat in the audience waiting for the routines to begin before one of the announcers took the stage to explain
"We have waiting to perform, Riley from The Next Step, Alexis from TILT, Natalia from Dance Central and finally Jasper from Fusion Dance Academy" She said before someone in the wings had caught her eye

"In fact, first up we have Alexis. Taking the stage now!" She said clearing the stage
"Damn that was fast" Eldon said making me sigh
Come on Ri, you've got this

"I don't know, I think that she should have used her time more wisely" Emily said making most of our team stir in one way or another
It was hard to focus on anything but Riley at this point

None of us are able to be there to give her any words of encouragement, we can't be there to support. She was flying Solo

I have to upmost confidence in her but I don't like this 

"Next up we have Natalia" The same announcer called before the lights dimmed once again
Slowly one by one they were all coming out 

"that was pretty good" Thalia said but Eldon shrugged
"Riley still has this in the bag" He said but both Hunter and I sighed
We had the faith in her sure but..

"You haven't seen Jasper" Hunter said 
Hunter and I knew Jasper pretty well from Parkour Alley, he was intense, his technique was flawless. I'm surprised he's the one doing the solo..

--

"Now the last two dancers have 20 minutes left before they are officially out of the running" One of the announcers called making my heart sink a little lower
Come on Riley, where are you 

"She'll be here" I hear a voice behind me whisper, I turned my head slightly to see Emily sat there with her hand on my shoulder giving that little bit of support

"Up next we have Jasper" the announcer called making everyone turn back to the stage, this was the make or break moment I think..

I looked around to see everyone looking a mixture of concerned, worried, impressed and so on
This was not the plan and this was going to be someone hard to beat 
"The last dancer had 5 minutes left" Someone called, my breath hitched slightly 

I know I told Riley that it was completely up to her if she followed through with it but this is not what I had in mind

"She's so not gonna show" A voice said making me glare instantly knowing full well it was Henry chatting to his teammates

"finally, we have Riley from The Next Step" The announcer called making me breath hitch once more before watching Riley take the stage 

Her body language was hard to read, nobody knew what she had planned or what was about to happen but we've got all of eggs in her basket
There was no going back

The moment she landed that first aerial all of us irrupted in a cheer. She was smashing it like I knew she would 
And the moment she finished, she had the proudest smile on her face. It didn't matter what the result was. Riley had done more then just get us back in the game 

She grew in herself too! 

All four dancers returned to the stage, I watched as Jasper and Riley walked on together have a small laugh amongst themselves before they all turned to wait for the results 
"The winner of the wild spot going through to the Duets is" The announcer called

I looked over at Riley to see her with her hands tightly clasped together with her eyes almost just as tightly closed 

"Riley The Next Step!" They called making Riley widen her eyes to the point you may have anticipated that they would have popped out 
She did it 

Of course she did! That's my Ri!