Richelle thought her crush on Noah was over long ago. But now it has to have picked the worst time to make a reappearance, and maybe she has a crush on Jacquie too. That wasn't supposed to happen, Richelle doesn't get crushes on people, not like thi...
AN: Set during "Ty'd to You", "All the Marbles", and "Less Beauty, More Beast". There was no canon reason for Richelle to not be at the hip hop auditions with LaTroy and Sloane so I made one up for her because it was extremely out of character for her to miss an audition/rehearsal.
Since they're no longer in school Noah and Jacquie usually spend the mornings before rehearsals at Richelle's apartment. Richelle's sitting on the floor in front of the couch while Jacquie braids her hair and Noah talks about the decision Michelle and Emily have placed on his shoulders. He's pacing in front of them saying every thought that passes through his head.
"Noah, it's going to be okay. The team is strong enough to compete in the older age bracket. But you know we'll stand by you no matter what choice you make." Richelle tries to reassure him. He at least stops pacing and sits down next to Jacquie on the couch, but it doesn't stop his stream of consciousness.
He keeps talking even as they drive to the studio all the way until they actually make it into Studio A. He ends up giving the choice over to A-Troupe and it's a little odd, but she understands why he does it.
Jacquie and Richelle immediately follow after Emily and Michelle when they leave to let Noah know the results. Of all the reactions he could've had, Richelle definitely isn't expecting him to be as apathetic about it as he is. He's basically not reacting and it's a little worrying (even if she has to quiet the part of her brain telling her she has a shot at being dance captain now that he's off the team). Richelle lets Jacquie comfort Noah though, she doesn't know how to help, she would know what to do if he was reacting poorly, or even if he was reacting well, but this is out of her depth. She offers him a hug, but he declines so she goes to pack up her own stuff from the day.
And then she realizes that she doesn't have a ride home, not at the moment at least. Jacquie drove them all and Natalie's working late. She ends up freestyling in Studio A for a while, she plugs her phone in with a playlist of all her favorite dance songs shuffled. She's been working on her emotion in dance recently, it's hard though because it feels fake most of the time. What she doesn't understand though is the fact that she can mask so well, and logically it makes sense that faking an emotion in dance should be basically the same thing, but it feels so much more challenging. Richelle's not sure how long she spends dancing on her own, it could have been hours, she tends to get lost in her own head and forget the rest of the world exists when she's dancing like this.
But suddenly her music cuts off. "Sorry, I called your name a few times until Emily told me to just turn off your music." It's just Piper, standing slightly awkwardly next to the speakers. "Jacquie said she's getting ready to go if you want a ride home."
"Oh, uh, thanks," she huffs out, now that she's stopped dancing she realizes just how out of breath she is. "Is she in Shakes & Ladders?" She asks after checking the time and seeing it's way later than she thought.
"Yeah, she's been talking to Noah. I kind of thought you'd be with them."
Richelle shakes her head in lieu of a response, it's too hard to explain why she didn't stay. She grabs her phone from the speakers and says bye to Piper before sticking her head in the office and saying bye to Emily and Michelle as well.
Noah passes Richelle in the hallway between Studio A and Shakes & Ladders. "Are you not coming home with us?"
"I've still got a few things I need to take care of here before I go. I also just need a little bit of time to myself I think. I'm going to miss seeing you every day though, Riche."
This time he accepts her hug when she offers and she buries her face in his chest. "I'm going to miss you so much. I've never danced here without you, even when we were on different troupes. You've always been here."
He doesn't know what compels him to do it, but he kisses the top of her head. He feels her tense, squeeze him a little harder, and then back away from him. He looks down at his best friend, "Go, I'm sure Jacquie's gonna come look for you any second. We're still hanging out this weekend too, you can't get rid of me that easily." As he watches her run down the hallway he thinks about how he really needs to talk to both of them. Preferably soon.
***
Everything about this day is bad and it's not even 10 in the morning. The sun is too bright, everything sounds too loud, and everything feels irritating against her skin. She changes her shorts four times before finding a pair that don't make her want to rip her skin off, and she spends 10 minutes looking for exactly the right shirt that is just the right kind of soft. She's already wearing her headphones when she leaves her room, the tiniest noises around their apartment she can usually ignore seem to be louder than ever.
"Hey, what's going on?"
Richelle whines a little when her sister asks that, "I don't know, everything just feels wrong." She starts anxiously stimming in the kitchen to try and regulate her body (it doesn't help).
"Do you want your leopard? It usually helps." Richelle starts to shake her head before nodding. "Okay, I'm gonna go get it from your room, it might help to switch your headphones too, so you can listen to music."
"Okay, thanks Nat."
"Of course, Riche," her sister reaches out to ruffle her hair and Richelle actually leans into it a little bit, it's the first thing all morning that actually feels good. And it's enough to kind of kick start her brain and she starts getting some of her other stuff that she keeps around for bad sensory days. She pulls her weighted blanket out from the pile in the corner and climbs up onto her chair, it sits higher than any other chair she's ever found, it's her favorite spot in the apartment, Natalie calls it her cat instinct, wanting to be up high. But she curls up under her blanket (she can just tolerate the texture at the moment), and swaps her headphones out and she starts to focus on the music. She closes her eyes and focuses on the pounding bass line, the feeling of the chair fabric, the weight of her blanket, and she starts to feel more like herself.
And then she's being hit in the chest by a two pound stuffed animal. Even though she can't hear her, Nat looks like she's laughing so Richelle sticks her tongue out at her sister.
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[An iMessage style group text. The contacts read "Noah, Jacquie". There's an outgoing message from Richelle "Really bad morning. No need to pick me up." From Noah Andrews, "Do you need anything?" and "We can drop something off on our way". From Richelle, "💜 I'm okay. Thanks though." From Jacquie Sanders, "Hope you feel better!"]
Richelle texts her friends after Emily. As much as she's loath to admit it, there's no chance she'd be successful at rehearsal today. She'd probably have a meltdown within the first hour and that's something she's managed to avoid so far, not having a meltdown at the studio. And she'd like to keep it that way.
