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: AKA the chapter where I try to not say "rules and boundaries" every time they mention their talk that hasn't happened yet.
As promised the extra chapter this week.
After the contemporary auditions Richelle stops Noah in the locker room. "I'm not trying to change your mind but, why did you pick Summer over me?"
"You are a technically perfect dancer, but contemporary is about more than just technique. And I know you're working on it, but Summer put emotion and story into her solo."
"Oh, okay." Richelle tries to not let her hurt show on her face. She's been trying so hard, and now she knows it's not even worth it. "I'll catch up with you later."
"Riche, wait!" Apparently she didn't hide her hurt as well as she thought she did. He stops her at the door. "I know we haven't had our whole rules talk yet, but you can still talk to me. We're still friends even while we're working all this out. What's going on?"
"I've been working so hard, and it just feels like it's all for nothing."
"It's not for nothing. I can see how much you've improved. Summer's a little further than you are now, but if you keep working on it you'll be past her in no time."
"Thanks Noah." She wraps him in a quick hug, "I've got to talk to Emily and Michelle really quick. But you're still giving me a ride home?" Even though Jacquie and Davis fight all the time they still drive to the studio together so during the week Richelle usually has to get a ride with Noah since her sister needs the car for work. Sometimes Natalie will drop her off at Emily's and she'll get a ride with her other sister.
"Yeah, I'll be in Shakes & Ladders whenever you're ready."
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[An iMessage style text. The contact name reads "Leopard Girl". The first message is from Richelle, "I'm actually going to stay late tonight. Emily's going to take me home so you don't have to wait for me." From Noah, "Everything okay?" From Richelle "Yeah, I just want to get some extra rehearsal time in." From Noah, "Mind if I stay too?" From Richelle, "Sure, I'm in Studio A."]
There's no music playing when Noah makes it back to the studio. Richelle looks like she's working through some choreography in the mostly silent room. He watches her for a few minutes from the bench by the cubbies.
"If you guys are trying to keep everything between you a secret you might want to stop looking at her like that. People might get the wrong idea." Noah looks up sharply at Emily's comment.
"I wasn't, I wasn't looking at her like anything," Noah manages to sputter out.
Emily crosses her arms in front of her chest, "Noah, you've been looking at her like you look at Jacquie for over a month now. I've known the two of you since you were in baby ballet and I saw this coming. But Richelle said you all don't want people to know yet, so you need to not stare at her like she's your girlfriend. Because if you hurt her I won't hesitate to hurt you, and I know Natalie won't either."
Usually Emily doesn't scare him, but right now? He's a little terrified and all he can manage to say in response is, "She's not my girlfriend." Because they haven't had their talk yet and he's not sure what to call her. And then he notices a break in Richelle's choreography and uses that as an escape from Emily.
"Whatcha working on?" He misses the mark a little on sounding casual, his voice a little too high pitched. Luckily he doesn't think Richelle notices.
"Emily and Michelle said they aren't 100% set on who's doing the pas de deux so I'm choreographing a solo to prove to them that I deserve a spot. I'm not losing something else to Summer."
"Do you want any help?"
"Uh, I'm okay. Thanks though."
AN: It's safe to assume that Jacquie has gotten a similar talk from Natalie off screen. After hearing from Emily that she's given Noah the shovel talk, Natalie pulls Jacquie aside one day at their apartment to make sure she knows that they'll go to the ends of the earth to protect their sister.
There's a reason for Noah's contact name for Richelle. I've got a whole document of headcanons for this verse that I'll likely publish in a chapter of the one-shot series I've started writing.
